Review: Ordinary Magic by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

Title: Ordinary Magic [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Caitlen Rubino-Bradway
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Published: May 8th, 2012 by Bloomsbury USA
Format: Kindle edition; 288 pages.
Source: ARC from publisher via NetGalley.
Challenge: YA/MG Fantasy Challenge

In Abby’s world, magic isn’t anything special: it’s a part of everyday life. So when Abby learns that she has zero magical abilities, she’s branded an "Ord"—ordinary, bad luck, and quite possibly a danger to society. The outlook for kids like Abby isn’t bright. Many are cast out by their families, while others are sold to treasure hunters (ordinary kids are impervious to spells and enchantments). Luckily for Abby, her family enrolls her in a school that teaches ordinary kids how to get around in a magical world. But with treasure-hunting kidnappers and carnivorous goblins lurking around every corner, Abby’s biggest problem may not be learning how to be ordinary—it’s whether or not she’s going to survive the school year!

I tried with Ordinary Magic, I really did. I read every word of this book even though I kind of wanted to add it to the DNF pile long before the last page. I was so disgusted, appalled, and confused by the world that Caitlen Rubino-Bradway built that I could not click with Ordinary Magic at all. When I first saw this title pop up on NetGalley, I decided to try it because I love middle grade, and it sounded cute.  To me, I was imagining that it would be like “Story of a Squib”—the tale of an unmagical kid born into a magical world.  I didn’t realize how abhorrent the story would be.

 

Here’s the deal: “ords” in this society are nothing.  They’re worse than just a disappointment to their families, because most of the time, they’re no longer even considered people.  This made zero sense to me.  I get that you could compare it to some families’ reactions to finding out their kid is homosexual, or compare it to how slaves were treated in this country’s early history, but none of that could really add up for me.  I can’t understand how an entire society could find it acceptable to treat ord kids—kids they had raised and loved as friends, siblings, children until the age of 12—like worthless property.  It was generally accepted that these children could be sold, used for dangerous tasks, and they were despised to the point of people not touching them as if they were catching—this later treatment reminding me of the horrible way those with AIDS can be treated.  I guess I see what Caitlen Rubino-Bradway was doing here in turning these children into social pariahs, but I just don’t buy that these extremes could ever crop up, particularly in a society that seems very modern.

 

And that’s another thing I didn’t get about this book.  When it is determined that Abby is an ord, at her Judging at age 12, her family has to drain magic from the house so that she can access things (like the sink) without help, since all of these things are usually controlled by magic. This makes no sense given that prior to finding out, she wasn’t allowed to use magic and would need help for these same things…so she was 12 and could never get a box of cereal from the cupboard or wash her hands after she peed? Right…

 

Then there’s the reality that magic can not directly affect ords.  It can affect things around them (aka, you could light their clothing on fire), but not them.  And you can buy magic-proof clothing.  So essentially, all of these magic people are running around with no idea how to fight physical fights, and the ords could kick their butts handily, but don’t.  I get the whole, they’re the vast minority, and society represses them in part because they are scared thing, but again…it doesn’t add up for me.  If a society has become this advanced, there’s a pretty good chance that such an oppressed group with such potential power would have at some point banded together and rebelled.

 

I thought the school could be fun and cute, but honestly I found it rather boring.  The only highlight being that they taught kids to kick the crap out of one another.  It seemed as if there should have been a storyline developing from Abby working in the kitchen, but it never really came to anything.  In fact, I expected Abby and the other ord children to find some inner power and strength that was magical in its own right, but I didn’t really feel like they ever did.

 

I was glad to see that this society was changing, that the King had outlawed the selling of ords and the authorities seemed like good people, but I just expected more from this story.  I will say that Abby’s family was fantastic and the best part of this book.  Her parents loved unconditionally, and she had four older siblings—two sisters, two brothers (just like me!) that were all fun, unique, and invested in their little sister.  I think my favorite thing about Ordinary Magic was Abby’s brother Gil, who wrote popular romance novels under a woman’s name.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: Slim to none.

Recommended for: Eh, I have a hard time recommending this one to anyone to be honest, but I will include links to some more positive reviews which I encourage you to check out so that you can decide for yourself.

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Review: The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

Title: The Miseducation of Cameron Post [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Emily M. Danforth [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT
Published: February 7th, 2012 by Balzer & Bray
Format: Hardcover; 480 pages.
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: Completely Contemp Challenge/Debut Author Challenge

When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief she’ll never have to tell them that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl.

But that relief soon turns to heartbreak, as Cam is forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and not making waves, and Cam becomes an expert at this—especially at avoiding any questions about her sexuality.

Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. To Cam’s surprise, she and Coley become best friends—while Cam secretly dreams of something more. Just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, her secret is exposed. Ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to “fix” her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self—even if she’s not quite sure who that is.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a stunning and unforgettable literary debut about discovering who you are and finding the courage to live life according to your own rules.

As young adult readers, it’s somewhat rare for us to run into a book that’s more than 400 pages long, and when we do, I feel like those books fall into one of three categories.  There are those lengthy YA books that are so engrossing and quick paced that you just gobble them up without ever noticing the length (see Grave Mercy), there are those that you feel could have had 100+ pages cut and have been better for it (see Partials), and then, there are those that are worth consuming slowly, taking in each word and phrase as it comes because every one of them has been carefully considered and placed to enrich the story.  The Miseducation of Cameron Post is this third kind of book.  I’ll admit I was intimidated by its girth, but I found every moment that I spent reading filling me up in a way that hearty wheat bread can fill your belly--with nourishment and substance.  

Now, I’ll admit, a lot of my attachment to The Miseducation of Cameron Post arose from the fact that this book, more than any other I have ever read, exemplifies my childhood.  If you want to know what it was like growing up in small town Wyoming in the 90s, not too far from Billings, Montana--it’s not all that different from growing up in small town Miles City, not too far from Billings, Montana.  Cameron and I went to the same mall to do school shopping, we stop at the same airport, and more importantly, our towns share the same businesses, people, and atmosphere.  I cannot tell you how badly I was craving Taco Johns every time it was mentioned, and I am so sad for all of you that don’t live in the mountain states and know its glory (you know, as glorious as a Mexican fast food chain can be).  When Emily M. Danforth wrote of thunderheads gathering on the horizon, I could smell it, and feel the hot, dry summer air.  We played with firecrackers, bought gas at Conoco, bought crafts at Ben Franklin’s, we had kids wearing those blue FFA jackets at school; to this day I miss Schwan’s single-serve pizzas and push pops.  I further bonded with Cameron because we were both swimmers who hung out largely with boys, and had lost parents at twelve (thankfully, in my case, not both).  Despite what I felt was a very personal attachment to this book, I don’t think you need to have one to enjoy it.  Danforth creates such a strong image of Miles City, and God’s Promise, that any reader will feel immersed.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a coming of age story in the truest sense of the term.  We follow Cameron from the time that she is twelve, until she is seventeen (or near enough).  I loved seeing Cameron come into her own as a person, realize who she was, and fumble with her sense of self in the same way that every teen experiences.  For Cameron, much of this is focused on the fact that she is a lesbian, but it didn’t have to be--this story would have been just as compelling if she’d been strait.  Certainly, this book will speak to any teens who feel trapped in a situation, their family, their town, and need to find themselves to decide how best to manage their future.  I am not meaning to diminish the importance of The Miseducation of Cameron Post as a work of LGBT literature, merely stating that I think this is a work that could influence anyone, the LGBT aspect is not the only way readers will relate to this book.

Cameron Post herself is one of my new literary best friends.  I love this girl.  She’s a bit of a klepto, which I never understood, but other than that we bonded hard core.  I love that to her, her sexuality isn’t a choice, a political statement, or a counter-culture movement--it’s just who she is.  So many adults in her life reacted to her as if she were acting out, when in reality she was just being a kid, and being who she was.  The sad fact that those she loved most had no idea how to love those parts of Cameron they didn’t agree with or understand broke my heart.

I think it is easy for those many people who live in very liberal areas to look unkindly and with harsh judgement at evangelical Christians such as much of Cameron’s town.  When you only experience these people through the bubble that is media, and not through personal experience, it becomes so easy to write them off as horrible people because of their judgements on homosexuals.  This has always been a tough position for me.  Much of my hometown, and many people that I love dearly share these views.  Their adamant belief that homosexuality equates to damnation doesn’t change the fact that they are often wonderful, caring, heartfelt people.  What Cameron’s family does to her, they do because they are trying to help, and because they love her.  I can respect that, and so can Cameron.  That doesn’t make it right, but I appreciate so much that Emily M. Danforth did strive to show these people as caring, and helpless to understand because of their beliefs.  There was no outspoken rebellion against Christianity in general, only an acknowledgement that the methods used in this particular case were flawed, and doomed from the start--you can’t cure something that isn’t a sickness.  Because of this treatment, I hope that those who avoid books with religious themes are not put off by The Misedcuation of Cameron Post.  It is not preachy either for or against the nature/nurture arguments of homosexuality, it is the story of a girl finding and accepting herself in a time and place where so many obstacles stand in her way.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: This is one of the strongest debuts I’ve read in 2012, definitely the strongest contemporary debut.  I am so glad that Emily M. Danforth told this story.  I know it was not strictly autobiographical, but I also know it was deeply personal, and I have the utmost respect for her because of this.  I will without question read her next work.

Recommended for:  People who enjoyed The Girls of No Return, or movies like Saved! and But I’m a Cheerleader.  I would recommend this book as an amazing coming of age story, and not just for the LGBT crowd, for anyone.

Real life repercussions of reading this book: I’m kind of making it a meteorological goal to experience thundersnow sometime in my lifetime.  I love thunderstorms, and I love snow, so I’m not sure I can imagine a cooler weather phenomenon (no terrible pun intended).

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Review: The Girls of No Return by Erin Saldin

Title: The Girls of No Return [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Erin Saldin
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Published: February 1st, 2012 by Scholastic Inc.
Format: Hardcover; 348 pages.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: Debut Author Challenge

I know I need to tell my story--our story--but I don’t know how.  Because the truth, see--it’s a messy thing.  Sometimes the only way to clean it up is to hurtle through each decision you made, trying to find the one that changed everything.  Maybe then you can start to fix it.

The Girls of No Return, Erin Saldin’s debut, was not what I expected.  I expected my heart to be pounding, my adrenaline to be rushing, and to be affected by it on a visceral level.  It didn’t happen that way.  Instead, Lida’s story drew me in slowly (very slowly...we’re talking you better have some perseverance and patience because the first half of this book is extremely subdued), chewed me up, and spit me back out again reflecting on women and our relationships to one another in ways that I had not expected.  

Our story begins at the end--with an epilogue.  Lida is determined to tell her story, reveal her Thing.  There are two mysteries, two events to uncover.  The Thing that brought her to Alice Marshall School, deep in the River of No Return Wilderness Area of Idaho, and the Thing that sent her home.  The school is Lida’s chance at redemption.  Alice Marshall is not quite reform school, maybe more reform school-lite, where troubled girls are given a chance to make peace with their past and form a brighter future.  Lida is determined to skate by, tucked away in her own solitude, but the surprising allure of the glamorous Gia, and the persistence of Lida’s bunk mates Boone and Jules work to draw her out.  Soon Lida finds herself pulled in various directions, unsure of her loyalties and feelings--she never realized she could cause so much damage to anyone besides herself.

Like The Girls of No Return in general, I really had to ease in to liking Lida.  She was soooooo convinced that everyone but her was beautiful, and she felt that her problems were bigger than theirs, like she was some unique butterfly who’d had such a harder go of things than every other girl that ended up at Alice Marshall.  And I really don’t think she ever moved beyond this point of view.  Luckily, I did, and so did the story.  I spent the last half of the book with my guts twisting in horror for this girl.  Lida is so vulnerable, so easily manipulated, and so unaware of her own feelings that it hurts to read.

Lida finds herself in the middle of a battle of wills between two girls, Boone and Gia.  Boone is rough around the edges and quick to bite.  She’s renowned at Alice Marshall for ‘welcoming’ the girls as they arrive, and is the only one among them without a safety net out in the real world.  Gia is beautiful, mysterious, and quick to rule to roost.  She wraps Lida around her fingers, understanding the way Lida feels about her even though Lida herself doesn’t really seem to get that her desires for Gia’s attention are more than platonic.  She does so much to draw Lida out of her shell, but when Lida tries to dig under Gia’s surface, Gia balks.  Gia accuses Lida of so many behaviors she herself is guilty of, claiming Lida knows everything about her, when in reality Lida knows nothing.

The Girls of No Return was a very powerful reflection of the relationships girls have with one another.  Initially, I kept thinking that these problems weren’t big enough, or exciting enough, and then I realized that they were more real.  These are the horrible things teen girls really do to one another.  I think the thing that saddened me the most was this--there was next to no male presence in this book, and still, a man almost entirely defines what goes down in the wilderness.  I hate this reality, that women can be so cruel, manipulative, and horrible to one another for such simple reasons.

In the end, I appreciate how The Girls of No Return affected me.  It was a slow, but powerful story that unfolded in a way that jerked at my emotional core.  There may have been no tears, but I certainly had some nice long thoughts about why I’ve never had many close female friends.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: I would love to check out whatever Saldin writes next.  The Girls of No Return has been compared to Speak and Cut.  While I didn’t think it was as strong as Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, I am interested in checking out Patricia McCormick's Cut.

Recommended for:  Girls (or women) who are going through a rough time, those who enjoy outdoorsy stories (though it wasn’t as outdoorsy as I was expecting), fans of Speak.

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  One of the sites in this book is a fire watch tower up in the wilderness.  In the Big Horns, where I grew up, we have our own fire watch tower that you can hike to for an amazing view. I thought it might be fun to share something from my own experience that would be similar to what Lida saw:

Looking up at the fire tower pre-climb.

View of Meadowlark lake from the fire tower.

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Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Anna and the French Kiss [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Stephanie Perkins [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Stand alone novel, but there are/will be two companions!
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Published: December 2nd, 2010 by Listening Library/Dutton
Format: Audiobook/Kindle edition.
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: Completely Contemp Challenge.

Anna's father, who seems to basically be Nickolas Sparks, decides to ship her off to boarding school in Paris for her senior year to get herself some culture.  She doesn't want to go, and is bitter at her lack of choice, but she finds herself not entirely hating the place once she makes some new friends--particularly Etienne St. Claire.  St. Claire is American born, English raised, and French sired.  And if you don't find that hot, well I don't know what's wrong with you.  Too bad he's taken; not only does he have a girlfriend, but her new friend Meredith's totally in love with him.  Besides, Anna still has feelings about Toph from back home, right?  Ha!  Prepare for a year of awkward.

Let’s take a moment to discuss the importance of choosing the right format.  I initially picked up Anna and the French Kiss as an audiobook, and after suffering through 5 chapters I was ready to give up.  I couldn’t stand the narrator, Kim Mai Guest.  To me, the narration came across as very whiney, snobby, made the whole story seem very vapid, and I did not want to hear it.  Needless to say, I won’t be listening to other works like How I Live Now or Wildwood Dancing that are also narrated by Kim Mai Guest.  Now, I do want to emphasize that this audiobook was recommended by multiple people, so don’t let my bad experience make up your mind--just know that if you don’t like it, you can always change formats!  Since pretty much everyone loves this book, I decided I’d switch over to the Kindle edition and push through to see if I could like it better.  This made all the difference!

My judgements and emotions went back and forth a lot throughout this book.  I love boarding school (living vicariously), but I hate Paris (maybe hate is extreme, but I don't like it).  I loved St. Clair (awesome friend), but he was kind of a douche (crappy boyfriend).  Anna was annoyingly naive (come on, no one watches that much film and doesn’t know ‘pissed’ means drunk in Britain), but totally identifiable (more on this later).  There were some teeth grinding cliches (like bending down to pick things up and bumping heads), but the story was very true to life and the crappy decisions many people make in relationships.  In the end, I decided I really liked it, and appreciate Perkins’s honesty and ability to wrangle uncomfortable situations into text in a way that made me scream “WHY AM I SO AWKWARD?”

So...since this is a romance, let’s discuss the leads!  I identified with Anna a lot, in ways that actually made me uncomfortable to remember some of the past decisions I made that hurt my personal relationships.  She’s a film buff, and wants to be a critic, which is awesome.  She’s totally awkward about her Americaness upon moving to Paris, which I can 100% identify with.  I spent my junior year in Europe, and had similar feelings upon moving to New York.  Being from Wyoming, my impression of NYC was largely formed watching episodes of Sex and the City.  I was so nervous to even set foot in the city at first, as Anna was in Paris--filled with complete misconceptions and self-consciousness.  Anna was also awesome in that she didn't turn into a bumbling idiot around the guys she liked. She was still her intelligent, funny, silly self. Finally, I completely loved Anna’s outlook on sex.  She basically states that she wouldn’t have sex with anyone unless, if she were to get knocked up, she wouldn’t be embarrassed to tell said kid who her father was.  YES!  I will totally preach this to my daughters someday.  

And then there’s Etienne St. Claire.  First the good: he’s shorter than Anna (as a 6’ tall woman, I love seeing this sort of thing), he’s totally sweet, funny, and thoughtful, he goes out of his way to make sure Anna feels comfortable and explores Paris.  Then...the bad: he’s so needy that he continues to date his gf, even after he obviously has feelings for Anna because he’s not 100% sure of her feelings, while at the same time actively working to keep any other guy from getting near Anna.  He crosses all the lines.  But then he totally calls Anna on her shit, and there’s totally (at least) two people in this boat, so I guess I can’t funnel all my angsty glares toward him.  Also, yeah, he's going through some crap, and I guess that can make people make stupid decisions. So I forgive the guy.

In the end, I appreciated that this wasn’t a fluffy happy love story, even though it was full of some great humor.  There were a lot of very realistic bumps in the road, and I found myself thinking ‘oh thank goodness I’m not the only one who’s been this stupid’.  

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  I may have been waffling for the first portion of this book, but by the end I was sold, and will be reading both Lola and the Boy Next Door and Isla and the Happily Ever After.  Does anyone know if Isla will feature the Isla that appeared as a minor character in Anna?  I hope so!

Recommended for:  Girls who need to grow a spine already, Paris lovers, pretty much anyone who likes YA romance. OH WAIT I'M THE LAST PERSON TO READ THIS BOOK.

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  Your vocab word of the day is callipygian.  Meaning having well shaped buttocks.  

Review: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Title: The Name of the Star [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Maureen Johnson [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Book one in the Shades of London series.
Genre: New/Young Adult, Paranormal, Mystery
Published: September 29th, 2011 by Putnam Juvenile
Format: Kindle edition.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.

If Torchwood were more like Ghostbusters it would be:

1. Significantly better.
2. Shades of London.

Rory’s grown up in small town Louisiana, her parents are lawyers who also teach, and they have decided to spend a year teaching in Bristol.  Given the choice of where to spend her year, Rory decides to spend it at the Wexford Academy boarding school, in London’s East End.  She hardly expected that her arrival would be marked by a serial killer reenacting the violent murders of Jack the Ripper.  While London is gripped with Rippermania, Rory finds herself the only witness able to identify the murderer.  She must deal with the disbelief and doubts of her friends, the police, and her own sanity while coming to grips with some shocking new knowledge and the reality that the Ripper seems to have chosen her as his prime victim.  

The Name of the Star was my first Maureen Johnson.  Now there’s a couple of ways to get me to read a book:  One, set it in a boarding school, I have a thing for them.  When I was young, I was dying to go to boarding school.  I begged, I cried, I never went, and am living vicariously through teen lit to this day.  See, a friend of mine left our small town to live with her family at a boarding school in Africa where her parents would teach the kids of missionaries.  I was obscenely jealous.  My mom had attended boarding school for high school, so I thought, “Perfect, send me there!”, but she hadn’t loved it as much as I was sure I would, and they said no.  Of course now I understand that your kids are only young once and I would never send my own away and miss that part of their lives, but I couldn’t see that at the time.  Two, set your book in London.  I’m a wee bit of an Anglophile.  Maureen Johnson did both, pretty much guaranteeing I would check this book out.

I wasn’t sure about Rory at first, she seemed nice enough, but she also talked.  A lot.  Personally, I’m usually annoyed by those who are overly loquacious, and Rory felt some southern need to entertain with numerous tangential stories of her crazy relatives back home.  Luckily, we only hear her voice a story and a bit before she quite literally chokes on her words.  Thereafter, her stories are told mostly in text, and I actually quite enjoyed her weird comparisons and connections between her past and the ongoing events.

Rory is strong, smart, and definitely a girl to root for.  I loved her relationships with the others in the book, as they reflected a very real teenage personality.  In particular, I loved her relationship with Jerome because it’s essentially no big deal.  It’s a real teenage relationship.  They crush, they flirt, they let their hormones rage, they do not pledge their undying love forever and ever after five minutes because they are seventeen freaking years old.  I appreciated this greatly, and it let me really like Jerome while simultaneously thinking Rory will be able to move on to other relationships (YES I have someone particular in mind) in the future without a ton of drama or heartache.  I liked the girlfriends, Jazzy and Boo (though those names...really?  I mean one sure, but both of them?), I even like the nemesis, Charlotte...though that’s probably largely because she goes to a costume party dressed as Amy Pond.

Maureen Johnson has very cleverly constructed a situation in which it is feasible to have very young characters doing very badass jobs (see above comment about Torchwood/Ghostbusters).  The Name of the Star is incredibly fast paced, in a unique way that allows for both the characters and the story to unfold and develop equally. Jack the Ripper provided both a terrifying and gripping plot laid over the invention of a new world with countless opportunities for further development.  I personally felt the story unwrapped itself layer by layer to reveal something much more complicated than suggested at first glance.  Besides people, it’s Jack the Ripper!  Who hasn’t been terrified by this man at some point?  The Name of the Star provides an excellent and fresh twist on the Ripper story, while creating its own unique tale.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: The Madness Underneath is set to release later this year and I cannot wait!  

Recommended for: Fans of Jack the Ripper, those who like paranormal mysteries ala Odd Thomas, people into somewhat ridiculous but awesome off-the-books agencies.

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  I was torn between the morbid curiosity of wanting to look up Ripper info (and pics!) and not wanting to have to sleep with a night light on and check behind the shower curtain when I pee.  The pics won out.