Review of Blue Lily, Lily Blue, by Maggie Stiefvater

Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

blue_lily_lily_blue_largeBlue Lily, Lily Blue

Book III of the Raven Cycle

by Maggie Stiefvater

Scholastic Press, New York, 2014. 391 pages.

Why in the world was I thinking this is a trilogy? All along, they carefully called it The Raven Cycle, not The Raven Trilogy. Yes, some extreme things happened in this book, but they just inched the plot further along, rather than wrapping things up, as I had hoped.

I’m not crazy about this series — It’s a darker story, with more occult elements, than I usually like. But I can’t look away! And I’ve come to care about the characters. I’ve even come to believe in a romance between Blue and Gansey — and that took some skilled writing!

This cycle of books is like no other fantasy I’ve ever read. We’ve got a bunch of entitled rich kids and their scholarship friend and a girl from the hills looking along a ley line in West Virginia for a buried Welsh king. And all sorts of amazing supernatural things are happening while they’re looking.

In some ways, this felt like a bridge piece. It wasn’t as striking as either the first or the second book. And the characters were dealing with consequences from the second book, looking for Maura, and getting much closer in their quest to find the sleeping king.

There’s not a lot I need to say. If you’ve read the first two books, this strings you along with more of the same. Maggie Stiefvater is an amazing writer, and manages to make her crazy world seem plausible, even as not a bit of the story is predictable.

I may not be crazy about this series, but one thing’s for certain: I will be reading the next book as soon as it comes out.

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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.

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Review of The Shadow Hero, by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew

Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

shadow_hero_largeThe Shadow Hero

story by Gene Luen Yang
art by Sonny Liew

First Second, New York, 2014. 158 pages.
Starred Review
2014 Sonderbooks Stand-out, #6 Teen Fiction

The story of why this graphic novel exists is so interesting, I’m going to copy text from the author’s note at the back of the book (minus examples from the actual Green Turtle comics):

[Chu] Hing was among the first Asian Americans working in the American comic book industry. This was decades before the Asian American movement, though, so he wouldn’t have self-identified as such. Most likely, he would have just called himself Chinese.

For Rural Home, Chu Hing created a World War II superhero called the Green Turtle. The Green Turtle wore a mask over his face and a cape over his shoulders. He defended China, America’s ally, against the invading Japanese army. He had no obvious superpowers, though he did seem to have a knack for avoiding bullets.

So those are the facts. Here are the rumors.

Supposedly, Hing wanted his character to be Chinese.

Supposedly, his publisher didn’t think a Chinese superhero would sell and told Hing to make his character white.

Supposedly, Hing rebelled right there on the page. Throughout the Green Turtle’s adventures, we almost never get to see his face. Most of the time, the hero has his back to us.

When he does turn around, his visage is almost always obscured by something – a combatant or a shadow or even his own arm….

The Green Turtle’s face isn’t all that Hing keeps from us. Over and over, the Green Turtle’s young Chinese sidekick, Burma Boy, asks him how he came to be the Green Turtle. Every time, an emergency interrupts before the Green Turtle can give his answer.

So Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Llew have stepped in and written an origin story that fits everything that appears in the short-running comic book series.

The Shadow Hero is our answer to Burma Boy’s question, our imagining of the Green Turtle’s origin story. We firmly establish him as an Asian American superhero, perhaps even the first Asian American superhero. Our Green Turtle is a shadow hero. Not only is his identity secret, so is his race….

But let me end on a fact: Studying Chu Hing’s comics, imagining what might have been going through his head, and then writing this book in response were a lot of fun – a crazy, Golden Age sort of fun. I hope reading it is, too.

And that brings me to the story found in these pages – the origin story of the Green Turtle. The story is indeed tremendous fun.

Hank is a Chinese boy living in San Incendio, America, with no ambitions other than to be a grocer like his father. However, his mother has ambitions for him.

After she is saved by a superhero from a carjacking by a bank robber, Hank’s mother decides that he needs to be a superhero.

Her methods are hilarious, including pushing him into a toxic spill and trying to get him bitten by a dog used for scientific research. Eventually, she settles for arranging for him to learn to fight.

But his first efforts toward fighting for justice end up getting his father shot. However, what Hank and his mother don’t know is that a spirit from ancient China was residing with Hank’s father. Now that he is dead, the spirit – shaped like a turtle – will stay with Hank – and grant one request.

This book has plenty of humor and plenty of adventure. It nicely captures the flavor of Golden Age comics. (I know a little bit about this because my son is a fan.) At the end of the book, the first Green Turtle comic is reproduced in its entirety. I like the way the source of all the details in the comic has been revealed (including our hero’s unnaturally pink skin).

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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 Mortal Heart, by Robin LaFevers

Fantasy, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

mortal_heart_largeMortal Heart

by Robin LaFevers

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2014. 444 pages.
Starred Review

Wow! The third book of the trilogy that began with Grave Mercy is everything I hoped it would be! I had preordered the book before I found out I was going to be a Cybils judge. So the book came in while I was very busy with Cybils reading – and was the first thing I pulled out when we had finished making our list of Finalists.

The trilogy is summed up in three words: Medieval Assassin Nuns.

One thing I love about the three books is that each one is a complete story on its own – the complete story of one of the initiates into the order of St. Mortain – the god of Death. I also love that each girl’s story is totally different from the next. Each book has romance – and I thought I had it all figured out how it would go. Then this volume was completely different.

Because each book tells a complete story, with even a little bit of overlap in the timelines, you could read the books in any order. But I still highly recommend beginning with Grave Mercy. You will want to read all three books, so you might as well start at the beginning. The first book also goes into a little more depth about the political situation facing the Duchess of Britany. (The duchess in the 1490s really was engaged to multiple suitors when her father died.)

It’s all based on actual historical events – even the ancient gods of Brittany, whom the church absorbed as saints. I’m guessing that in real life, the god of Death didn’t have actual physical daughters who had special gifts as assassins, but it definitely makes a good story!

This third volume goes into more detail about some of the paranormal elements, as Annith meets the Hunt, with hellequins sent out from Death himself. Like Ismae and Sybella in the books that went before, she is struggling with her role and whether the Abbess is actually representing Mortain’s guidance, or following her own purposes.

There is an overall plot arc to the series, too, which is resolved in this book. I didn’t know anything about Brittany and its history with France, so the resolution was a surprise to me. I’m guessing things didn’t happen the way they did for the same reason portrayed in this book, but they *could* have, and I love that in a historical novel.

Parents of young teens, just to warn you: All the girls “take lovers.” No details are given, so they are not sexy reads, but that might influence whether or not you think it’s good reading for your own daughters.

They are wonderfully romantic tales, with each book having its own conflict and dangers, and each girl having a different – but beautiful – relationship with the god of Death. And I do like the way no one can push around these trained assassins!

Yes, on finishing this trilogy, I’m all the more impressed with each book individually, and the series as a whole. Each book demonstrates outstanding writing. I have no doubt I will be coming back to these books over the years. In fact, I’ll be looking for an opportunity to reread the whole series soon.

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Source: This review is based on my own copy, preordered via Amazon.com.

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 Clariel, by Garth Nix

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

clariel_largeClariel

by Garth Nix

Harper, 2014. 382 pages.

I’m crazy about Garth Nix’s other books about the Abhorsens of the Old Kingdom, Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen, and Across the Wall. So I preordered Clariel. My copy came in the very day I was told I get to be a Cybils first round judge for Elementary and Middle Grade Speculative Fiction. I needed to get reading for the Cybils, but I couldn’t resist reading Clariel first.

According to my review, I read Lirael ten years ago. No wonder I don’t remember the character Clariel turns out to be (which Garth Nix tells us at the end). I did remember some details about the Old Kingdom, such that the Abhorsen can walk into Death and that Charter Magic holds the kingdom together, and Free Magic creatures are dangerous and evil. All that would be quickly learned if you decided to start with Clariel, since it is, after all, a prequel.

However, I’d rather people started with Sabriel. I think it’s a better book and will win more fans than Clariel. Clariel gives us something of a downer of a story, epitomized in the tagline printed on the cover: “A passion thwarted will often go astray. . . .”

Clariel has come with her parents to the capital city of Belisaere, where her mother enjoys honor as the greatest Goldsmith in the kingdom. Clariel hates it, and wants to go back to the Great Forest. But her parents have other ideas. They are related to the King and the Abhorsen, and her parents want her to marry the governor’s son and become the next Queen.

The Charter Mages her parents engage to tutor Clariel promise to help – if first she will do them a small service and help them find a Free Magic creature they believe is lurking in Belisaere, probably connected with the governor.

“But how can I help?” asked Clariel.

“Like many of the Abhorsen line, you have a strong affinity for Free Magic, and great potential to wield it,” said Kargrin. “The rage is one indicator of that, and there are other signs within you. Like seeks like, and once it becomes aware of you this creature will seek you out in order to augment its power. It is the nature of such things that they must test each other, and the lesser fall under the will of the greater.”

So Kargrin uses Clariel essentially as bait to bring out the Free Magic creature. The consequences are more than he bargains for.

This is the first of the Old Kingdom books Garth Nix has written that I didn’t love. Though his writing still captivates me, the story is too sad for me. There’s some awful violence and some vengeance – and it’s just not as uplifting as the other Old Kingdom books. And indeed, “passion thwarted will often go astray,” but I found it sad to read about.

This book doesn’t tell as many of the details of how the Abhorsens travel in Death and how the bells work and how the Charter works, so it might be confusing to those who haven’t read the earlier books. So even though the action takes place before Sabriel, I’d still recommend beginning with Sabriel. Then if you’re like me, you’ll be so hooked on the Old Kingdom, you’ll read anything written about it, even if it does seem a bit tragic.

I was very happy to read at the end that Garth Nix is now working on a book about Lirael and Nicholas Sayre, and what happens to them after Across the Wall.

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Source: This review is based on my own copy, preordered from Amazon.com.

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 Falconer, by Elizabeth May

Alternate History, Fantasy, Historical, Teen Fiction Review 0

falconer_largeThe Falconer

by Elizabeth May

Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2014. 382 pages.

All the society ladies gossip about Aileana. She was found crouched over her mother’s body, covered in blood. Aileana knows that a faery killed her mother and ripped out her heart. Now she hungers to kill faeries herself.

But meanwhile, she’s supposed to be a proper young lady, and her father wants her to get serious about attracting a husband. It’s tricky when Aileana senses that a faery is hunting one of the guests at the dance. How can she stay for all the dances when she needs to save someone’s life?

Since her mother’s death, Aileana, unlike most people, can see faeries. Like even fewer people, she can kill them. She’s being trained by one of the more powerful faeries, but she’s not at all sure she can trust him. Then her childhood friend comes back from school, and he can see faeries, too. But more and more fearsome creatures are coming after Aileana, and she learns the seal keeping humanity safe is weakening.

Set in a steampunk Scotland, this story is a page-turner. I’m not crazy about books written in present tense, but this one was worth the read. The other thing I didn’t like, though, was that as the first of a trilogy, this stopped in the middle of the action, and didn’t come to a satisfying conclusion at all. However, I have to admit that it hooked me, and I very much want to know what happens next.

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Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy, sent to me by the publisher.

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 Chasing Power, by Sarah Beth Durst

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

chasing_power_largeChasing Power

by Sarah Beth Durst

Bloomsbury, New York, 2014. 368 pages.
Starred Review

Sarah Beth Durst does it again! She manages to make her paranormal novels distinctive and loaded with magic, and unlike anything that’s gone before.

What would you do if you had the power of telekinesis – able to make things move using only the power of your mind? Kayla has that power, at least for very small things. And what she chooses to do with it is steal.

She uses little things like a razor blade, thread, gum, a ball of tinfoil, and a dull fishing hook, and she uses them cleverly to take jewels and money from the upscale shops on State Street in Santa Barbara, California, in such a way that no one notices.

Kayla lives with her mother, Moonbeam, in Santa Barbara. For years, they’ve been in hiding from her father, who killed her older sister Amanda. Although Moonbeam has protective spells all around the house, she insists that Kayla not use her magic, or do anything at all that might gain her father’s attention.

Kayla doesn’t want to have to run again. They’ve been in Santa Barbara for eight years, and Kayla even has a best friend, Selena. But her mother doesn’t know about Kayla’s little adventures in State Street, or that this is how Kayla gets money to take care of them.

However, after she pulls off a jewelry store heist seamlessly, without arousing anyone’s attention, she notices a boy across the street, watching her.

He was tall with black hair that dusted over his eyes. Unlike the others, he wasn’t pierced or tattooed. He wore a clean black T-shirt and black jeans with boots. Kayla felt his eyes on her as she walked by and for an instant, she thought, He saw me; he knows. But no, that was impossible. It was far more likely he’d noticed her pink-streaked hair or her bikini top, which was the point of both. Also, she liked both. She flashed him a smile as she passed.

He didn’t smile back.

It turns out, the boy does know. And he’s got magical powers of his own, like nothing Kayla has ever seen before. But his mother has been kidnapped, and he wants Kayla’s help. Her magical help.

What follows is a wild adventure, traveling all over the world in quest of three ancient magical stones. They go to an ancient Mayan temple, to the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, and many more places. It’s no surprise that someone else is after the stones, too, and whoever it is doesn’t seem concerned about keeping Kayla alive.

I like Kayla’s friend, Selena, and her computer help, getting background information. I like the realistic problems they deal with, while trying to access ancient magic – not staying out too late, for example, or getting Selena’s parents to approve of the boy she likes.

And then there’s this boy, Daniel. He wants Kayla’s help, but he doesn’t think to ask nicely for it. But here’s someone with magic, like her – and how did he know her name, anyway? And why does he have pictures of Kayla’s parents, together?

I’m not sure if I completely believed the way everything tied up at the end, but I was definitely happy with the Epilogue. I do like the way Sarah Beth Durst writes romance. The teens feel real – not perfect, but real. And this book – with the adults even more imperfect than the kids – wraps up in a nice way for the teens involved. An excellent read – a paranormal romance with some heft.

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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 The Caller, by Juliet Marillier

Fantasy, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

caller_largeThe Caller

A Shadowfell Novel

By Juliet Marillier

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2014. 437 pages.
Starred Review

The Caller is the third book in the trilogy begun in Shadowfell. You should definitely read the books in order. This is a wonderful culmination and completion of the story.

The book did not go as I expected. Neryn was planning to complete her training from the last two Guardians, and then go to the Gathering at Midsummer and Call the Uncanny Folk to fight on the side of the rebels. But early on, people and situations require her plans to be changed. The servants of the White Lady have been killed. The king, who rules the land with a reign of terror, has found a Caller of his own. He is planning to Call the folk to fight on his own side, and he doesn’t mean to ask nicely.

Meanwhile, Neryn’s beloved is in the middle of it all. It’s getting harder and harder for him to keep up the pretense of being a loyal king’s man. And how can he stand by while the Good Folk are being harmed?

Here’s how the book begins, in a Prologue that gets right into the action and the tension:

Done. He was done. No more lies; no more acts of blind savagery; no longer any need to pretend he was Keldec’s loyal retainer. His precarious double life as Enforcer and rebel spy was over. He had turned his back on it, and he was going home.

Crossing country under moonlight, he pondered what his sudden decision would mean. He would be at Shadowfell, the rebel headquarters, over the winter. He would see Neryn again: a precious gift, though there would be little time alone together in that place of cramped communal living. His arrival there would bring a double blow for the rebels, for he carried not only the news of their leader’s death, but also an alarming rumor, passed on to him by the king himself. Another Caller had been found; Neryn was not the only one. If true, these ill tidings set the rebels’ plan to challenge Keldec at next midsummer Gathering on its head. An expert Caller should be able to unite the fighting forces of humankind and Good Folk into one mighty army. He shuddered to think what might happen if two Callers opposed each other. He must take the news to Shadowfell as fast as he could. That, and his other burden.

I wasn’t willing to wait for the library to get this one – I preordered it as soon as I heard it was coming out. And I am glad I did; I will want to reread this trilogy many times, to once again enter the ancient Alban of Juliet Marillier’s brilliant imagination.

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Source: This review is based on my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com.

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 Empire Striketh Back, by Ian Doescher

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

empire_striketh_back_largeWilliam Shakespeare’s

The Empire Striketh Back

by Ian Doescher

Quirk Books, Philadelphia, 2014. 172 pages.
Starred Review

‘Tis here! The sequel to Verily, a New Hope. Here we have the second volume, Part the Fifth, in the Star Wars saga, as Shakespeare himself would surely have written it.

This one includes Yoda, who already sounded Shakespearean, now speaking in haiku.

Nay, nay! Try thou not.
But do thou or do thou not,
For there is no “try.”

And we’ve got Han and Leia’s love story:

HAN:
A cloth of fiction thou dost weave, yet I
Have found the fatal error in thy stitch:
For I believe thou wouldst not let a man
So beautiful as I depart from thee.

LEIA:
The only stitch I know is in my side,
From laughing at thy pride most heartily.
Thou mayst attempt to needle at my heart,
But I am sewn of stronger thread than this.
To say I would not let thee go – pish, pish!
I know not whence thy great delusions come,
Thou laser brain.

I especially like the Ugnaughts on Lando’s planet of Bespin. The Dramatis Personae list calls them “merry dwarves of Bespin,” and they go about their work singing:

Enter UGNAUGHTS 1, 2, and 3, singing.
UGN. 3 The time is ripe!
UGN. 1 His time is nigh!
UGN. 2 And soon he will be frozen!
UGN. 1 We’ve never done –
UGN. 2 This on a man –
UGN. 3 But someone’s now been chosen!
UGN. 2 A merry prank!
UGN. 3 O shall it work?
UGN. 1 Or will the man be dying?
UGN. 3 What’er befall –
UGN. 1 One thing is sure –
UGN. 2 The pleasure’s in the trying!
[Exeunt Ugnaughts.

That Ian Doescher has put a lot of thought into making these authentic is expressed in his Afterword. He explains his choice of haiku for Yoda, as well as other choices like having Boba Fett speak in prose rather than iambic pentameter.

These books are far too much fun. I’d be willing to bet that no one’s ever read one of the volumes all the way through without bursting out and reading sections aloud.

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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.

Review of Unthinkable, by Nancy Werlin

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

unthinkable_largeUnthinkable

by Nancy Werlin

Dial Books, 2013. 392 pages.
Starred Review

After I read Impossible, by Nancy Werlin, on the way to vacation in Oregon, I made sure I went to Powell’s books to find copies of Extraordinary and Unthinkable to read as well. So together they gave my vacation a memory of some Extraordinary reading time!

Unthinkable is billed as a “Companion” to Impossible. And though technically you can read it without having read the others, it pulls together some threads from both Impossible and Extraordinary, so I’m happy with my choice to read them in order.

In Impossible, we learned about the family curse on Lucy Scarborough and all of her female line right back to her ancestor, Fenella Scarborough, who rejected an Elfin Knight and then was cursed. Fenella also has been unable to die for all those centuries, having to watch each of her daughters and granddaughters be tormented in turn.

When Lucy broke the family curse, she didn’t break the enchantment placed on Fenella. Now, Fenella just wants to be allowed to die.

Fenella goes to the faerie queen, begging to be allowed to die. But it’s not so simple. There’s a spell upon her, cast by Padraig, the one who cursed her family. The queen figures out that to break the spell, Fenella needs to complete three tasks of deliberate destruction in the mortal realm. She warns Fenella that this will involve terrible choices, but Fenella doesn’t care. She commits herself to the tasks.

And then Fenella learns that if she completes the tasks, not only will she again be mortal, but Padraig will die. If she fails? She will once again be Padraig’s slave.

And there’s more. The queen sends her brother Ryland along in the form of a cat to help Fenella, and then reveals more about the quest:

The queen nodded. “I am glad you mention your daughters. You will go to the two that survive, Lucy and her mother, Miranda. Tell them you have been freed and are coming to them for help to restart your life.”

“No,” Fenella was firm. “I will do this destruction my own way. I will keep Lucy and her family entirely out of it.”

The queen continued as if Fenella had not spoken. “They will want to love you and take care of you. They will not be suspicious.”

“I don’t wish to go to them,” Fenella repeated. “I would rather simply begin on the first task of destruction. Tell me. What must I destroy first?”

The cat butted his soft head against Fenella’s ankles. He did not make a sound, but Fenella heard his mocking voice in her head.

“No,” she said sharply. “No, you’re wrong.” She looked at the queen. “Isn’t he wrong?”

“He directed his thoughts to you, not to me. What did he say?”

“He told me –“ Fenella broke off. “He said that my family must be the target of each act of destruction. He said it would not be human destruction if there was no pain for me. For people I care about.” Her eyes were hot flame. “Tell me it’s not true,” she demanded.

The queen said, “Your first task is the destruction of your family’s safety.”

“No,” said Fenella.

“Yes,” said the queen, steadily. “You have agreed. You must go forward toward the death you desire, sowing destruction about you, or you will belong again to the Mud Creature.”

Fenella does join her living family. And she does come to love them. There is even a man she feels connected to. If she commits these acts of destruction, surely they will hate her. But if she doesn’t, starting the family’s curse again is truly unthinkable.

I won’t give any details, but I was surprised by what a beautiful ending Nancy Werlin pulled off out of this terrible situation.

As with the other books, the author did a marvelous job with the characters and relationships in this book. These people love one another, but they are caught up in an extraordinary and difficult situation. There’s even a hint of ways Fenella can work with the faerie realm in the future – I hope this means more books to come.

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Source: This review is based on a copy I purchased at Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon.

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 Extraordinary, by Nancy Werlin

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 2

extraordinary_largeExtraordinary

by Nancy Werlin

Speak (Penguin), 2010. 393 pages.
Starred Review

After reading Nancy Werlin’s Impossible on the plane on the way to Portland, Oregon, I went to two different Powell’s locations looking for the sequels. And had them finished before I got home.

Extraordinary isn’t exactly a sequel to Impossible, but it’s got a similar element of Faery and our world interacting with one another. And the third book, Unthinkable, has threads from each of the previous two books. So you don’t have to read the first and second books in order, but it’s good to have read them before you read the third book.

In a short section called “Conversation with the Faerie Queen, 1,” which appears before “Chapter 1,” we learn that a faerie girl is being sent into the human realm.

“You are anxious. Naturally. It is a great deal of responsibility. But remember, your way has been prepared. The Tolliver woman will believe you to be her own human daughter, miraculously restored to her. Grief, depression, and loneliness have caused her to lose herself, so she will gratefully accept your guidance in all things, young though you are. Managing her will be easy for you; you will give her certain human medications to keep her under your influence, and you will use her money for all your needs in the human realm.”

“I understand. And the Rothschild girl?”

“The girl is of course your main focus. You will observe her at school. I need not tell you again that everything — everything — depends on her.”

“The stakes are high.”

“Frighteningly high, at this point. It is useless to deny it.”

Chapter One begins with the sentence: “Phoebe Gutle Rothschild met Mallory Tolliver in seventh grade, during the second week of the new school year, in homeroom.” From the conversation with the Faerie Queen, we know something’s up, that something’s at stake, but we don’t know what. Mallory is being talked about by everyone for how peculiar she is.

However, Phoebe decides to be Mallory’s friend. Mallory meets again with the Faerie Queen:

“But child, what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. You are absolutely sure the Rothschild girl is the right one? And yet you say she is not ready?”

“Yes, she is the right one, and yes, she is not ready. That other human girl that we were watching, the one called Colette – she had not achieved what we thought she had. The Rothschild girl was fighting back. While she is not very self-assured, she has personal strength of will. Your Majesty, I now understand that when we observe human activity from outside, we can be mistaken when we try to interpret what it means.”

Mallory goes from saying she can finish in a few days to a few weeks, and then to a few years. We pick up the story four years later – “four good, solid years of best-friendship later.” One day, Mallory tells Phoebe that her half-brother is coming to live with her and her mother. Phoebe doesn’t believe it at first. Mallory has never mentioned a brother before.

Mallory’s brother Ryland is older and incredibly handsome. And he is very interested in Phoebe. And it doesn’t take long before Phoebe is obsessed with him. But why do they have to keep it secret from Mallory? And what is Mallory trying to tell her?

We’re eventually going to learn what the Faerie world wants with Phoebe Rothschild and what the high stakes are. And we also get a look at friendship and self-esteem and character – all with magical undertones that stretch into our world. And the story of a generations-long bargain made with the Fae.

This is a worthy successor to Impossible

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