Every Ugly Word » Book Review

This review is my attempt to finally get through some of my Netgalley backlogs in the hopes that I can pull up my dismal feedback ratio to a reasonable level. I was supposed to review this more than a YEAR ago.

Let that sink in guys... and let the walk/write of shame, begin.

Every Ugly Word

This is a difficult book for me to describe, let alone review. I was just so surprised by how much it moved me. I thought it would be like many of the other contemporary YA books out there. Compelling enough, but lacking some fundamental depth. However, Every Ugly Word didn't pull any punches.

The novel starts off with Ashley, the main character, sitting in a psychiatrist's office at an inpatient mental facility. She is desperate to leave that day, and the only way to do so, is by recounting the events that led to her commitment in the hopes that the doctor would believe that she has recovered enough to go home. Every chapter begins with conversation and analysis with the doctor, followed by an episodic account of her life. This served the dual purpose of building tension within and across chapters while giving us information and background on our protagonist.

There is an element of magical realism within the story. Ashley can see an older version of herself in the mirror and has frequent conversations with her. Older Ashley tries to be a source of support for current Ashley, in the hopes that the younger Ashley would choose a different path and have a healthier outcome.

I was very intrigued by the author's choice to use that element in her story. I have been in outpatient therapy for several years for a variety of issues, one of them being trauma. In therapy, I have been frequently encouraged to 'talk to the little girl inside me'. It sounds wonky, I know. But it's done in an effort to help you be there for yourself through those past traumatic memories without having to rely on others, especially those who have been unsupportive in the past. I found the parallels between the aforementioned therapy technique and Ashley communicating with her older/younger self quite surprising. I wonder if the author had made that connection on purpose, or if it just happened to be a coincidence.

The romance in the book is also very realistic. Most contemporary YAs make the fatal mistake of introducing the concept that love conquers all, even trauma and mental illness. And nothing could be farther from the truth. In the beginning of the book, Ashley views Matt with love-blind glasses. But as the novel progresses, we see Ashley realizing that Matt is just as flawed as everyone else. She realizes that Matt can't fix her, and that sometimes there is nothing to fix. There is nothing to do but to just get through those terrible moments with whatever willpower there is left, and have hope for a better future.

There is a wonderful quote towards the end of the book that sums up what it's like to go through a horrific event and feel how different you are. How empty, yet hopeful.

"I was afraid because, even after everything I'd overcome, I still had holes. My dreams were coming true - but they weren't filling the gaps. I still felt... less than. I'd decided to keep fighting, keep searching for answers. Because as long as I did that, there would always be a chance my holes would heal. I could have hope. My gaps only became inevitable when I stopped believing they could be filled."

Every Ugly Word is free through Kindle Unlimited.

You Know Me Well » Book Review

 

I want to smash something.

I guess it's a positive that Levithan made me so attached, so allegiant, to his character, Mark, that I want to throttle the fictional character who hurt him.  I haven't felt this worked-up over a book since The Handmaid's Tale...

Okay. The suffering that Mark goes through in You Know Me Well is not comparable to the rape-y horror of Atwood's dystopian novel. Comparatively, it's mild.  But goddamn if I don't feel utterly enraged, if I don't feel like injustice has been done. Why, oh why, [spoiler]Ryan[/spoiler]? Why, oh why?

How This Whole Thing Started

You Know Me Well starts at the beginning of Pride Week in San Francisco.  Two teenagers, Mark and Katie, both gay, both attending the same high school, run into each other at a LBGTQ club.  Mark is there with his best friend, Ryan, who is also gay.  Mark happens to be in love with Ryan — small fact.  Mark and Ryan have messed around, but always in secret, because Ryan is closeted.  Katie spots Mark after he wins a scantily-clad bar dancing competition, much to Mark's embarrassment. Katie, impulsively, asks Mark to be her friend.  He agrees, bemused, and the two take off together when Ryan wants to stay behind to flirt heavily with another guy. Ugh.

Katie has her own problems.  She's been in love with her best friend's cousin, Violet, from afar for a long time.  That night, Katie and Violet are supposed to meet at a party through arrangement, but Katie takes off before the meeting due to nerves. After running away and ending up at the same bar as Mark,  Katie wanders off with him to find adventure in the city, which sets off a chain of events that will leave them changed.

I'm Still Mad

Just to remind you, I'm furious.

LaCour and Levithan — Who Was the Stronger Writer

As you might have seen, You Know Me Well was written by two (gay!) authors — Nina LaCour and David Levithan.  In my opinion, Levithan's writing blew LaCour's out of the water.  I trudged through LaCour's chapters but ate up Levithan's greedily.  I wish the entire book had been written by him. (Yes, even despite the fact that he emotionally demolished me with this book.)

In comparison to Mark, Katie's character was fairly watery. She wasn't as vivid or full of life as Levithan's character creations.  Moreover, I didn't like Katie's strange combination of impulsive forthrightness and cringing hesitancy.  Call me a critic, but those are some contradictory qualities right there.

Overall, Levithan was was electric. LaCour was only so-so.

 So Do I Recommend This Book Or What?

I do! It's a short read and Levithan wrote a powerful half of a story. LaCour isn't bad enough to drag the story down to unreadable levels, either.

As for my rage... siiiigh. I'm still remarkably upset about [spoiler]Mark's lack of a fairytale ending[/spoiler]. Maybe some reader's would be less upset than me, but the situation struck me hard.

Anyways, this book would have been a  4.5 read if not for LaCour's just-okay writing. I give the book 3.5 and recommend.

[rating stars="three-half-stars"]

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"]

High Contrast (Evolution Ink #1) » Book Review (And Thoughts on Orlando)

I made a promise to myself, years back.  It was to review every book I read, even the ones with shirtless dudes on the cover. So here, I am saying to you, "Yes. I read this somewhat silly book. Let me tell you about it."

High Contrast: Evolution Ink  by Tess Bowery

High Contrast was a pretty standard romance novel — a New Adult M/M. Our protagonist, Jacob, is a self-doubting marketing intern from NYC. He's living off the support of his parents and successful twin brother while his office career gets its wings. He's very much a character yet to unfold.  His only adventure comes from the company he keeps — his brother's coworkers and employees at Evolution Ink, a tattoo parlor.

The story takes off when Jacob meets the store's new piercing specialist, Cody.  Cody is a beautiful specimen — lean, long blonde hair, full of sexy body modifications — and his personality attracts Jacob to boot.  There's just a few problems.  Cody is very reticent about speaking about his past and is reluctant to start anything with Jacob due to mysterious experiences. What's Jacob, a boy in love, to do?! Obviously, he's going to sleuth out what is troubling Cody and take his problems on, even when the problem turn to out be —oops!— the Russian mafia.

I can't give High Contrast more than 2.5 stars. It was an okay book, and sometimes I enjoyed myself while reading, but mostly I was perusing with a critical eye. My main problem is that the mafia angle was kind of silly.  I got the impression that Bowery, when choosing a plotline to carry her romance along, chose a very literal "action plot." But Jacob wasn't an action hero by any stretch of the imagination, so the plot and the protagonist seemed mismatched. Moreover, Bowery's mafia was unintimidating to say the least. That whole plotline flopped.

On top of that, I never got attached to the peripheral characters, who mostly just provided noisy dialogue. I sped-read through those tiresome bits of group conversation (which weren't really that funny) in order to move to the quieter one-on-one chats and moments between Jacob and Cody. And that is where the book redeemed itself slightly.  The book was meant to be a simple romance. All the handguns and street fights were unnecessary. What I enjoyed most was reading about a budding relationship between two boys.

Overall, I'm pleased I read High Contrast, because I do enjoy M/M romances.  I only started reading in this genre recently, so I enjoy broadening my reading experience within each new M/M (or any LGBTQ+) book I take up.

On the Subject of Orlando and the Recent Violence There

Speaking of LGBTQ+ matters, I do want to write something quickly about the recent hate crime and mass shooting in Orlando, as many in our community have spoken up as well. These waves of violence and mass shootings in the United States are sickening.  They hurt the soul, not just of individuals but of an entire nation. But how can this epidemic be reversed?

Of course, as voters we can put pressure on our elected officials and hope they listen and act. (It's my own wish that our leaders take decisive and powerful action against the easy availability of automatic guns.) We can continue the discourse through our own public media long after news anchors stop reporting on the attacks. (Bless the internet.) And we can contribute to the fight against violence and hatred through using our own gifts...

What lies behind hatred, I've been told, is fear, and the best weapon against fear is knowledge. In our bookish corner of the world, we celebrate knowledge.  Our community already does a wonderful job at promoting and celebrating books with diversity.  Our writers are doing fantastic work at crafting stories and characters that give readers new outlooks and perspectives. We can keep up the good work. We can do our best to inform our rising generations about the many, beautiful differences that lie inside the hearts and minds of humankind.

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly » Book Review

I am in awe of how this book made me feel. Ellen believes that it doesn't compare to Donnelly's A Northern Light, so I'm very excited to pick that one up soon and see how These Shallow Graves will measure up against Donnelly's most critically-acclaimed work.

At first glance, I expected it to be a run-of-the-mill mystery with a throwaway romance. In fact, as I was reading, I had picked out a quote that I thought would impeccably sum up the cheesiness of the romance.

"He can only break my ribs, Jo, not my heart."

Nauseating... am I right??

But I was forced to eat my words. As I accompanied Jo on her various jaunts through the city and witnessed her life through her eyes, I realized how similar she and I are (or were). I mentioned briefly in my introduction post about living in a rural part of India during some of my teen years. I lived with my grandmother, mother, baby sister and our maid under strict lock-and-key. Young girls were not to be out and about unaccompanied, let alone be out past twilight. There were rules about proper behavior, who I was allowed and not allowed to socialize with. And by god, I was not to tarnish the family's reputation. Her struggles, were my struggles.

“Why is it, she wondered now, that boys get to do things and be things and girls only get to watch?”

I loved Jo, because she is a realistic character. Even the romance (which I initially scoffed at), and the love triangle (which as a rule, I utterly detest) didn't drive her story. It just happened to be her life. As a young heiress, she was expected to wed, and wed well. It is her love for her father, and her noble notion of justice that drives her story of personal growth. While she made romantic decisions that I thought were hasty or foolish, they remained true to who she is. And above all, there were realistic consequences for her decisions. Her poor choices and in turn, the reactions of the characters around her helped her evolve and understand herself better, and in turn, make better decisions for herself in the future.

“You, on the other hand, wish to know things. And no one can forgive a girl for that.”

“That was what people did when they wanted to stop a girl from doing something—they shamed her.”

I also was very pleased with Nellie Bly as an inspirational figure to Jo. Nellie Bly is a reporter that Jo admires both for her accomplishments in a male-dominated field of journalism as well as her compassion for the 'invisible' people that pass through New York City. It hits me close to home because THIS is why it is so important to have women and minorities (of any kind, whether it is race or gender or sexual orientation) have such important roles in society. They inspire current and future generations to follow their path and further their path. Nellie Bly is the reason that Jo developed her strong sense of ethics, which I greatly admired.

“Headstrong is just a word, Katie - a word others call you when you don't do what they want.”

I'm sure some of you are curious about why I am gushing so much about this book since I didn't give it a full 5 or even 4.5 stars. That had to do with the mystery element and the pacing of it. Perhaps I have simply watched too many crime shows and read too many books and hence can spot a red herring a mile away. I figured out who the villain was within the first third of the book. I had guessed everything, except for one important surprise. However, I still enjoyed Jo's and Eddie's adventures mainly because they took me all around New York and it was fascinating to be there. My favorite scene occurred when Jo was walking along a bridge (maybe the Brooklyn bridge..?) with a friend, and I could just picture how exhilarating that must have been. I think that's the wonderful thing about historical fiction for me, when compared to fantasy. It's easier for me to picture and imagine that this actually happened. The next time I go to New York, I will walk alongside a bridge and smile to myself as I picture Fay and Jo Montfort.

“We who have means and a voice must use them to help those who have neither. Yet how can we help them if we don't even know about them? And how can we know about them if no one writes about them? Is it so wrong to want to know things?”

Wink Poppy Midnight » Book Review

Do you judge a book by its cover?

This book received a lot of buzz prior to its publication because its cover was so undisputedly amazing.  With its stretched, sharply serifed type, cut-out illustrations, and darkly muted color palette,  the packaging of Wink Poppy Midnight was making everyone ga-ga.  Add onto that the cool title and the success of the anthology Slasher Girls and Monster Boys, which Tucholke edited, and bloggers were hot to get ahold of this novel.

After the release, however, the reactions seemed to be mostly lackluster. Reviewers weren't responding well to the book. Because of this, I was expecting to be disappointed.  Maybe it because my bar was so low,  but I wound up liking Wink Poppy Midnight, enough to give it 3.5 stars. (The cover gets full marks, of course.)

Beyond the Packaging of Wink Poppy Midnight

The novel is character-driven, as can be expected — the book's title is the three narrator's names, strung together. Midnight is a lovely-faced, teenage boy who is experiencing a lot of growing pains.  He's been infatuated with his beautiful, yet cruel neighbor, Poppy, for as long as he's known her, but when his family moves across town, Midnight sees an opportunity to leave the mean girl in the dust.  Helping him along is Wink, the mystical eldest daughter of the Bells, a family renown for their fortitude.  Poppy, however, won't be forgotten.

What happens next is... sort of a muddle, but it's a nicely written muddle.  Many reindeer games are played and there's a lot of mystery over who's calling the shots.  Is manipulative Poppy in control? Or is Midnight coming into his own power?  And what about Wink — you know what they say about the quiet ones.

I suppose my main criticism with Wink Poppy Midnight is that it flirts with pointlessness.  There was a huge WHO CARES?! cliff that I almost fell into throughout the whole novel. If you happen to not respond well the characters, Wink Poppy Midnight won't have a leg to stand on. As it turned out, I was ambivalent towards Wink and Midnight, but I kept listening to the audiobook because of Poppy. I loved her fierce character.

I can't see Wink Poppy Midnight being a book that everyone loves, so I hesitate to recommend it. Nevertheless, the novel has given me plenty to think about. [rating stars="three-half-stars"]

Summer Days and Summer Nights » Anthology Review

Ah! Summer Days and Summer Nights! I've been waiting for this anthology ever since it was announced as the companion of My True Love Gave To Me. (See my review of the first anthology HERE) Now, having read Summer Days and Summer Nights, I can't say it lived up to all of my expectations.  It's like the authors didn't get the memo that the cover would be bright yellow and happy.  Many of the entries were quite dark, and while this wasn't always a bad thing, it did make for a puzzling collection, one that was starkly contrasted with the subtitle, Twelve Love Stories. 



Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail by Leigh Bardugo [rating stars="two-stars"]

Frankly, I'm disappointed.  Short stories are often chances for authors to get more craft-y than usual, but Bardugo was incoherent in this piece.  I do think there was enormous potential here regarding the subject matter of water deities who love human girls, but the lack of clarity and mismatched elements kept the writing from being great or even likable.



The End of Love by Nina LaCour [rating stars="two-half-stars"]

LaCour's story about a gay geometry pro with divorcing parents had a glum tone, which makes sense because the main character is depressed.  As for the writing, it was decent, although strangely non-compelling.  There was nothing there that made me sit up and take notice, nothing that made me laugh, and there's nothing that will stick with me.



Last Stand at the Cinegore by Libba Bray [rating stars="one-half-stars"]

This piece uses the horror movie genre as a doorway to discuss what we fear the most in our lives.  I think that Libba Bray must be afraid of short story structure.  She had a decent beginning, a horribly drawn-out muddle, and a brief end. There were too many characters, themes, subplots, and lines of wack-a-doo dialogue going on in this story and it all got tangled up in a big, boring mess.  It reminded me quite a bit of Bray's weirdly award-winning novel, Going Bovine, a book that could have benefitted from having 400+ pages removed.



Sick Pleasure by Francesca Lia Block [rating stars="three-stars"]

This story was the second I read. (I read the stories randomly.) I loved how the prose evoked a different, smokier era, yet still managed to seem timeless.  Sure enough, I googled a reference to a band that the main character sees live and it turned out to be The Go-Go's singing We've Got the Beat.  So this story takes place in or around 1980.

The piece follows "I" and her brief romance with the mysterious "A." The story doesn't have the happiest of endings, but I suppose it was very true to life, in a way.



In Ninety Minutes, Turn North by Stephanie Perkins [rating stars="three-half-stars"]

To my great surprise, Perkins revisited her characters from her first anthology, My True Love Gave To Me — Marigold and North.  Remember how cute that first story was?  Well, in this installment, Perkins gets a bit darker.  Marigold and North have broken up.  The story begins when Marigold tracks down North at his new job as a mountain train conductor and tour guide.

A darker, moodier North was present in this piece, and Marigold is more circumspect as well, calculating how she'll keep herself from starving on her tight artist's budget.  It sounds bleak, but this is Perkins we're talking about. She always pulls out a happy ending.



Souvenirs by Tim Federle [rating stars="three-half-stars"]

Yay! It's the M/M romance of the anthology! This story is about Matty, whose summer workplace romance is scheduled to end in a few hours.  Yes, scheduled. Throughout the piece, Matty thinks about Kieth, his boyfriend, and stream-of-consciousness reflects on what their brief relationship meant.  There is an amazing pizza metaphor that I loved.



Inertia by Veronica Roth [rating stars="five-stars"]

So good! This short story reminded me strongly of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one of my favorite movies of all time. It has a bit of a sci-fi twist, but is really about human connection and poignancy of memory. It was quite beautiful and had me tearing up.  I'll definitely be reading this one over again. I call this story the strongest in the Summer Days and Summer Nights collection.



Love Is the Last Resort by Jon Skovron [rating stars="half-star"]

I don't get it.  I think this piece was supposed to be arty? At my most generous I can say that it was reminiscent of a Wes Anderson creation.  From what I could make out, the story was about a resort owned by a rich man and run by a teenage staff, populated with rich patrons.  They all spoke in a stiff, artificial style and did absolutely nothing. I think that Skovron was so caught up in being literary and different here that he choked himself. This was a dull story and I did not care for it. It is the weakest installment in Summer Days and Summer Nights.



Good Luck and Farewell by Brandy Colbert  [rating stars="three-stars"]

The story is about a young woman whose closest friend in the world, her cousin, is moving away with her girlfriend.  This was an okay work, but with an unfortunately insta-lovey romance. There were some lines that made me cringe with how underdeveloped the feelings being announced were. However, the piece features racially and sexually diverse characters, which was a big bonus.



Brand New Attraction by Cassandra Clare [rating stars="three-half-stars"]

This story by Clare really embraced the spirit of the anthology, keeping with the theme, yet still staying true to the author's signature style. Clare chose to write about a carnival owner's daughter, and, of course, demons.  The details in this piece were highly imaginative and there were some really laugh-out-loud moments that I enjoyed.

My criticism has to do with the ending.  I felt like matters were wrapped up way too quickly and conveniently.  Overall though, this was a strong effort on Clare's part.



A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong by Jennifer E. Smith [rating stars="five-stars"]

Now this is what I'm talking about! A summer story that's as cute as it is deep! This piece is about a girl who has a crush on a very different kind of boy and works up the courage to ask him out. Their first date doesn't go as expected. I seriously loved this story. The characters were distinct and unique and the writing had great flow.



The Map of Tiny Perfect Things by Lev Grossman [rating stars="five-stars"]

What a great closing story! It was a highly unique premise and had great little moments scattered throughout.  The ending was hilarious AND moving. The piece is about a boy who gets stuck in time and relives August 4 over and over again.  The voice of the author reminded me quite strongly of John Green, who's style I do enjoy.

The Overall Score of Summer Days and Summer Nights...

Well, I've read all of the stories.  I've identified all the little characters on the front cover.  I cried a little and I laughed a little.  Overall, I give the anthology 3.5 stars.  There was a moment there when I read several bad pieces in a row and thought the worst, but standouts from Roth, Grossman, and Smith saved the day.

What about you, readers? Does reading anthologies make you feel smarter?

The Glittering Court » Book Review

Aaah! I feel such conflict! Richelle Mead is such a hit or miss author with me, and for the first time, I feel unsure over one of her books. Did I love The Glittering Court or did I hate it?

Neither.

To really understand the book, you need to erase much of what the official synopsis is telling you.  It's true, The Glittering Court is much like Kiera Cass's book The Selection for about 1/2 of the time.  Not all of those bits in The Glittering Court were bad, but where the book really shined was when it got into its religious stride.

Reminding me of her series, The Age Of X, The Glittering Court shows us once more how Mead studied folklore and historical religion in university.  In this, her latest book, the world's mainstream religious belief centers upon worshipping a host of pure and principled angles.  However, there is a heretical movement of belief that reveres a number of fallen angels as well.  These heretics, Alanzans, are put to death when discovered.  Despite this, they continue to practice their earthier, more passionate belief system in secret.

I loved the parts with the Alanzans. Sexy religion? Say yeah!  If the book had more about them, I doubtlessly would have bumped up my rating.  As it was, much of the stuff that interested me was choked by talk of ball gowns, jewels, horny sugar daddies, and thirsty sugar babies. Blah.

The book follows Elizabeth/Adelaide, who is a runaway Countess.  She was engaged to her cousin, unwillingly, and when she stumbles upon an opportunity to start a new life, she takes it!  Posing as a low-born girl, Elizabeth, now Adelaide, is recruited for the Glittering Court, a business venture that grooms young ladies into respectable brides for new-money bachelors on the new continent of America Adoria.

Adelaide enjoys her life of adventure, but she goes along with the ride in no small part due to Cedric, the son of one of the Glittering Court's owners.  This relationship was insta-lovey in the extreme, and even though their pairing was entertaining and seemed... true, I did think Adelaide put too much on the line too soon for their relationship.  Nevertheless, I though Cedric was an intriguing character, a budding businessman with liberal values.

Where the book faltered, in my opinion, was its final fourth. It was rather abrupt, and didn't exactly have a tonal precedent, if that makes sense. Here's what I mean: [spoiler]We get a California/Klondike setting with jolty wagons, stinky horses, and dirty fingernails completely out of the blue. What?! What happened to the Glittering Court?!?[/spoiler] And the denouement! God Almighty, so many deus ex machina were coming through the stage traps, there was, like, a traffic jam of plot devices. That was... it was bad.

But here's something that came out of the blue in a good way... Kristen Sieh, the narrator for the audiobook of The Glittering Court does an incredible job.  For all of Mead's bad choices in dialogue — "Um, yeah" — Sieh was there to save the day, making the words seem aristocratic, confiding, and humorous all in turn.  I can't emphasize enough how much she classed up the book. Bravo, Kristen Sieh. *Standing Ovation*

So, I'm not going to recommend this one.  But still, over The Selection, it is a step up.

 

Undecided » Book Review

It's no secret that I've been in a blue mood recently.  So Undecided, a fresh-of-the-presses NA romance was just what the doctor ordered.

Before I begin my (all over the place) review, let me analyze the cover a little.

1. I have lots of feminist rage in me, and one of my main combustion points is man-spreading.  You know, when you're on mass-transit or the couch or whatever and the dude next to you spreads out his legs like he's at a trip to the gyno, taking up all your lateral space. THIS REALLY HAPPENS AND IT'S BULLSHIT.  When I saw the man-spreading on this cover, and the MC in between, all scrunched up, I was like, "HELLS NAH."


2. They look like they are at a Planned Parenthood waiting room. Or the Dean's office, maybe. Just a little bit.


3. There is a strong suggestion of a love triangle. A worried and conflicted female, caught between two men. Yep, sure.

But, having read the book, here's what I found.

1. It didn't have that much of a feminist message, sure, but the book wasn't misogynist.  There was a part when the MC can't wield tools in the slightest and needs the guy to put together her furniture, but I'll give that a pass on the grounds of individual characterization.  Not every feminist girl has to be a superhero in all fields.


2. The Planned Parenthood/Dean's office waiting room theme is not without merit.  There's [spoiler]no pregnancy scare[/spoiler] as some readers were speculating, but waiting rooms do have some pertinency to the text.


3.  There is a little bit of a love triangle in the beginning, but it's really harmless.  Trust me, I loathe love triangles, and this was mild compared to what's out there.

So that's that on the cover. Aside from the man-spreading, it's a pretty good one, communicating a lot about the voice of the book, the characters, and its plot points.

Speaking of plot...  The story follows Nora, a sophomore in college.  Nora was a bit of a nobody in high school, and made up for that by being a crazy party girl her freshman year.  Now, having lost part of her scholarship and more, she's ready to get back on the straight and narrow. So she moves into an off-campus house advertised to be for 'responsible and studious' people.  Then, what she finds out about her new roommate and his best friend should be enough to have her running for the hills.  But she dives in, anyway.

Undecided, despite it's lack of substance, had great, near PERFECT pacing.  I couldn't put this book down, because there were really no boring parts to waylay me.  I had to find out what was on the next page, each time.  The book starts off strong, with a bang, and maintains that energy to the very end.  I was hugely impressed by that.

I really do have a soft spot for NA, I've found.  I love the whole finding-yourself angle, because I'm still there, despite being a few years out of university. The trick is, to not read NA books that don't come well-reviewed.  That way, there's no way to get burned out on poor writing and predictable ! Not a great policy for a book reviewer, I know, but hey, I can't read everything that gets put out.  I must and do rely on the work of my fellow bloggers. In this case, Nick and Nereyda were dead on about this one.  Thanks, guys!

I'll Give You the Sun » Book Review

I'm giving I'll Give You the Sun 2.5 stars, because while I liked it, I wasn't blown away.

I wanted to be.  It's like that scene in Pride and Prejudice: "Bingley was ready, Georgiana eager, and Darcy determined, to be pleased."

I was ready, eager, determined to be pleased with this Printz winner, I'll Give You the Sun. I wanted to fall in love with it.

But I wasn't and I didn't.

Most of it is the characters and how they thought...

The book is narrated by twins, Noah and Jude, three years apart.  Together, their stories weave together to form a complete picture of a mysterious event.

Noah starts us out, narrating to us when the twins are thirteen.  He and Jude have always been close, but they find themselves growing apart...  Jude wears red lipstick and short dresses, hangs out with popular kids and surfs. She also makes cool sand sculptures, sews wacky dresses, and is obsessed with her dead grandmother.

Noah, on the other hand, doesn't hide his weirdness as well.  He loves to spy on people, and draw them the way he sees them (often unflatteringly).  He doesn't speak much, but keeps up a dark, intense inner monologue inside his head.  He seethes with resentment and jealousy.  I mean seethes. 

And I think this was the reason I didn't love the book.

Even though the prose was stylish — artistic and wacky...

Even though the stakes were high and compelling...

Even though he pace was intricate and well-crafted...

The characters were ultimately unlikable.  

There were so many questionable words, emotions, thoughts, and actions in this book. I compiled a list of them, actually.

It is NOT Okay to...

• [spoiler]Destroy a piece of artwork because it's better than yours.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Rip up someone's art school application.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Favor one child over the other in an obvious fashion.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Play two kids off one another.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Be consumed by jealousy [/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Out a gay person against their will[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Have affairs. [/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Drive recklessly on a motorcycle.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Jump off dangerous cliffs repeatedly, tormenting your family and friends with your suicidal ideations. It's not artistic and cool. That's a mental illness that deserves professional help.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Trespass on private property.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Look at naked people without their permission.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Wish evil upon others[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Be severely passive aggressive, instead of communicating[/spoiler]

All of these crimes are committed at some point by a character in I'll Give You the Sun.  It was too much for me.  Sure, each character in this novel does a lot of good things, on top of their despicable things, but overall, I just got fed up.

You're too much for me, manic pixie dream book.  Too much.

 

Truthwitch » Review

I can't believe what I'm about to write. Truthwitch was possibly THE most anticipated book of the winter YA publishing season.  It was THE book at BEA last year and has been getting buzz, buzz, buzz for months.  I could not WAIT to get my paws on a copy.

But there were signs.

I read the first few chapters on NetGalley.  I had some problems, some issues, but I patted them aside. Lie at rest, issues, I whispered.

Then the book came out and I read it.  Well, I read about 60-70% of it.  Then I just... stopped.

I STOPPED.

I was frustrated, yeah, but I also didn't care.  And I honestly wanted one of the main characters to die, just a little.

But seriously, I just could not get behind characters who were such petty, selfish, BRATS.

One of the best pieces of writing criticism I've ever read mentions how we, as readers, learn so much from the actions of our characters when we're introduced to them. When we meet Safiya and Iseult, they're robbing someone, something they do frequently.  When I first read that, I thought, what for? It turns out, they just want more money. Okay, whatever.

But then, the characters consistently acted like douchebags.  They trashed the property of their friends, they stole horses from their owners, they ran those horses down into the dirt like they were sports cars in an action movie, not animals.  They would douche-ely yell things like "sorry!" and "I need this!" to the people they stole from as they ran away. Assholes.

Safiya in particular was intolerable.  She was vain and temperamental on top of being selfish. There was one part of the book where she admires herself in a silken dress, or whatever, and it's SO vain and stupid that I simply couldn't take it.  Me and Safiya couldn't be friends after that point.

I realize that I'm writing about these characters like they're real.  I understand that they're constructions of Dennard's.  To which I can only think, did she intend for readers to have a totally different response to these characters? Or what?

The only character I liked was the bloodwitch, Aeduan, not because he was a saint, (quite the contrary), but because his motives were realistic and valid.  To that, he is SUPPOSED to have a villainous tint to him, and that made him appealing to me instead of gross.

On top of the characters being problematic, I shied away from the writing.  It was written in a cinematic style, and by cinematic, I mean B-movie.  Guys whip of their shirts just so the female can shudder over the manly breadth of their shoulders. Maybe I'm a-romantic, but that shit is so silly to me. And the fight scenes. The fight scenes were like that part in Daredevil when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner fight on a seesaw. It was ridiculous.

As for good aspects, the political intrigue had promise, Iseult's character is salvageable, and Aeduan is creepy awesome. Everything else was — sorry — stinky garbage.

I'm sorry.  I'm just so, so sorry.

Shadow and Bone » Review

Even though it was years ago, I still remember when I first read Shadow and Bone.  I started it in the evening... see where this is going? Yes, rays of light were poking through the windows by the time I finished the book.  Those rays of light were so fitting, let me tell you.

The book's premise isn't super unique.  There is a girl who manifest super special powers and finds out she must save her country (and the world!) from evil.  But, you know, there's a reason that general premise is so popular.  It's super compelling.  Add to that Bardugo's Russian inspired setting, vivid description, and worldbuilding and we have something special on our hands.

Alina Starkov, our protagonist, is an unlikely Chosen One.  She's prickly, scrawny, and ordinary. Oh yeah, and really grumpy and insecure.  She's a character that you only sometimes admire, but always root for.  Our villain is the Darkling, an almost omnipotent "grisha,"  who can summon and manipulate darkness.  He's almost a deity and he is pretty freaky.  I rate him up with Sauran in my list of "Near Impossible to Beat Literary Antagonists."  Many readers find him dishy, but I don't feel that way.  This character is a bad person.

As I mentioned before, the setting is in a Russian inspired country at the beginning of its industrial age.  The fitting term used by Bardugo to describe her genre, is "czarpunk."  Our story starts out with teenage Alina conscripted as a mapmaker's apprentice in the national Ravkan army.  Maybe it's due to all of the World War II footage I've seen in my schooldays, but I could picture so vividly the chilly landscape and dirty roads that the army stops through in our opening scenes. Also conscripted in her regiment is Alina's best friend and childhood soulmate, Mal.  Poor Alina has a serious case of the loves for Mal, which, again, isn't exactly original, but was very compelling regardless.

But I'm dancing around the main hook of the story.  There is a magic system in Bardugo's word.  Much like Kristin Cashore's Graceling, certain people are born with powers that bend the laws of the natural world.  These grisha are powerful figures in Ravka, and comprise an army led by their most powerful member, the Darkling.  As mentioned previously, the Darkling summons darkness.  His foil, a summoner of light, has not been discovered. Untiiiiil...

There now, doesn't that intrigue you?

As for faults, I found the middle portion of the book to sag slightly compared with Shadow and Bone's powerhouse opening and ending.  Alina could be insufferable at times, but it's understandable, as she's at the beginning of her character arc.  Got to start from somewhere, right.

All in all, this is a five star YA read and Leigh Bardugo has emerged as a top author in the genre.  If you like YA lit in the slightest, this isn't a book you'll want to pass over.

You Against Me » Review

‘Do you know what Gillian told me?’ she hissed. ‘She told me it’s not my fault. She said I should be able to wear a short skirt whenever I like. She said I should be able to go to a party in my bloody bikini if I want. I should be able to dance and drink and stay up late. I should even be allowed to snog the face off Tom Parker and it doesn’t mean he can do what he did.’

You Against Me is one of my favorite books. I suppose you could say it's an "issue book," but unlike many authors of that genre who bludgeon us over the head with a message or lesson or viewpoint, Downham does an amazing job at integrating a common news item into a fully fleshed story.

Is this book a romance? It is very romantic, but the book isn't devoted to telling a love story. Just as much attention is given to family dynamics, coming of age, and social issues in equal measure. You Against Me is impeccably balanced amongst all these things.

The style of writing is quite plain and uses a lot of British vernacular, but the prose is lyrical all the same. Downham points out the beauty in the mundane in a way that is very alluring. In fact, the book has an almost dreamy tone to it, only to be sharply brought into focus at times, to great effect. In my literature classes in college, we talked a great deal about how style should be a mirror of thematic issues. Downham nails it.

She treated her body as if it was really special. He’d noticed it at the river and again today – how she kept changing the position of a strap or pulling buttons shut or yanking her dress lower so he couldn’t see bits of her. It was like she had something hidden and if you got in there, you’d be really privileged. It made him think of that line in the Spider-Man movie about power and responsibility. It was doing his head in.

Another thing I love about the book is how fair it is. Every side to an issue is treated with respect. Take the two quotations I shared. In one, a character defends her right to wear whatever she likes. She celebrates bodily autonomy. In the other, Mikey notes the power of keeping things hidden. Each viewpoint is given merit.

I love this book. Not only is an engrossing read, but it's carefully crafted and stylistically complex. I cannot recommend it enough.

Everything, Everything Review

First line of this review I wrote, preserved for posterity:

"Wow! This book was really good."

Let's try that again, with coffee:  

Everything, Everything was an utter pleasure to read.  I closed the proverbial cover — I read the ebook — a few hours ago, and I'm already planning to dive in again.

An author called Nicola Yoon technically wrote this novel, but her character, Madeline Whittier, is so sparkling with life, I'm convinced that she, and not Yoon, penned a memoir.  I was that full of belief.

Madeline is very sick.  She has that rare condition known as Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID).  Exposure to the world would kill her, so she lives inside her carefully sealed, air-filtered home.  Every person Madeline comes in direct contact with has to be medically vetted and decontaminated, so aside from special occasions, she only ever sees her nurse, Carla, and her mother.  Her mom and Carla try to give Madeline the best life possible, filling it with fierce love, rigorous education, and adorable traditions.  As a result, Madeline is an intelligent, funny, radiant young woman.

That's not to say her life of confinement hasn't done a number on her.  Madeline has to fight off low moods, and when a family moves into the house next door, it causes her caretakers some concern.  After all, Madeline has a history of getting attached to the neighbors, and once spun into a depression when a family moved away.  Despite their worries, Madeline is immediately captivated by the new neighbors, especially by the intriguing son, Olly, who wears all black, does street gymnastics, and has definitely figured out that Madeline is watching.

This story was very evocative of Romeo and Juliet.  I mean, Madeline even has a hilarious nurse!  I would not go so far as to call it a re-telling — it's not — but it captures the obsession between and insane plotting of young lovers so well.

However, the book isn't just a romance.  It's a coming-of-age tale as well.  It has a great cast of supporting characters.  It veers in bold, unexpected directions.  It's funny.  It's moving. It's a character-driven book that keeps you on the edge of your seat.  It's Everything, Everything.

I'm racking my brain to think up some criticism, but I can't come up with much of anything.  It could be that I was so taken by this novel that I've become critically blind.  I will say that there was part of the book that I couldn't read.  I was so worried for the characters that I skipped ahead to a less heart-stopping part.  But even that isn't a bad thing!  If anything, it just reiterates my point of how believable and engaging the book was.

If you're a fan of young love, I can't see how this book would disappoint you.  The only scenario I can see where a reader wouldn't like Everything, Everything is if that reader likes edgier fare.  True, Olly brings some badassery to the table, but the novel invariably causes toothache (it's sweet).

For my part, I recommend!  Have a great time reading this one, you all.

Magonia Review

Since becoming a blogger I've become a different reader.  Before I wrote book reviews, I wouldn't bother finishing a book that wasn't working for me.  Now, I make my best effort to read books in their entirety, because I can write more informed reviews that way.  Still, I was only able to get through about two thirds of Magonia before skipping ahead to the ending and calling it a day.

Magonia is a Narnia-esque fantasy — a girl living in the normal world discovers a magical one, just "through the wardrobe," as it were.  Aza, the girl in question, has always been sickly, unable to breathe air effectively, for some mysterious reason.  Her doctors say she's quickly running out of time.  But, just at a fatal moment, Aza is whisked away to Magonia, a land of bird-like creatures and airships in the sky. Able to breathe the thin air, Aza comes into her own strengths for the first time, but must question the intentions of her new Magonian family. What do they want with her and are they being entirely forthright? Meanwhile, back on the ground, Aza's best friend, Jason, is determined to find her...

I have a lot of problems with Magonia.  One of my main issues is that the book is stretched too thin.  Headley wrote a stand-alone contemporary/fantasy — with only 320 pages!!  On top of that, the novel spends a good amount of time in exposition mode at its beginning.  I think it was the author's intention to build up her characters and raise the emotional stakes of her story by fleshing out Aza's existing relationships before she's taken away to Magonia. It was a good idea, but I think the book would have been better served by jumping into action a little quicker.  Because the beginning lagged, Headley had to start her fantasy world-building late in the game, which hurt the pace of the story.

On top of that, we were pulled away from Magonia over and over again by the chapters focusing on Jason's — largely internal — activities.  He was a thin character, slavishly devoted to Aza.  It bothers me when characters can't stand on their own, and Jason entire purpose throughout the novel was to worship Aza... who was over-worshiped. Her funeral scene left me alternatively sniggering and gaping.  A moment that was supposed to move me, instead gave me the biggest laugh in the book! [spoiler]When Jason, who is wearing an alligator suit, with the words "Aza Ray was here" painted on the head, drives to the burial honking morse code messages to Aza... only not real morse code because he doesn't want anyone to know what he's saying. [/spoiler] Truly, the histrionics in this book turned me off.  The emotion was always ramped up to ten, but because I was not invested, everything came across as clownish.

In case it hasn't come across clearly yet, I do not recommend this book.  A good alternative would be The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.

 

Bone Gap Review

So, Bone Gap. I picked up this book because I've been making an effort to read more critically-applauded YA titles.  I believe that the Young Adult genre, which can be tremendously fun, also has more to offer than juicy hooks and romantic drama.  There's important stuff out there being written.  I just need to read more of it! Bone Gap popped up on my radar as such a book to read, but I wound up being largely unimpressed.  I give this book three stars, because it's well-written, but overall it failed to make an impact. Here's why.

Bone Gap dips its fingers into magical realism, a genre I remember studying in high school when reading Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits. Magical realism, also known as marvelous realism or fabulism, is characterized by a realistic setting being pervaded with strange, unnatural occurances — often introduced with a nonchalant attitude, as if it's perfectly normal for magic to invade real life.

Latin America is responsible for introducing magical realism into literature, and the style was immediately understood as something important. In the regions where the genre was born, harsh governments prohibited criticism from being written openly. In disguise, magical realism questioned and attacked established political and social systems.

In recent years, we've seen a surge of magical realism in YA books.  For the most part, I have not been a fan of the trend.  It seems to me that these books are masquerading as literary.  They ape the style of an important literary genre, but fail to use the techniques as a means of social critique — or in any way deeper than window dressing.  (For more of my complaints on this issue, see my review of The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender.)

This is my main issue with Bone Gap — that for the most part, it's purposeless. There is a strong theme that runs throughout the book that argues for the unimportance of physical appearance, which is good.  Mostly, though, the threads of Bone Gap's narrative are willy-nilly.  It's hard to understand how the book works as a whole, because the story is random, spinning it's stylistic wheels with little direction.

The story takes place in the fictional Illinois town of Bone Gap.  As one of the characters notes, there are no mountain gaps in Illinois — the town got its name for the gaps in the bones of the world.  Roza, a mysterious Polish exchange student who was taken in by two brothers, Finn and Sean, is kidnapped and dragged into one of these gaps by a creepy, nightmarish entity.  Finn, a young man known for his spaciness, is unable to describe Roza's kidnapper to the police, earning him the disdain and ire of the townspeople of Bone Gap.

The narrative perspective flits among various characters, but mostly focuses on Roza and Finn.  I got to be fatigued by their storyline-heavy sections, instead looking forward to those chapters that focused on the stolid, yet passionate Sean, and the independent, individualistic Petey — Bone Gap really shines when it focuses on its characters, instead of its bizzare plot.

Despite its nice moments, however, Bone Gap will not be a story I revisit.  Instead, I'll mentally shelve it with other YA books that tried to hit a higher literary mark and missed.

 

 

 

An Ember In the Ashes Review

An Ember In the Ashes is a great example of a book that was harmed by its hype. The publicity for this book was such that anyone who remotely followed the ins and outs of YA fiction would have Tahir's debut on their radar. For an obsessive YA reader like me, An Ember In the Ashes was practically jumping up and down on the horizon. I couldn't wait to get my mits on this book.

From all of the advance praise, I was expecting a near perfect adventure novel. What I wound up reading was good, interesting, and compelling, but ultimately problematic. And it was mostly problematic because I expected so much more from it.

An Ember In the Ashes takes place in an alternate past, one where a martial empire has come into power due to their incredible abilities in metallurgy. While they've forged reasonable treaties with a number of conquered peoples, the Martial have been especially brutal towards a race of people called the Scholars.

Laia, one of our protagonists, is one of the few Scholars who knows how to read. To have this knowledge is punishable, but for having such a dangerous ability, Laia is a meek girl. Her story opens brutally, and Laia makes cowardly decisions. Ashamed, Laia becomes determined to save her brother and regain her honor, leading her down a dangerous path of espionage.

Elias, our other protagonist, is about to graduate from a prestigious Martial military academy. He also plots to desert while the festivities are underway. His plans are derailed when Martial soothsayers tap him to compete to become the next Martial emperor.

The great thing about this book is the steep stakes of the plot. Both Laia and Elias veer constantly towards death! There are no boring parts in this book.  I will most definitely be reading the novel's sequel. Sabaa Tahir, the author, took six years to write An Ember In the Ashes, but had said this was mostly due to the learning curve of writing fiction. She expects her book's sequel to take less time. I am excited to see how the story continues to develop.

But, now that I've given the book it's just praise, I want to talk about why I can't jump up and down, raving over it. The interpersonal drama was a bit of a mess. The interactions between characters grew repetitive, the same angsty moments and conversations happening over and over again. There was a tiresome love rhombus I could have done without. The competition for emperor had some lame moments. Everyone kept blacking out and waking up in the infirmary and had to be told what happened.

All in all, An Ember In the Ashes was a solid YA offering, but certainly not the second coming of The Hunger Games. I look forward to the second installment, but will be waiting more patiently this time around.

My Heart and Other Black Holes Review

Right now, novels about teen suicide are everywhere.  Just in the last few weeks, we've seen four high-profile ones — All the Bright Places, I Was Here, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, and My Heart and Other Black Holes.  I wasn't sure if I was up to reading another suicide book so soon after All the Bright Places, the ending of which really frustrated me, but Jasmine Warga's debut came in at my library, I sat down to browse the opening pages, and then I couldn't stop reading.  I read the whole thing at my library, while sitting in a horribly uncomfortable wooden chair.

This really speaks to the excellent flow of My Heart and Other Black Holes.  I haven't read through a book so smoothly in some time.

The general subject matter is nothing new under the sun, but Warga does focus on a concept I haven't come across before — suicide partners.  The idea of suicide partners is that by teaming up to plan and execute your suicide with another person, your chances of successfully killing yourself go up.

This is dire stuff, right?  It's so starkly bleak that I almost couldn't believe I was reading such dismal content in a book marketed towards young, impressionable readers.  It's not that I believe in censorship.  Just that I'm alarmed by the thought of depressed kids being sucked down even farther into despair by reading a high-profile, critically affirmed YA.

Thankfully, if troubled individuals read through the end of My Heart and Other Black Holes, they might actually be positively bolstered by the book's message — that severe depression, although it can seem utterly insurmountable, is something that can be fought against.

Overall, this positive message, along with the brisk pacing, compelling characters, and realistic depiction of major depression make My Heart and Other Black Holes an above-average read that I really enjoyed.

I give it four stars and recommend.

The Darkest Part of the Forest Review

I have not read all of Holly Black's written works, but I've covered a good deal, and it's safe to say that I'm a fan. I *loved* Black's Curseworkers series. I really liked The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. Doll Bones was delightful.  The Iron Trial, Black's collaboration with Cassandra Clare... I prefer to think that never happened. I was expecting great things from Black's newest offering, The Darkest Part of the Forest.  Perhaps because of my high expectations I wound up being more than a little disappointed.

It's hard to dispute that Black, at this point in her career, is a very good writer.  Her prose is flowing, her descriptions are vivid, her characters are dimensional, her imagination is crazy (good).  Her writing has a dark, creepy aspect to it, while retaining an elemental sweetness.  All of these nice things can be found in The Darkest Part of the Forest.  Why, then, was I underwhelmed? Even a little irritated?

For one thing, as a stand-alone, this novel seemed a tad crowded.  There was a lot going on, and in order to resolve everything at the end, some subplots and character arcs wound up feeling rushed, abbreviated, and underdeveloped.  This was a huge problem for me.  I love to be moved by books, but the emotional core of The Darkest Part of the Forest was compromised due to sparse development.  The greatest example of this shortcoming was the highly buzzed-over male/male romance of the book.  I was so annoyed.  That love plot was obviously supposed to be a modern take on Snow White, but what is updated about insta-love? Simply more time needed to be devoted to that storyline and others.

Another thing — Black loves, loves, to withhold information.  This device worked like gangbusters in the Curseworkers series, keeping me on the edge of my seat.  As used in The Darkest Part of the Forest, the plot became mired and clogged.  All of the big reveals were saved for late in the book — too much, too late.

Also, more personally, I am sooo tired of the fae.  I need a vacation from these mythical beings.  They're so very overused and one-note. I'm not sure if Black was attempting a new spin on this subject matter.  I honesty can't tell.  If she was trying, I can't say that she succeeded.

At the end of it, I'm still a Holly Black fan.  I'll still pick up her next (solo) published work, without question, but I'm more wary now than I was before.

 

Stolen Songbird Review

I think this qualifies as a guilty pleasure.  I say this because, while reading, I had this little voice in the back of my head saying, That's pretty lurid! That's sort of cheesy. That's just indulgent! — but I DIDN'T CARE! I ate it all up! And it was delicious.

That's pretty lurid!

Our heroine, Cecile, is kidnapped and dragged off to become the bride of the Prince of the Trolls!  There might or might not be hair-dragging involved.  I mean, come on.  This plot device is, to be nice, "classic."  To be not nice, "cliche." But, it's well-used for a reason!  I was on the edge of my seat!

Behind this abduction is the King of the Trolls — a spine-chillingly evil character who plots and connives and has a truly unusual wife.  He was a top-tier villain.

That's sort of cheesy.

Of course, Cecile's husband-to-be winds up being a dreamboat! But wait, you ask. Are not trolls supposed to be grotesque?  Exactly, reader.  Exactly.  Don't worry.  Jensen has an answer for this question. (Slowly revealed and epic in scope.)

Her new husband, Tristan, is a romantic hero, like his name suggests. He's moody and mysterious, and has a whole hoard of secrets that he keeps close to the chest.  When he first meets Cecile, they fight like cats and dogs, which is hugely entertaining.  But there is a reason for his coldness, oh yes, there is a reason.

That's just indulgent!

Despite their best efforts not to, the two kids fall in love. (Duh.) And Cecile becomes tangled up in the court intrigue that Tristan is embroiled in.  See, the trolls have interbred with humans, and the diluted offspring are essentially the troll's slaves.  The trolls and their children-turned-servants all live crammed together under the earth, simmering, because a witch's curse has made it impossible for them to leave! But could Cecile be the key to the trolls' escape???

but I DIDN'T CARE!

This story is lurid and cheesy and indulgent in the same manner that The Princess Bride is lurid and cheesy and indulgent.  It is a fantasy and delights in being so.  I mean, we have a goatee-stroking villain, an abducted maiden, a dashing prince, a terrible curse, white-hot magic, possible rebellion, and true love! Now that is a recipe for awes

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It was — to put it simply — magical.  I give it 5 north stars.