Tag: young adult

Review: Kindred Spirits

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Kindred SpiritsRainbow Rowell, Kindred Spirits

Elena is a “Star Wars” superfan. She grew up watching the original trilogy with her dad and is absolutely thrilled when “The Force Awakens” comes out. In fact, she’s so excited that she decides to camp out in front of the movie theater before opening night. She imagines a huge group of people who love “Star Wars” just as much as she does, and she can’t wait to share her excitement with like-minded fans. Unfortunately, she never imagined that (1) there would only be two other people in line, (2) one of them would be a silent boy named Gabe who doesn’t seem particularly interested in sharing the “Star Wars” love, or (3) she’d have nowhere to pee except in a cup behind a dumpster. Still, Elena is determined to persevere, and her eventual experience is as wonderful as it is unexpected.

At a succinct 62 pages, this tale is either a very short novella or a very long short story. Either way, I really enjoyed it, as I’ve enjoyed all of Rainbow Rowell’s books. Rowell is obviously very interested in fandom and its role in the creative arts, and this story explores one small facet of that. Elena is a fan of “Star Wars,” and she has certain expectations about how fans should behave. But her fellow line mates, Troy and Gabe, don’t exactly match up with her preconceived ideas. And as she discovers, Gabe has doubts about the authenticity of her fandom because she’s a “cool” girl and not a “nerd.” I thought the story explored the idea of what constitutes a “real fan” very well, albeit in a narrowly focused way. There’s also a bit of romance in the story (which, duh, it’s Rainbow Rowell), but I would have loved a bit more! Still, fans of Rowell’s other work will definitely want to read this as well, whether or not they’re into “Star Wars.”

Review: Salt to the Sea

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Salt to the SeaRuta Sepetys, Salt to the Sea

“World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, many with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer to safety. Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people — adults and children alike — aboard must fight for the same thing: survival.” (Summary from Amazon.)

I’m a sucker for a good World War II story, and this one approaches the conflict from a unique (to me) perspective: it focuses on three Eastern European teenagers who are caught between Nazi Germany and the advancing Red Army. My favorite character was Florian, who is carrying out a secret mission while trying very hard not to fall in love with Joana. But I honestly enjoyed all three main characters’ stories, especially after they meet up and continue their westward journey together. There are definitely some heartbreaking events in this book, which is to be expected, but the overall message is one of hope. I’d definitely recommend this book to fans of historical fiction, especially those who don’t mind a narrative geared toward a younger audience.

Review: The Last Dragonslayer

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Last Dragonslayer, TheJasper Fforde, The Last Dragonslayer

In the Ununited Kingdoms, magic is a part of everyday life, but it’s only used for the most mundane of tasks, like rewiring a house’s electricity or removing all the moles from the garden (or your face). But lately, the magic levels seem to be rising in the Kingdom of Hereford, and nobody quite knows why. Moreover, the local pre-cogs have begun to prophesy the death of the world’s last remaining dragon — an event of great importance, not only because dragons seem to be inextricably tied to magic, but also because once a dragon dies, its lands are up for grabs. Thus, the premonition inevitably results in a huge influx of people and corporations hoping to claim the Dragonlands for themselves. In the midst of all this, Jennifer Strange, a seemingly ordinary 15-year-old girl, learns that she has a surprising destiny: she is the Last Dragonslayer, the one fated to kill the dragon. The problem is, Jennifer isn’t quite sure she wants to do it….

As a big Fforde ffan, I’m glad I finally got around to reading this book, his first YA novel and the first book in a trilogy. Overall, I found it pretty enjoyable and quite reminiscent of the Thursday Next books in some ways. Like Thursday, Jennifer is a strong and intelligent heroine who’s willing to fight for her principles. She also has a quirky pet, although it’s not a dodo but a Quarkbeast, a visually terrifying creature with the personality of a dog. And just as Thursday often gets into trouble with the all-powerful Goliath corporation, Jennifer runs into similar problems with Consolidated Useful Stuff. In fact, maybe that’s the reason I didn’t like this book as much as Fforde’s other work — it’s a bit too similar to the Thursday Next series, except without all the fun literary references and time travel. I’d say it’s still worth reading if you enjoy Fforde’s particular brand of schtick, but it’s not the best entry point into his work.

Review: Newt’s Emerald

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Newt's EmeraldGarth Nix, Newt’s Emerald

After Lady Truthful’s magical Newington Emerald is stolen from her she devises a simple plan: go to London to recover the missing jewel. She quickly learns, however, that a woman cannot wander the city streets alone without damaging her reputation, and she disguises herself as a mustache-wearing man. During Truthful’s dangerous journey she discovers a crook, an unsuspecting ally, and an evil sorceress—but will she find the Emerald? (Summary from Amazon.com.)

A Regency romance with fantasy elements…of course I was going to like this book! 🙂 It’s actually the first thing I’ve read by Garth Nix, and I believe it’s somewhat atypical for him, but I’m still interested in reading more of his backlist now. I think my favorite thing about this book is the light, bright tone throughout. Even though the novel’s stakes are fairly high — the missing emerald is an ancient and powerful jewel capable of causing significant havoc — the plentiful humor and Regency elements make the book a very light, pleasant read. I also enjoyed Truthful’s adventures as a man, especially because they allowed her and her love interest truly to get to know each other, beyond the superficial interactions between ladies and gentlemen in Regency society. The actual romance wasn’t totally satisfying for me; it starts off with a nice slow build, but the resolution is extremely abrupt and comes very late in the book. But overall, I really enjoyed this novel, and so should any fan of the genre!

Review: The Paper Magician

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Paper Magician, TheCharlie N. Holmberg, The Paper Magician

Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic…forever.

Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined—animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

An Excisioner—a practitioner of dark, flesh magic—invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man. (Summary from Amazon.com.)

This was a pleasant read on the younger end of the YA spectrum, which is to say that I enjoyed it in the moment, but it wasn’t particularly complex or compelling. I think I was expecting more of a steampunk adventure, whereas the book is actually rather placid. Yes, there’s a dark sorceress who tears Emery Thane’s heart out of his chest, and Ceony has to stop her. But she basically fulfills this mission by entering Emery’s heart and thus becoming privy to his memories and emotions. I actually liked this conceptualization of the heart, especially as Ceony accesses both the good and evil parts of Emery’s psyche. But the character development is a bit simplistic, and the action doesn’t really pick up until the end. All in all, a decent read, but I’m on the fence about whether I want to continue with the series.

Review: Six of Crows

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Six of CrowsLeigh Bardugo, Six of Crows

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price–and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone…

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction―if they don’t kill each other first. (Summary from Amazon.com.)

I wasn’t totally enamored with Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy when I read it earlier this year, but I liked the writing style and world-building enough to try Six of Crows, which is set in the same world as the Grisha books but in a new country and with new characters. And I’m very glad I gave it a chance, because I found this book to be a vast improvement on the Grisha trilogy! First of all, I really liked the multiple POVs; each of the six members of Kaz’s crew is given a chance to tell his or her own story, which means I legitimately cared about all of them. I don’t even know that I could pick a favorite, since all six are so fleshed-out and have such compelling backstories. The heist plot was a lot of fun and had appropriately high stakes — not to mention the requisite detours and double-crosses along the way! And of course, there are multiple romances to root for…I can’t decide whether I’m more invested in Matthias and Nina or Kaz and Inej. 🙂 Overall, I’d definitely recommend this book if you like dark fantasy and/or a good heist story.

Review: Carry On

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Carry OnRainbow Rowell, Carry On

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here–it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up. (Summary from Amazon.com.)

As you can see, I had A LOT of feelings about this book! So if you just want the short version, skip to the last paragraph!*

Fellow lovers of Rainbow Rowell will remember her novel Fangirl, in which protagonist Cath is obsessed with the Simon Snow series and is writing fanfiction about two of its principal characters, Simon and Baz. While I really liked Fangirl overall, I noted that the “excerpts” from the Simon Snow books and from Cath’s fanfic were my least favorite parts of that novel. So, I was less than enthused when I learned that Carry On would be Rowell’s own version of the Simon/Baz romance.

I had other issues with the concept of Carry On as well. In Fangirl, it’s obvious that Simon Snow is meant to be a stand-in for Harry Potter (which makes the single HP reference in Fangirl extremely jarring!), so Carry On is, in a sense, HP fanfic. That made me feel apprehensive and a little icky, like Rowell was essentially ripping off J.K. Rowling and taking advantage of the devotion of the HP fandom. I don’t attribute any malicious motives to Rowell — I’m sure she would view Carry On as more of an homage than a copy — but the world of Simon Snow is uncomfortably similar to the world of HP.

Then there’s my own stance on fanfiction, which is that I don’t really get it. Not to take away from anyone else’s pleasure in reading or writing it, but I’ve never personally been that interested in it. I do understand the desire to remain in a beloved world and explore it further, especially if the original author left certain stories hanging and you need some closure for them. But I tend to believe the author wrote the stories s/he intended to write, and it’s not my job as a reader to “fix” storylines that didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to. So, to take the most relevant example, I know there’s a lot of Harry/Draco fanfic out there. But in the actual HP series, it’s obvious that Harry is heterosexual, and (spoilers) he eventually marries and procreates with Ginny. So I honestly don’t understand the impulse to pair Harry and Draco in fanfiction. I don’t mean to insult anyone who enjoys fanfic or who ships Harry/Draco, but I would not personally be interested in reading a slash fanfic about those characters — which is essentially the plot of Carry On, just with different character names.

AND YET.

I actually ended up liking Carry On a lot more than I expected to! Yes, the setting and principal characters are all very reminiscent of HP, and that still does bother me. I also wasn’t particularly invested in the monster plot and all the backstory about where the monster came from and all of that. It was predictable and rather generic for a fantasy novel. But one of Jenny’s (of Reading the End) comments really resonated with me: “I think Rainbow Rowell maybe just is not that good at plot.” YES. This is true of all her novels, which generally don’t have much plot to speak of. Where Rowell shines is her characters, who are flawed and struggling but also hopeful and determined to find a happy ending. I sympathized with Simon, who feels crushed by the weight of his “chosen” status and his inability to live up to everyone’s expectations. Penelope was a great friend, practical and loyal, even though she was a bit too Hermione-ish. And I adored Baz, as I always adore disdainful, elitist, painfully elegant antagonists who turn out to be not-so-secret heroes.

*The short version: I was nervous about Carry On, and if anyone other than Rainbow Rowell had written it, I definitely wouldn’t have read it. But I decided to trust Rowell, and I’m glad I did. For me, the positives (great characters and dialogue) outweighed the negatives (most notably, the extensive similarities to HP). If you’re on the fence about this book, I would encourage you to give it a try! And I’ll note that you definitely do NOT have to read Fangirl first, although you should read it anyway because it’s really good. 🙂

Review: Ruin and Rising

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Ruin and RisingLeigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

***Warning: SPOILERS for previous books in the series!***

In the aftermath of the battle at Os Alta, the Darkling now sits on the Ravkan throne, and Alina and her followers have gone underground. Literally — they’re hiding out in a system of tunnels and caves beneath Ravka, where they are temporarily under the protection of the Apparat. But the Apparat has his own agenda: he wants Alina to serve as a figurehead for the loyal but uninformed peasants who believe she is a saint. Alina can’t submit to such a plan, especially when the Darkling is continually expanding his empire through the use of dark magic. But once she and her loyal allies escape, Alina knows she isn’t strong enough to defeat the Darkling, especially since she can no longer access her power. She decides to seek a third amplifier for her magic, the legendary firebird, and her sole clue leads her back to the village from which she and Mal originally came…but what she finds there will challenge everything she has ever believed.

Like the other two books in the trilogy, this is a well written novel with great world-building and an interesting plot. But I still find myself liking rather than loving these books. As I mentioned in my review of Shadow and Bone, I think my issue is that I don’t particularly like or relate to Alina as the main character. She seems to be entirely motivated by her momentous quest to defeat the Darkling, and outside of that, there’s not a lot of complexity to her character. I also don’t care about Mal, the main love interest, at all. He’s basically there to be dreamy and help Alina whenever the plot calls for it, and he doesn’t really have a personality outside of that. I found the secondary characters much more interesting, especially Nikolai — I’d love for him to get his own book at some point! I did enjoy the resolution of the plot and found the ending very satisfying. Overall, I wasn’t bowled over by this trilogy, but I’d still recommend it to YA fantasy fans.

Review: The Boy Most Likely To

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Boy Most Likely To, TheHuntley Fitzpatrick, The Boy Most Likely To

Seventeen-year-old Tim Mason has always been good at three things: flirting with girls, being the life of the party, and finding where his father has hidden the liquor. Recently, however, he’s trying to turn over a new leaf, attending AA meetings and staying out of trouble. But that’s not enough for Tim’s strict father, who has given him an ultimatum: if he hasn’t proved that he can handle adult responsibilities by the time he turns 18, his family will completely cut him off financially and give his college fund to his sister. Tim doesn’t have the foggiest idea of how to live up to his father’s demands, especially when one stupid decision from his past comes back to haunt him. But helping him to figure things out are his best friend Jase and the entire Garrett family, including (especially) Jase’s older sister Alice. Alice is beautiful, smart, and tough as nails, and to Tim she’s completely irresistible. But will he find the courage to go after what he really wants, and will their fledgling romance survive all the baggage from his past?

When I read the prequel to this book, My Life Next Door, I wasn’t completely in love with it, but I remember really liking Tim and wanting to know more of his story. So this sequel was definitely up my alley, and overall I really liked it! Tim is the kind of fictional boy I always end up adoring: he’s done a ton of stupid things and sabotaged himself at every turn, but he’s got a good heart and is trying so hard. When he is confronted with one particular past mistake (I don’t want to spoil it, so I won’t be more specific), he doesn’t react in the best or most selfless way, but his thoughts and feelings seem very realistic under the circumstances. As he adapts to this big change in his life, he grows and matures as a person, which is very satisfying to see. And I loved his relationship with Alice from beginning to end, especially the way their flirtatious banter masked deeper, more vulnerable feelings. There is quite a bit of angst and drama in the book, so it might be too young adult-esque for some. But I found it a compelling read and would definitely recommend it to fans of YA contemporary romance.

Review: Siege and Storm

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Siege and StormLeigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

***Warning: SPOILERS for Shadow and Bone!***

After failing to kill the Darkling, Alina and her beloved Mal are on the run. They hope that by staying far away from Ravka, they can escape the Darkling’s wrath; unfortunately, however, he catches up with them almost immediately. Despite the Darkling’s growing power, he wants to bind Alina and her magic more closely to him by searching for a second amplifier, a legendary sea serpent. For this purpose, he hires the notorious pirate Sturmhond to sail them through the northern seas. Alina nearly despairs when the sea serpent is found and the second amplifier placed on her wrist, but she finds unexpected allies in Sturmhond and his crew. After escaping the Darkling’s clutches once again, Alina finds herself at the head of a fragmented Grisha army, whose job is to defend Ravka from a possible invasion. But will her tiny force be enough to withstand the Darkling’s might?

I think I enjoyed this book even more than Shadow and Bone, mostly because Alina is more sure of herself and more determined to take charge of her own destiny. I also absolutely loved Sturmhond! What can I say — I can’t resist a swashbuckling pirate with secrets! The plot twist involving his character was somewhat predictable for me, but I still enjoyed it, and I liked watching Alina react to a new set of problems and expectations. The addition of siblings Tolya and Tamar was also a lot of fun…I liked having more characters to care about than just Alina and Mal. Many second books in a trilogy suffer from “middle book syndrome,” but I think this one is a great read on its own, and it also sets up book three very nicely. Speaking of which, my review of Ruin and Rising is coming soon, after a brief detour or two!