Rebel Wing » Book Review

After reading Imitation (see review here) a couple of days ago, I was loathe to pick up another title by Alloy Entertainment. But I pushed through, knowing that I needed to get my Netgalley feedback ratio up, and I am glad I did! For one, because I've finally hit 50% (thank you, Netgalley Gods), and another, because I actually liked Rebel Wing.

This is essentially a well-told Mulan retelling that links back to our own military's (ex) policy of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'.

Ramble Review Time

For a book that I enjoyed, I'm having a surprisingly difficult time reviewing it. I wish I could give it a higher rating, I really do. But I can't because it took me longer than expected to actually get through it. I just kept putting it down. I don't know why!

The book uses alternating chapters to follow two different perspectives which represent the micro and macro view of the political world. Genre wise, I wasn't sure where the book fit. It could have been a Science-Fiction, pre-Dystopian kind of an era. In this world, there are Five Dominions, with the Dominion of Safara waging war on the Dominion of Atalanta. In our first perspective, we follow Aris who is a love-struck pilot from a small village called Lux in the Dominion of Atalanta. Our second perspective follows Pyralis Nekos (Ward of Atalanta) and Galena Vadim (Ward of Ruslana).

I enjoyed Aris's perspective more and more as the novel progressed. She starts off as a forelorn love-sick girl (with a wonderful talent for flying) who misses Calix dearly when he departs to work in the military. She chooses to become a military pilot in the hopes that she can be close to her beloved by disguising herself (via technology) as a male, since women aren't allowed to be a part of the military. Throughout the basic training process, she is pushed to her limit but she refuses to give in. As she sees the horror of war, she discovers her role in life separate from Calix. I felt extremely proud of Aris as I was reading her story.

The second perspective dragged for me a little. Even though it was relevant to the story, I found myself getting bored and skimming my way through them.

Last Thoughts

Nothing in this novel surprised me, which I didn't take as a bad thing. I had a decent idea of what was going on, and even figured out who the villain of the story would be. I did wish the author went into a little more detail with the flying scenes. I fly single-engine planes as a hobby, so I would have appreciated seeing what an amazing flyer Aris was instead of being told so.

All in all, once I finish my backlog of other Netgalley books, I will definitely be giving the second book in the trilogy a try. This experience has taught me that small/indie publishers are definitely worth a shot! They do have some amazing titles out there.

Have a relaxing Sunday, everyone! *starts obsessing about which book to read next*

Imitation » Book Review

I hereby make a pledge to myself. I WILL allow myself to 'DNF' books.

This novel was an utter disaster, all the way from its sub-par plot to its incompetent main character. And the romance made me want to claw someone's eyes out. Preferably those of Ven, our protagonist.

The Good

I learnt that I have a surprisingly high threshold of drivel. Apparently, I enjoy having a taste of true suffering.

The God-Awful

Where do I even begin...

Let me start with Ven, our Imitation (aka clone). She has spent her whole life living with other Imitations, training for the day when she might be called to serve her Authentic, Raven. Raven has been attacked and Ven is to take her place and draw out Raven's attackers while living under the thumb of Titus, who is Raven's father and also the creator of the Imitations. A significant portion of Ven's training was spent on learning about Raven and her social circle, and imitating her behavior. And oh boy, is she absolutely INCOMPETENT at that.

I don't get it. If you've spent YOUR WHOLE LIFE (in this case, 5 years) learning to be someone else, why on earth are you so terrible at it?? Not only that, Ven frequently mentions the daily challenging physical routine that she experienced with the other Imitations but she is SO USELESS at taking care of herself it makes me want to throw something.

I abhor incompetency in my main characters.

The only reason she barely makes it through this book is because of her bodyguard/love interest, Linc. He is always saving her, and getting her out of tricky situations because Ven is the most incapable character ever to exist. It takes until we get to 37% of the book for her to realize, hmmm, maybe I should save myself?

REALLY!?! Whatever gave you such an idea that YOU had to take care of yourself?! What a disgrace!!

"Linc always manages to show up when I need him most. I'm so overwhelmed by the sight of him - saving me, once again - that I can barely breathe."

Hmm, that whole taking care of yourself plan went straight to hell, I see.

The romance was nauseating. Within a meeting or two, Ven already can 'feel Linc's disapproval'. In fact, it's really clear that Linc had the hots for Raven, but figured she was too shallow or slutty for him. Which is just creepy.

"You've never turned down a boy," he says quietly. My eyes fall quickly to the floor. "Oh." Suddenly, I'm ashamed for something I've never done."

SLUT SHAMING IS NOT OKAY.

Another thing that irritated me to no end was how obtuse the villainous characters remained about Linc's true loyalties. Everything Raven does is monitored, including where in the house she goes, and her phone calls. She doesn't know this of course, and it's only because it was Linc who observed her (instead of one of the other bodyguards, which is pure dumb luck) that she remained safe. Not only that, Linc has been found in Ven's bedroom SEVERAL TIMES, and still no suspicion falls on him. I refuse to read the rest of the trilogy, but I sincerely hope that Linc is a traitor because all that was too easy.

Let me pepper you guys with some more wonderful quotes in case you need a dose of Ipecac. This will do the job.

"How can I give myself over to defeat now that I've finally found someone else [Linc] to believe in my victory?"

"My world cracks, crumbles, and reassembles itself - with Linc at the center."

"But it's Linc. And I won't refuse him.

*gags*

The blurb promised to keep me guessing till the very end. Do you want to know what the big reveal was at the end?? I figure you guys won't care, I highly doubt my review has convinced anyone to do so, but I shall add spoiler tags just in case.

[spoiler]That even clones are people with feelings![/spoiler]

No shit.

Linc leans in and kisses me lightly. "Thank you for having hope when I didn't," he says. I kiss him back, lingering longer than he did. "You are my hope."

I'm glad one of them has hope. My hope withered and died about 20 pages in.

Cress » Review

With each book under her belt, the author of The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer, has become a better and better storyteller, improving by leaps and bounds.

Back in 2012, when I first read Cinder, the first book in the sci-fi/fairytale-retelling series, I remember being mildly pleased, but mostly unimpressed with Meyer's writing.  Quite a few elements of the story bothered me.  Without getting too far into gripes, I had issues with the pacing, characterization, and concept.

When book two, Scarlet, came around, I found myself enjoying the good aspects of the book, but shaking my head over the missteps, which seemed to carry over from Cinder.  

I decided to abandon the series, but upon the release of the fourth and final book, Winter, the overflowing and warm responses to the book had me feeling a bit morose at being left out.  So, I picked up book three, Cress, with the hope of being newly impressed by the series.

Was I ever!

I discovered that in Cress, either Meyer has become a significantly better writer, or I've become a significantly different reader.  Whichever one it is, (maybe a little of both), I enjoyed Cress immensely.

Like the books that have come before it, Cress is a fairytale retelling, this time focusing on Rapunzel.  Cress, our new damsel, is a Lunar girl imprisoned in a satellite.  An unwilling underling of the evil queen Levanna, Cress has been spying on the revolutionary Linh Cinder and her outlaw gang for months.  Cress has been hiding her true knowledge of Cinder's whereabouts for a while, in no small part due to her crush on Carswell Thorne, the young, felon pilot.  Before long, Cress is thrust into the pell-mell path of these outlaws and comes face to face with Cinder, the lost princess of Luna, and Carswell Thorne himself.

Impressing me most strongly was Meyer's skillful balancing act between many character arcs and story-lines. What started out as an awkward chorus in books one and two has evolved into a skillful harmony in Cress.  The phase "coming together" is the perfect description for Meyer's accomplishments. The third-person narration moves amongst many places and characters, creating a true ensemble story.  And unlike Scarlet, which suffered from abrupt shifts, Cress's narrative maneuvers are much more smooth.

Also wonderful was Meyer's tone.  There plenty of humor to be found, along with swoons and jaw-drops.  I was fully invested in the story, reacting to the prose like I was at the movies.

It's amazing to see how Meyer's writing abilities have flourished as this series has come along.  I cannot wait to get my hands on the final book in The Lunar Chronicles, Winter.

 

 

Ready Player One » Review

• Are you obsessed with video games? If you are, you need no other inducement to read Ernest Cline's Ready Player One.  


• So-so on video games?  You should still read the book; you'll find your appreciation gives you a bit of a boost in getting into the story.


• You don't care about gaming?  I don't care about sports featuring balls or small discs, but I don't hold that against the various athletic characters in books I read.


• You HATE video games? Maybe you should read Ready Player One and get a fully-fleshed perspective on your stance.

In case it isn't obvious yet, I'm recommending Ready Player One for everyone to read, especially because — and this is my trump card — the movie is coming out in a year or two and it is directed by Stephen Spielberg. Just sayin', don't you want to be the wise person who read the book before the hype becomes a fever pitch?  I know I did.

Sometimes staying up-to-date with literary culture can be a chore, the kind that one takes to with grim determination because the results, if not the process, are known to be desirable.  Take A Little Life, which was a huge book on the literary scene this year.  I intend to read A Little Life in order to be a better informed reader and because I'm curious, but judging by the cover, featuring a young man pressing his face with a clawed hand, wearing a clench-eyed look of anguish on his face, someone is going to have a long, drawn-out downfall in this book and probably die of AIDS or Gut Cancer, or complications ensuing from mental illnesses like schizophrenia and consumptive malaise.

All of this is to say that, on the other hand, reading Ready Player One for cultural purposes was like drinking a can of soda — there was a wonderful pop/crack and then a satisfying guzzle with lots of fizz.

That can be my blurb: "Ready Player One was a satisfying guzzle with lots of fizz." — Quest Reviews

Speaking of blurbs...one of the many accolades on the cover of Ready Player One tells us that we will be reading, "A GROWN-UP'S HARRY POTTER!" This really says something about the confusion around this book's genre.  I have found this book in the Fiction section and the Science Fiction section in bookstores, (the labels on the book read "Fiction — Science Fiction — Adventure." But by a few rights, Ready Player One should be YA.  Wade Watts, our main character, is 18 when the book begins and our chief supporting characters are barely older.  A friend of mine claims the book is "younger" than typical Science Fiction.  But the book is heftier than typical YA books as well, in both content and concept...

When in doubt, get scientific. The AR (Accelerated Reading) Score, used by schools and libraries, ranks Ready Player One as a 6.7, using the ATOS formula. A typical YA book ranks at a 5.  So, Ready Player One ranks at a higher reader difficulty and maturity than your average YA.  But this isn't to say that Ready Player One surpasses all YA.  Just for example, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has an AR score of 6.9.  The Golden Compass is a 7.1.

All of this displacement is very interesting to me, and I could go on at even greater length, but what it comes down to is that Ready Player One can be enjoyed by many ages and readers.

But what about the actual content of the book?  The premise is this — that in 2012, an advanced virtual reality gaming console was invented that basically became the new internet; now, in 2044, the OASIS is a crucial aspect of modern life and many people escape the worsening effects of climate change and the repercussions of the Energy Crisis by making lives in virtual space.  Our protagonist, Wade Watts, has used the OASIS for years to educate himself.  He dreams of one day escaping from the "stacks" — the vertical, urban trailer park where he lives in poverty. He even has a plan to make hundreds of billions.  For he, like many thousands of OASIS players, is a 'gunter,' a person obsessed with finding the prize-winning Easter Egg left behind by the deceased creator of the OASIS.

The story is difficult to put down, due to Cline's winning combination of premise, plot, pace, and stakes.  All of these attributes were solid, especially the pace and stakes.  Where I think Cline stumbled was in characterization.  Wade was a fine main character.  He was someone to root for, even though he wasn't always admirable.  But the supporting cast needed some development.  Wade, as a paranoid anti-social, has his reasons for keeping people at a distance, but our narrator is an older, wiser Wade, speaking from the past tense.  He has the virtue of hindsight and should give us a clearer understanding of peripheral characters.

Also needing work is another element tied to characterization — dialogue!  Each line of dialogue in a book says something important about a character.  It's a powerful tool and helps to shape constructs into believable and understandable people.  Ernest Cline failed to hit the nail with the hammer on this point.  While reading, I often saw conversations centering on juvenile and inessential topics, or lines of speech that were dime-for-a-dozen and gave no insight into the speaker's inner workings.  This was something I noticed again and again, and felt sore over.

So, Ready Player One isn't a perfect book.  But it is a really good one.  It is a book that I'm glad I bought (without reading it first!) and that I'm looking forward to gifting people with. If you're looking around for something to read, why not give this book a play-through?

 

Nimona » Review

I found Nimona at my library, tucked into those little display stands that librarians use in lieu of shaking you and saying, read this!  Those displays always catch my attention, and Nimona caught mine doubly because of the striking girl on the cover — the eponymous Nimona.

I saw her and immediately thought of Eleanor, from Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor and Park.  Eleanor, with her wide hips and big boobs — a future bombshell body in its awkward, early stages.  But nothing about Nimona says awkward.  She's dressed in a chain-mail accented mini-dress, proudly showing off her knee dimples.  She has a punk rock haircut, the kind that's mostly buzz-cut that you need confidence to pull off.  All of that, and she's standing in the center, slightly in front of, two grown men.

Her expression is fierce, and joyful at the same time, like she's saying to you, Betcha don't have the guts to pick up my story! 

Needless to say, I picked up the book and checked it out.  What I discovered was a graphic novel full of "humor and heart," as Rowell herself puts it in her blurb of the book.

Artist and author Noelle Stevenson creates a world that combines classic fantasy elements with science fiction.  (It works better than you might think!) In that world she's planted Ballister Blackheart and Ambrosius Goldenloin, two former boyhood friends and schoolmates who whose relationship turned sour after a gruesome jousting "accident."  Now men, Blackheart has become a loathed villain, while Goldenloin is a celebrated knight for the 'Institution.'  Then, their world of bad-guy-and-hero spins off its axis with the arrival of Nimona on Blackheart's doorstep.  She's his new sidekick, "sent from the agency!"

Nimona looks and acts like a rambunctious girl, but she quickly proves to be more than she seems...

[caption id="attachment_1433" align="aligncenter" width="399" class="imagepro-polaroid "] These rough panels are taken from the original webcomic. The artwork in the book has been sharpened and refined.[/caption]

She's a shapeshifter! It's the perfect metaphor for Nimona's character, too, because just when you think you've got her figured out, she evolves.  She's a wonderfully complex character, constantly shifting while staying consistent.  I'd love to discuss her character in more depth, but I also don't dare to give anything away!  All I'll say is that Nimona was more than I could have imagined.

As for the art... I loved it!  It's presented to us in a sketchy style, with exaggerated shapes and figures.  The backgrounds are simple and muted, letting the colors and lines of the characters pop. What I'd like to know is — can Noelle Stevenson do more, or was she drawing at her best?  If the former, I'd have liked to see her push herself a little farther.  If the latter, then she did well working within her skill boundaries.

In regards to the storyline and writing, that is where Nimona could see some improvement.  The plot, aside from everything Nimona, was quite simple... "classic" if you want to put it nicely, and "cliched" if you don't.  I found some of the names and titles in the book to be a little too simple and slapdash for my tastes.  The 'Institution.' Really? And as for Blackheart and Goldenloin... well, I would have liked their characters to be a little less predictable and categorized.

But, overall, if you love graphic novels, this won't be a title you'll want to miss, especially if you want to read about a diverse and complex female character.  I hope Nimona steals your heart as much as it did mine.

 

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.

Siege and Storm » Review

Siege and Storm is such a middle book.  By that I mean, it is very much a bridge between a beginning and an ending and doesn't really pull too much new stuff out of its hat.  Despite this, it's still a good read.  However, it didn't knock my socks off like its predecessor, Shadow and Bone, did.

The book starts off with Alina and Mal on the run from the Darkling.  Then, mere pages into the book, the plot arrives with a bang.  Seriously, I got some reader whiplash from how fast things took off.  Perhaps I would have appreciated a bit slower of a buildup.

Then, once things get going, they are going, until... the pace drops.  We get chapter after chapter of descriptive summary and very little dialogue.  With the breakneck start, this sudden lull was a bit jarring and noticeable.

As for our romance, it was in a middle-of-the-series state as well.  Alina juggles three romantic possibilities.  Three.  It was a bit much, even for a romance lover like myself.

She continues to pine after Mal, despite, you know, being with him, and their relationship struggles under the weight of Alina's chosen-one burden.  They are most definitely the most insecure couple I've ever encountered in fiction, although Mr. and Mrs. de Winter from Rebecca come in a close second place.  At one point, one of Bardugo's characters comments, saying something to the effect of, "for a case of true love, you two are awfully insecure."  Truth!  But is it any less annoying for being highly intentional on the author's part?

We also meet a bevy of new characters, and the series is stronger for it.  I particularly liked meeting the younger son of the King.  He was a complex, yet distinct, character and scenes were always brightened by his presence.  Vasily, his older brother, made for a great villain as well.  Coming from Kentucky, Vasily reminded me so much of a particular brand of snob that is the rich horse racing aficionado.  Perhaps living in California, Leigh Bardugo is familiar with the breed as well.

As for the Darkling, he was largely absent in the book, which I liked, because that character scares the bejeezus out of me.  A mass murderer who almost claims the omni-trifecta: omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient? Yikes.  I hesitate to say he's a flat character, because a lot of it can be chalked up to his being mysterious, but I've never gotten into the Darkling.  His sins never leave my mind long enough for me to feel anything but creeped out.  But maybe the fact that he provides a lot of food for thought makes him an accomplished character? Perhaps.

This has been a very muddled review, but I hope I got across what I wanted.  Siege and Storm was a good book, yet raised a lot of argumentative feelings in me regarding the plot and characters.

Illuminae | Review

It's been a few weeks since I closed the cover on Illuminae and I'm rethinking my initial rating of four stars.  I might be a hardass and lower it.  As I've written this review, I've gotten crankier and crankier about certain aspects, although I do have to be fair — this book grabbed my attention from the get-go, and it wasn't until late in the book that I started critiquing its faults.  Let's get down to it.

The novel is narrated through documents and messages, a type of updated epistolary style.  At first I thought that this would cramp the pacing, and it did to an extent, but not nearly as much as I anticipated.  For having all of its action be related as past events, Kristoff and Kaufman did an amazing job at making the the narrative seem like the present.

Our novel starts off with a cover letter for a compilation of documents.  The letter tells its recipient that the documents will relate the story of a catastrophic event on an illegal mining colony (in outer space).  We start off with two teenage survivors of the catastrophe being interviewed (our protagonists).

Before the catastrophe, Kady was a spunky, punky young lady with aspirations of college and traveling the universe.  Ezra was a talented G-ball jock with a close bond with his miner dad.  The two kids used to date.  Except, they messily broke up hours before the catastrophe occurred.  They both made it off the colony, thanks to Kady's badassery, but are on separate rescue vessels. Most of the novel follows their independent activities on different ships.  Ezra is drafted into the military as a pilot.  Kady is taken under the wing of an accomplished computer hacker.

I don't want to get into the plot further, because of spoilers, but there is a lot going on in Illuminae.  There's a pursuit across space, a deadly contagion, malfunctioning artificial intelligence, an evil corporation, and more!  To be honest, it was too much at times. One or two plot points could have been excluded and the story would have been much more streamlined.

Another thing that could have been improved was the style of narration that took up most of the climax. [spoiler]That of AIDEN, the Artificial Intelligence.[/spoiler] In my opinion, it was the least dynamic narrative style, and made the finale of the book annoying to read.  It was like reading high school poetry. Blah. I can't emphasize enough how much I disliked [spoiler]AIDEN.[/spoiler]  Speaking of high school, I hated the texting abbreviations and :P faces that littered the book.  Just personal preference.

One MORE thing.  I couldn't help but notice the extreme similarities between Illuminae and Kaufman's Starbound collaboration with Megan Spooner.  In fact, they are ridiculously alike. Now, writing similar works isn't exactly a sin, but Kaufman is risking becoming a one-note author, which isn't exactly good.  It definitely made me wonder, though, what traces of Jay Kristoff were in Illuminae?  Did he serve to make the male lead more authentic?  Is he responsible for AIDEN? I'm curious, because it's hard to tell.

Now that I've sufficiently ragged on Illuminae, let me spend some time praising it.  The book was good.  Period.  There's a lot of bad YA out there and Illuminae floats to the top without breaking a sweat. I was sucked in the the story immediately and read the book in one sitting. I enjoyed myself.  That is not to say, however, that there's no room for improvement.  I think the novel could have benefited from adding dimension to EVIL Corps, or whatever it's name is, having the characters be fleshed out further, shaving off plot bulk, and more.

All in all, I can see Illuminae being a popular book, but I doubt it'll be a breakthrough hit.

Uprooted | Review

Uprooted gets a standing ovation and 4.5 stars! Bra-vo!

Written in a style reminiscent of old-school Robin McKinley and Diana Wynne Jones, Uprooted is a standout fantasy and fairytale retelling.  Agnieszka (Ahn-YESH-ka) has always been prepared for the day when she and the other girls in her village will be inspected, and one taken away, by the ageless wizard and lord known as "the Dragon."  However, she and everyone else in the village always expected Kasia, the most exceptional girl amongst them, to be selected as a tribute.  When the Dragon selects Agnieszka instead, she must submit to ten years of servitude and confinement.

It sounds like a straightforward Beauty and the Beast interpretation, no?  However, after the initial hook, the story diverges drastically from your run-of-the-mill romance.  What drives the story forward is the threat of an insidious and elusive dark magic.  Manifesting itself as a thick, impenetrable forest, the sentient evil is slowly and inexorably spreading across the kingdom.  Agnieszka is swept up in the resistance against this evil, her unique talents forcing the Dragon and herself into an uneasy alliance.

The whole self-aware, malevolent forest thing is quite similar to Rosamund Hodge's evil woods in Crimson Bound, a high-profile novel released just months before Uprooted, but in my opinion, Novik wins the comparison hands down.  Although I read Crimson Bound first, I didn't understand what Hodge was trying to accomplish until I took up Novik's novel.  The forest was deliciously creepy and an inventive villain.

As for the characters, I found Agnieszka to be a fantastic heroine, resourceful and intuitive.  She was well written, being both a distinct person and consistent in her behaviors, while also growing throughout the story.  The cantankerous and wounded Dragon was equally compelling.  These two characters and their combative relationship steered the novel, but the assisting and peripheral characters were an accomplishment as well.  However, I must complain, as others have, that the Dragon was not given nearly enough page time to satisfy me.  There had better be a sequel.

Overall, Uprooted was a fantastic read and is a novel to get excited over.  If you enjoy fairytale retellings, or YA fantasy, this book is not to be missed.

The Diviners Review

I've been thinking...  I've started recording and posting video reviews, but have come up against some problems.  First, I never get to say everything I want about a book in the video.  Under the harsh red recording eyeball I lose my train of thought more often than not.  I'm still figuring out how to prepare for speaking out loud to my computer in an empty room about books.  Second, I don't want to post a bunch of videos to the blog without offering some meatier content.

So, I decided that with each video review, I'm going to write a review to go along with it.  That way, I'll produce a more thorough review and have fuller posts! Perfect!

So, The Diviners. It was published in late 2012,  and its critical reception was largely favorable.  This book was written by Libba Bray, who enjoyed commercial success with her A Great and Terrible Beauty series, and critical acclaim with her novel Going Bovine.  The book follows a young woman, Evie O'Neil, during 1926.

Like Bray's protagonist of Terrible Beauty, Gemma Doyle, Evie O'Neil is a girl with special powers.  She can psychically read objects.  She has trouble keeping what she learns from this power a secret, however, and soon lands in hot water when she makes an accusation against a prominent citizen in the Ohio town where she resides.  She's bustled off to live with her uncle in New York City.  Her uncle, it so happens, owns and operates an occult museum.

“There is no greater power on this earth than story.” Will paced the length of the room. “People think boundaries and borders build nations. Nonsense—words do. Beliefs, declarations, constitutions—words. Stories. Myths. Lies. Promises. History.” Will grabbed the sheaf of newspaper clippings he kept in a stack on his desk. “This, and these”—he gestured to the library’s teeming shelves—“they’re a testament to the country’s rich supernatural history.”

Despite her own gifts, Evie is skeptical of the museum and her uncle at first.  But when her uncle is called as a specialist during a murder investigation, she winds up falling down a supernatural rabbit hole.

“Naughty John, Naughty John, does his work with his apron on. Cuts your throat and takes your bones, sells 'em off for a coupla stones.”

I give the book three and a half stars.  While it had fantastic elements, there were some strong weaknesses as well.  In regards to the well done aspects, the book's setting is overwhelmingly the best part of the book.  You can tell that Bray put in an enormous amount of research to get the right 20's atmosphere down.  A lot of times, when reading historical fiction, the modern language and voice pull me out of the period.  But, with The Diviners, every detail helps add to the jazz age allure.

The book also has a strong protagonist.  Evie is a great character — a flapper, smart, sassy, and vivacious.  She is always ready with a wisecrack.

“Your mother and I do not approve of drinking. Have you not heard of the Eighteenth Amendment?”

“Prohibition? I drink to its health whenever I can.”

Evangeline — a hilarious name for this skeptic character — dazzles brightly off the page, while still retaining emotional depth.

“She was tired of being told how it was by this generation, who’d botched things so badly. They’d sold their children a pack of lies: God and country. Love your parents. All is fair. And then they’d sent those boys, her brother, off to fight a great monster of a war that maimed and killed and destroyed whatever was inside them. Still they lied, expecting her to mouth the words and play along. Well, she wouldn’t. She knew now that the world was a long way from fair. She knew the monsters were real.”

Now, onto the stuff I didn't like so much.  I think the book needs huge amounts of editing.  The story follows two other characters, Memphis Campbell and Theta Knight.  Three points of view were largely extraneous, I thought.  The book would have been stronger with a good deal of extraneous storyline shaved off, and extra narrative perspectives don't make the cut.

Second, I thought the romance was bland! This isn't a critical failure on the book's part, or anything, but a compelling romance makes a golden story, in my opinion.  I'm waiting to see how things unfold in the sequel in this regard.

So, that's that.  I don't go into greater depth in my video, but there is the added bonus of facial expressions!