Lit Savvy by S.K. Salazar

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton is a beautiful YA fantasy set in a magic world called Orleans that reminds me personally of the culture of Louisiana. I'd best describe it as a far more opulent, much more magical Hunger Games from the point of a view of one of the privileged characters. Before I go on to do this review, please know that there are major spoilers in it. Also, I am quite aware of the thing Dhonielle Clayton did recently. I already gave my opinion on that. However, I enjoyed this book, I read it before her whole fiasco and I think the art itself is worth reviewing. With that said, let's get into the mythology of the world of The Belles . Apparently, there's a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses that the people of Orleans revere. There are a few mentions of gods such as the God of the Wind or the God of the Sea. But the major players in this mythology are the Goddess of Beauty and the God of the Sky. The Goddess of Beauty and the God of the Sky are co...

Well, I was going to originally end this trilogy on author drama with J.K. Rowling. I wanted to comment on how, by the looks of it, she was staying silent about her activism just because she made an unfortunate mistake. But, because I do every single thing on this blog too late, other events have transpired. For those who are out of the loop, Joanne tweeted this: Yikes... I know what you're going to say. "But S.K., didn't you just say that J.K. Rowling should be free to say whatever she wants to say????" Honey, don't put words in my mouth. This blog post wasn't going to originally be about the almighty frozen peach. It was going to be about fiercely owning your activism for marginalized people. It was going to be about the wobbly learning curve that people with privilege go through when learning about power and privilege. It was going to be about how Ms. Rowling made a mistake despite having her heart in the right place. It was going to be about what ...

Well, since I've decided to make my commentary on the whole Sarah Dessen scandal, I decided to comment on a couple more choice bits of literary drama. However, unlike the previous blog post, this one follows the trend of everything on this blog being late. To do a quick recap, author Amelie Wen Zhao (sorry, I couldn't do the accent on the "e" without messing up the format of the post) was about to live the dream. She was about to publish her debut novel Blood Heir and receive a princely advance of $500,000 before the start of this summer. Blood Heir was meant to be a dark fantasy retelling of Anastasia. However, because a small, outspoken cluster of reviewers (who had their hands on the ARC) cherrypicked anti-Black racism out of the story, Zhao was backed into a corner and decided to cancel the publication altogether. (There were also accusations of plagiarism, but without the actual text in my hand, I can't decide that for myself.) As you know, my job isn'...

Well, folks, it looks like Mercury Retrograde is in full swing. For once, I'm somewhat on-time to responding to a particular issue. If you aren't aware yet or if you aren't in the literary community, YA author Sarah Dessen made a pointed remark towards a student who made a comment about one of her books. Soon after, said author's author friends jumped in to defend her by slinging mud at this student. Get the full scoop here: https://www.vulture.com/2019/11/famous-authors-drag-student-in-ya-twitter-controversy.html  . Indeed, I'm not going to post a play-by-play of the incident. Instead, I'd like to point out that this is exactly why I'm not reading reviews when I become published. Now, hold your rotten vegetables, hold your wigs and hold your outrage, please. In a few paragraphs, I'll pick a "side", if I have to, and defend my stance. Authors know that mixed in among the scintillating praise for their works are a few steaming piles of excre...

In a couple of past blog posts, I've mentioned an author named Doreen Virtue. For the uninitiated, Doreen Virtue used to be a psychic who worked primarily with angels. She wrote many books and created many courses on the topic, as well as teaching her readership how to work with elementals, crystals and other cool New Age-y stuff. Now, I say "used to" not because she's left this world, but because she's left her niche with the New Age crowd. Allegedly, she had some kind of spiritual experience at church one Sunday that led her to switch her material and her readership towards the exclusively Christian crowd. Now, she completely renounces New Age practices, including working with the good Lord's angels. (I think she still believes in them, but she sends all her prayers exclusively to God now.) I've told you before, but I'll tell ya again: I am a Christian. Make no mistake, I worship our Lord and Savior. But I'm also incredibly open to all religiou...

If you were reading any Buzzfeed articles in the early summer of 2018, you might have remembered a few articles endorsing a subscription box called Lunarly. If you don't remember the mention of said subscription box, then here's a quick blurb on what they're all about. Lunarly is an all-encompassing, beginner-friendly box for anyone interested in the New Age/witchy/spiritual lifestyle. The big-ticket item is usually a live plant. (Lunarly partners with Bloomscape to bring us all the gorgeous specimens we receive.) Every third month, we used to receive a hand-poured candle in a gorgeous black glass jar instead of a plant. Recently, there's been a change of schedule, however. Now, we receive a candle every other month. (Which means that we will receive two plants less every year. :( Bummer.) Aside from the plant or candle, Lunarly also centers around the New Moon and setting intentions every month. In your first box, you'll receive a journal, some New Moon ...