And I Darken » Book Review

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

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

The Characters

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

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

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

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

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

Closing Thoughts

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

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

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?”

On Chesil Beach » Book Review

On Chesil Beach is a novelette by Ian McEwan, the esteemed author of Atonement.  I've never read Atonement, despite owning a copy of the book. However, from watching the movie, I figure that Atonement is about the biggest errors of people's lives. Fitting in with that theme, On Chesil Beach is also about life-altering mistakes.

The novelette follows Florence and Edward, young newlyweds on the first night of their honeymoon, in 1962.  They're both virgins, but the couple have wildly different views on sex.  Edward is typical, highly anticipating their night of physicality before them.  Florence, however, is revolted by the idea of bodily intimacy, and she hasn't confided in Edward about this.

The book, at its beginning, was just slamming my funny bone.  Usually I don't laugh at sexual gags, but McEwan's dark and intellectual humor seriously got me.  I was throwing my head back, screwing my eyes shut, laughing. It was all surprisingly therapeutic.

There was also content about Edward and Florence's respective upbringings.  Edward grew up in a working-class, progressive household, while Florence's childhood was more upper-crust, old-world. There may have been some British subtleties that went over my head there, but the writing was still engaging.

The ending itself, and the entire book, wasn't sad per se, but it did approach poignancy.  This isn't a book that made me cry, but there wasn't a fairy-tale finale, either.  Nevertheless, I found this book to be pleasantly cathartic.  I give it 4.5 stars and recommend highly.

 

 

 

The Night Birds | Review

Okay... ahem... full disclosure: I'm going to do my level BEST to get you to read this little, unknown piece of historical fiction. Be prepared.

It's crazy how this book first popped on my radar. It was either 2009 or 2010 and I was browsing the stacks at my local library. I picked up The Night Birds because I got a good feeling from it, like some sort of wacky, mystical book-sniffer. Two days later, I'd finished the novel and felt like I'd just stepped off an emotional tilt-a-whirl.

I've only ever read this book once. My library no longer has a copy (probably my fault; I took the book along with me on a kayaking trip aaaaand kind of dropped it in a river) and I have a hunch that it's out of print. Now that I think on it, I should really hunt down a copy and purchase it. All of this is to say, my memory of the book's particulars are unfortunately fuzzy.

What I remember most starkly, however, are the huge waves of emotion that I felt while reading The Night Birds. Huge, huge waves of feelings. Also, I remember being deeply impressed by the overall quality of the novel.

The book is set during the Civil War era in the rural midwest. Think Little House on the Prairie, but written for an older audience. Our narrator is a boy, Asa, and the story begins when his aunt Hazel comes to stay with his family on their farm. Hazel has been released from an asylum, and it becomes clear that she suffers from epilepsy and the memories of lost love and disappointments. She and Asa form a close bond. It's a relationship rarely seen in fiction — that of an aunt and her nephew, but it's a very beautiful rapport that the two share inThe Night Birds.

What happens next is intense and heartbreaking. It has to do with the Dakota indians and their last-ditch struggles to escape the stranglehold of the white men, which resulted in staggering violence and tragedy. I will not try to hide it from you; there is blood in The Night Birds. It's shocking, and hard to read, but what's important to remember is that the Dakota Conflict of 1862 is a real historical event, and it often gets overshadowed in the history books by the Civil War.

What Maltman does so well in The Night Birds, is he humanizes the people on either side of the conflict. We get to see the beauty of the Dokata lifestyle, how it is threatened, and their growing desperation that culminates in mass murder. We also understand the plight of the white pioneers, and their struggles. What Maltman doesn't provide us is relief from the reality of what happened. Because of this, The Night Birds is hard to read.

Huh. I'm not doing such a great job at selling this book, am I? Ah, well. Just trust me when I say that The Night Birds has transformative power. It's a beautiful piece of literature and an accomplishment of historical fiction. By God, read it.

Code Name Verity Review

Giving this book 3 stars makes me feel like I have no class.  Certainly, this book deserves a higher rating.  But although I appreciated the novel for its meticulous research, daring plot, and unusual narration, it just did not capture my heart.

I'm heartless along with having no class!

The story opens bleakly, with our narrator captured by the Gestapo. We are reading her written "confession" as it were.  She spins a tale of two young women — one is from Manchester, the other is a Scottish noble.  Maddie and Queenie meet during the war effort in 1936, on an air base. The two quickly become friends, but are separated as they take different paths.  Then, they are thrown together again unexpectedly, as both are needed for a top secret mission in France.

I'm not entirely sure why this book was marketed as YA.  Although the ages of these women are never discussed, they're certainly not teenagers.  The only reason I can think of is that the book has a less mature tone.  This sounds bad, I know.  What I mean is, I found the premise to be slightly implausible.  Certainly women took on a more significant role in the war effort during World War II, but I found the story of Maddie and Queenie to be such that is only possible in fiction.  It's the kind of wish fulfillment frequently found in YA literature.

One thing is undeniable, however — the book is incredibly well researched.  So much so that there's a bibliography at the end of the book.  The detail is superb; the voice is solidly of the period. It was extremely impressive.  That being said, I did think that the language was at times overly clogged with this period detail. This made my progress through Code Name Verity somewhat labored.

Another aspect that disappointed me — I can't seem to stop myself — was the friendship between Maddie and Queenie.  I guess I was expecting more chemistry.  But, apart from the fantastic early stage of their relationship, the reader doesn't get to experience the two together so much.  This was a bit of a letdown, since I was looking forward to reading about a solid friendship.

All of this is to say that I expected more from the book than I experienced.  Somehow, though, I feel more disappointed in myself than in the book.

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!