Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Kirstin Valdez Quade NARRATOR: Gary Tiedemann GENRE: Literary Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: June 16, 2021 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A contemporary literary fiction novel focusing on some flawed humans and their "wounds". Excellent character and plot development. Well-structured narrative divided fairly across all the main characters. Many interesting themes. Great use of the Latin-American social culture and beliefs. Slow-paced but engrossing. Not as Christian as the title and blurb indicate, so don’t expect a faith-themed book. An astounding debut. Definitely recommended. Plot Preview: Las Penas, New Mexico, USA. This Holy Week, thirty-three-year-old Amadeo has been given the part of Jesus for the Good Friday procession. He is a misfit for this divine role, what with his tendency to alcohol, his poor track record of taking care of his family, and his low-educated unemployed status. He is trying hard to prepare well for it. But his plans get affected when his pre...

AUTHOR: Stefany Valentine GENRE: YA Romance PUBLICATION DATE: January 14, 2025 RATING: 1 star. In a Nutshell: A YA “romantic dramedy” (Official label.) This didn’t work for me in any way: plot, writing, characters, agenda, realism, romance, drama. The only thing I liked other than the cover was the Taiwan rep. It hurts me to rant about a debut OwnVoices book, and I tried my best not to, but I just can’t recommend such a poorly written book that sends the wrong message to youngsters. Plot Preview: Seventeen-year-old Catie Carlson, a half-white half-Taiwanese girl, doesn’t remember much about her birth mother. Her parents divorced when she was just five and her father moved with her to the USA, and later remarried a white single mother. After his death two years ago, Catie feels like she has no family of her own, even though her adoptive mother – her father’s second wife – treats Catie with the same love as she does her own daughter. When Catie stumbles into an opportunity to learn Manda...

AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Lou Lubie GENRE: Graphic Novel PUBLICATION DATE: May 5, 2026 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: An adult graphic novel about a girl coming to terms with her hair and her identity. Great plot, steady pacing, wonderful themes, powerful message. Excellent use of ‘hair’ to discuss several societal and feminine issues. The illustrations are perfect for the story. Much recommended. Plot Preview: Rose is a young mixed-race Creole girl growing up on Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. She hates her excessively kinky hair and the torture of maintaining it. As soon as she is allowed to, she begins straightening it. Even after moving to mainland France for higher studies, she remains obsessed with fitting in especially where hair is concerned. But after a point, she begins questioning why only curly hair has to go through so much discrimination. The story comes to us in Rose’s first-person perspective. This graphic novel, originally published in French under the title “Ra...

AUTHOR: Tochi Eze GENRE: Domestic Drama PUBLICATION DATE: August 5, 2025 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A dual-timeline domestic drama exploring the effects of contradictory beliefs on a marriage. Character-driven. Interesting exploration of the central theme and some other tough topics. Flawed but well-sketched characters. Thin plot with too many themes. Good use of the Nigerian setting. Slow-paced. Not everything settled at the end. Somehow a bit distanced in execution. Quite ambitious for a debut. A good one-time read. Plot Preview: Then in 1960s Lagos. Independent-yet-traditional Margaret didn’t expect to form a relationship with British-born half-Nigerian Benjamin. But their rapport is strong, and despite indications from both their families that they should separate and despite learning that their pasts are more connected than they knew, they get married in secret. But the burden of marriage and parenthood on a young couple without familial support is always high. Margaret’s wor...

AUTHOR & NARRATOR: John Fugelsang GENRE: Religious Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: Jun 04 2026 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A nonfiction that does exactly what the title declares: separates the church from the despicable version sold to us by fascists and fundamentalists. Insightful, incisive, accurate, brilliant. Hard truths delivered with a good dash of humour. The book (as well as this review) might create allergic reactions in certain *Christians*, but to the fellow sane believers out there, this is a must-read. Much recommended! When I see religion-based nonfiction books ( any religion, not just Christian ones ) with titles that call out strongly to me, the first thing I do is check the credentials of the author. Any person who behaves like an extremist on their social media ( most conservative evangelicals in case of Christianity ), who spreads hate against other religions or minorities, who uses demeaning words to refer to people of other faiths, and who misinterprets scri...

AUTHOR: Sofi Stambo GENRE: Short Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: June 9, 2026 RATING: 3.15 stars. In a Nutshell: An OwnVoices short story collection focusing on Bulgarian immigrant narratives. Too many stories for a single collection, but each is quite short. The immigrant vibe varies in quantity and quality, with some stories barely containing the theme. Minimal plot. Slice of life in style, which rarely works for me. This debut collection contains thirty-four stories. The number sounds quite high, but each story lasts barely 5-8 pages. Thus the page count of the book isn't that high at 312 pages. Some stories have minor linking elements in terms of place or characters but they still work as standalone narratives. There is no foreword introducing the collection or theme. Even the blurb is fairly vague in this regard. But on reading the stories, certain elements seem to come at regular intervals, the most common being the immigrant experience. However, the immigrant theme is qui...

AUTHOR: Anna Rose Johnson GENRE: Middle-grade Historical Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: March 5, 2024 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: An OwnVoices middle-grade historical fiction about an orphan sent to live with a new family. Great use of the lighthouse setting. Annoying main character. Good secondary characters. Slightly repetitive and bland storyline. Minimal Ojibwe representation. I hope it will work better for the target age group. Plot Preview: 1912, Michigan. As eleven-year-old orphan Lucy Landry has no one to take care of her, she is sent to foster with a family selected by her late guardian. The Martins reside in a lighthouse in the middle of the gigantic Lake Superior. Lucy has been frightened of the water ever since her sailor father died at sea, but she doesn’t have any choice. Though the Martins are strangers to her, they seem kindhearted. However, there are too many of them and there is too much work to do, so Lucy struggles to fit in her new home. But one day, she learns that...

AUTHOR: Ann Dávila Cardinal GENRE: Historical Magical Realism PUBLICATION DATE: October 4, 2022 RATING: 1.5 stars. In a Nutshell: An OwnVoices family saga with elements of magical realism. Meant to be Adult Fiction, reads as a poorly-written YA soap opera. The plot had great potential but fails to make a mark. Flat character development. Way too much secret keeping and miscommunication. Way too many subplots. Didn't work for me. YMMV. Plot Preview: Every summer since Isla Larsen Sanchez's father passed away, her mother has been leaving her in Puerto Rico with her grandmother and her great-aunt while she stays back home in New Jersey and drinks. This began when Isla was eight. Now at eighteen, she learns that she has a special ability passed down from the cuentistas (storytellers) in her mother's side of the family: the stories of the dead cuentistas are brought to life and replayed in front of her repeatedly every day. Is this a gift or a curse? Is Isla the only current San...

AUTHOR: Sangu Mandanna SERIES: Vanya #1 GENRE: Middle-Grade Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: March 11, 2025 RATING: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A middle-grade fantasy with a neurodivergent lead and plenty of magic. Too many characters, not enough character development. Diverse mythical beings from global folklore, though they could have been used better. Great incorporation of the setting. Chosen One trope, which gets a bit annoying. First of a planned series. Cliffhanger ending. I liked it, but not as much as I had hoped. Plot Preview: Eleven-year-old Vanya, a British-Indian girl with ADHD, stays with her bookseller parents in a mostly-white part of England. She doesn’t know much about their past, nor does she know why some books in the alcove talk to her. When her family is attacked by a strange monster, Vanya discovers a couple of her parents’ secrets. For safety and protection, Vanya is whisked off to a magical school based in the Nilgiri mountains of South India. Named ‘Auramere’, this sc...

AUTHOR: Patrick Nzabonimpa GENRE: Short Story Collection, OwnVoices. PUBLICATION DATE: April 14, 2026 RATING: 3.4 stars. In a Nutshell: An OwnVoices short story collection set in Rwanda. Focused on ordinary citizens caught in unusual circumstances. The writing quality differs across stories, but the plots and characters are distinct enough to hold attention. The endings were a mixed bag for me. Still, a good option for fans of slice-of-life storytelling. This collection contains fourteen stories, each set in Rwanda. Though the setting is visible in many stories, the content is primarily character-oriented, with every story focussing more on its people than on the place or prose. There is no author's note or foreword introducing any theme to this set of stories. The title, though poetic, also doesn’t offer a big clue about the content. The blurb though has a significant clue: “ordinary Rwandans pushed to extraordinary choices […] confront the moments that reshape them—moments where...

AUTHOR: Remy Lai GENRE: Graphic Novel PUBLICATION DATE: January 14, 2025 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A middle-grade graphic novel about a teen girl's chickenpox quarantine time with her younger siblings. Partly biographical. Great sibling dynamics and chickenpox info. 😉 Hit or miss on the other themes. A decent option for the target age group. Plot Preview: Once upon a time, Abby had wished for a younger sibling. But after her parents have given her FOUR younger siblings, the twelve-year-old has had enough! She's tired of being the responsible eldest child and fed up of her siblings’ immaturity. She tries to spend as much time away from home as possible, either at school or going out with her best friends. But when all five siblings get chickenpox, Abby faces a horrifying truth: she needs to stay quarantined in the house with those *animals*! How will she survive without losing her sanity? The story is written in Abby's first-person perspective. I have heard a lot abou...

AUTHOR: Robert Mgrdich Apelian GENRE: Graphic Novel PUBLICATION DATE: January 20, 2026 RATING: 2.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A YA-Fantasy graphic novel inspired partly by Armenian and Persian mythology. A complex storyline that takes some time to come together. Some unexplained plot points. Intricate artwork but monochrome colouring. This might work better if read through a physical copy. Plot Preview: Seventeen-year-old Katah has always felt like an outsider in his family because he’s the only one with no talent for cooking. Unlike his much older siblings, he is also too young to have known his late father who was a legendary Hye chef in the Pars empire. At present, Katah is the sole caregiver for his sick mother, so when his vision-like dreams lead him to find a powerful div, he hopes to use its magic to save his mother’s life. But magical deals are complex and never one-sided. As Katah attempts to meet the div’s condition with the help of his siblings, he realises that he might have wa...