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Reviews
All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin
The Arctic Marauder by Jacques Tardi
Babymouse: Monster Mash by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
Born to Rule by Kathryn Lasky
Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos
City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems
The Conductor by Laëtitia Devernay
Fullmetal Alchemist 21 by Hiromu Arakawa
Fullmetal Alchemist 22 by Hiromu Arakawa
Fullmetal Alchemist 23 by Hiromu Arakawa
Funny How Things Change by Melissa Wyatt
Geektastic edited by Holly Black
Helen of Pasadena by Lian Dolan
The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay the Pirate by Scott Nash
The Hole in the Wall by Lisa Rowe Fraustino
Images of Nature: The Photographs of Thomas D. Mangelsen by Charles Craighead
Just Like Bossy Bear by David Horvath
The Library by Sarah Stewart
The Lost Art of Reading by David L. Ulin
NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society by Michael Buckley
Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs
Once in a Lifetime by Cathy Kelly
Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge
The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg
Punished! by David Lubar
Seeds of Change by Jen Cullerton Johnson
Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest by John Lechner
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle 06 by CLAMP
When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
xxxHolic Volume 12 by CLAMP

Months in review

September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
December
November
October

Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish

Reading Challenges

Canadian Book Challenge: 2023-2024

Beat the Backlist 2023

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Comments for All These Things I've Done

All These Things I've Done: 01/16/14

cover art

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin is the first of a YA trilogy involving organized crime, a prohibition on chocolate and coffee, and a Romeo and Juliet style relationship between the daughter and son of competing crime families.

The book is set in New York in 2083 and it's trying to evoke a combination of the Jazz Era (speakeasies, jazz and the like) and the big hair and cynicism of Generation X. For the dystopian / Dickensian city setting, there is also the ailing grandmother, recently dead father and special needs brother.

The problem is, all these competing tropes get in the way of a rather decent premise — what would happen if caffeine were illegal. And a rather decent murder mystery — who poisoned the chocolate and why?

Three stars

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