Review: The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín

– SPOILER FREE REVIEW –

Title: The Call
Author: Peadar Ó Guilín
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Horror
Release date: 30th August, 2016

| Add to Goodreads |

---

Description:

Thousands of years ago, humans banished the Sidhe fairy race to another dimension. The beautiful, terrible Sidhe have stewed in a land of horrors ever since, plotting their revenge . . . and now their day has come.

Fourteen-year-old Nessa lives in a world where every teen will be “Called.” It could come in the middle of the day, it could come deep in the night. But one instant she will be here, and the next she will wake up naked and alone in the Sidhe land. She will be spotted, hunted down, and brutally murdered. And she will be sent back in pieces by the Sidhe to the human world . . . unless she joins the rare few who survive for twenty-four hours and escape unscathed.

Nessa trains with her friends at an academy designed to maximize her chances at survival. But as the days tick by and her classmates go one by one, the threat of her Call lurks ever closer . . . and with it the threat of an even more insidious danger closer to home.

---

The Call is a pretty grim novel with a unique, twisted and nerve-racking concept that hooked me from page one. It introduces Nessa, a kick-ass main character that can’t walk quite well as the result of contracting polio as a child. Having a disabled character in an action-packed story such as this one is something we hardly see and I really enjoyed how the author did it.

I thought the concept had a lot of potential, but, by being so fast-paced and having so many points of view, there was hardly any time to explore all the themes or characters I would have wanted. Still, it was a very entertaining read that I’ve seen people describing as gruesome and not for the faint of heart, although I didn’t find it that graphic or gory (that might be my seemingly heart of stone talking).

ARC Review: The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

– SPOILER FREE REVIEW –

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Other Einstein
Author: Marie Benedict
Genre: Historical Fiction, Adult Fiction
Release date: October 18th, 2016

| Add to Goodreads |

---

Description:

A vivid and mesmerizing novel about the extraordinary woman who married and worked with one of the greatest scientists in history.

What secrets may have lurked in the shadows of Albert Einstein’s fame? His first wife, Mileva “Mitza” Marić, was more than the devoted mother of their three children—she was also a brilliant physicist in her own right, and her contributions to the special theory of relativity have been hotly debated for more than a century.

In 1896, the extraordinarily gifted Mileva is the only woman studying physics at an elite school in Zürich. There, she falls for charismatic fellow student Albert Einstein, who promises to treat her as an equal in both love and science. But as Albert’s fame grows, so too does Mileva’s worry that her light will be lost in her husband’s shadow forever.

A literary historical in the tradition of The Paris Wife and Mrs. Poe,The Other Einstein reveals a complicated partnership that is as fascinating as it is troubling.

---

I’m grateful for this book because it introduced me to Mileva Marić, Albert Einstein’s first wife, who I didn’t know about before. This novel is a fictionalized account of Mileva’s struggles in life as a woman of science in a time when it was pretty much impossible for a woman to attend university and much less to persuit science. I think my expectations for this book let me enjoy it, as it is more a character study than a tale of scientific discoveries.

Diversity Spotlight Thursday (#3)

Welcome to Diversity Spotlight Thursday, a feature recently created by Aimal @Bookshelves and Paperbacks to shed light on diverse literature. Each week we’ll be sharing three different books: one that I’ve read, one that I want to read, and an upcoming release. Check that link if you want to join us!