Books book review Violent, Passionate, Frenzied, and Thrilling: Hayley Dennings’s This Ravenous Fate A review of Hayley Dennings’s YA fantasy novel. By Alex Brown | Published on August 19, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Several years ago, best friends Elise Saint and Layla Quinn’s lives were turned upside down. Layla’s parents were murdered by reapers (this universe’s version of vampires) and Layla herself was turned, all while Elise’s father, a manufacturer of reaper-killing steel bullets, failed to intervene. Layla blamed Elise, and Elise in turn fled to Paris. Now, the Prohibition is still going strong, but in Harlem liquor and reapers are everywhere. Fresh from her time at a musical college in France, Elise returns to New York hoping to take her place as the heir to her father’s empire, sparing her younger sister the same fate. When Layla is framed for murder, the girls are once again pulled back together. Elise only wants to protect her father’s business interests, while Layla is determined to clear her name. But something else is going on in the back alleys of Harlem. Reapers are going on rampages before turning human. Everyone is lying and the bodies are piling up. And something intense and passionate is sparking once more between these former friends.  Layla and Elise are troubled girls making trouble. All Elise wants is her father’s approval, especially after being away for so long. When Layla turned, Elise lost her best friend. When Elise betrayed her, Layla’s foundation was shattered. Both girls are unmoored and lost, drifting apart in a sea of anger and resentment. Each decides to use the other, to exact their petty grievances and to win the favor of the distant parental figure who looms over their lives. That means forming an alliance with each other while secretly using whatever information they gather to give themselves a leg up, whether in the reaper community or in the Saint steel empire. It’s hard to like either girl, but it’s equally as hard not to at least root for them. One cannot win without the other failing, but that didn’t stop me from cheering each victory and bemoaning each setback. Although friends-to-enemies-to-lovers is not one of my favorite tropes, Dennings handles the tempest between Elise and Layla well. She leans into the fraught romance, mercurial moods, and morally gray personalities.  Buy the Book This Ravenous Fate Hayley Dennings Buy Book This Ravenous Fate Hayley Dennings Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget The novel struggles in a few ways. I’m not one of those people who needs a fully developed and detailed magic system in my fantasy, but I do at least need a basic understanding of how the world works. With This Ravenous Fate, I’m still unclear on the hows, whats, and whys of reaperhood or the alliances between the gangsters, the reapers, the humans, and the Saints. Dennings also repeats set-ups and action sequences without much plot development or character growth to distinguish them. This has the unintended side effect of turning compelling side characters into cannon fodder. It also bogs down Layla and Elise’s investigation. The “who” part of the “whodunit” is telegraphed early and often, but the girls are so distracted with side quests that it takes them a while to catch up to the reader. Personally, I wish there was more sense of place. The setting, mid 1920s Harlem, is a thriving, fascinating place, but we see very little of it. Most of the events are centered on private residences and The Cotton Club. In both the real world and Dennings’ novel, it was a whites-only, mob-run club with mostly Black performers. While in its Harlem location, everyone from Duke Ellington to Cab Calloway to Dorothy Dandridge to Lena Horne performed there; women dancers were advertised as “tall, tan, and terrific,” meaning not older than 21 years old, at least 5’ 6” tall, and light enough to pass the paper bag test (the saying became famous enough that Bud Pollard directed a film with the same name starring the great Francine Everett about a singer and dancer at a nightclub who gets tangled up in a murder).  But the Cotton Club is only one of dozens of places for people to indulge in Harlem’s nightlife. Although Langston Hughes described the neighborhood as being plagued by a “growing influx of whites toward Harlem after sundown, flooding the little cabarets and bars where formerly only colored people laughed and sang,” it was also teeming with places for Black folks to spend time in. Alas, they barely get any mention. Diving deeper into what Harlem was like at this time would’ve opened up more opportunities to talk about colorism, segregation, queerness (even the Cotton Club hosted queer musicians like Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith), the First Great Migration (between about 1910-1940, about one million Black people left the South for more economic opportunities in the North, Midwest, and West with around 175,000 landing in Harlem prior to WWII), racism against identities other than Black, the Harlem Renaissance, the rapid rise of Black workers in industrial fields such as steel manufacturing, rent parties, etc. Perhaps it’s just the Black history nerd in me, but I had hoped this alternate history novel would play more in the historical sandbox. Thing is, even taking into account the aspects that didn’t work for me, I still enjoyed This Ravenous Fate. Between the exciting premise and protagonists I wanted to hug as much as shake my fist at, it had me hooked. Layla and Elise are fun antihero protagonists. They make terrible decisions based on selfish reasons, then reap the bloody consequences. It’s violent, passionate, frenzied, and thrilling.  Readers, especially of the teen variety, who want to scratch that Interview with the Vampire tv show itch should look no further than Hayley Dennings’s This Ravenous Fate. It is the perfect late summer indulgence.[end-mark] This Ravenous Fate is published by Sourcebooks Fire. The post Violent, Passionate, Frenzied, and Thrilling: Hayley Dennings’s <i>This Ravenous Fate</i> appeared first on Reactor.

A student protester outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago claimed police who “wounded, tackled, and choked” her “peers” are the same ones who “profit from the constant oppression of all people.” Anti-Israel, pro-abortion, and Marxist demonstrators joined forces to protest at the convention this weekend. “Police and the same people have profited off of the beating brutalizing and arresting of their students also profit from the merciless slaughtering of Palestinians that has persisted for decades now,” the woman said, “and those same people profit from denying bodily autonomy, and those same people profit from the constant oppression of all people of color.” Watch her here: The post Police ‘Profit From Merciless Slaughtering of Palestinians,’ Democratic Convention Protester Says appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Several high-profile accounts remain “withheld,” i.e., inaccessible in Brazil, despite the latest developments in the clash between X and Brazil’s judicial authorities. Over the weekend, X announced that it was closing its operations in Brazil – the latest stage in the ever-escalating dispute over censorship in that country, ongoing for several years now. At the center of the massive controversy are what X considers censorship orders issued by Alexandre de Moraes, president of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court and a Supreme Federal Court justice. On Saturday, X said that while it was shutting down operations in the country because of unwillingness to comply with the orders, the platform would continue to be available to people there. However, X is continuing to “withhold” accounts belonging to journalist Guilherme Fiuza (@GFiuza_Oficial), journalist Allan dos Santos (@allanldsantos), journalist Rodrigo Constantino (@Rconstantino), and podcaster Monark (@monark). Santos’ account was first blocked in April of this year, while the others saw the same fate in January 2023. The accounts can be accessed from outside Brazil. All four are among prominent opponents of the current authorities, however, Moraes insists his orders – that are supposed to be kept secret, but which X has consistently been making public – have to do with curbing misinformation and “protecting democracy.” X, on the other hand, insists that these violate Brazil’s own laws and has repeatedly stated it would not comply. The announcement on Saturday said that what triggered the decision to close operations in Brazil was a threat from Moraes that X employees would be arrested because of the social media company’s decision to defy censorship demands. This time, once again, Moraes made the threat through what was supposed to be another secret order, but X once again decided to expose it. In the past, X owner Elon Musk said that the company might have to withdraw from Brazil because the secret orders to block popular accounts, on top of everything, did not provide any details explaining the demands. It now remains to be seen if Musk will make good on the promise from April, when he said that “all restrictions would be lifted.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post X Is Still Withholding Accounts of Notable Brazilian Journalists and Podcasters Despite Exiting Brazil appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Hamas on Ceasefire Deal: Nope

The Disruption of the DNC Has Begun

YouTube has widely launched its Playables platform with dozens of flash-style mobile games to capture bored audiences on its app. Playables, available as a direct URL on a browser or in the YouTube mobile app, hosts over 75 games from Angry Birds to simple billiards and recognizable bubble-pop games. Millennials will remember these as flash games from the dawn of the internet, while Boomers, Gen Z, and beyond will recognize iterations that have appeared on their tablets or phones over the years. It remains to be seen how expansive YouTube will want to make its gaming library and to what degree it takes it seriously. YouTube describes Playables as a "fun, interactive way to experience YouTube — with lightweight, entertaining games." The website boasted games such as Angry Birds Showdown, Words of Wonders, Cut the Rope, Tomb of the Mask, and Trivia Crack. Most of the games are simple but could serve as an interesting, educational format for children. For example, Words of Wonder has users spell out three- to four-letter words to complete a Scrabble-like puzzle. However, after 12 levels it still offers little to no challenge. Trivia Crack is perhaps the most universally appealing. It consists of simple, timed trivia questions, with the goal of seeing how many the user can guess correctly in a row without getting a question wrong. Angry Birds Showdown is easily the most enjoyable of a dozen played games, which makes sense given that the franchise has spawned a ton of sequels, TV shows, and even movies. Overall, the platform is, at best, what one would expect: free games meant to pass the time that are fairly addicting. They offer easy-to-reach incentives that have users endlessly chasing the dragon. One of the first questions users will ask when playing is, "Will progress be saved?" Getting to level 20 and then having to start over is certainly annoying, but it definitely gets the user sucked into the game, which ultimately benefits the designer's engagement rate. Luckily, YouTube Playables saves progress and high scores, although it is attached to your YouTube account; you cannot play these games unless you are signed in to a YouTube profile. This appears to be an obvious trade-off for the nonexistent microtransactions, ads, or purchase fees that pop up in other games in the App Store or Google Play Store. According to the Daily Star, Google has not indicated any plans to monetize the Playables section in the foreseeable future. Of course, YouTube is a little late to the party in terms of nontraditional gaming platforms offering some fun. LinkedIn, the New York Times, and Netflix all have expanded into gaming. Netflix, in particular, has a much higher bar than YouTube. This includes games like Grand Theft Auto, Immortality, and the very popular Into the Breach. It remains to be seen how expansive YouTube will want to make its gaming library and to what degree it takes it seriously. This could be another foray into children's content, a market YouTube seems keen on trying to target. As of now, Playables may be relegated to bored office workers and parents who have nothing else to offer their kids in terms of short-term entertainment on a train ride. Expect to find one or two favorites in a sea of forgettable experiences. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Cops from various law enforcement agencies have converged on Chicago in anticipation of possible violence erupting in the protests surrounding the Democratic National Convention.Lines of police officers on foot, on bikes, and even on boats can be seen all over Chicago, according to the Daily Mail.'We know from past experiences something could ensue so we want to be proactive and get ahead of it.'"This is the most that we'll ever see in one setting, which is crazy, but I feel like it's a good reason that it's a lot of police out here, because there's so many people just in one area," said local resident Ayanna Tucker.The officers are keeping an eye on the thousands of left-leaning protesters who have flooded the city to denounce an array of issues, including continued hostilities in Gaza and alleged racism in the U.S. criminal justice system, as Blaze News previously reported."[We're] here to shout so, oh, so loudly, so clearly that Palestinian liberation is reproductive justice," one protesting speaker said."You're killing us. We're tired. We're tired of being killed. We're tired of going to jail. We're tired of our men and women going to jail. We're tired of the police killing. ... I hope that they are listening to us, and I hope they do something about it," added another. — (@) "Harris represents the administration; she represents Biden. There is nothing that she has expressed," added Hatem Abudayyeh, the national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network and chief organizer of some of the protests, according to the New York Post.Thus far, the protests have been emotionally charged but still peaceful, and the FBI has stated that it "is not aware of any specific and articulable threats related to the DNC."However, many windows in the city's business district have already been boarded up, just in case, according to WGN."We know from past experiences something could ensue, so we want to be proactive and get ahead of it," said Scott Shapiro of Syd Jerome, a menswear store located along the route to the United Center, where the DNC will take place."It’s better to be safe than sorry."One local company designed to safeguard businesses from possible civic unrest, Chicago Board Up Services, has already reportedly received a dozen requests for assistance as the DNC gets underway. "If you feel you’re in any type of line where you feel there’s going to be a lot of commotion — we’re not pushing it — we’re hoping the city will be comfortable and there wont [sic] be no unrest. But if you feel you want your doors boarded, it’s better to have them boarded up than have to wait and replace glass," said Chicago Board Up Services business manager Vicki Fichter.Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling have both attempted to calm public fears about possible violence like that which followed the death of George Floyd four years ago."To assuage people’s concerns, the only thing that I can say is we’re really good at this," Johnson said. "I understand why people might have some trepidation because you have elements in this world that want to take us back to a very dark path. … But here’s one thing that I know for sure, as a social studies teacher, our democracy will not only survive, we will come out stronger.""We're going to make sure that people have their First Amendment rights protected, that they can do that in a safe way," Johnson told the AP."We will not allow people to come here and destroy this city," Snelling added.The increase in police officers is especially notable considering the anti-police fervor that swept through Democratic circles in 2020. Even current Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris publicly supported the "defund the police" movement a couple of months before Joe Biden selected her to be his running mate on the 2020 Democratic ticket."This whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities," Harris said on a radio program in June 2020, according to CNN."Part of what we have to do here is also look at the militarization of police departments and, and the kind of money that is going to that. And we need to demilitarize police departments," she continued. "At its core, one of the issues that I think we should all agree on is that it is old thinking. It is outdated and is actually wrong and backward to think that more police officers will create more safety."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Follow along for live updates and analysis from the NR team on the Democratic National Convention.

The edifice of competence and popularity that Harris and her media abettors are erecting is a hollow façade. The Trump campaign has a chance to topple it.

Politico Says Dems Head to Chicago As a Party 'Lacking Drama' (If You Ignore the Riots, That Is)