And I Darken » Book Review

And I Darken was an utterly fascinating and unique YA book that I really appreciated. It is a historical fiction novel set in the 1400s based on a female Vlad the Impaler.

The words fascinating and unique don't do it justice. It was fucked up and brutal featuring characters that are humanly flawed and atypical of YA fiction.

The Characters

Our novel follows two main perspectives, that of Lada and her younger brother, Radu. Lada is no ordinary princess. She is a vicious, brutal girl who seeks power in a world where women are afforded none.

"Lada had a sense for power - the fine threads that connected everyone around her, the way those threads could be pulled, tigthened, wrapped around someone until they cut off the blood supply. Or snapped entirely. She had a few threads at her disposal. She wanted all of them."

She isn't always a very likeable character, but she remains sincere to who she is. She makes choices that alienates her from her only family, Radu. Most of the time, she does it for his benefit, even if he isn't aware of it. There was a scene that almost moved me to tears... [spoiler] when Lada allowed Radu to be beaten for her insolence so that they would never think to use Radu against her again [/spoiler].

Radu is a soft, gentle boy who makes the best of his situation in the Ottoman empire. He is quick to adapt and embrace Islam as a source of comfort, while Lada still rages against the empire for keeping her against her will. While Lada is strength and brawn, Radu learns to use his charm and winning smile to his advantage within the royal court.

Radu and Lada accidentally run into Mehmet one day at the gardens. And from that moment, the trio become inseparable. Mehmet is the son of the Sultan, though he is mostly ignored and left to his own devices. The story really takes off when we see the relationship develop individually between Lada and Mehmet, and Radu and Mehmet, as well as the relationship that unfolds among the three of them. We watch them learn and act upon the concept of love and loyalty, and what it means to be friends with a prince who is destined for great things.

Closing Thoughts

Kiersten White did an excellent job of weaving the story with history, war, and religion. Obviously White took some liberties with the historical accuracy of this book. But I believe that the mark of a wonderful historical fiction book, is when the reader is left with the urge to explore the history surrounding the novel. And I can say that I now have a fascination with the Ottoman empire and intend to do study it further. Especially since I had no knowledge of it prior to reading this book.

My favorite quote:
"I think of you like a sister," he said. "Like a brilliant, violent, occasionally terrifying sister that I would follow to the ends of the earth, in part because I respected her so much and in part because I feared what she would do to me if I refused."
She nodded. "I would do awful things."

Places No One Knows » Book Review

Places No One Knows is a decent novel about fantasy and reality... but it's written in a jumble that neither raises pertinent questions nor provides answers. I disagree with Maggie Stiefvater's blurb. I slept on this book and did not "wake up satisfied." Instead, I woke conflicted.

What This Book Is About

The story of the book is built along a premise that we see quite often in YA — "you can find your soulmate as early as high school!" You'd think what would follow from that would be equally starry-eyed. Well, we get a surprise there. Unlike most books of similar premise, Yovanoff dares to present us with an unlikable heroine.

Waverly is flawed — cold, cunning and frankly, bitchy.  She's obsessed with strategy and likes to practice her manipulation skills by being the mastermind behind the most popular clique in school.  But, "uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." Waverly has critical insomnia and runs her body into the ground in order to scrape together a few hours of sleep each night.

The story takes off when Waverly tries a new relaxation method.  She lights a strange candle and falls asleep, only to appear materially by the side of the school stoner, Marshall Holt.

What I Thought Was Good

I loved how the normal rules of social interaction were severed by Waverly appearing magically wherever Marshall happened to be.  It allowed for some really electric situations and exchanges.  For example, Waverly smashes through Marshall's concept of "fantasy."

It's a dream of most teenage boys for their crush to appear in their bedrooms, right? Well for Marshall, this happens.  The the perfect, high school queen bee, Waverly, who he's infatuated with, appears to him, night after night. However, she comes to him at the most inopportune times — when he's having a bad acid trip, when he's touching himself, when he's drunk and throwing up, when his dad is yelling at his mom... She's there at his most exposed, a real person looking back at him.

This element of "fantasy meets reality" really drew my interest.  What I took away from Waverly's nighttime visits is that fantasy, if ever made real, has to be integrated with the other realities of your life.

What Did Not Work

Now, the magic "system" in this book is never really explained.  It's strongly suggested that Waverly's candle has magical power, but that angle is not explored.  It is the only element of magical realism in the book, too, which makes it stick out like a sore thumb. Actually, the more I think on it, the more the dream visitations seem poorly explained. Ironically though, the dream visits were also the most interesting parts of the book.

The rest of the novel was about ridiculous high school drama.  Waverly has wrapped herself up in teenage social politics, which I found to be very dull, pointless, and overall, cruel.  Weirdly, our author seemed to be aware of this.  One intelligent character, Autumn, says over and over again, "What is the point?" I KNOW, RIGHT? By the time that Waverly gets with the program, it's too late for the reader.  We've already been dragged through hundreds of pages of silly machinations.

Lastly, I felt like the book suffered from an almost intangible problem.  This is my third draft of this review, and I had to stop myself from starting all over with a fourth.  The problem seems to be that I can't explain my main issue with the book, even to myself.  I'm not sure if it was 1) too many underdeveloped themes and plotlines, 2) an insufficient character arc for Waverly, or 3) a lack of a clearly defined point to the story. Perhaps it's all three.

In any case, I felt like Places No One Knows piqued my interest partially, but largely had me stymied and uncertain. [rating stars="two-half-stars"]

Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay » Book Review

Hello Wonderful Readers!

Princess of Thorns was recommended to me by a dear IRL (In-Real-Life) friend and it turned out to be exactly the light, occasionally humorous, fantasy fare I needed at the time.

First off, I would like to inform you that this book is absolutely NOTHING like Game of Thrones or Grimm's fairy tales. It is not as convoluted, or as epic high fantasy, or as miserable as either of two aforementioned comparisons. If I had to compare it to something, I would say it's a semi-confusing mixture of Disney films targeted towards young teens.

Now, I personally don't find anything wrong with that. I just wouldn't want someone picking up the book thinking it's something that it's not. On one hand, we have Aurora. She is the daughter of Sleeping Beauty and fairy-blessed with strength, mercy, and cursed with the ability to suck the free will out of any boy she kisses. She is the token strong female character. I say token because I didn't feel like there was much depth to her. And I think it's because all I really knew of her was her backstory, her amusing back-and-forths with Niklaas, her impressive fighting abilities as a result of being fairy-blessed, and her love for her family. That may seem like more than enough, but there was something missing. She was definitely an enjoyable character, I just don't believe that she is a character strong in mind, body and spirit. There were moments where the author could have elevated her narrative from a run-of-the-mill fantasy story to something with more substance through Aurora's thoughts and actions, but sadly, Stacey Jay let those moments slide.

Aurora's traveling companion was Niklaas, the 11th son of an immortal King. His father was so worried about his sons trying to take his throne that he found a way to curse them upon their 18th birthday. Each boy would turn into a swan upon their majority. See what I mean about the amalgam of Disney and fairy tales? Oh, but it only gets better! Let's throw some Mulan into the mix! Niklaas thinks Aurora (Ror) is a young lad, and hilarity (for us readers) ensue.

I must admit, I'm a sucker for the 'girl-disguised-as-a-boy' trope. I find it absolutely enchanting, probably because for most of my childhood I actually wished to be a boy. It's wish-fulfillment at its weirdest. I can't think of many books out there that pull it off WELL, especially within the YA genre. But I will admit that it did seem plausible within this story, and hence enjoyable. The banter between Aurora and Niklaas was amusing, and did make me smile. I can imagine 13-yr-old me being absolutely enamored with their romance. I was always a sucker for good old-fashioned bickering. I blame that on Indian soap operas. It taught me that bickering = love, a woman who faints for any reason = pregnant, and real passion occurs when your bangles break or when someone is slapped.

When it comes to the setting of this fantasy, everything is dull and easily forgotten. We have fairies/Fey, ogres, witches, kings/queens, princes/princesses, etc. Everything felt plugged in as opposed to organically being part of the narrative. The focus of this fantasy definitely remains on our two lovebirds. I did enjoy their simmering romance, even when, Aurora and Niklaas veered into soap-opera territory many a time.

I did discover a few Indian soap opera clips for you guys to enjoy! We are dramatic people. #myindianchildhood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPR7c7VGowo