Rialto Beach and Salt Creek Recreation Area - Washington State, USA

Washington State, USA - Travel Series - Part I

AH, MOTHERHOOD! I am currently experiencing the joys of welcoming a newborn into the world, which includes watching marathons of Netflix while this adorable milk monster goes on wild feeding ragers at all hours and turns her parents into laundry zombies. Currently with the entire Twilight series available on Netflix, I am working my way through Eclipse with two more movies to go. As such, my apologies for the pause on travel and book reviews as we learn to juggle this extremely cute but demanding infant 😊.

The paranormal phenomenon that is Twilight originates in Forks, Washington, where Stephanie Meyer made the Olympic Peninsula even more famous for its moody cloud cover and rainforests that hide secrets and monsters. In my travels there, I’ve never encountered wolves or vampires but something much cuter – otters! Among herons, anemones, starfish, deer, and bold raccoons if you can muster the courage to camp in drizzle. As such, introducing the Washington State Travel series. Let’s kick it off with two beautiful destinations – Rialto Beach and Saltwater Creek Recreation Area.

Rialto Beach, Washington – Hole in the Wall

Twilight fans are intimately familiar with La Push, home to main character Jacob and the werewolf pack of the Quileute Tribe. Off of La Push Road on the Olympic coast is Mora Road and the heavily wooded Mora Campground, which offers a great launch point to access many of the coastal beaches. A very memorable beach is Rialto, accessible along Mora Road and about 75 miles west of Port Angeles (around 4 hour drive west from Seattle). Rialto Beach is also directly north of the Quileute reservation.

You can reserve campsites at Mora Campground from May 26, 2021 - September 15, 2021 and find details here: https://www.recreation.gov/. The rest of the year it’s first come, first served to claim a site.  

Keep traveling west on Mora Road until you hit the coast, and you’ll find Rialto beach. There is a wonderful 1.5 mile hike to Hole in the Wall, a dramatic sea arch. Prepare to get a little wet depending on how high the tide is! Crabs, anemones, and seabirds abound. You can keep hiking beyond the Hole as well, or stop and enjoy the surf.

At the parking lot, take some time to look a little south at the reservation. You’ll spy Akalat Island, a sacred place to the Quileute Tribe. Deceased chiefs are put to rest in canoes cradled in the arms of trees. Look and wonder but don’t visit 😊.

Saltwater Creek Recreation Area & Crescent Beach – Washington

On your way back inland, there is plenty to explore. Saltwater Creek Recreation Area is a beautiful and atmospheric campground situated in the cliffs overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Located in Clallam County, Washington, travel along US Route 101 to discover this 196-acre park located 15 miles west of Port Angeles, Washington.

This makes for a fun 1-2 day exploring excursion and is a wonderful jump off point to plenty of hikes in the area. Salt Creek campground is RV and tent friendly, offering multiple options for small and large groups. You will likely be greeted by deer on your way in, and many of the campsites are dramatically right near the cliff edge.

Within walking distance is a trail that winds down to Crescent Beach. You’ll pass by Camp Hayden, which has concealed bomb-proofed two-gun batteries. It was built to protect the Puget Sound around 1941. It is recommended to duck into the batteries a bit ahead of your friends and find a good spot to scare them.

Another notable and fun beach exploration point off Salt Creek is fondly known as “the Tongue.” Most accessible at low tide, you’ll explore a medley of tide pools and discover urchins, anemones, chitons, sculpins, limpets, crabs, and blood stars. If you spot purple starfish, consider it a treat—they were once found all over the Pacific Northwest coast, but due to global warming and disease, have tragically disappeared.

Although it can be daunting to travel to the tip of the Tongue where waves crash, make the trip if you are able. We were pleasantly surprised to find a couple sea otters enjoying urchins and the surf. So if you have strong balance and heart, you won’t want to miss the Tongue—but watch your step out there. It can get extremely slippery.

The trail also wraps by this island, which you can access during low tide. We spotted a seal frolicking in the emerald depths off the island, and of course we had to try and climb to the top of the butte. It is a scramble that is not for the faint of the heart, and you’ll want to keep an eye on the changing tides so you don’t get stuck, but on top is a couple trails through the trees and salal berry bushes. Most exciting of all, we spotted two unexpected animals cuddling at the base of the island—river otters 😊.

These two were cuddling quite close for warmth and because they knew just how darned adorable it made them. Eventually they parted and shot off through the water as fast as bullets. It was quite a treat to experience sea and river otters on the same day!

Upon reaching Crescent Beach at the end of the trail, you do have to be careful, since Crescent Beach is considered private. However, that is only to the water line. When the tide goes out, it is fair game to explore. Do note that the private parking area is patrolled frequently, so your best bet is to walk down from the campground and visit at low tide. We did take a dip in the ocean—even during summer, we only stayed in an impressive two minutes!

Overall, Salt Creek is a fun family outing to explore. If Stephanie Meyer does revisit this area for future books, hopefully shapeshifting otters make an appearance.

Other Sights along the Drive: 

This is Part I of the Washington Travel Series.

Read Part II here: Poulsbo, WA.

*The above is depicted as fiction and not fact.

June 2021 Book Review: Children of Blood and Bone

 

CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE

by Tomi Adeyemi

~Book Review~

*Warning! Minor Spoilers!*

In the land of Orïsha, the nobles rule with an iron fist. The only threat to their power, the maji and their magical gifts, have been eradicated nearly to extinction. They now live in fear of military raids and are identifiable by their shock-white hair. Zélie remembers her mother’s power to summon souls. Other magi could control the tides or fire, but their connection to the magic of the land is lost now.

Drawing inspiration from Yoruba mythology, Adeyemi has crafted a tale of enemies-to-lovers where different class worlds collide. Zélie meets Amari, a runaway princess who questions the ruthlessness of the nobility, and together they go on a quest to bring magic back to the land. However, on their tail is the zealot crown prince Inan, who is determined to bring back his sister Amari and kill whoever is in her company.

Yes, Children of Blood and Bone has strong The Last Airbender vibes á la Zuko. Inan and Zélie forge a special dream connection and Inan is forced to face an unimaginable truth about himself. Their interactions were some of the most compelling.

There are glimpses of interesting characters and motivations, but the pacing is a big issue. Too much exposition made the story feel bloated, and the characters lost their edges and didn’t feel unique. The mythology wasn’t given enough chance to shine. The book felt a bit too preoccupied with falling in line with your standard YA fantasy we see these days—heavily sanitized and tropey, canned to please an audience who wants a predictable rinse-and-repeat tale about lower class rising against oppressors to bring magic back to the land. I didn’t feel fully immersed and teleported by the story; it was too easy to leave.

You know the saying there are no original story ideas, only original ways to tell the story? Which is true, because the aforementioned The Last Airbender TV series does a marvelous job with its wit, development of the characters, and world-building to feel unique. David Eddings’ Belgariad series sparkles with charm, and Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea books are an example of how slow pacing can work—because the magical system is so utterly absorbing that it becomes a character in its own right. More contemporarily, there’s Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor, which is a shorter story, but Okorafor masterfully demonstrates that you don’t need more words to transport the reader to a world they don’t want to leave. In Children of Blood and Bone, there are too many words, and they don’t say enough to bring this world to life.

It’s tough because Zélie does have spirit, and her relationship with Inan is one of the best things about the book. This story is often featured on #Diverse Reads and #Own Voices, but it doesn’t feel like we really get Adeyemi’s voice (v. looking at the smoother orchestration and presence in works by Zoraida Córdova, R. F. Kuang, Julie Kagawa). It feels more that the publishing industry is trying to churn out as many of these derivative versions of the post-Twilight & The Hunger Games tropes as it can without giving the authors time to edit and develop their writing to make something truly memorable. Look no further than the string of similar titles that makes all of these works blur together—Children of Blood and Bone, Shadow and Bone, Girls of Paper and Fire, A Court of Frost and Starlight, Isle of Blood and Stone, Blood and Sand, The Forest of Hands and Teeth—we could probably fill a page with “Blood” and “Bone” titles alone.  

The series continues in Children of Virtue and Vengeance. Hopefully with the foundation set, Adeyemi will be able to branch off into new twists and original voice for her characters.

Recommended for fans of: Kiersten White, Daniel José Older, Tochi Onyebuchi

May 2021 Book Review: The Poppy War

THE POPPY WAR

By R.F. Kuang

~Book Review~

*WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!*

IT’S MULAN MEETS NAME OF THE WIND MEETS…HARRY POTTER? Nah, The Poppy War’s heroine Rin has more in common with Jay Kristoff’s Mia from The Nevernight Chronicles or Nona Gray from Mark Lawrence’s Book of the Ancestor series. She’s not an assassin, but Rin is a tough-as-nails overachiever and morally gray decision maker—she doesn’t bat an eyelash over parting with an adorable pig she carries to the mountaintop every day for endurance training, she self-inflicts wounds to stay awake in order to cram for the Empire’s Keju test, and she is so devoted to being the best solider of her class that she gives up her ability to bear children.

In other words, we have a memorable heroine who makes messy and difficult choices! Rin is very much the heart of this story and I was heavily invested in Part I to see what our peasant underdog would do next to survive at Sinegard, the elite military school of the Nikara Empire (a fantasy depiction of China made up of provinces named after the Zodiac and influenced by the Second Sino-Japanese War and the consequences of the opium trade).

Part I of this book is an excellent thrill ride. Against all odds, peasant orphan Fang Runin “Rin” (Mao Zedong influenced) scores high enough on the Empire’s merit test to earn a spot in the elite military school Sinegard, where the best in the Empress’s army are forged to face threats from the Federation of Mugen (Japan influenced) and Hesperia (The West influenced). Rin is a firecracker. While she forges one friendship with the adorable and strategic genius Kitay, she’s largely set against a hostile upper class who despises everything about her from her dark skin down to her impudence to take a spot away from one of their own. Rin largely responds to these threats with her fists, especially tangling with wealthy rival Nezha more than once (and yet, she also can’t help but notice how handsome he is, cuing Zuko reform arch on the horizon!)

Rin is also drawn to the mysterious and powerful Altan, an upper classman who defeats any opponent he faces. He comes from Speer (Taiwan influenced), and is one of the only survivors of the island nation after a horrific explosion, rumored to be tied to the merciless deity known as the Phoenix. More painful still is the Nikara Empire’s hidden role in Speer’s demise. As Rin delves further into her studies, she discovers her own connection to the disturbing powers of the Phoenix and her aptitude for shamanism, which leads the eclectic and humorous Master Jiang to take her under his wing.

Like I said, Part I is a rousing page turner that doesn’t shy away from the consequences of war and establishing Rin as a character who will follow through on her actions no matter the cost. I loved the conversations about strategy and the tests of the academy, as well as her relationship with Master Jiang.

Unfortunately, the book detours in the second half. After developing Sinegard and Rin’s classmates so well in Part I, the story suddenly does an about face after the Federation attacks. Rin is dropped into the middle of war, which could have worked, except she’s assigned to a special Shamanistic branch of the Empress’s service called the Cike. Kuang now has to develop an entirely new set of characters in the Cike, who each have their own magical powers. We’re essentially starting over watching Rin build relationships with each of them—in the middle of a war, which should be when the urgency is at its highest. Instead, this approach to introduce an entirely new set of comrades throws off the pacing and tension, and also leaves the reader confused, not invested, and wondering what’s going on with Nezha, Kitay, and Venka. Rin as well undergoes a facelift of sorts being quite submissive toward her new leader, Altan, as the Phoenix pulls them in different directions and pushes them to answer how far they will go to win the war.

Nevertheless, this is great military fantasy and I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of Rin’s school friends and enemies. The series continues in The Dragon Republic and The Burning God. For more on historical influences behind The Poppy War, check out this great post by Kevin Kaichuang Yang here: https://readbytiffany.com/2020/11/15/everything-you-need-to-know-before-you-read-the-poppy-war-by-r-f-kuang/

Recommended for fans of: Fonda Lee, Alison Goodman, Mark Lawrence, and Jay Kristoff

April 2021 Book Review: Beasts Made of Night

BEASTS MADE OF NIGHT

by Tochi Onyebuchi

~Book Review~

*WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!*



GUILT. RESENTMENT. SHAME. Our past mistakes can make us sick, and in Taj’s world, actually take the form of sin-beasts, shadowy creatures of nightmare that wage destruction. The city of Kos uses magicians to draw out the sin from the rich and makes the lower class sin-eaters destroy the sin-beasts, imprinting a memory of the sin in their skins.

Taj is the most talented of sin-eaters, who has withstood even the colossal sins that take on the forms of dragons. However, his skills and uncanny ability to connect with the sin-beasts earns royal attention and draws him into a plot to destroy Kos…

The idea at the foundation of Beasts Made of Night is excellent. Taj feels wholly organic, born from the city and does all he can to survive with cocky flair without ever sacrificing his loyalty to the community he’s grown up with. There were quite a few unique characters. With a bit more time and restructuring, this book has potential to be a truly exceptional book.

However, the execution fails it. The idea of “sin” manifesting as guilt that can make a person physically ill is so fascinating, but it’s never explored. For example, what is considered a sin in this world? There is a passing reference of a council that defines morality, but it is never articulated. If “sin” only comes from feeling guilty, then why the heck are so many of the rich upper class the ones with the most extravagant sin-beasts? Are they shaving their guilt over decisions they make for the city, and if so, why don’t we see more of that awareness battling within them? What about people who are sociopathic or psychopathic and don’t feel guilty about committing actions like murder? Is sin even the best word to describe what’s going on with these beasts?

While I was trying to figure this out, the story moved along at a lurching pace that just couldn’t find its plot. There were a couple key relationships that really stood out: Taj’s relationship with Bo, who is his lifelong friend and fellow sin-eater, and surprisingly, a meeting halfway through the story with the mysterious Zainab, an experienced sin-eater with a spider tattoo on her face. Honestly, I felt that in that meeting between Taj and Zainab, that’s where the story should have started. There was incredible potential there with the pitying look she gave him and her no-nonsense approach to training that could have organized the story in a more coherent way.

However, that’s a bit of the issue with this novel—there are many ideas circulating and too many characters, and the result is a discordant plot. If it was just a focus on these characters + Azru (loved the scene with the peppers!) and Aliya, who also had unique relationships with Taj, that would have been enough to unpack right there.

As it is, the book ends in a confusing battle, and although I wasn’t surprised by the “true” villain—can’t trust those overly sweet characters!—the impact fell flat since there hadn’t been any time spent on developing the villain’s motivations on a more complex level.

All in all, really excited to see what this author does in the future. The imagination and characters are fierce, but there needs to be more fine tuning in the execution.

Recommended for fans of: Nnedi Okorafor, Tomi Adeyemi, Rick Riordan

March 2021 Book Review: Gods of Jade and Shadow

Gods of Jade and Shadow

By Silvia Moreno-Garcia

~Book Review~

*WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!*

ONE OF THE MOST INTRIGUING UNDERWORLDS is Xibalba, the Place of Fear (or Place of Astonishment), that holds a memorable place in Maya mythology. Ruled by the death gods Hun-Kamé and his brother Vucub-Kamé (older translations can be Hun-Camé and Vucub-Kamé), Xibalba promises the most tribulations and tricks a soul can find oneself up against, what with a treacherous Black Road, frightful Houses full of jaguars, bats, and flying blades, and a ballcourt where the losing team pays with their lives. It is evocative of the struggles of life amongst teeming jungles of biodiversity, but it has a softer side, too, as Moreno-Garcia explores in Gods of Jade and Shadow.

Set in the Jazz Age, the story begins with a Cinderella flair of sorts with Casiopea Tun stuck serving the whims of her grandfather’s demanding family in a small town in southern Mexico. While dreaming of a life far from this one, Casiopea finds a mysterious box in her grandfather’s house and unwittingly releases Hun-Kamé, deposed ruler of Xibalba. Turns out that Casiopea’s grandfather threw in with Hun-Kamé’s ambitious brother Vucub-Kamé to overthrow the death god and scatter his body parts so he could never return. Undaunted to find himself in the age of flappers and cabaret, Hun-Kamé wastes no time enlisting Casiopea to help him recover his missing body parts so he may retake his place on the Jade Palace throne. However, Vucub-Kamé is alerted to his brother’s release and enlists Casiopea’s loathsome cousin Martin to stop them.

Hands down, the most exhilarating part of the story is at the end when Casiopea competes against Martin to travel Xibalba’s Black Road and reach the World Tree first. Also, any part that features Xibalba. The writing style is lyrical but tells instead of shows, making it difficult to connect with any of the characters. The characters felt like they had no heart, and it was hard to tell Hun-Kamé’s voice/character apart from his brother (as opposed to the wonderful drawn rivalry of say, Mufasa and Scar in The Lion King). Indeed, there wasn’t much justification for why Vucub-Kamé should be overthrown—had the underworld eroded under his care? Was he oppressing his demon subjects or being more horrific to souls than usual? It’s not explored which brother would be the better ruler aside from birthright. Why did Vucub-Kamé want to get rid of Hun-Kamé aside from his own ambition? That’s the level we’re missing to really understand the heart of their relationship.

The plot doesn’t help, as it follows a simplistic formula of 1) collect this body part from forgettable demon minion A, and 2) repeat for demons B – C. There wasn’t much of a struggle or tension built up in any of these face-offs. The Jazz Age’s influence was told to us rather than flowing as a natural part of the story, and Martin is about as formidable as an old sock.

However, Hun-Kamé and Casiopea’s slow burn romance is sweet, and Casiopea refreshingly has plenty of spunk and agency. She doesn’t take sh*t and isn’t afraid to speak up in the overtly patriarchal world. The story wraps up in a satisfying conclusion, but the biggest drawback is the woodenness of the characters and the lack of heart, as we constantly feel like we’re being kept at arm’s length from any raw emotion. Granted, this is tough when writing “distant” god-like characters. Overall, Moreno-Garcia has spun a classic tale that expertly balances both the fear and beauty of Xibalba.

Recommended for fans of: N.K. Jemisin, Rick Riordan, and Aliette de Bodard

February 2021 Book Review: Trail of Lightning

TRAIL OF LIGHTNING

By Rebecca Roanhorse

~Book Review~

*WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!*

YOU MEAN TO TELL ME that a cataclysmic flood destroys the world as we know it, leading to the rebirth of the Navajo Nation in a mysterious and dangerous Sixth World where gods and monsters reclaim the earth? I am totally here for this. The tension is real!

On the world-building front, Roanhorse knocks it out of the park. The descriptions of the desert, the mesas, the forests of ponderosa and blue spruce carpeting lonely peaks, are all utterly gorgeous, and there is a constant air of menace as ghosts and children-eating monsters roam the hills. Descendants of clans inherit specific magical powers to help them survive their gritty and post-apocalyptic reality, and we get a wise-cracking Coyote who has an invested interest in our heroine Maggie Hoskie.

However, the plot quickly splits into too many threads as the book struggles with what it wants to be. What seems to be a promising monster slaying adventure/mystery gets derailed by an unnecessary love triangle that overtakes the initial premise. Someone is behind the release of increasingly dangerous monsters upon Dinétah, and loner monster slayer Maggie Hoskie teams up with medicine man Kai to investigate.

A common complaint I’ve had of late is the main character proves to be the least engaging, and Trail of Lightning continues my frustrations. Initially I liked Maggie Hoskie, Dinétah monster hunter with lineage gifts of supernatural speed and bloodlust. Despite being quite humorless, she kicked ass, and I was sucked in by the promise of a dark and tangled relationship with her former mysterious mentor, Neizgháni.

Here’s where the issue came in: this book seemed like it should have started with her training and adventures with Neizgháni. The flashbacks with him take up such a significant part of the book that it begs the question why this wasn’t the original storyline in the first place. The consequence is we keep being told about this deep connection they had, as well as how betrayed she feels by him, that we’re dying to have the two reunite already (Never mind what’s happening with Maggie and present day traveling companion Kai). The former mentor-student reunion doesn’t happen until the last quarter of the book, and when it does, it’s in this weird stand-off in a monster dueling ring where he kisses her out of the blue. It feels quite out of left field for someone who had been so carefully guarded about his emotions before.

It also leads to the book taking an abrupt turn toward romance and resolving the love triangle between Maggie, Neizgháni, and good guy healer Kai. This felt like such a departure from Maggie’s character to suddenly be so held up by boyz, and it left the end of the book feeling messy, as if it wasn’t quite sure what it wanted to be.

It would have been interesting for Neizgháni to have joined Maggie and Kai at the start of their investigation into the monsters, and keep these three as the focal point to really flesh out their relationships. Instead, the plot gets constantly distracted by side quests that we don’t really care about, and at the end, it’s a bit confusing when the main quest gets addressed almost as if by accident. I didn’t buy the villain’s true goal; it seemed a very complicated way to get what he wanted.

This book is still easy to get lost in, and although the urban fantasy aspects and romance’s fight to take over the driver’s seat distracted the plot, I am still excited to see where Roanhorse goes in future installments of The Sixth World series, such as Storm of Locusts.

Recommended for fans of: Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, Karsten Knight, and Tony Hillerman

January 2021 Book Review: Labyrinth Lost

LABYRINTH LOST (Brooklyn Brujas)

By Zoraida Córdova 

~Book Review~ 

*WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!*


THERE’S NOTHING IN A YOUNG WITCH’S LIFE like making your entire family disappear on your Deathday. Alex is a Bruja waiting to inherit her powers, but unlike her sisters (psychic Rose and healer Lula), she would rather not have anything to do with magic. After her attempt to rid herself of her powers during her Deathday goes wrong, banishing her family to the underworld of Los Lagos, Alex teams up with a mysterious Brujo named Nova and her best friend Rishi to save them from the power-hungry Devourer.

I’ve been on an underworld kick and can’t get enough! Los Lagos proves to be no exception, full of perils like a lost soul river, misunderstood harpies, and everlasting festivities with fairy folk in a seemingly cheerful meadow. It’s easy to get immersed in Córdova’s writing, which neatly balances plot with world-building and has an easy, straightforward style.

The most intriguing character by far is Nova. He’s the bad boy archetype who actually executes on it, and displays genuine remorse after. He felt the most fleshed-out and sympathetic to get invested in. Rishi was interesting as well, incredibly loyal and brave to pursue Alex into the underworld without magic powers. As is a common trend in YA novels, our main character Alex proves to be the weakest of the three. Suffering from insecurity, awkward dialogue, and a brooding, harsh personality, she’s difficult to warm up to, and indeed, the biggest mystery was why both Nova and Rishi would be so into her. It’s difficult to make the reluctant heroine character work when the audience is here for the magic and thrill of having supernatural powers, and Alex comes up short in this regard.

But it matters not! We have a great supporting group of characters including the spirited Lula, cynical harpies, and the mysterious world of Los Lagos itself. The Devourer is a bit one-dimensional but it’s nevertheless interesting to learn the backstory behind her desire to reshape the underworld in her image. Best of all, the other two books in Brooklyn Brujas (Bruja Born and Wayward Witch) focus on the more engaging characters of Lula and Rose, as well as include appearances by the enigmatic Nova.

Overall, this book is fun and all about Alex defining her place in her family, both blood born and made. Latinix influences (Alex is of Ecuadorian and Puerto Rican background) intermix with modern day Brooklyn to create an atmosphere brimming with magic and mystery, where Deos walk among skyscrapers and the spirit world is just a spell’s cast away.

Recommended for fans of: Daniel José Older, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Sarah Fine