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.

maggiestiefvater.com
scholastic.com

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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 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.

candlewick.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/quintana_of_charyn.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 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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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/every_day.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 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!

Review of Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, by Lish McBride

Award Challenge, Award Winners, Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer
by Lish McBride

Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2010. 343 pages.
2011 Morris Honor Book

I finally read this book as part of my Award Challenge — reading award winners and honor books — and because I have an Advance Reader Copy of its sequel, Necromancing the Stone.

This isn’t necessarily a book I would have read otherwise, since it is quite dark, with a grisly death and necromancers and a werewolf clan. However, once I got through the rather gruesome beginning, I found myself liking the characters and the light-hearted, humorous approach to this darkness.

Sam is a college drop-out working in a fast food joint, without a lot of prospects. He’s definitely surprised when he gets the attention of a seriously mean and scary man whose tail light he happened to break when playing potato hockey. When someone frighteningly strong beats him up after work and his friend’s head is sent to him in a box, well, he figures he can’t exactly ignore the problem.

He’s told he’s a necromancer, able to communicate with the dead. But why didn’t he know about it until now? And what does it have to do with the herbs his mother gave him to wear around his neck — the herbs that keep away nightmares?

It turns out that the necromancer who spotted him has plans for Sam that won’t be good for him. He’s also hiding a beautiful teenage werewolf in his basement. Sam needs to get enough information about who this necromancer is to be able to do something to stop him from killing Sam and stealing his power.

This is a surprisingly fun book about a good — but perhaps a bit irresponsible — kid thrown into some dark situations. Sam deals with them with humor and flair.

Here’s an early part where the author manages to put some humor into an awful situation:

I opened the box, then quickly dropped it and scrambled up onto the counter, making very dignified shrieking noises. Ramon stared. Frank came into the kitchen just in time to see the box bounce onto its side and its contents roll lazily out. Ramon tried to back up, but he was already against the wall. Frank managed a quick hop back as Brooke’s head rolled to a stop in the middle of the floor. It had already been severed cleanly at the neck, making her ponytail appear longer as it trailed behind like the tail on a grotesque comet. I couldn’t see any blood. In fact, the wound looked cauterized, which didn’t make it any more pleasant.

Nobody said a word.

Nobody except Brooke.

“Ow, cut it out, you guys!” Her blue eyes popped open and swung around until they found me. “Ugh, so not cool. Really, Sam. You don’t just drop somebody’s head. Especially a friend’s. Like being stuffed into a box and bounced around for an hour wasn’t bad enough.”

I screamed and grabbed a butter knife off the counter. I’m not sure what I planned to do with it, but in the meantime I held it in front of me just in case Brooke suddenly grew her body back and attacked. I mean, if she could talk, what was stopping her from leaping up and gnawing piranha-style on my ankels? Once a severed head talks, life’s possibilities seem endless.

Frank ran and hid in, I think, the bathroom. I heard some crashing noises that sounded like stuff being knocked around in my shower, anyway. Ramon slid behind the easy chair and hugged it, keeping his eyes on the head at all times. I think he’d stopped breathing. I crouched there, unmoving except for the shaking of my brandished butter knife, and stared at the head of a cute girl resting in the middle of the dirty linoleum of my kitchen floor. For some reason, I had the irrational thought of asking Mrs. Winalski whether or not this counted as having a girl in my apartment.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/hold_me_closer_necromancer.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 the 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 Princess of the Silver Woods, by Jessica Day George

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

Princess of the Silver Woods

by Jessica Day George

Bloomsbury, 2012. 322 pages.
Starred Review

I finally got a chance to read Princess of the Silver Woods! It first came out when I was busy reading books for the 2012 Cybils, but too late in the year to be eligible for one. Princess of the Silver Woods wraps up the trilogy begun in Princess of the Midnight Ball and continued in Princess of Glass. Yes, you should read the earlier books to fully appreciate this one.

All the books play off specific fairy tales. The first one, which laid the groundwork, played off “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” The second one played off “Cinderella.” This one plays off “Little Red Riding Hood.”

And now we interrupt this review for a mini-rant.

What IS it with the “Red Riding Hood” take-offs? People, “Little Red Riding Hood” is not a romantic story! What are you all doing basing romantic novels on that plot? Enough already! It probably didn’t help that the first one I read was Cloaked in Red, by Vivian Vande Velde. Unlike the others, Cloaked in Red is not a romantic novel, but a collection of stories from different perspectives, all based on “Little Red Riding Hood.” Pretty much all variations are covered. It’s fun and it’s silly, and there’s a story where each different character shines.

The three recent romantic novels that played off the story were Beauty and the Werewolf, by Mercedes Lackey; Scarlet, by Marissa Meyer; and Princess of the Silver Woods, by Jessica Day George. What’s more, I’ve had Cloaked, by Alex Flinn, sitting on my shelf at home for months. I think I understand now why I haven’t gotten around to reading it.

Of these, my favorite was probably Beauty and the Werewolf — and that’s particularly because it got off the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” and made far more parallels with “Beauty and the Beast,” a fairy tale that is romantic and that I do love (however twisted it may be).

But you know what? By the third time someone’s making the “wolf” the romantic hero and the huntsman the sinister villain, I no longer find that the least bit innovative. And the “grandmother”? (Though Beauty and the Werewolf didn’t have one.) Whatever weird situation you’re getting her into, I really don’t care.

Okay, mini-rant is over. Now let’s talk about why I loved Princess of the Silver Woods in spite of that.

And, yes, I loved Princess of the Silver Woods. Fortunately, the “Little Red Riding Hood” parallels were not a big part of the story. Sure, she wore a striking red cloak, but I don’t mind that. And yeah, he’s part of a gang of bandits that call themselves “The Wolves of Westfalin,” but really he’s good at heart, and an earl who’s lost his land. He only steals because he has to feed his people.

[I’ll try to spare you another mini-rant. What is it with the romantic thief? No, I don’t find thieves attractive. Gen wins me over in spite of that, and The False Prince eventually, too. But being a good thief is not an admirable quality, okay? It doesn’t belong to you. Leave it alone, for crying out loud! Find some field work to do! You don’t have to steal! Okay, I’ll stop. That also wasn’t a big part of this book.]

Okay, I’m starting to wonder why I did like this book!

But the situation Petunia, the youngest of the twelve princesses, finds herself in is compelling. She’s visiting a grand duchess with a handsome grandson. (He’s a huntsman, so that can’t be good.) She’s having horrible nightmares, in which she’s back in the Kingdom Under Stone (from the first book, based on “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” Such a sinister place). In her dreams, Kestilan, the prince of the Under Stone kingdom, says she will have to marry him. And then Oliver, the landless earl who’s turned to banditry, sees something chilling:

It was very late, and all the windows were dark. Oliver found himself praying silently that someone would light a lamp or a candle, even if the light exposed him. What were those things crawling across the lawn? With a mounting sense of horror, he saw the dark shapes reach the house.

With a terrible laugh, the shadow creatures pulled themselves up the wall to a window on the second floor that was open despite the cold. Oliver hid behind a fountain. The room they had just entered had been his childhood bedroom. Whose was it now? He prayed again, this time that the room had not been given to Petunia.

His question was answered a few moments later when a young woman’s voice cried out, the sound carrying clearly through the open window. She screamed out denials, she screamed out insults, and over and over again she reviled someone called “Kestilan.”

“Oh, ye gods, Petunia,” Oliver whispered from his concealment. “What is all this?”

After the shadows leave the house, they come across the lawn toward Oliver:

“Stay away from her,” Oliver said, trying to sound dangerous and not terrified.

Another cackling laugh. The shadow reached out and put its hand into Oliver’s chest. A sheath of ice instantly covered his heart, and then the shadow squeezed. Oliver gasped as intense pain flared in his chest, streaking through his entire body. He tried to step back but found that he couldn’t move so much as an eyelid.

“She is not for you,” the shadow said in a low, harsh voice. “She is for us. All of them are for us.”

That was enough to hook me. I had to find out if Petunia and her eleven sisters could rid themselves of the foe they thought they’d already defeated, the King Under Stone, once and for all.

JessicaDayGeorge.com
bloomsburyteens.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from the 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 Endangered, by Eliot Schrefer

Adventure, Contemporary, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

Endangered

by Eliot Schrefer

Scholastic Press, New York, 2012. 264 pages.
Starred Review
2012 National Book Award Finalist
2013 School Library Journal’s Battle of the Books Contender

Endangered is the only Battle of the Books contender this year that I hadn’t already read. I’m glad I finished it before it’s out of the Battle. And, dare I say it?, now I find myself hoping it pulls an upset over The Fault in Our Stars. Though I don’t want it to beat my favorite, Code Name Verity in the next round, and The Fault in Our Stars is bound to come back from the dead anyway, so this doesn’t feel like a very fateful prediction.

But Endangered is a gripping, powerful, and suspenseful story that feels like it’s teaching you at the same time. I knew nothing about bonobos and very little about Congo or life in Congo. Eliot Schrefer writes with authenticity that sure makes the reader think he knows what he’s talking about.

I already had an idea of the story. Sophie was visiting her Mom on a bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Without asking permission, she adopted Otto, a baby bonobo being sold on the side of the road. Later, her Mom heads out to release some adult bonobos at a safe location in the wild, but while she is gone, war erupts. UN peacekeepers try to take Sophie to safety, but Sophie won’t leave Otto to die.

What follows is an epic journey. Because war comes to the sanctuary. Sophie takes refuge in the electrified enclosure with the adult bonobos, so her first challenge is to be accepted by them. But when the electricity goes off, she knows she must escape before the soldiers come in to kill them all. Can she travel through the jungle and find her mother, miles away?

This book is a survival tale, a frightening story of war, and full of authentic details about bonobos and life in Congo.

At first, I was a little annoyed with Sophie for seeming more concerned about bonobo life than human life. But as the book went on, I came to feel that someone needed to care about “the least of these.” When another opportunity came up for her to go to safety if she abandoned Otto, but she had clear evidence he would die if she did, I was by then fully on Sophie’s side in continuing on with Otto.

Sophie’s journey takes her from one danger to another. But she never feels unduly lucky. There are many setbacks. Some she deals with better than others, and she does end up finding kind strangers who help along the way, after initial help from the bonobos. It’s hard to write a series of narrow escapes and still have the reader feel like it could happen, but Eliot Schrefer pulls it off. It all feels believable and terribly scary.

During a quiet moment it struck me that Congo was an easier country to survive in than most during a time of war. In peacetime the teacher couldn’t afford to buy food at the markets, which meant he had a field, and snares for wild game, and a well for water since the government had never run pipes out here. I tried to imagine getting by if the same thing happened in Miami and couldn’t. When a country was as primed for civil war as Congo was, when it came apart, the pieces weren’t as heavy.

eliotschrefer.com
scholastic.com

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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 the 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 Scarlet, by Marissa Meyer

Science Fiction, Teen Fiction Review 0

Scarlet

The Lunar Chronicles, Book Two

by Marissa Meyer

Feiwel and Friends, New York, 2013

I have already expressed how delighted I was with Marissa Meyer’s book Cinder, a science fiction retelling of Cinderella, or perhaps I should say a science fiction story with themes taken from Cinderella. So I eagerly awaited the second book, Scarlet, which plays off themes from Red Riding Hood.

Yes, you definitely need to read these books in order. The author makes no effort to make Scarlet a stand-alone story. (So if you haven’t read Cinder yet, stop reading this review. Yes, it’s a good series and is worth starting at the beginning!) I was afraid she was going to zoom to another character and leave Cinder hanging, so I was very glad that didn’t happen.

We last saw Cinder in prison and told she should escape and given something that might help her do so. This book continues a few hours later, as Cinder attempts to make her escape. I was glad that wasn’t left to happen offstage.

Though the main story in this book is Scarlet’s. It’s a Red Riding Hood theme, but follows the fairy tale even more loosely than Cinder followed Cinderella. Scarlet is a redhead who wears a red hoodie. Her grandma has been missing for weeks, and the police have stopped looking. She wants nothing more than to find her grandma.

In Cinder, we heard about an old lady who long ago helped the missing Lunar princess, so we rather expect that has something to do with Scarlet’s grandma. We also saw in Cinder the Lunar queen’s army of mutant wolf-like creatures. This is playing off Red Riding Hood, after all, so there’s no surprise when wolf-like creatures have a lot to do with the story.

That was actually the part I didn’t really like. I can accept that Lunars have mind-control powers. I can accept that humans have the ability to create cyborgs but that they’re second-class citizens. I can accept that Lunars don’t allow cyborgs because they are more difficult to control. But the ability to create wolf-like mutants for an army? That just seemed a little out there.

This book, in keeping with the Red Riding Hood theme had a lot about the wolf-like mutants, which strained believability a bit for me. (Why would they behave so much like wolves, if they’re human?) And there was plenty of distasteful violence. There was a bit of romance, but, honestly, it leaned toward the creepy side.

So, what did I like? Why will I avidly look forward to the next book?

I liked the character of Scarlet. She’s resourceful. She’ll do anything for her grandmother. She cares about fairness, and she grows good food on their farm.

I liked all the parts about Cinder. I was glad she wasn’t left hanging, and I enjoyed the banter with the other convict she picked up in her escape attempt. Her struggle to get free and decide what to do next was compelling and felt believable.

I loved what happened with Iko! And I’m glad she’s back.

Most of all, this book is a great set-up. Mind you, I thought The Lunar Chronicles were destined to be a trilogy, but now see that there are two more books to come, and I’m bummed it won’t all resolve in the next book. But it looks like Cinder is going to be forced into a showdown with the Lunar queen, and that’s something I want to read about very much.

marissameyer.com
thelunarchronicles.com
macteenbooks.com

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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 my own personal copy, purchased 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 Days of Blood and Starlight, by Laini Taylor

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Days of Blood and Starlight

By Laini Taylor

Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2012. 517 pages.
Starred Review

Days of Blood and Starlight is the sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone. If you haven’t read Daughter of Smoke and Bone yet (What are you waiting for?), stop reading this review right now, since I can’t talk about this book without giving away a little bit of what happened in the first book.

Of course, if you have read Daughter of Smoke and Bone, there’s nothing I need to say further. Either I could never stop you from reading on, or I could never persuade you. I’ll just say that if you liked the first book, you will like this one. I liked the second one even more than the first.

But you know I won’t stop there! I have to give some impressions about the book. I’ll do my best not to give anything away. If you want to be more specific, please feel free in the comments.

First, I was pretty annoyed with both the lovers at the end of the first book. Later, they liken it to the scenario that Romeo wakes up and thinks Juliet is dead – so he goes out and kills all her family and her people. Really? This guy who talked about Peace? I mean, there was the little matter of torture and being forced to watch her die, but, Really? And then, as if that weren’t enough, now she’s working with Thiago, the guy who killed her and tortured the one she loved? I know, I know, they showed that extreme things were going on, but I wasn’t happy with the situation in the first 20 percent of the book or so.

But let me say this: I love how Book Two ends! It still includes those awful words, “To be continued,” but this time a few highly satisfying things happen toward the end, and a huge development happens that I never saw coming and that is going to make a fabulously dramatic final book.

Now the whole destined-for-each-other thing gets a little old in the beginning of this book, what with all the betrayals and deaths and war. But by the end of the book, that’s not so much their focus as the whole bigger picture and they’re thinking again about things like Peace and Life and trying to end the war, and I like that change of focus.

Oh, and I love Zuzana and Mik in this book!

Okay, I’ll stop before I give anything away. Read this book! She pulls it off! And she sets up the final book to be the most dramatic of all.

daughterofsmokeandbone.com
lb-teens.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/days_of_blood_and_starlight.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 the 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!