...have been announced, and the YA winner is Flesh & Bone, by Jonathan Maberry.
See the rest of the winners here, and the other YA finalists here!
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...have been announced, and the YA winner is Flesh & Bone, by Jonathan Maberry.
See the rest of the winners here, and the other YA finalists here!
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Head on over to Alexander London's letter at Dear Teen Me:
You didn’t kiss anyone for two years. When you got back to the states, you even dyed your hair back to brown. You stayed in a closet of your own making. You got angry and seethed in silence. You hid behind your eyes and watched reality happen to other people.
When you eventually did kiss a guy and let life open up to you, it really was all you hoped it would be and more. It wasn’t just the kiss or coming out, though that was part of it. It was realizing you could be your whole self.
Blubbering all over my desk.
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Glamour in Glass: Glamourist Histories, #2, by Mary Robinette Kowal
I loved Shades of Milk and Honey, the first book in Kowal's Regency era fantasy series, and I mostly loved this one, too. Like, 95% loved it.
Pros:
I continue to adore the magic system: It's quiet and somewhat sedate, but in creative, inventive hands, allows for WICKED COOL USAGE.
I love that in addition to the fantasy, it works very much as historical fiction—Jane and Vincent are in Belgium for their honeymoon, and Napoleon figures in heavily—and as a romance.
More pluses: The language and the writing, the attention to detail and the pure, awesome geekery of the author. In the Author's Note—DO NOT MISS IT—Kowal talks about how she created a dictionary comprised of Jane Austen's books and ran her manuscript of Glamour and Glass against it. She researched the history of every single word that the dictionary didn't contain, and she lists some that surprised her (and some that she kept anyway). She also talks a bit about how her world diverges from our own, and about what anachronisms she knowingly included. (Which is so much cooler than a blanket "IT'S ALT-HISTORY, ANYTHING GOES!" attitude. Ahem. In my opinion, anyway.)
Cons:
You know that storyline where the heroine gets deliriously happily married and everything is awesome and so on BUT THEN she starts thinking OH NOES, MAYBE HE DOESN'T ACTUALLY REALLY LOVE ME? It's one of my least favorite storylines, and that's much of what goes on with the romance thread in Glamour in Glass. To be fair, Vincent is EXTREMELY withdrawn and irritable and distracted—which is especially bad considering they're on their honeymoon—so it's understandable that Jane would have those feelings, but it's not my fave. That is, of course, MY STUFF, and it totally works in terms of characterization—even drawing on the first book, because for various reasons, Jane doesn't have loads of confidence in herself as A Lovable Person—so really, unless you also dislike that storyarc, it's not much of a Con at all.
Also, while I love that the cover art incorporates bubbles (there's a whole important thread about using spheres of glamour), I can't help but feel that the model is WAAAAAY more conventionally attractive than Jane. I loved the cover art on the first book because I felt that it really captured that. Her dress, though, is BEAUTIFUL, and I have no beef whatsoever with it. Except that I don't own one.
Recommended to:
Fans of the first one, fantasy-loving fans of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, anyone who likes fantasy that really delves into the mechanics of magic systems, fans of any of the above who also have an interest in artists and their techniques.
Sapphique: Incarceron, #2, by Catherine Fisher
I finally, finally got around to the sequel to Incarceron! Finn is now outside the prison, but is not really any less of a prisoner: he's suddenly living in a world of strict social protocol and every misstep he makes acts to further convince everyone—including Claudia, who until now has been his strongest supporter—that he's an impostor, rather than a long-lost prince.
Meanwhile, Finn's allies within Incarceron are still searching for a way to escape: they're hunting for Sapphique's magic glove, which might not even exist... but the prison is working against them, and it wants to find a way to escape itself.
Pros:
Like the first book, the world-building is HUGE and RICH and DARK and COMPLEX. The cultures on the inside and the outside of Incarceron are distinctly different, but it's always clear that regardless of what side of the wall each character resides on, every single one of them is a prisoner in some way. Including Incarceron itself, which is a mindbleep and a half.
In addition to the world-building, the storyline is exciting, and the characters are worth caring about, the pacing is, like, BREAKNECK, and the whole thing is BANANAS in the best kind of way. Incarceron was super, but Sapphique was even better.
Cons:
Erm. None for me, though it's not going to be an across-the-board crowdpleaser: see above about the DARK and BANANAS.
Recommended to:
Fans of the first one. I wouldn't recommend it as a stand-alone.
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Book source:
G&G: ILLed through my library.
S: ARC provided by the publisher a looooong time ago.
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On her inspiration for Fudge's Turtle Incident:
Read it in a newspaper. No kidding -- a real toddler swallowed a tiny pet turtle. Wrote a picture book about it and got back great rejection letters. "Very funny but this would teach small children to swallow turtles." Great editor suggested writing a longer book (chapter book) and using that story as the last chapter.
If you want them to read my books don't tell them so. Maybe just leave around a paperback with a new cover and say, "I'm not sure you're ready for that."
On her favorite books as a child:
The Betsy-Tacy books by Maude Hart Lovelace. Still wonderful books.
And at one point she answered "Have you ever gotten high with Gordon Korman and hooked up?" with "Not yet."
Judy Blume, you rule.
Click on through for loads more!
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After all of the descriptions of Emily's 'red ropey hair' in the first book, the model on the cover doesn't really jive with the image of her in my mind. Ah, well. Anyway.
It could be argued that I was hard on the first two books in Kady Cross' Steampunk Chronicles. So in the interest of being all fair-minded and whatnot, I will say that they do have some attractive qualities:
Fans of the first two books are likely to like this third installment which, as you've probably gathered by the cover art and the title, focuses mostly on Emily, the Girl Genius Who Can Control Automatons With Her Mind. She gets kidnapped by a Bad Robot (<--heh) who wants her to use her Mechanical Prowess to move the Machinist's brain out of his mostly-dead body and into a fancy new automaton-human hybrid.
It's an undertaking that, not-so-surprisingly, she has issues with beyond the whole abduction thing: bringing the Machinist back would be bad enough, but worse for soft-hearted Emily is the fact that the automaton-human hybrid is a sentient being whose mind, personality, and soul will be destroyed when her body is co-opted by the Machinist. (All of which also serves to allow Emily to come to terms with the sexual assault she survived back in Ireland.)
Yet again, for me, the major issue—beyond the lack of character development—is the repetitive language. Emily continues to 'wee' this and 'wee' that, which is grating, but once again, it was the eyebrows that killed me. I read The Girl with the Iron Touch in review copy form, so I double-checked the following quotes against the Google Books preview and the Amazon preview, and it looks to me that they all made it into the finished copy:
Jack arched a brow at her bad manners. (p. 37)
Mr. Isley arched a brow but wisely remained silent. (p. 51)
She arched a brow, and didn't care that he saw it. (p. 149)
Jack raised a brow at Sam. (p. 157)
Jack raised one brow ever so slightly as his gaze locked with hers. (p. 161)
Emily's heart skipped a beat even as her brow gave a dubious lift. (p. 170)
She arched a brow. (p. 180)
Emily arched a brow. (p. 206)
He arched a brow. (p. 247)
She arched a brow. (p. 256)
Finley arched a brow. (p. 299)
He arched a brow. (p. 321)
Now she was the one whose brow rose. (p. 321)
Griffin swore—the kind of language that made Finley arch a brow. (p. 326)
And, of course, keep in mind that I didn't count any of the 'lowering' or 'pulling together' or 'shooting up'. All in all, these characters expend more energy waggling their eyebrows around than you or I would while working out to a Jillian Michaels DVD.
So, there you have it: if that sort of thing drives you bananas, I'd say give the series a miss and wait for the (hopefully inevitable) CW show.
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Author page.
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Book source: Review copy via Netgalley.
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Etiquette and Espionage, by Gail Carriger:
After one unladylike incident too many, fourteen-year-old Sophronia Angelina Temminnick gets packed off to Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. But the phrase "Finishing School" has more than one meaning, and while Sophronia's family assumes that she'll be off learning the Art of the Perfect Curtsy, Sophronia is delighted to discover that in addition to the expected lessons in How to Pour the Perfect Cup of Tea, Mademoiselle Geraldine's storied institution offers training in combat, espionage, poisons, and assassination.
Pros: Clever and funny and fast-paced, with chapter headings like The Teaching Habits of Werewolves and How Not to Flirt, and character names like Mrs. Barnaclegoose and Pillover Plumleigh-Teignmott. In addition to the General Air of Fun, there are threads that deal with social and economic class. While it deals with issues surrounding differences of all sorts, Sophronia herself has a nicely blase attitude of inclusiveness in re: characters who are different from her in terms of ethnicity, social class, species, etc.
Cons: There's so much going on that A) there's not much depth of character and B) the storyline occasionally feels like a confused snarl. A consistantly entertaining confused snarl, to be sure, but it DOES get quite muddy at times.
Recommended to: Fans of Carriger's Parasol Protectorate books (obviously), as well as fans of Y.S. Lee's The Agency books (though it should be noted that this book is far less serious than the Lee books).
I actually really like both covers, though I suspect that the one on the left will be more attractive to teen readers.
Incoming college freshman Daniel adores his Da:
Because he is a cool grandfather, always was. Retired early from some government job that was something like systems analyst for the Department of Agriculture. Never, ever talked about his work. Might have been because who in his right mind would ever have bothered to ask about a job as boring as that? Might have been.
The thing is, though, as Da slips further and further into dementia, he starts talking more and more about his career... and it quickly becomes clear to Daniel that Da's former profession wasn't boring AT ALL. Soon, men come looking for Da, wanting to shut him up by any means necessary. So Daniel takes him on the run... and it's a decision that will change his life forever.
Pros: Crackling, believable dialogue, and a storyline that features moments of such tension that my skin is crawling just thinking about them. Despite the brevity of Daniel's voice, the complexity of the familial relationships is top-notch.
Cons: None for me, though this is very much going to be one of those Love-It-Or-Hate-It books. If watching a seemingly-well-adjusted kid morph into a sociopath is an unattractive prospect, I'd give it a miss.
Recommended to: Did you like the movie Drive? Then this book might really work for you.
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Author page: Carriger.
Author page: Lynch.
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Book source (both): ILLed through my library.
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If you were a fan of Cinder, then you've probably already read Scarlet. I, of course, am getting to it monstrously late.
Anyway, it's pretty safe to say that if you liked Cinder, that you'll really like Scarlet! It has all of the first book's strengths—plucky heroine, really cool worldbuilding INCLUDING a setting centered OUTSIDE of the United States (WOO!), political intrigue and threads about cultural and economic and physical differences and YES, ROMANCE—and, like Cinder, in Scarlet, Meyer takes a familiar story and makes it fresh and new and compelling and surprising.
I especially love that it works not just as a sequel to Cinder, but as a companion to it, too: it's set in the same world, and it continues Cinder's story, but it also introduces a completely new heroine and all of her trials and tribulations. So even though the overarching Big Picture Story is about Cinder, Scarlet is about, well, SCARLET.
Who is, in case the cover art didn't make it abundantly clear, Little Red Riding Hood.
If you HAVEN'T read Cinder, then you probably don't know what I'm talking about. So if the phrases FUTURISTIC FAIRY TALE or CYBORG CINDERELLA or MECHANIC AND SECRET PRINCESS make your ears perk up, hop on back to my post about it.
BONUS POINTS: Iko the android continues to be hilariously shallow and adorable.
BONUS BONUS POINTS: Wolf. I love him. Not just because I have a soft spot for the Street Fighter Who May Or May Not Have A Heart Of Gold type, but because I loved the descriptions of his mannerisms: they're very... wolf-y, which was a nice touch. (As well was making sense within the context of his history, etc., but I'd picked up on them well before THE BIG REVEAL, and it was just all-around well done.)
TRIPLE BONUS (I just typoed that as 'BONES' and almost left it, because wolf/dog/bone and that would have been HILARIOUS) POINTS: The Queen of the Moon continues to be A COMPLETE MONSTER. And hugely enjoyable. I vote for Charlize Theron to play her, so that she can play an Evil Queen in a movie that doesn't, you know, stink.
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Book source: ILLed through my library.
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...I wrote about Christian Schoon's Zenn Scarlett:
Add a CommentZenn Scarlett has a great sense of place, both physical and political; wonderfully described alien species that aren’t at all anthropomorphized; a likable heroine, tight pacing with lots of chapters ending on exciting old-timey serial cliffhangers, and a good amount of humor. I enjoyed it hugely...with a few minor caveats. (You totally knew that was coming, didn’t you?)
You've probably already heard about Lizzie Skurnick's imprint at Ig Publishing, but have you seen what the actual books look like?
That's one of them -->
I LOVE. I can't decide if it looks familiar because I've seen the actual cover somewhere around the interwebs, or if it looks familiar because Ig has so perfectly captured THE LOOK of old-school YA novels.
And if you click through and look at all of them together, it's just a GORGEOUS SIGHT.
I want them all, and you'd better believe that they're all getting shelved together under the imprint name, rather than separately under the various author names. (On my shelves at home, I mean. That wouldn't work in the library, obvs.)
The only thing that would make the imprint cooler would be if they launched a subscription service. THAT WOULD BE BOSS.
ANYWAY.
ALSO in the pipeline is Ravenstone, from Rebellion Publishing, and Black Sheep, from Akashic Books.
Info via this article.
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The finalists are:
Add a CommentThe Fault in our Stars, by John Green
Maggot Moon, by Sally Gardner
Liar and Spy, by Rebecca Stead
The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas, by David Almond
After Tomorrow, by Gillian Cross
A World Between Us, by Lydia Syson
Rooftoppers, by Katherine Rundell
The Wall, by William Sutcliffe
The Arthur Ellis Awards are presented by the Crime Writers of Canada.
This year's YA winner is:
Becoming Holmes, by Shane Peacock
The other finalists were:
Live to Tell, by Lisa Harrington
The Agency: Traitor in the Tunnel, by Y.S. Lee
Crush Candy Corpse, by Sylvia McNicoll
The Lynching of Louie Sam, by Elizabeth Stewart
I have no idea what it's about, but I'm totally going to read Crush Candy Corpse because it has the BEST TITLE EVER. (<--I just looked it up and it looks decidedly less ridiculous than what I was hoping for. Still going to read it, though.)
See the rest of the winners here.
(Relatedly, did you know that there was a "Dexter killer"? I HAD NO IDEA. Man, I have GOT to pay more attention to the news.)
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...I wrote about Aaron Hartzler's Rapture Practice:
Capital-b Belief is something that I have immense respect for, but I’ve never felt like I’ve succeeded in completely wrapping my mind around it. Maybe it’s one of those You Know It If You Feel It things? But this book, despite the vastly different life experience that it depicts—...when I say we believe that Jesus is coming back, I don’t mean metaphorically, like someday in the distant future when the lion lies down with the lamb and there is peace on earth. I mean literally, like glance out the car window and, “Oh, hey, there’s Jesus in the sky.” There will be a trumpet blast, an archangel will shout, and Jesus Christ will appear in the clouds.— has come the closest to helping me understand something that I’ve spent years trying to grasp.
Loved it.
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From the Irish Times:
Add a CommentThe Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt complained at Stormont that the teaching guide for Bog Child was evidence of bias and the worst kind of “politicisation of the classroom” under Sinn Féin’s direction.
Mr Nesbitt called for the book by the late London-Irish author Siobhan Dowd and the teaching notes supplied by the North’s Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) to be removed.
In response, the CCEA did not directly criticise Mr Nesbitt but said the book was not on the curriculum. It said it was one of a list of suggested books that teachers could use in the classroom for 14-year-old students.
...
“Let me be clear, this is not an attack on the book,” said Mr Nesbitt. “I have not read Bog Child, so have no opinion on its value as a piece of literature. But I have read the teaching notes, as endorsed by the Department of Education and I am stunned by what I read,” he added.
Oh.
OH.
OH MY GOD, I LOVE THIS BOOK.
And I have no idea how to write about it.
Ten pages in, I was all, "HEY, COOL! THIS IS SO WICKER MAN-Y! I LIKE."
Then, I came to the end of the first part. And my eyes got all big and round and I was all (much more subdued, but no less blown away), "Oh, hey, this is VERY Wicker Man-y."
And then, partway through the second segment, I thought, "Wow. Hello, Cloud Atlas."
After that, I stopped thinking about anything except the story—stories—in front of me, and I read and read and read until there were no more pages to read. And I was crying.
I still feel dazed.
It's not going to be for everyone. I GUARANTEE that some readers are going to want to throw it at the wall. (Perhaps you have already done so?) But something about it resonated with me. It's not just that I'm impressed by the structure—I am—or that I love Sedgwick's writing and skillful atmosphere creation—I do—or that I was blown away by how each segment was so different, but how (even discounting the physical details: the names, the flowers, the hare) each one was also so clearly part of a larger whole.
All of those things are a part of why I loved it, but there was something... BIGGER, yet less tangible beyond that. I think it was that even though the premise doesn't jive with my own personal, in real life worldview—I'm one of those who can't wrap my mind around anything beyond conceived/born/live/die/dead*—that the idea of these two people finding each other over and over again was genuinely, heart-wrenchingly beautiful.
Even though [SPOILER] it was a tragedy almost every time.
But, compared to the love that began—and ultimately ended—their story, the tragedy that followed them felt inconsequential. [/SPOILER]
Or something.
As the footnote below explains, I have a hard time with the metaphysical.
It's just a gorgeous, gorgeous book.
So good that it has apparently made my brain implode.
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*Which reminds me of a conversation I had years ago:
Family Friend Who Is Way Into Astrology: And so since you have so much Libra in your chart, that means that etc., etc....
Me: I dunno. I just have a hard time buying the idea that I am who I am because of where the planets were when I was born.
FFWIWIA: Oh, that's just because you're a Gemini. You're all about the intellectually concrete.
Me: So I don't believe in astrology because... I'm a Gemini?
FFWIWIA: Yes.
Me: But...
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Author page.
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Book source: ILLed through my library.
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Sixteen-year-old Ash Fisher is the son of a vampire and a human, and as far as he knows, the only twin-blood in Black City. Because of his human blood he's allowed by law to live in the city proper, rather than behind the wall in the Darkling ghetto. He lives with his human father, making ends meet by selling his venom to human Haze addicts, and worries every single day, that this will be the day that the Trackers discover that he and his father are harboring a Darkling... a crime punishable by death. But how could they refuse? She's Ash's mother, and she's dying.
Sixteen-year-old Natalie Buchanan, meanwhile, is the daughter of Black City's Emissary: the woman in charge. The Buchanans have just returned back to the city after months in the capitol, a move precipitated by the savage murder of her father by a Wrath-crazed Darkling.
Full-blooded Darklings are barely second-class citizens; the few that live in the city are defanged and work as servants, and all of them—Ash included, despite his human blood—are required to wear ID bracelets at all times. ID bracelets that mark them as property of their human 'owner'. Not wearing the bracelets is punishable by death.
Any action judged a 'grievous crime against the state' is punishable by death, regardless of species.
Romantic relationships between humans and Darklings are punishable by death, regardless of species.
You've probably already guessed where the story is headed, and you aren't wrong: but that's not to say that there aren't some twists along the way. Since the prose stylings are neither squee-inducing nor remotely offensive, it'll be the plotting, the characters, and the world-building that attract or repel readers: and as Black City has a lot in common with other recent bestsellers, it should be pretty easy to figure out whether or not you should pick it up.
If you enjoyed the format of Marie Lu's Legend, then Black City might work for you: in this one, as in the Lu, the main characters alternate narration duties. And, as in Legend, the heroine is associated with the dictitorial government while the hero is, well, not part of the resistance, but certainly not held in any sort of esteem by the ruling class. Also, despite the vampires, I'd slot this one firmly in the science fiction arena.
If you like vampire apocalypse stories a la Emily McKay's The Farm or Julie Kagawa's The Immortal Rules and The Eternity Cure, then Black City might work for you: unlike both of those examples, in this case, the vampires are the subjugated class, but along with the action and the romance and whatnot, it deals with similar themes of racism and xenophobia. Black City actually takes that aspect of the story further, and makes some direct parallels to WWII with the aforementioned ghettos, with concentration camps, and with the ongoing experimental vivisection (i.e. torture) carried out in the name of research.
Like so many paranormal romances—though, as I said, this is more science fiction than fantasy—our characters do experience instalove, which I well know is definitely a dealbreaker for many. It, like Stephenie Meyers' 'imprinting' also turns out to be the sort of instalove that removes agency from the characters, which is another problematic element for some readers. In Richards' defense, she threw a hella-great twist into the mix of that plotline: even with the clues she dropped, I only saw HALF of it coming.
LONG STORY SHORT: WILL YOU LIKE IT? IT DEPENDS.
WHAT DID I THINK? Aside from a few issues—I found it bothersome that Natalie kept going on and on about how a Darkling killed her father, when she KNEW VERY WELL that that wasn't the entire story, because, you know, SHE WITNESSED THE WHOLE THING GO DOWN; the pacing got bogged down in the middle with all the 'DOES HE LIKE ME?' 'OH GOD SHE LOOKED AT ME AND I'D BE BLUSHING IF I COULD BLUSH' 'LET'S MAKE OUT' 'OH GOD WE JUST MADE OUT' 'IS OUR LOVE WORTH THE RISK?' and so on; there was some of that 'HE'S SO DANGEROUS BUT I LOVE HIM' that skeeves me out; the ex-boyfriend is such a complete d-bag that he comes off as a moustache-twirler—I approved of the plentiful gore and the creative vampire mythos (multiple species, various cultural traditions).
I'll be reading Phoenix to see where it all goes.
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Author page.
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Book source: Finished copy from the publisher.
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The Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book went to:
Fair Coin, by E.C. Myers!
See this post for the rest of the shortlist and this post for the rest of the winners.
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Continuing my chapter-by-chapter recap of Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War! If you need to catch up, the first installment is here.
Chapter Six: In which Brother Leon practically BEGS for someone to sue the school.
Chapter Seven: Introducing Emile Janza
Chapter Eight: The Goober completes his assignment
Chapter Nine: Jerry's home life.
Chapter Ten: The chocolate sale is officially announced.
Links!
Kelly: The Chocolate War: A Cover Retrospective, English Editions.
Liz: The Chocolate War: Read A Long Part 2.
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I just found out that there's a third book in Maggie Stiefvater's Books of Faerie series due out later this year.
Pardon me WHILE I HYPERVENTILATE!
SO. EXCITED!
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Spoilers about Belles are a necessity!
OKAY. SO.
After long-lost cousins Isabelle Scott (from the Wrong Side of the Tracks, basically the North Carolina version of Chino) and Mirabelle Monroe (from Emerald Cove, basically the North Carolina version of the O.C.) found out that they were ACTUALLY SISTERS, life for both of them changed YET AGAIN.
Only actually not that much. Yes, they have to do a bunch of press stuff so as to save their father's political career, but mostly it's just more of the same: dealing with mean girls at school and trying to save Izzy's beloved community center and misunderstandings and boy troubles and so on.
And never fear, O.C. fans, this installment continues to channel the show: WINTER WHITE IS (in part) ABOUT COTILLION.
The only thing missing is Tate Donovan getting punched in the face.
Be ready for some clunky exposition—Cotillion! How could Mira have forgotten about her favorite tradition in Emerald Cove? Making her formal debut into society was something she had dreamed about since she was in pre-K. She'd spent the last three years preparing for the sophomore girl tradition—taking etiquette classes, going to Saturday morning dance lessons, and doing approved Junior League charity work—and somehow she had let all this drama with her dad make her completely forget the most important event of the year!—but wait, there's more!—Cotillion pledging. Rush. Debutante initiation. Whatever you wanted to call it, Mira had forgotten about this secret tradition, too.—and then the narrator goes on to explain it all in detail, but I'm sure you get the point, so I'll spare you.
And I was disappointed that Calonita [SPOILER] apparently fed the same exact criteria into the Random Villain Generator, because JEEZ LOUISE, AN UP-AND-COMING POLITICAL FAMILY JUST CAN'T GET RELIABLE HELP THESE DAYS. [/SPOILER]
Perfect? No. Literary pyrotechnics? Double no.
But I love how Izzy and Mira have become a team—much like Seth Cohen and Ryan Atwood, of course—and if you go in for this sort of thing (as I do), as long as you're prepared to overlook some rough spots, it's fun stuff. I'll be reading book three soon-ish.
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Author page.
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Book source: ILLed through my library.
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My re-read of The Chocolate War continues!
Previous installments are here and here.
Chapter Twelve: In which Jerry has his last perfect moment in a long, long time.
Chapter Thirteen: The first day of the chocolate sale.
Chapter Fourteen: Time passes. Boys sell chocolates.
Chapter Fifteen: In which we find out what Archie is holding over Janza's head.
Chapter Sixteen: In which a random student has a devastating flash of insight.
Chapter Seventeen: In which Jerry does the unthinkable.
Links!
Kelly: Guest Post: Why The Chocolate War Matters by Angie Manfredi
Liz: The Chocolate War Read A Long Part Three
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I'm going to finish up my re-read of Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War with TWO BIG POSTS.
Previous installments are here, here and here.
Okay, settle in!
Chapter Eighteen: In which Jerry has a long dark night of the soul.
Chapter Nineteen: In which Jerry fully commits to his stance.
Chapter Twenty: In which we see that Obie really is sick and tired of Archie.
Chapter Twenty-one: Jerry's insurrection is a spark that threatens to become a conflagration.
Chapter Twenty-two: Sales numbers are down; Brother Leon is taking it hard.
Chapter Twenty-Three: The Goober refuses to play ball.
Chapter Twenty-four: Brother Leon and Archie throw down.
Chapter Twenty-five: Jerry is summoned to appear before the Vigils.
Chapter Twenty-six: Jerry calls Ellen Barrett.
Chapter Twenty-seven: The Vigils REALLY begin to implode.
Chapter Twenty-eight: Things start to get bad for Jerry.
Links!
Kelly: The Chocolate War: A Cover Retrospective, Foreign Editions and The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Liz: The Chocolate War: Read A Long Part 4 and Review: The Chocolate War
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And now we come to the end of my re-read of Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War.
Previous installments are here, here, here, and here.
This is, hands down, the most bizarre cover I've come across. Is that a girl? Dancing? With a sock puppet? I don't even. THERE AREN'T EVEN ANY MAJOR FEMALE CHARACTERS IN THE BOOK.
Chapter Twenty-nine: The sale turns around.
Chapter Thirty: Brother Leon is now enjoying homeroom IMMENSELY.
Chapter Thirty-one: The return of Janza.
Chapter Thirty-two: But, oh no, beating the crap out of him isn't enough.
Chapter Thirty-three: Janza and Archie.
Chapter Thirty-four: Jerry's day of invisibility.
Chapter Thirty-five: If Archie Costello promised you anything "fair and square", would you believe him?
Chapter Thirty-six: And what, exactly, is the deal with those raffle tickets?
Chapter Thirty-seven: The fight.
Chapter Thirty-eight: The aftermath.
Chapter Thirty-nine: Obie and Archie, back in the bleachers.
Ag. Now I'm all emotionally drained and busted. I need a nap. And maybe some ice cream.
Links!
Kelly: Inspired by -- and Read Alikes to -- The Chocolate War
Liz: The Chocolate War Wrap Up
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In Out of the Easy, Ruta Sepetys had me at hello. It begins:
My mother's a prostitute. Not the filthy, streetwalking kind. She's actually quite pretty, fairly well spoken, and has lovely clothes. But she sleeps with men for money or gifts, and according to the dictionary, that makes her a prostitute.
Seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine doesn't want to follow in her mother's footsteps. She's known that for years, and even though she still works at the same brothel as her mother—cleaning rooms, mind you—and even though she's on good terms with Willie Woodley, the woman who owns it, she's independent enough that she's kept her own apartment since she was eleven years old.
She works part-time at the bookstore below it, and she dreams of going to college. But when Josie dreams, she dreams big: she wants out of New Orleans, to start over somewhere up North, somewhere where she can reinvent herself—where no one knows who she is or what her mother does.
LOVE: THE DIALOGUE. Out of the Easy is set in 1950, and Sepetys' characters sling slang without sounding phony or overblown, and the dialogue zings back-and-forth like in an old movie. The characters speak in distinctive voices, and unlike in Strands of Bronze and Gold, those differences in vocabulary, rhythm, and diction are affected by economic class, vocation, and education, rather than being purely dictated by the color of one's skin.
LOVE: JOSIE. Her narration has a touch of the noir hero: deadpan, world-weary, and with an understanding of ironic humor. Unlike a noir hero, though, she is open about being emotionally affected by... things that are emotionally affecting. She's smart, she's canny, and rather than blushing and wanting to melt into the ground in embarrassing situations, she treats them as opportunities—I cheered out loud when she turned one around by becoming an impromptu blackmailer, and I swooned during another when she threw herself into a cute boy's lap to save herself (and him, to a degree) from some catty mean girls.
LOVE: HER MOTHER. Well, no, actually, I loathed her mother. But I loved that she wasn't the Pretty-Woman-hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold, I loved that she wasn't secretly sympathetic, or selfless or particularly smart. She was completely self-absorbed, and while her behavior makes her come off as rotten and somewhat stupid, it's important to remember who's telling the story: Josie isn't exactly an objective party. The other women who work for Willie are a mixed bag of funny/serious/witty/quiet/ruthless/rude/mothering/mean/sensitive and everything in between, and it's easy to imagine that if another person had told the story, Louise would have come off as more human. Maybe. Then again, SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST TERRIBLE.
LOVE: THE BOOKS. Josie works in a bookstore, and she and her best friend Patrick have an ongoing game where they predict what sort of book customers will want. There are references to Dickens and Keats, Capote and even L'Engle. And, tangentially, Poe: Josie ends up with a dead man's watch—THAT'S RIGHT, ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE, SHE INVESTIGATES A MURDER—under her floorboards, and she swears she can hear it ticking, ticking, ticking. Which, of course, evokes The Tell-Tale Heart.
LOVE: EVERYTHING ELSE. Sepetys is true to the era and her characters in how Patrick's story plays out; the romance is sweet and heartfelt; the details about 1950s life and culture work themselves in fluidly; Josie wants what she wants so badly that I was never quite sure about how far she'd go to get it; and while the ending certainly has some fairy-tale elements, there's enough bitter in the sweet to keep cynics (like me) from getting all up on their high horses.
Oh, I loved this book. As it's got the same combination of fantastically-rendered historical atmosphere—the dialogue is TO DIE FOR—and mystery elements, I highly, HIGHLY recommend it to fans of Judy Blundell's What I Saw and How I Lied.
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Author page.
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Book source: Review copy from the publisher.
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