I love the phrase "swan in a cemetery."
This was beautifully written, and reminded me a lot of THE ONE MEMORY OF FLORA BANKS in terms of the bravery that it encounters and adventuring out on one's own. I enjoyed. ( )

I went into this blind and it was a BOTM pick for me. While I enjoyed the character of Zelda, who has fetal alcohol syndrome and navigates the world openly, but with rules, it was the story which threw me for a curveball.

Zelda’s narration and worldview makes this book fun to read. It begins though with the story of her brother, who has recently broken up with his girlfriend AK47 (yes, really) and has begun connecting with a local drug distributor Toucan. It begin with. Zelda not knowing what is happening, but discovering clues along the way. This story was great and could have carried the book.

The odd digression was Zelda also wants to have sex with her boyfriend Marxie “who is like her.” Absolutely nothing wrong with this, except it begins to take over the back half of the book for several chapters, not just a couple, several. It was an odd steering in the narration flow as the rest of the main story just disappears for those chapters, except for cameos by Toucan and Hendo.

It will come back to the main story, but to me, it threw the narration off. It is probably 3.5 stars. ( )

Zelda, a young woman born with fetal alcohol syndrome, lives with her older brother, Gert. They were previously living with an abusive uncle, but to get away, Gert borrows money from a shady character – not his best idea. Zelda is a fan of Vikings. She knows she is different and wants to create her own legend, just as a Viking would aspire to do. She makes a checklist to accomplish her goal.

The novel is written in first person from Zelda’s perspective. The language is direct, as if Zelda is talking to the reader. The primary theme is enabling people to self-actualize as much as their abilities permit. The author gets a bit carried away with the f-bombs. Near the end it turns into a thriller, which is not my taste, but I liked Zelda and felt a sense of compassion for her and her friends.
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If you haven't already picked this gem up, the novel is centre around Zelda, a high functioning young adult diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. The heroic heroine is a viking enthusiast and uses "Kepple's Guide to the Vikings", a book Zelda reads obsessively as a handbook to her everyday life. The smooth and easy read told in Zelda's perspective is a phenomenal coming-to-age story filled with love, legends, and self-discovery. It was a pull at the heartstrings type of story that further enthralled the reader with the out of ordinary characters, storyline, and content.

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This book is absolutely amazing, the best I have read so far this year and honestly it would take a lot to knock it off its #1 throne right now. I fell in love with the main character, her tenacity, courage and dedication to those she considers her 'tribe'. One of the key elements I look for in any book is character development and woah does this story have it. The author does an absolutely excellent job of not trying to whitewash everything, there are flawed characters everyone. He doesn't try to make everything pure good or pure evil and doesn't give you the ending in a nice little box wrapped in bow. It was an emotional rollercoaster but I am so glad to have ridden it. I will definitely be recommending this book to everyone and I look forward to more work from this author. ( )