Review of Raven Flight, by Juliet Marillier

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Raven Flight

A Shadowfell Novel

by Juliet Marillier

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2013. 406 pages.
Starred Review

When my copy came in for Raven Flight (no waiting on the library — I knew I had to have one.), it made a wonderful excuse to reread the first book, Shadowfell. This book is a continuation of the story, so, yes, you need to read the first book first.

And the story doesn’t finish with this one. But it does give you another chance to immerse yourself in this world. Neryn is already in love when this book starts, so the exquisite process during which she falls in love happened in the first book. She doesn’t see a lot of the man she loves in this book, and he’s in great danger, but they do get some time together, much to the reader’s satisfaction.

But most of the book is about Neryn trying to get training in her uncanny gift as a Caller. She’s been told she’ll need the help of powerful lords of the West, North, East, and South. But finding them is not easy, and traveling to them is difficult in an environment where any uncanny gift is reason for horrible death, and the king’s men know to look for her to try to use her as their own weapon. Right at the start of the book, the rebels learn that their time is limited. If they confront the king the summer after next, a powerful chieftain will join them. But if they wait, they will lose his support. Can Neryn get her training in time?

During the process, Neryn must go right into the king’s camp to try to help her friend. But that’s not the only time her life’s in danger, or that of the rebel leaders at Shadowfell.

This book is full of magic, intrigue, romance, and suspense. Our heroine is challenged in multiple ways as she tries to carry out her training. Juliet Marillier writes rich, lovely prose that will keep you spellbound.

Here Neryn tries to wake some of the Good Folk to ask for their help:

As I stood there in silence, I felt the strength of stone pass into me; I opened myself to its deep magic. The call woke inside me, rising from my heartbeat and coursing blood, forming words I spoke almost despite myself. “Folk of the North! Folk of deepest earth!” The call was bone and breath, memory and hope, the past and the future. In my mind I held the many faces of stone: the roots of great trees deep in the earth; the cliffs where stanie men stood in their long, silent vigil; pebbles in the riverbed, each different, each a small, lovely miracle. Crags raising their proud heads to the sunrise; mountains under blankets of winter snow. “In the name of stone I call you! Come forth! Show yourselves! I have grave need of you, and it is time!”

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Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Gorgeous, by Paul Rudnik

Fairy Tale Variant, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Gorgeous

by Paul Rudnick

Scholastic Press, New York, 2013. 327 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a light-hearted and upbeat modern fairy tale, with sly jabs at the fashion industry, celebrity culture, and popularity.

Becky Randle’s mom doesn’t go out much. She weighs almost 400 pounds and seems afraid of life. But Becky loves her fiercely.

However, on Becky’s eighteenth birthday, her mom dies and leaves Becky a phone number. When she calls the number, she’s offered a thousand dollars and a plane ticket to New York.

In New York, she’s offered a bargain from the mysterious and glamorous designer Tom Kelly.

“Let’s talk about you,” he said. “You’re eighteen years old, you’ve finished high school and you couldn’t be more ordinary. Yes, you have the tiniest hint of your mother, but don’t kid yourself. You’re nothing. You’re no one. And you look like – anyone. You don’t exist.”

I knew I should punch him or shoot him or at least disagree but I couldn’t, for one simple reason. He was right.

“So here’s my offer,” he said, sitting up straight, as if he was about to conduct serious business. “I will make you three dresses: one red, one white, and one black. And if you wear these dresses, and if you do everything I say, then you will become the most beautiful woman on earth. You will become, in fact, the most beautiful woman who has ever lived.”

She decides to try his offer. She gets poked and prodded and measured by an entire crew of people, including handmade shoes and custom jewelry. I love the part where they take a blood sample:

“This is couture,” explained Mrs. Chen, depositing the spool in a test tube. “Every garment will be custom made, only for you. You will become a part of each dress.”

When the first dress, a red one, is finally ready, Tom Kelly takes Becky out to a gala.

We passed a large framed poster, under glass, announcing the schedule for upcoming operas and concerts, and I was inches away from the glimmering reflection of a woman who was not only unthinkably beautiful, but at ease with herself and entertained by my gaping. And that was when I first suspected that the reflection, and the woman, and the miracle, might be me.

My instantaneous response was a screaming brainload of panic. I pulled my arm away from Tom and I ran down the nearest available hallway, to the ladies’ room.

Looking in the ladies’ room mirror, she sees her old self. But when someone else walks in, her reflection again shows Rebecca Randle, the most beautiful woman in the world.

And then Tom Kelly adds the kicker, another fairy-tale element:

”By the way,” said Tom Kelly; he was leaning into the room with both hands braced against the door frame, like a warm-hearted Christmas Eve dad, checking that I was tucked in and that sweet dreams were on their way.

“I should mention something. You have one year to fall in love and get married. One year, or all of this, by which I mean Rebecca, all of it disappears forever.”

So, Becky’s adventures begin as the most beautiful woman who’s ever lived. I love her sense of humor about it, as well as her friendship with the down-to-earth Rocher, from back home. She meets the teen heartthrob she’s had a crush on since childhood (Turns out, he’s gay.) and gets to star in a movie with him. She meets royalty and other celebrities. Who is she, really, under that astoundingly beautiful exterior? Is Rebecca Randle, most beautiful woman in the world, a real person at all?

The book has an unexpected but completely satisfying ending. The last paragraph is one of my favorites ever and made me laugh out loud.

Oh, and the author has mastered the art of chapter endings that make you want to keep reading. If you don’t want to spend half the night reading this book, let me give you a hint: stop in the middle of a chapter! I didn’t, and was sorry the next day.

For a modern fairy tale about beauty and identity, with plenty of humor along the way, try Gorgeous, by Paul Rudnick.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Son, by Lois Lowry

Fantasy, Science Fiction, Teen Fiction Review 0

Son

by Lois Lowry
read by Bernadette Dunne

Listening Library, 2012. 8 hours on 7 compact discs.

Son is “the conclusion to the Giver quartet.” I read The Giver and Gathering Blue many years ago, and read and reviewed Messenger in 2004. It’s possible I would have enjoyed this book more if I remembered what was in the predecessors.

The book starts out in the same community as The Giver. Claire is a birth mother, a Vessel. But something goes wrong when she is delivering the “Product.” The “discomfort” gets extreme (That detail made me laugh — doctors in our society also have the gall to call labor pains “discomfort”.), and Claire ends up with a scar and is given a new role to play at the Fish Hatchery.

But Claire found out her child’s number. A subsequent trip to the Nursery means she can innocently find out her son’s identity. She can get to know him, in the guise of helping the Caregivers. But when Jonas flees from the community and takes her son with him, that means Claire must leave, too.

I didn’t really remember details from The Giver or Gathering Blue. What I’ve described so far was Part One, and it had tiny little details I could quibble with, but mostly I was enjoying the story. Then, suddenly, at the end of Part Three, the book turns from a plausible Science Fiction title into pure Fantasy. I didn’t buy the story from there on out — the big obstacle felt completely artificial. It’s possible I wouldn’t have been so taken aback if I had read Gossamer, because it sounds like some of the roots of Claire’s encounter were laid in that book.

However, despite having many arguments with the story, the fact is, I was mesmerized. There was nothing flashy about the reader’s voice (no cute accents, just plain reading), but I couldn’t stop listening and eagerly looked forward to my morning and evening commute as long as I was listening to this book.

I may not buy the story, and it may not be the hard-hitting dystopian commentary on our society I expected from a sequel to The Giver — but Lois Lowry’s command of language had me mesmerized, all the same.

If you’ve never read The Giver, you should. It’s a modern classic. And then if you want more, I think the best approach would probably be to read all three of Lois Lowry’s books that follow. Some day, I plan to read all four, in order. I’m sure I will enjoy them. Lois Lowry knows how to spin a tale.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Crown of Embers, by Rae Carson

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Crown of Embers

by Rae Carson

Greenwillow Books, 2012. 410 pages.

The Crown of Embers is the sequel to The Girl of Fire and Thorns, and yes, you should read the earlier book first.

This is definitely a continuation and not a completion of the story. The second volume ends with much more of a cliffhanger than the first.

Elisa, still the bearer of the Godstone, is now queen of her dead husband’s people, as well as being a war hero. But she harnessed her Godstone’s power in a one-time event, and is dismayed when Inviernos come after her again. This volume involves a quest to the source of power as well as trying to become a good queen and establishing herself among the political powers.

Now, I think I’m still in judging mode from the Cybils panel, because this time it was harder for me not to notice little things I didn’t like. I have a horrible bias against novels written in present tense (I know it’s not fair, but I can’t seem to stop disliking it), and the present tense of this novel did consistently annoy me. I thought that Elisa as narrator tends to tell us way too much about her emotions and feelings, and there were some definite internal logic problems with the world-building that I would have gone into in detail about if this book had been in my group.

But that’s enough! I did keep reading, and I did enjoy this book. The fact is, I do want to know what happens to Elisa. And the romance? Exquisite. I’ve always loved slow-burning romance and books that show friendship blossoming into love, and this book achieves that. As a bonus, we already saw Elisa in love in the last book, with a tragic ending. It’s rather refreshing to have the author of a romance not claiming that Elisa has “one true love,” and must be miserable without it.

So I wouldn’t give this to readers who love intricate world-building, but I will happily recommend it as wonderful slow-simmering romance. And I am going to be first in line to read the third volume.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of A Corner of White, by Jaclyn Moriarty

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

A Corner of White

The Colors of Madeleine, Book One

by Jaclyn Moriarty

Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic), 2013. 373 pages.
Starred Review
2013 Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award Winner for Fiction

A Corner of White doesn’t fit neatly into categories. Yes, it’s fantasy, because half of the story is set in a fantasy world. But the other half is set in modern-day Cambridge. In both worlds, we follow a teen with some big concerns. The two teens happen upon a crack between worlds — a crack just big enough to send letters through.

Madeleine, in Cambridge, just turned fourteen. She used to be rich, living a jet-setting lifestyle. But when she ran away the last time (She made a habit of that.), her mother came, too. Now they live in an attic in historic Cambridge, and her mother mends clothing to get them by.

Elliot lives in the Kingdom of Cello. He’s fifteen, and his father has been missing for months. Elliot’s theory is that the same attacking Purple that killed his uncle Jon carried off his father along with the missing physics teacher, Mischka Taylor. He wants to find the Purple’s lair and locate his father.

But events conspire to keep him at home this time.

I can’t begin to summarize all that goes on in this book. Madeleine is being homeschooled in a cooperative along with Jack and Belle. They’re studying great people who lived at Cambridge before them. Jack and Belle aren’t sure what to make of her stories of when she was rich. She’s not sure what to make of them, with Jack obsessed with horoscopes and Belle reading people’s auras. But she never reads Madeleine’s. Madeleine’s mother is acting strangely, and when Madeleine writes to her father, hoping he will come get them, she doesn’t get an answer in a hurry.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Cello has problems besides the disappearance of Elliot’s father. Elliot lives in the Farms, and crops have been failing. But when the Butterfly Child shows up, everybody says she will help. So why is she sleeping all the time? Then there are the touring Princess Sisters, the sheriff’s deputy who’s so good at finding missing persons, and the couple from Olde Quainte who are renting his father’s shop, with their daughter who never speaks.

During all of this, Madeleine and Elliot exchange letters. Of course, Madeleine thinks he’s making it all up. The Colour Attacks sound like nonsense. She thinks he’s a budding writer who’s invented a fantasy kingdom. But along the way, they both give each other good advice.

For at least half of the book, I was distracted by how completely impossible the Kingdom of Cello’s existence is. They have generally random seasons, lasting a few hours to a few weeks. I’m with Madeleine in thinking the Colour Attacks don’t make a whole lot of sense. In fact, I had to laugh at the Acknowledgments at the end, where the author says, “Adam Gatenby talked to me about farming life and Alistair Baillie talked about physics, and I am thankful to them both. (Here I should note that Adam considers farming in shifting seasons to be impossible, and that Alistair has similar doubts about colors taking on corporeal form.)” I want to add that I don’t understand how the seasons could shift. Ours are caused by the earth’s revolution around the sun. It’s clear they have a sun. How could the seasons shift so randomly?

However, by the end of the book, I was finally won over. I like the story and the characters so much, I was willing to forgive. It took longer than most fantasy tales, but in the end, okay, with small reservations. And I loved the plot twist at the end. It does lead into the rest of the series, but the story in this book still came to a satisfying conclusion.

And I love these characters. They’re not perfect. They’re trying to figure out life, each with their own obstacles to overcome. The plot was well-worked out. That’s what I don’t want to say too much about, for fear of giving something away. But it says a lot that I’m willing to forgive the unlikeliness of the alternate world in order to spend time with these people. And I very much want to know what happens next.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater

Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 4

The Raven Boys

The Raven Cycle, Book 1

by Maggie Stiefvater

Scholastic Press, 2012. 409 pages.

I adored The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater, so I picked up this book eagerly. It’s not quite as much my cup of tea, but I still am eagerly looking forward to the next book.

The premise is powerful. Here’s the first sentence:

Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love.

The narrator goes on to explain that Blue’s mother and aunts are psychics. They tell people’s fortunes, always explaining that the predictions are accurate but not specific.

But this was not what Blue was told. Again and again, she had her fingers spread wide, her palm examined, her cards plucked from velvet-edged decks and spread across the fuzz of a family friend’s living room carpet. Thumbs were pressed to the mystical, invisible third eye that was said to lie between everyone’s eyebrows. Runes were cast and dreams interpreted, tea leaves scrutinized and seances conducted.

All the women came to the same conclusion, blunt and inexplicably specific. What they all agreed on, in many different clairvoyant languages, was this:

If Blue was to kiss her true love, he would die.

The Prologue ends with Blue meeting her mother’s half-sister, Neeve, a much more famous psychic.

“You’re Maura’s daughter,” Neeve said, and before Blue could answer, she added, “This is the year you’ll fall in love.”

That’s in the Prologue. In Chapter One, we find Blue in a small churchyard with Neeve on St. Mark’s Eve. Blue is not psychic, has never had visions. Blue’s presence, however, enhances the powers of psychics she is with. Her mother normally goes to the churchyard on St. Mark’s Eve to see the souls of those who will die in the coming year march past. She gets their names, and generally gives these people a warning.

But this year, Blue sees one of the souls. The first time she has ever done so. He’s wearing a sweater from Aglionby Academy, the rich kids’ school whose students wear a uniform with a raven emblem. He says his name is Gansey.

Neeve has an explanation for why this time Blue can see the dead-to-be:

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve, Blue. Either you’re his true love,” Neeve said, “or you killed him.”

So, that’s some mighty heavy foreshadowing. Blue does meet Gansey, and a group of his friends. Her mother warns her to stay away, which of course eggs her on. (Though I would think all these predictions might just do the trick.) We also spend time with Gansey and his group of friends, misfits in some ways. Ronan is angry, has a horrible past, and is in constant danger of being kicked out of Aglionby. Noah is very quiet and hardly ever speaks. Adam’s a kid on scholarship with an awful family background and sensitive about spending time with people rolling in wealth. He’s the one who seems to have a crush on Blue, and I found myself wanting her to return it.

Gansey is on a quest. He is looking for a dead Welsh king who promised to return, who promised a wish come true for whoever awakens him. Gansey has strong reason to believe the king’s body was hidden in the hills of West Virginia. One of the ley lines is what Blue knows as the corpse road, where she was on St. Mark’s Eve.

Why didn’t I warm more to the story? In the first place, I’ve got reservations about fortunetelling, having grown up in a conservative Christian home. Now, I realize that it makes a fine storytelling device, but this had an awful lot of occult practices. I know, I know, it’s a story, but that kept me a bit at a distance.

Now, the portrayal of the friendships is done wonderfully, and the way Blue gets to know the Raven Boys is realistic and fun. Each of their back stories is well-drawn and these characters are each interesting individuals. There’s a mystery, and a revelation about two-thirds of the way through the book that is positively brilliant.

But I wasn’t onboard with the romance. Everything up to the first chapter would lead you to believe she’s going to fall in love with Gansey, she’s going to kiss him, and he’s going to die. That’s not a spoiler, since those predictions alone would give you that impression. What’s more, there are further visions and predictions about her and Gansey.

So what can I say to not give it away? Well, I’m just not satisfied about how that’s going so far. My heart doesn’t believe in her falling in love with Gansey.

Though it is possible Maggie Stiefvater will win me over in the next volume. But the further time goes by, the more resistant I am to that romance.

As far as the mystery, friendships, and dramatic climax? Excellent! So I will definitely keep reading The Raven Cycle. If the characters didn’t exactly warm my heart, I still want to find out what happens to them. And I want to know if Blue can evade what seems to be her destiny.

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Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy I got at an ALA conference.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Quintana of Charyn, by Melina Marchetta

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Quintana of Charyn

by Melina Marchetta

Candlewick Press, 2013. First published in Australia in 2012. 516 pages.
Starred Review

Quintana of Charyn is not merely a sequel to Froi of the Exiles, it’s the second half of the story begun in the earlier book. Both books are a sequel to Finnikin of the Rock. As such, you definitely should read these books in order, and I wish I had taken the time to reread the earlier books, as it would have been easier to keep straight the many characters and situations. I wasn’t wanting to take on that much time — but some day in the future I know I will want to reread all three books in order, and I’ll be in for a treat.

With both Froi of the Exiles and Quintana of Charyn, I was struck by how Melina Marchetta dares to introduce her main characters, particularly Quintana, as not very likeable. But they definitely grow on you. These books are intricate and complex. You have characters who do awful things who later do good things, with all the complexities of real life.

Since this book is the second half of an epic tale, I won’t talk much about the plot. If you’ve read Froi of the Exiles, you will want to find out what happens. Why is this book so grand?

— The epic scope. This is a fantasy series that creates a world with incredible complexity. There are many nations, and they have their own concerns, their own curses. We’re still dealing with Lumatere after the breaking of their curse, and the repercussions in their dealings with Charyn, which has its own curse to break.

— Dealing with racism, and cross-cultural relations. How can Lumaterans ever relate to Charynites? This book shows both parties overcoming their prejudices.

— Individual characters in all their complexity. Characters in these books are never flat. We see complicated and conflicting motivations. We find out about histories that affect them and new choices they have to make.

— Choosing the side of wonder. In the middle of bleak circumstances, some characters, and naturally cynical ones at that, choose to look at things on the side of wonder. I love this!

And there’s so much more. As I said, some time in the future, I’m definitely planning to treat myself to rereading all three books. I know I will discover even more riches — there’s too much to fully grasp in one reading. This is a magnificent tale with amazing complexity.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Every Day, by David Levithan

Romance, Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Every Day

by David Levithan

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2013. 324 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s an innovative and creative idea, executed well, the perfect vehicle for commenting on the human condition as it is expressed in teenagers.

David Levithan sets up the situation beautifully in the first few paragraphs:

I wake up.

Immediately I have to figure out who I am. It’s not just the body — opening my eyes and discovering whether the skin on my arm is light or dark, whether my hair is long or short, whether I’m fat or thin, boy or girl, scarred or smooth. The body is the easiest thing to adjust to, if you’re used to waking up in a new one each morning. It’s the life, the context of the body, that can be hard to grasp.

Every day I am someone else. I am myself — I know I am myself — but I am also someone else.

It has always been like this.

“A” borrows other people’s lives for one day at a time. He’s never been the same person twice. He can access certain memories from the person whose body he’s in, though he doesn’t like to overdo that, but needs to do enough to get by. He stays in pretty much the same area as where he went to sleep, and always someone the same age as him, which is sixteen during this book.

I’m using “he” for convenience. That’s the way I think of him since he wakes up as a boy at the start of this book. But he wakes up as a girl as often as a boy.

From living lots of people’s lives, A has all kinds of insights into what it means to be a teenager. That’s the brilliant part of this book that truly shines.

On only page four, A meets Rhiannon:

As I take Justin’s books out of his locker, I can feel someone hovering on the periphery. I turn, and the girl standing there is transparent in her emotions — tentative and expectant, nervous and adoring. I don’t have to access Justin to know that this is his girlfriend. No one else would have this reaction to him, so unsteady in his presence. She’s pretty, but she doesn’t see it. She’s hiding behind her hair, happy to see me and unhappy to see me at the same time.

Her name is Rhiannon. And for a moment — just the slightest beat — I think that, yes, this is the right name for her. I don’t know why. I don’t know her. But it feels right.

This is not Justin’s thought. It’s mine. I try to ignore it. I’m not the person she wants to talk to.

It throws off A’s carefully planned strategies when he keeps thinking about Rhiannon. He can at least e-mail her in every body. And then does he dare to hope that she is someone who might understand?

This book is full of great insights thrown in along the way. He talks about having siblings or not, being in a family that goes to church or not, relationships with family members, being able to tell his body is a mean girl by her friends’ surprise when he doesn’t make the cutting comment.

Here’s where he wakes up in the body of a drug addict:

There comes a time when the body takes over the life. There comes a time when the body’s urges, the body’s needs, dictate the life. You have no idea you are giving the body the key. But you hand it over. And then it’s in control. You mess with the wiring and the wiring takes charge.

That day it is all he can do to keep the body he’s in from going to get the drugs it so desperately wants.

Another day he wakes up in the body of a girl who’s written a suicide plan in her notebook, with a target date later that week. Here are his insights about that:

Some people think mental illness is a matter of mood, a matter of personality. They think depression is simply a form of being sad, that OCD is a form of being uptight. They think the soul is sick, not the body. It is, they believe, something that you have some choice over.

I know how wrong this is.

When I was a child, I didn’t understand. I would wake up in a new body and wouldn’t comprehend why things felt muted, dimmer. Or the opposite — I’d be supercharged, unfocused, like a radio at top volume flipping quickly from station to station. Since I didn’t have access to the body’s emotions, I assumed the ones I was feeling were my own. Eventually, though, I realized these inclinations, these compulsions, were as much a part of the body as its eye color or its voice. Yes, the feelings themselves were intangible, amorphous, but the cause of the feelings was a matter of chemistry, biology.

It is a hard cycle to conquer. The body is working against you. And because of this, you feel even more despair. Which only amplifies the imbalance. It takes uncommon strength to live with these things. But I have seen that strength over and over again. When I fall into the life of someone grappling, I have to mirror their strength, and sometimes surpass it, because I am less prepared.

I know the signs now. I know when to look for the pill bottles, when to let the body take its course. I have to keep reminding myself — this is not me. It is chemistry. It is biology. It is not who I am. It is not who any of them are.

But all those insights and observations are the frosting on the cake. A’s love story with Rhiannon is the heart of this story. And the question: Can he have a love story when he never knows which body he will be in the next day? How can he even make plans? Is this someone who can get to know him for who he truly is? But then, who is he, really?

I must admit that though the book is absolutely brilliant and beautifully executed, I thought the ending was a bit anticlimactic. In a way, I think David Levithan painted his character into too tight a corner. I would have liked a happy solution, but I can’t think of one myself. Now, I imagine a lot of teen readers will like this ending, and, actually, it’s a better ending than I probably could have come up with. So I’m not saying the ending is flawed — just warning readers it won’t necessarily leave you feeling happy.

Every Day does what great science fiction does best — lets you look at everyday life from a completely new perspective. Highly recommended.

davidlevithan.com
randomhouse.com/teens

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Dark Triumph, by Robin LaFevers

Fantasy, Historical, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Dark Triumph

His Fair Assassin, Book II

by Robin LaFevers

Houghton Mifflin, 2013. 387 pages.
Starred Review

When this book came in, it gave me the obvious excuse to reread Grave Mercy, which I loved as much the second time, appreciating some of the intricacies of the plot even more this time around. The second book, Dark Triumph, contained more detailed history you never knew and sinister political intrigue of medieval Brittany, with the same light touch of mystical gifts from the god of Death himself.

I do recommend reading these books in order. Technically, you could follow this book without reading the first, but you understand the political situation much better having read the first book, and it’s much easier to keep the characters straight. Once you’ve read the first one, it’s hard for me to imagine not wanting to read the second.

In Dark Triumph we find out what Sybella, the second novice from the convent devoted to Saint Mortain has been doing. Like Ismae, she’s been trained as an assassin, but her assignment is even more difficult than Ismae’s, as Sybella has to infiltrate a place where evil reigns. We learn more about Sybella’s background, which drove her to the edge of madness.

I don’t want to say a lot about the plot. It’s set in 15th Century medieval Brittany, with a young duchess who needs to form an alliance to hold back the French prowling on her borders. The main events are based on actual historical events I knew nothing about — with the insertion of the Daughters of Death going out to do political assassinations. The second book wasn’t quite as heavy on the political intrigue, but there was plenty of action and psychological intrigue to keep the reader anxious.

I love how Robin LaFevers puts it on her website, talking about Anne of Brittany, an actual historical figure:

Her substantial inheritance was complicated by two things. One, she was a woman at a time when traditionally women did not inherit kingdoms. Since the time of Charlemagne, Salic Law had been invoked to prevent women from becoming rulers. When Anne became Duchess of Brittany, it defied all the conventions of that time. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, not only was she unmarried, but her father had promised her hand in marriage to at least half a dozen European nobles, if not more. As he plotted and strategized, trying to keep his lands and title safe from the French Crown, he dangled his daughter (and her substantial dowry) as bait for the aid he needed from other princes and dukes. Consequently, when he died, she had been promised to more than one suitor.

To say that this created problems for her in keeping her duchy independent is an understatement. Which is why she needed the help of assassin nuns. What? Doesn’t everybody call for assassin nuns when they’re having political difficulty? If not, they should….

There’s romance in this book, just as in the first one. But the romance is a wholly different story, fitting with Sybella’s wholly different character. The two girls’ gifts from Death are different as well. The author builds character beautifully, as they act and think and love consistently with who she’s shown us they are inside.

The romance in this book is beautiful. Sybella’s deeply damaged, so we’re not surprised when she doesn’t easily trust love. But she’s still a strong character, able to easily kill a man. The man she falls in love with has his own amazing strengths, and they fit to help Sybella exactly where she’s damaged. We can believe in their love, and I found myself fully happy for Sybella. Yes.

I also loved the scene in both books where each girl meets Saint Mortain, their father, Death himself. I love his portrayal, not as a god who demands their dutiful, exacting service, but as a father who loves them no matter what. I didn’t expect to find such a beautiful portrayal of God in a description of the god of Death. I love the way each girl comes to understand and serve a different aspect of Death, even realizing he’s the same god.

It’s also well done in each book how the girls come to understand the gifts they have as Death’s daughters and how that doesn’t necessarily fit what they were taught at the convent.

There’s some ugliness in this book. Sybella’s past isn’t pretty, and she’s been sent to an evil place. But the story is rich and deep and I’m so glad at least one more book is promised, telling about the third fair assassin from the convent of Saint Mortain.

This series is another example of books written in present tense that I loved anyway. I noticed the present tense (in a negative way) occasionally, but only very rarely. The gripping story far outweighed that little annoyance, and I might grudgingly be convinced this was the best way to tell the tale. I am already certain this book, like its predecessor, will be a Sonderbooks Stand-out.

Here’s how the book begins:

I did not arrive at the convent of Saint Mortain some green stripling. By the time I was sent there, my death count numbered three, and I had had two lovers besides. Even so, there were some things they were able to teach me: Sister Serafina, the art of poison; Sister Thornine, how to wield a blade; and Sister Arnette, where best to strike with it, laying out all the vulnerable points on a man’s body like an astronomer charting the stars.

If only they had taught me how to watch innocents die as well as they taught me how to kill, I would be far better prepared for this nightmare into which I’ve been thrust.

robinlafevers.com
hmhbooks.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/dark_triumph.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Necromancing the Stone, by Lish McBride

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Necromancing the Stone

by Lish McBride

Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2012. 344 pages.
Starred Review

I liked Necromancing the Stone even better than its predecessor, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer. In the first book, Sam has to confront true Evil, and as much levity as the author combined it with, that’s not exactly pleasant. In this book, Sam deals with the aftermath, and the threat of more Evil, with true compassion and maturity, but the fact that it didn’t start with awful violence meant the humor and inspired silliness could shine through.

Let me start at the beginning. In the last book (Yes, you should read them in order.), Sam learned that he is a necromancer and has strange powers over the dead and abilities to speak with the dead. This happened when he defeated an evil necromancer, Douglas, who had tried to sacrifice Sam and take his power. Sam doesn’t like killing, but he had to kill Douglas. And as a result, he inherited Douglas’s position on the Council and his possessions. And, while he was locked in a cage, he got a werewolf girlfriend.

In this book, Sam’s trying to figure out his new powers and his new life. Early on, someone close to him is killed. His sister is threatened. What’s more, the reader knows who did these things, and that this could mean big huge trouble for Sam. But Sam doesn’t know who did it and he isn’t able to speak to the person who was killed, instead encountering a strange goddess in a place with flowers.

It all would be a trifle ludicrous if Lish McBride didn’t write it so well. Sam approaches his life with self-deprecating humor, and the reader can see that he wants to navigate it all and do the right thing. The books don’t just deal with Sam and his girlfriend, but with a wide range of characters — his best friend, Ramon, who was transformed by Douglas into a werebear; James, the pukis servant of the household, his witch mother and younger sister; a Big Foot who lives in the forest with a glamour to look human and work as a forest ranger; his dead friend who now helps organize his life; his girlfriend’s werewolf family; and even the garden gnomes who live in the house he’s inherited and don’t seem to like him much. You end up caring about all these assorted individuals as much as Sam does.

This book is a lot of fun. It’s a light-hearted, humorous book about someone who finds himself suddenly dealing with death on a regular basis. Sam’s not quite as much of a screw-up in this book, though he still is no wizard. And you can’t help loving him.

I hope there will be many more books about Sam and the supernatural creatures of the Pacific Northwest!

lishmcbride.com
macteenbooks.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/necromancing_the_stone.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader’s Edition I got at an ALA conference.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!