Title: Tender Morsels
Author: Margo Lanagan
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3/5
Summary: Liga Longfield has been through hell. So when she stumbles upon her own personal heaven, she doesn’t ask questions. But her heaven isn’t as isolated as she thought. Will she have to face her hell again?

Review: This Printz Honor Book is not for the squeamish. I didn’t read much about the book before starting it, and the cover led me to believe it was going to be fairy tale-ish.

It does contain magic, but this book also deals with some pretty heavy topics. Incest, rape—happy little things like that. Don’t get me wrong—my top 10 list of YA books is not all rainbows and fluffy bunnies. I was just a little taken aback at the start of this book, and I thought I should give you a heads up in case you’re really not into that sort of thing.

Things I loved about this book:

  • The language. Unique, gorgeous. When I saw that the author is a poet, I was not surprised.
  • The world. (Or I guess I should say worlds.) A seamless combination of magic and reality.

Things I didn’t love about this book:

  • Point of view changes. Too many for my taste. I found it distracting, especially later on as more characters come into play. And I’m not sure I get the decision to use first person for the male characters, even the not-so-great ones. Why would you want to foster intimacy between those nasties and the reader?
  • Too long. After about halfway through, I got impatient for where the plot was headed. I just wanted to get there, already.
  • Adverbs, adverbs everywhere. Petty, I know, but they’re really getting on my nerves lately!

Borrow: Your local library | Swap
Buy: Your local bookstore | Powell’s | Amazon

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