Review: Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by AS King

Title: Glory O'Brien's History of the Future
Author: AS King
Publisher: Little Brown BYR
Release date: October 14th 2014
Pages: 320
Genre: Young Adult
Source: BEA 2014
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Graduating from high school is a time of limitless possibilities--but not for Glory, who has no plan for what's next. Her mother committed suicide when Glory was only four years old, and she's never stopped wondering if she will eventually go the same way...until a transformative night when she begins to experience an astonishing new power to see a person's infinite past and future. From ancient ancestors to many generations forward, Glory is bombarded with visions--and what she sees ahead of her is terrifying: A tyrannical new leader raises an army. Women's rights disappear. A violent second civil war breaks out. And young girls vanish daily, sold off or interned in camps. Glory makes it her mission to record everything she sees, hoping her notes will somehow make a difference. She may not see a future for herself, but she'll do anything to make sure this one doesn't come to pass.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I was ridiculously excited for this book. I would read anything with AS King's name on it, but the fact that the novel addresses feminism meant I knew I had to read this immediately. And luckily, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future doesn't disappoint - it made both booknerd-Hannah and feminist-Hannah happy, which is not an easy task. This is an important story, and I loved it.

Glory O'Brien is an amazing character. She's been through a lot, and she has a lot of issues to work out: her pain and her struggles are palpable throughout the story. She's easy to relate to, and I definitely felt for her. AS King really has a knack for writing messed-up characters in such an honest, realistic, and relatable way, and she's done it again in Glory O'Brien's History of the Future.

The secondary characters are well-written, too, even though there's a pretty small cast. I loved Glory's family storyline: her dad is another character I couldn't help but feel for, and I'm glad AS King focused so much on Glory's relationship with him. Even though she died long before this story starts, Glory's mother plays an important part as well; I loved getting to know her through her pictures and writing. Then there's Ellie, who is the most intriguing best-friend character I've read in a while; her background may seem kind of random, but it adds a lot to the story, and I love how their families' histories are connected. And of course, he's a love interest; even though the romance is only hinted at and never takes center stage, he is a fascinating character as well.

The whole seeing-people's-history-and-future-because-she-drank-a-bat thing is very strange, and I didn't know how I would feel about it going into the story. I still don't quite understand how exactly that works: how it's decided what parts of the history or future she can see, whose history and future she can see, and how exactly she saw these things. But because it's such a strange phenomenon within the story as well, and Glory doesn't understand these things either, it sort of worked. My only issue with it is that it seemed a bit too convenient that she almost always saw things related to the Second Civil War, rather than things in the more immediate future or just random, irrelevant details.

I'm a bit on the fence about the story of how the future unfolds in Glory's vision. The set-up is fascinating, and it definitely would have made for a great dystopian novel. But to me, it wasn't quite enough of a story: I know that's hard with this format, but I wanted more details on how, exactly, all of this happened; I wanted more details in the book Glory writes, even though I know Glory doesn't actually know any more details either. Then again, the story isn't necessarily about how all of this unfolds, even if there's a strong moral related to these events. It's just about Glory, really, and although it frustrated me we couldn't get to see more of the action in the future, I also appreciated to just get to see Glory evolve over the course of the novel.

And of course, the novel gets major brownie points because feminism. I don't think I've read a single YA book other than this one where the main character openly calls herself a feminist. I love love love how her whole family is all about feminism, and how Glory calls people out on their gender role bs. But being who I am, I did have a couple of issues with Glory's feminism. She constantly slut-shames her best friend Ellie, and she has a somewhat sex-negative attitude that I don't agree with, like when she tells Ellie not to show as much cleavage and when she immediately assumes that women in sexually explicit media have no self-worth. But I understand that that's part of the story, and nobody's perfect. And in terms of feminism, Glory O'Brien is so much better than the books I usually read that I can't even complain.

I did have some issues with the logic behind Glory's transmissions, and I wish the story of how this world gets so messed up had been explored more. Nonetheless, I really really loved this book: with powerful writing, complex characters, and a unique story (and references to feminism that made me happy), Glory O'Brien's History of the Future is a book you shouldn't miss. 

Review: Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

Title: Ask the Passengers
Author: A.S. King
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release date: October 23rd 2012
Pages: 296
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: Bought
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Astrid Jones copes with her small town's gossip and narrow-mindedness by staring at the sky and imagining that she's sending love to the passengers in the airplanes flying high over her backyard. Maybe they'll know what to do with it. Maybe it'll make them happy. Maybe they'll need it. Her mother doesn't want it, her father's always stoned, her perfect sister's too busy trying to fit in, and the people in her small town would never allow her to love the person she really wants to: another girl named Dee. There's no one Astrid feels she can talk to about this deep secret or the profound questions that she's trying to answer. But little does she know just how much sending her love--and asking the right questions--will affect the passengers' lives, and her own, for the better.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

A.S. King is one of the biggest names in literary YA, and Please Ignore Vera Dietz is one of my favorites, so of course I had high expectations for Ask the Passengers. Sadly, though, those expectations weren't exactly met - i's a pretty good book, but I just wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped.

I had a hard time relating to the coming-out story. Part of it is because it's hard for me to picture a town as closed-minded as Unity Valley. On a rational level, I know towns like this exist, but I still have a hard time believing it simply because I grew up in and have only known a lot more liberal environments. I know a story set in an environment like Unity Valley must be relatable and helpful for some people, but since I've met barely any people that are as homophobic as the majority of Unity Valley, people's issues with homosexuality in Ask the Passengers just seemed overdone to me. That made it hard for me to understand why Astrid didn't want to come out of the closet: I found it especially strange that she didn't want to tell her best friend - who is also gay - about her sexuality. I know this makes me sound insensitive, but as someone who is used to a very liberal environment, it was simply hard for me to relate to the struggle of coming out in such a closed-minded small town, and therefore hard to understand our main character Astrid.

Astrid's relationships with the secondary characters aren't bad, but I didn't love any of them as much as I wanted to. I didn't really get Astrid's romance with Dee: to me, it felt more like the book just needed a girlfriend for Astrid to make the story work and less like Dee was her own character. I never felt like I really got to know Dee, and I didn't see the connection between her and Astrid that the story claims they have. I was especially confused about the thing that happened with Kim - it seemed significant to Astrid's and Dee's relationship, but then it was just never brought up again.

The family set up seemed interesting: Astrid's overly controlling mom, her disinterested dad, and her younger sister that is trying to fit in at school with those that are tormenting Astrid. Astrid's relationship with each of them is addressed in some way, but I wish we had gotten to see some further development in their relationships. The same goes for the passenger's stories: I really liked the set up, and I enjoyed seeing little glimpses of their lives, but I didn't really see the point because there is no further development of their stories.

A lot of the hype around Ask the Passengers is about how it's such an original and inspiring story. And honestly, to me, it just... wasn't. It didn't seem all that original to me, and I had a hard time relating to Astrid, even though I can see how the story would be inspiring for other readers. Ask the Passengers does have a nice message of acceptance, but it was just somewhat underwhelming to me, especially because of my high expectations from AS King.

Review: Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Title: Please Ignore Vera Dietz
Author: A.S. King
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release date: October 12th 2010
Pages: 336
Genre: Contemporary YA; magical realism
Source: Bought
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Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything. So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars


I was expecting this book to be good. Everyone seemed to have loved it, and it's a Printz Honor book, so it's got to be good. I was expecting it to be well-written and literary - but I wasn't expecting it to be so perfect for me.

I don't even know what it is about Please Ignore Vera Dietz that made me love it so much. It's just so honest and perfect. I know, this going to sound so, so cliched and stupid, but... this book speaks from my soul. While reading, I really felt like A.S. King had written this book just for me, made everything just the way I like it. When I'd finished the last page, all I wanted was to go back to the beginning and read it over again. And again. And again.


The narrative in Please Ignore Vera Dietz is so unique. Most of the book is written from Vera's POV. Vera is such an amazing character. She's quirky and unique and so easy to relate to, even when I didn't agree with her decisions. But in between Vera's chapters, we have a few chapters with other POVs, like Charlie's. Charlie is a great character, too - I didn't like him, but I liked reading about him. That goes for Vera's dad, too. We even get to read from the POV of inanimate objects, which sounds weird but is kind of awesome. The pagoda was my favorite character. Okay, no it wasn't... I just wanted to say that because, well, when else could you say something like that?


I'm not even sure you can classify this as contemporary, since we get to read from the POV of inanimate objects and a dead guy. There are some ghost-like or afterlife-like elements in Please Ignore Vera Dietz - which I know, sounds strange, but trust me, it works. I don't think it even matters what to classify this book as - I think it'll work for fans of any genre.


I'm a huge fan of new adult books, and while Please Ignore Vera Dietz is set in high school, it reads a lot like new adult. Vera's eighteen and works full-time, outside of high school, and we read a lot more about her working than about her going to school. That aspect made me love the book even more!

There's just something about A.S. King's style and Vera's voice that made me love Please Ignore Vera Dietz so, so much. I want to hug this book and never let it go. I can't think of anything I could write that would do this book justice. Just read it.

Now that I've finally discovered A.S. King, which of her books should I read next? Which of her books have you read, and what did you think?