Review: Fracture by Megan Miranda

Title: Fracture [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Megan Miranda [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Young Adult, Speculative Fiction
Published: January 17th, 2012 by Walker Children's
Format: Hardcover; 262 pages.
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: Debut Author Challenge

The first time I died, I didn't see God.

No light at the end of the tunnel.  No haloed angels.  No dead grandparents.
To be fair, I probably wasn’t a solid shoo-in for heaven.  But, honestly, I kind of assumed I’d make the cut.
I didn’t see any fire or brimstone, either.
Not even an endless darkness.  Nothing.
One moment I was clawing at the ice above, skin numb, lungs burning.  Then everything--the ice, the pain, the brightness filtering through the surface of the lake--just vanished.
And then I saw the light.

Delaney fell through the too-thin ice on the lake one day.  She fell through, and she didn’t come back up.  Her best friend, Decker, pulled her out eleven minutes later.  Death was definite; she was blue, cold, and not breathing.  Even if by some miracle Delaney were to live, she’d be in a comatose vegetative state for the rest of her life.  Only she wasn’t.  She was fine.  Or as fine as you could be when you were supposed to be dead but weren’t, which I suppose is really not fine at all.

Fracture took me by surprise with its intense emotions, steady pace, and overall feel.  This was one of those books I was greatly looking forward to, and yet for some reason once I had it in my hands, I let it sit for two months before picking it up.  Once I did, I couldn’t put it down.  I read Fracture in a single sitting, I think I actually put the book down once when I realized I needed sustenance and went to the kitchen for a snack, but I’ll admit it even made bathroom runs with me.  

Fracture instantly grips you into Delaney’s emotional plight, as she miraculously recovers from what should have been death, but despite her being alive, she isn’t the same.  Physically, and mentally, there is something most definitely wrong.  Her brain scans light up like a Christmas tree with areas that shouldn’t be firing properly, but are.  She should have short and long term memory loss, but she doesn’t.  She shouldn’t have control over her body motions, but she does.  Delaney isn’t in top shape, she has broken ribs, intense headaches, and no short of trauma.  She begins to have intense feelings of itch and pull from inside her brain, that draw her to certain places, certain people, as her hands begin to shake.  Her parents and the doctors tell her she is having hallucinations, and believe that she is hurting herself, and hurting others.  Delaney can’t believe this, and with horror she realizes that the pulls are drawing her to death, and that she’s not the only one.

I was surprised at how moved I was by Delaney’s story.  I was expecting an edge of my seat type story, and I got it, but I wasn’t expecting the dive into depression that Fracture took.  Both Delaney and her mother experience intense changes after Delaney’s accident, and have to struggle not to drown in their own hopeless states.  I went in thinking Delaney’s drowning was over before I started, but I ended knowing Delaney had been grasping for the surface for the duration of the book.  She has to grapple not only with her new abilities and physical changes, but with a complete upheaval in her home life, her school aspirations, and her relationships with friends.  Delaney has a surprising sense of mortality for someone so young, even beyond the reality that she should by all rights be dead.

It was sad to me how few friends Delaney really seemed to have.  It was like she was part of a group, but Decker was really the only one she let herself be close to.  While this never hurt before, when Delaney and Decker begin struggling with their own emotions, she has no one else to turn to and Decker basically ‘wins’ their mutual friends by default.  This upset me in no small part because I really wanted to love Decker.  I totally fell for him in the first chapter, when he breaks down in utter relief at Delaney’s revival, but then his actions through the rest of the book frustrate me to no end, and I ended up despising him and all of their other so called friends.  And then, there’s Troy.  Troy, the one person who can really understand what Delaney’s going through.  I want to hate Troy as much as I want to love Decker, but again, I can’t.  More than anything, I pity him.  When he meets Delaney, Troy finally feels that he’s no longer alone in the world, and I cannot fathom that kind of relief and intensity of emotion.

Fracture, to me, was an interesting observation on life, death, and healing.  It recognizes that often in the face of tragedy, the person whose tragedy it is gets pushed to the side as those around them need comfort.  While I loved that Fracture was a stand alone novel, I will say my biggest disappointment was the end.  It felt abrupt, and too out of touch with the overall story.  I wanted a little more of an outlook to the future, or at least an acknowledgement that there would be a future, however difficult or easy or sad or happy. Fracture was one of those books that I was completely immersed in, and yet liked much less than I expected when all was said and done.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  I will happily read whatever Megan Miranda comes up with next.  Fracture was a solid debut, and judging from it Miranda has immense potential.

Recommended for:  People who enjoy unreliable narrators, and some twists to their contemporary reads.  I’d say Fracture has a similar set up to If I Stay balance-wise, but reads more like Fury.

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Review: The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Iron Daughter [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Julie Kagawa [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Book two in The Iron Fey series.
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Published: July 27th, 2010 by Harlequin Teen
Format: Kindle edition; 361 pages
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Spoilers!: This review contains spoilers for the first book in the series, The Iron King (reviewed here), so go read that first!

Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron Fey, iron-bound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.

Worse, Meghan’s own fey powers have been cut off. She’'s alone in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can’t help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.

So remember every nice thing I said about Meghan Chase when I reviewed The Iron King?  Well, I take it back.  Somehow that savvy girl with the potential to turn into someone brave and strong instead turned into a simpering, pining, annoyingly naive character I just couldn’t bring myself to care about this time around.  I really think this was a case of the straw that broke the camel’s back.  This was it; the book that made me realize that I really just cannot take one more of these YA romances.  I can’t do it!  It’s not just that it’s a love triangle (but yeah, that’s a big part of it), it’s also that it’s deep intense love with someone you barely know, have spent barely any time with, and yet are willing to give up everything for.  For eternity.  Yeah.  That kind of love.  I can’t do it anymore.  

Maybe I’ve matured a lot in my views of relationships over the past few years.  I’ve been living with the man I want to spend the rest of my life with now for over three years, and I’ve come to understand that love and relationships take work...and they have to be based on something more than some surface attraction and something in common.  I’m not saying that the types of relationships I’m getting sick of in YA couldn’t potentially end up as lasting, but honestly?  Most of them aren’t healthy, and it’s gotten to where it annoys me beyond belief that we’re supposed to swoon over this stuff and think ‘oh how sweet they’ll be together forever’ when they don’t even really know (or care about) what that entails.

I just wanted to slap Meghan so many times in this book.  At the beginning, Ash literally tells her that he’s going to have to treat her a certain way in the Unseelie court.  Then, when he proceeds to do exactly as he said he would, Meghan cries and moans about how he’s betrayed her and lied to her and how could he be so cruel.  She continually doubts his feelings for her, doubts her own feelings for him, and yet--it’s true love people!  Right.  At the end of The Iron King I had also come to believe that Meghan had grown and matured as a person.  That she was no longer worried about things like an embarrassing day in high school that had bothered her at the beginning of her journey.  But then in The Iron Daughter she freaks out about just those types of things proving that she hasn’t really grown at all.

Some other nitpicky things while I’m on a roll: for the love of all that is good stop talking about heartbeats.  I swear, if I had a dollar for everytime Meghan hears/feels Ash’s heartbeat, or Puck’s heartbeat, or her own freakin’ heartbeat, I could pay off a decent amount of my student loans.  Also, I hate hate recapping.  A little I get, it’s fine, it’s usually been a while between books, but excessive recapping is Kagawa’s thing.  I didn’t enjoy Winter’s Passage much because of it, and it had me wanting to put The Iron Daughter down after only 25 pages.  And get this?  She put a huge chuck of Winter’s Passage into The Iron Daughter.  Seriously?!  I get that not everyone had access to the short story, but that’s why you make it something you don’t need to put in the books.  Not something you just put in the book anyway.

If I had read The Iron Daughter two years ago when it came out, I most likely would have loved it.  I wish I did read it then, because Julie Kagawa’s built a really cool world creating an interplay between some classic mythology and her own creations that are unique and quite frankly pretty dang cool.  I do think that aside from my inability to stomach the relationships, The Iron Daughter suffered a bit from second-book syndrome.  It was an okay story, but really seemed a filler plot leading to where we all know the story is going.  Nothing about it was surprising to me as it was in The Iron King, and in the end I was just incredibly disappointed with the whole read.

In the words of Craig Ferguson, I look forward to your comments.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  I was really looking forward to this series, but after this I think I’m done.  I just don’t think I can care anymore about The Iron Fey.  I do still want to read The Immortal Rules, but I’m hesitant enough not to have requested the ARC.  I’ll wait to see more reviews, thank you.

Recommended for:  I would still recommend this series to fantasy readers, particularly younger ones, who don’t read so much as me and therefore haven’t become incredibly jaded.

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Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Iron King [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Julie Kagawa [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: The Iron Fey #1
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Published: February 1st, 2010 by Harlequin Teen
Format: Kindle edition; 363 pages.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.

Meghan has never really fit in--she’s the poor country girl at school, and her only real friend is Robbie, her poor country neighbor.  However, she realizes as she nears her 16th birthday, that there is more to it than not having the right clothes or money.  Her 4-year-old brother, Ethan, is constantly claiming to see monsters, and now Meghan thinks it might be more than childhood fear.  She’s seeing things too, and when Ethan is replaced with a changeling she gets Robbie to reveal some truths about the world of the fey.  He agrees to take her there and to assist her in retrieving her brother, but navigating Fairyland proves to be much more dangerous and full of truths than Meghan might be ready for.

It was inevitable when I picked up The Iron Fey, that I was going to compare it to Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely.  So please indulge me while I do so for a paragraph (you can skip it, you don’t have to tell me).  Going in, I have to admit I was worried that the series would be too similar, or that I just wouldn’t like this one as much.  Luckily, they were different enough I don’t feel as if I’ll be constantly comparing them (you know, other than this paragraph), and I did really like this first novel in The Iron Fey.  Where Wicked Lovely is written as more urban fantasy, I would categorize The Iron Fey as strait up fantasy with a contemporary setting.  The Iron Fey is less dark, but still presents the fey as creepy, mischievous, potentially scary, and was slightly more traditional in its lore.  It kind of felt like it was written for a slightly younger audience than Wicked Lovely, and followed a few more YA tropes, but I found The Iron Fey to be original, well written, and completely engrossing.  What sucked me in?  This paragraph here:

I hadn’t even touched the keys when the computer screen blipped on.  When I paused, my fingers hovering over the board, words began to scroll across the blue screen.  Meghan Chase.  We see you.  We’re coming for you.  I froze.  The words continued, those three sentences, over and over.  Meghan Chase.  We see you.  We’re coming for you.  Megan Chase we see you we’re coming for you.  Meghan Chase we see you we’re coming for you...over and over until it completely filled the screen.

Thereafter, the series has almost an Alice in Wonderland meets Labyrinth sort of feel, but you know, in a good way (I despise Alice in Wonderland, sorry world--but I love me some Labyrinth).  There’s even a dopey Ludo-like character at one point!  When Meghan’s brother is stolen (unfortunately, not by David Bowie) and replaced with a changeling, she’s determined to get him back.  Now, usually, when our innocent heroine encounters Fairyland and it’s rules, I groan.  Because most young ladies upon contact with fairies don’t listen to any of the rules and end up in trouble.  Not Meghan!!  Meghan, dear friends, is smart.  She may not know everything, or get everything 100% (because that would be boring and unrealistic), but she does listen.  She’s clever enough to not repeatedly make mistakes with the fey, and even to bargain with them intelligently.  This made me love her.  She was vulnerable and naive, but that doesn’t mean she’s stupid.  She doesn’t start out tough, but we are able to see her grow and strengthen throughout the course of her journey.
Now, there wasn’t an in-your-face love triangle in The Iron King, but you can see it coming like a mack truck.  I like that I honestly can’t predict which way the romance will go, and that makes reading yet another series with this trope doable.  Of course, I know what way I want it to go, but that’s besides the point...Additionally, I really enjoyed the entire cast.  Every character and creature was excellently described and well-written, and my favorite, by far, was the cat Grimalken.  For anyone who loves the Cheshire Cat in Alice and Wonderland, or enjoys the superiority complex of cats in general, Grimalken is the cat for you.
Finally, I loved the lore presented in this series.  It’s fairly traditional with Mab, Oberon, Titania, faery rules, etc, but there were twists that made the story both current and original.  I don’t want to say too much and give anything away (I can spoil this one in future reviews, right?), but I will say that when everything clicked into place I was enthusiastically surprised.  
Likelihood that I'll be back for more: Already checked out Winter’s Passage and The Iron Daughter!  
Recommended for:  Fans of Alice in Wonderland, Labyrinth, and Wicked Lovely, or anyone who enjoys fantasy and is looking for an interesting twist on Celtic mythology.
Real life repercussions of reading this book: Totes watching Labyrinth.  You’re welcome readers!

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Review: Slide by Jill Hathaway

Title: Slide [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Jill Hathaway [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Book one in a new series.
Genre: Young Adult, Speculative Fiction, Mystery
Published: March 27th, 2012 by Balzer & Bray for HarperCollins
Format: Kindle edition.
Source: ARC from publisher via NetGalley.
Challenge: Debut Author Challenge

...it’s wrong that death is a loss.  It’s something you gain.  Death is always there, whispering in your ear.  It’s in the spaces between your fingers.  In your memories.  In everything you think and say and feel and wish.  It’s always there.

Everyone knows Vee has a problem, they just don’t really know what it is.  Diagnosed as narcoleptic, Vee passess out on an increasingly regular basis.  What everyone doesn’t know, is that when she’s unconscious, she slides.  Vee finds herself looking through the eyes of other people, an unwilling passenger to their lives, unable to look away.  When her little sister’s best friend supposedly commits suicide, Vee’s the only witness who knows the truth--Sophie didn’t kill herself, she was murdered.  Now, Vee is forced to remain silent for fear of being labeled crazy, but she is compelled to solve Sophie’s murder and stop the killer before more harm can come to her sister.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Guy and girl are best friends, but their friendship is on the brink of unraveling because it’s pretty clear that one (or both) of them has feelings for the other beyond friendship, but they’re too wound up to actually talk about it and instead start pushing each other away.  New guy comes to town and sees said girl as ‘special’, and is totally into her even though she’s probably not hot/popular/his type enough for him and her life is completely screwed up right now, but he sees beyond all that to the unique flower that is her.

Sound familiar?  If so, you might find aspects of Slide as tedious and wrote as I did.  But (yes, there is a BUT), I will tell you that luckily, this played out love triangle is a considerably minor part of the plot.  For me, there was plenty more to Vee and the mystery and suspense of Slide to keep me turning pages at top speed until I reached the end, leaving me liking Jill Hathaway’s debut much more than I was expecting to when I was about ⅓ of the way through.

Thankfully, Vee Bell isn’t just about the boys in her life.  Vee is quite possibly one of the best big sisters I’ve encountered in recent YA.  She doesn’t smother her sister, she lets her make her own mistakes (though let’s face it, I did have that scene from 10 Things I Hate About You where Kat tells Bianca why she ‘quit’ being popular running through my head...they have just about the same dynamic), and yet she has her back and makes taking care of her when she’s down her top priority.  Of course, Vee doesn’t see that she has a choice.  Her mother has passed away, and her father is largely absent due to his job as a surgeon.  Vee has pretty much shouldered the emotional responsibility of an adult twice her age, which is common for the oldest children in this type of family, but the fact remains that she does have the option not to take care of everyone around her.  She’s strong and she does, despite her own cavalcade of problems, and this makes her a winning lead.

Of course, there’s also the mystery.  Slide was a fairly fast paced and thrilling read; Vee’s affliction in which she passes out and ‘slides’ into others was both unique and terrifying.  Vee is drawn into other’s bodies through an empathetic connection made when she is touching an object with emotional significance to another person.  This means she’s basically become OCD, avoiding other people’s belongings and used items (like books) with due care.  When she does slide, she is stuck in that person’s mind.  She cannot read thoughts, control anything, or look away.  As a result, Vee finds herself the only witness to a murder, and knows that if she ever tells she’ll be labeled ‘crazy’ instantly.  In order to appease her fears, Vee must learn to use her curse as a gift.

Slide, for me, brought up some interesting privacy issues.  Vee cannot really control when she slides, and despite her efforts to control who, often seems to overlook items that might direct her.  She realizes the secrets she knows about people because of her affliction are a horrible invasion of privacy, and yet, she also begins to feel that it is okay to invade someone's privacy if you have good intentions.  I had a hard time with this sentiment, although I could see the logic that brought her to this conclusion.  As someone who values our privacy and freedom with the utmost dedication, I found it hard to stomach the notion that this type of ‘spying’ might be justifiable in order to make someone feel better. It does help to solve the mystery, but it's also no surprise that it blows up in Vee's face as well.

I appreciated Slide’s nauseating typeface on the cover, but will say that I was disappointed in the story’s end.  It just seemed too convenient to me.  All in all, a take it or leave it kind of read.  It went very quickly, and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t have to have this book in my life. The concept for me was cooler than the actual story.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  Eh, not sure.  Upon finishing Slide, I remarked that I actually ended up liking it more than I thought I was going to, but at the same time I don’t really see the need to make this a series.  Not sure I’ll be reading the next installment, but who knows, maybe I will.

Recommended for:  People looking for mystery and suspense, but only if you’re willing to overlook some overplayed tropes to get it.  The book it reminded me most of ‘feel’ wise was Fracture by Megan Miranda.

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  For the love of all that is good, I cannot even think the title of this book without getting the Goo Goo Dolls in my head.  

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Review: Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Title: Scarlet [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: A.C. Gaughen [Website|Twitter]
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Young Adult, Retelling, Historical
Published: February 14th, 2012 by Walker Childrens
Format: Hardcover; 292 pages.
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: Debut Author Challenge

We do what we do because there's something we can do about it. Things like 'how long' and 'what if' aren't part of that. It's about the hope, not the horror.

Scarlet, known to the people of Nottinghamshire as “Will”, but to her small band of outlaws as just Scarlet has spent the past two years as one of Robin Hood’s most trusted friends and partners in crime.  The band works tirelessly to make certain that the townspeople are fed, and have the money to pay the outrageously high taxes demanded by the sheriff.  They work the roads of Sherwood forest, trying hard to provide for the people that should have been under Robin’s care, but for some contrived treachery his father supposedly committed to crown and country.  When the sheriff hires a thief taker, Gisbourne, to capture and kill the Hood and his mates, Scarlet finds herself pushed into corners she’s been avoiding for years.  Suddenly, her trustworthiness and loyalty to the band is called into question as she strives to hide her past and stay a firm part of the band.  Each of these tasks becomes increasingly difficult as Gisbourne works to destroy them, and as Scarlet deals with the emotions of those around her.

So...let’s talk about this slight obsession I have with books that star girls masquerading as boys.  LOVE IT.  For some reason, this theme always grabs me.  I think one of the reasons for this is that it always guarantees you a strong woman balking against stereotypes--just the kind of girls I like to root for.  One of my favorite parts about Scarlet was the fact that her band knew she was a girl the whole time.  There wasn’t that whole ‘omg when is he going to realize she’s a woman and fall madly in love?’ pressure the whole book, because all of the characters that matter already know.  I mean, I love that moment (All Men of Genius, Leviathan), but it was refreshing to have a new play on this thing that I love so much.

I wasn’t sure going in how I was going to react to Scarlet.  I’d seen her described as ‘prickly’, ‘defensive’, and knew that a lot of people had a hard time bonding to her.  I am happy to say that while yes, these are completely accurate descriptions, I am in the camp of people who fell for and loved Scarlet immediately.  She’s quite moody, and withdraws into herself in an unhealthy way, but she’s also completely kick-butt with her knives, fiercely loyal, and completely dedicated to helping those in need.  Scarlet pushes her own emotions to the backburner so often, she herself doesn’t really even know how she feels about her bandmates John or Robin.  Or rather, she doesn’t let herself acknowledge her feelings.  Scarlet has so much hope for everyone else in her life, but so little for herself.  She’s so certain of her own eventual unhappy ending that she doesn’t dare risk the notion that she is worthy of anything more.  She’s entirely who she wants to be, and not at all who she’s supposed to be.  She’s faithful, dedicated, and willing to take the world’s troubles onto her back.  I found my heart wrenching for Scarlet for so much of this book, I adored her so.

And then there’s the men in her life--Robin Hood’s band of merry brothers.  In Scarlet, the band currently exists of only four ‘men’; Scarlet, Robin Hood, Little John, and Much.  A.C. Gaughen explained that she kept the band at this because Robin Hood was so young in her rendition.  Little John and Much were Robin’s “boys”, he’d grown up with them, and mysterious Scarlet was his dearest friend.  I liked Robin, he was haunted by his past in ways that let him understand Scarlet like no one else, and his need to protect the people of Nottinghamshire made him a true hero in my book.  He could be a bit of a prat, and was outright mean to Scarlet on occasion.  He’s so caught up in what he should feel and what those around him feel, that he fights against his own emotions in some rather annoying ways.  Also, I got really sick of hearing about his eyes.  Apparently, Robin Hood’s eyes are the most amazing things ever because I swear they’re mentioned in detail just about every time Scarlet looks at him.  

John provided a good counterpoint to Robin.  He obviously was crushing on Scarlet, and I love how completely oblivious she is to the whole thing.  I also wasn’t sure until the very end how John really felt about our heroine, if his feelings were genuine, or if he just thought them so.  He’s a good guy, but he certainly isn’t one to take a hint!  I actually liked John’s perseverance with Scarlet, even though we all knew he isn’t the man for her.  He’s confident in ways that Robin and Scarlet are not, but he also doesn’t really understand either of them with the depth that they are able to understand one another.  Honestly, I think my favorite of the men was Much, who we got to see the least of.  He was the most identifiable for the townspeople, and for me as well.  He was just a plain nice guy, who had everyone’s best interests at heart.  When Robin and John would get all mixed up in the head about Scarlet, Much was always there to step in and be a bastion of sanity and solace for her.

All in all, this wasn’t a completely character centered story, and that’s okay!  The action and adventure was worth the lack of character depth, and I’d also like to say that though not all of the characters complexities were highlighted, they were in no way shallow or lacking.  I loved that the plot was driven in an open and direct way.  From about 20 pages in we know the gist of what Scarlet is hiding from the band. But the devil is in the details, which get spread throughout the story like breadcrumbs, revealing more of her and her past to us slowly as time goes on.  I really appreciate this style; I sometimes get annoyed at the big ‘gasp’ moment of reveal that isn’t really a surprise at all.  That wasn’t how Scarlet was done!

Finally, I just have to say that I loved the way Scarlet ended (despite it lacking a certain scene...*ahem*!).  I love that it doesn’t just tie up everything all neatly; Scarlet has some loose ends, but in the best possible way.  This book is entirely about the power of hope, and the ending allows us to go on with the hope and knowledge that Scarlet, Robin, and the band will have many more adventures to come.  Fantastic!  I’m sure that Scarlet wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty perfect for me, and I highly recommend it to you.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: Yes!  I loved this retelling so much, I want to give A.C. Gaughen a big ol’ hug.  She created a new and unique spin on a well-known and oft retold tale, that is totally legit!  I love the history and reasoning she included in her author’s note, and the fact that this book contained a primer for those of us wanting to read more Robin Hood?  LOVE IT.  Totally on board with this author.

Recommended for:  Fans of books like Tamora Pierce’s Allana, Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan (Scarlet reminded me quite a bit of Deryn at times--I think it’s the way they talk!), and Lev A.C. Rosen’s All Men of Genius.  Again, we’re talking strong female protagonists who are willing to go against society to be themselves and follow their dreams.

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Review: Song of the Red Cloak by Chantel Acevedo

Title: Song of the Red Cloak [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Chantel Acevedo [Website|Twitter]
Standing: Stand alone novel?
Genre: Young Adult, Historical, Fantasy
Published: July 26th, 2011 by CreateSpace
Format: Kindle edition.  
Source: Purchased.

A prophecy has been told of one prince's betrayal of another, of a slave uprising and the destruction of Sparta, of love and death.  The time has come to pass that these prophesies may be fulfilled.

Galen and Nikolas have grown up the best of friends, much to the concern of most of Sparta; Nikolas is a prince, destined to be king, while Galen is a helot--a slave--destined only to serve.  Galen dreams of freedom, of being a true Spartan and wearing a red cloak, but he knows this will not happen, so he will help Nikolas to achieve his.  While assisting Nikolas in a cruel coming-of-age ritual, Galen and Nikolas have a run in with Zoi, a mysterious young woman with unusual powers.  Galen, however, begins to suspect that Zoi has her part to play in the prophecies he learns from Karinna, Sparta’s beautiful new sybil.  

So, like many out there, I tend to shy away from self-published books, at least until I hear good words from others.  Chantel Acevedo is a real life friend of an author I love, Rachel Hawkins, and she had such kind words to say about Chantel and her book that I just had to give it a shot.  Chantel Acevedo is a total sweetheart, and I was excited to read a book that began as a NaNoWriMo book to see what someone could achieve from this event.  I am so happy to say that not only were there no noticeable typos, Song of the Red Cloak offered a compelling story of friendship, love, and BADASS SPARTANS.

Song of the Red Cloak was an excellent historical fiction, with some awesomely creative fantasy elements drawn both from Grecian myth and Acevedo’s own creation.  I loved all of the elements of Spartan society that were discussed, especially the details about the women.  I’ll say it right now, if I ever have to be part of a past society, I’ll take Sparta please (just not as a helot).  They get to go to school, get trained to fight, can speak their minds, and are pretty much awesome:

When foreigners asked why Spartan women were the only females in all of Greece allowed to speak their minds, the answer was always the same:  because Spartan women gave birth to real men.

Yeah, I know, it’s one of those cliche Spartan phrases, but it’s always in Spartan stuff BECAUSE IT’S AWESOME.  Song of the Red Cloak did not include the other Spartan phrase, “Come back with your shield or on it.” so we’ll let it roll.  I will say though, that one of the things that bothered me a bit about the book in the first half was feeling a bit like I was getting a history lesson.  This is somewhat necessary to make sure readers understand terminology, but occasionally it felt like facts were thrown in because they were cool facts more than because they were necessary.  Another aspect that bothered me were a couple of inconsistencies in descriptors.  For example, near the beginning, Nikolas surprised Galan by coming up behind him, but about three pages later when describing Nikolas, it is said that he could never sneak up on anyone.  My only other issue was the time-line.  While the pacing of the story was good, things seemed to come to a head very quickly, in a matter of days events took place which to me would have made more sense over a matter of weeks.

Song of the Red Cloak addresses the age old and tragic issue of prophecy.  As so often with prophecies, they are open to interpretation, misinterpreted, or people attempt to avoid them.  This, as always, works toward the detriment of those involved.  We see this story through the eyes of Galen, a slave who both respects and hates Spartans.  I very much enjoyed the focus on a male protagonist, and a story where there was just as much (if not more) emphasis on the value of his friendship with Nikolas as there is on his relationships with Zoi and Karinna.  All in all, I very much enjoyed the world depicted by Acevedo, which was both historically accurate and wonderfully creative.  

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  I’ll totally check out whatever Chantel Acevedo writes next!  I admire her for self-publishing, and think she’s got some great stories up in that head.  Song of the Red Cloak was stand alone, but it seemed very open for the continuation of this story. She also has another book out, Love and Ghost Letters, which won the International Latino Book Award.

Recommended for:  Fans of Ancient Greece (Sparta in particular), people looking for a focus on friendship, strong women--because Sparta had em’ and some hot dudes too.

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  Well...my boyfriend had to sit through 300 with me.  Yeah, guys like 300, but they probably don’t like watching it with their girlfriend literally drooling at all the eye candy.  Also Spartans make me want to eat large amounts of next-to-raw meat and punch things.  And kick people down pits.

Team Dynamics: How much does popular opinion affect a writer's choices?

Last night while watching Monday’s episode of How I Met Your Mother, the boyfriend and I got into a discussion about the dynamics of fictional relationships, how the audience affects the outcome, and why people pick teams.  I would love to continue that discussion here.

Let's get married, even though neither of us likes commitment!
How I Met Your Mother - CBS

Here’s the thing that annoys me: when choosing teams, people root for the characters they like.  Well of course they do, what’s wrong with that?  The reality is the most fun, nice, likable, etc. character isn’t always the best option for the character in question.  Let’s take the aforementioned How I Met Your Mother.  SPOILERS IF YOU CARE SKIP TILL MORE CAPSLOCK:  So this week Robin gets proposed to, and she actually wants to say yes.  Now, this guy is great, he’s probably the best thing that could happen to Robin, and I was all for it.  But still I had zero excitement when this happened because I knew the writers would never carry through.  Why?  Because he doesn’t even have a team!  He’s not one of the core characters of the show, and for some reason core characters have to end up together whether or not it’s a good and healthy relationship dynamic.  I think everyone wants Barney and Robin to end up together, but I certainly don’t.  They were a terrible couple.  Do people really think this is going to change?  I don’t.  END SPOILERS FOR THAT SHOW BEGIN THEM FOR SCRUBS:  Take J.D. and Elliot in Scrubs.  Again, horrible couple.  Just because they’re great friends, and the darling core single characters of the show should not dictate their fates!  I hated that they ended up together (Okay, I hated the last couple seasons of this show period.  Seriously, stop making shows before they start sucking.  It’s killing me, I can barely even watch How I Met Your Mother anymore).  END SPOILERS.  

Oh J.D., I'm pretty sure we hate seeing each other naked.
Scrubs - NBC/ABC

I’m so frustrated with this issue that I’m straying away from television all together.  I don’t know who I’ve lost faith in.  Have I lost faith in viewers because they won’t be happy unless their two favorite core characters end up together, even if they’re not right for one another?  Have I lost faith in the writers who make this happen?  Have I lost faith in the producers who dictate these endings to please their fanbase?  Maybe all of the above.  So I turn to my refuge, books, and while I feel like here authors take more liberties to make things right, the dynamic of picking teams and shipping for match-ups is even more rampant.

Sorry Jacob, if you kiss me I'll probably cry.
Twilight - Summit Entertainment

The original: Team Edward vrs. Team Jacob.  Say what you will about the books, Twilight ignited the team picking dynamic and turned it into a wildfire.  The entire time reading the books I was utterly confused about why this happened.  Jacob never had a chance.  You hear me Team Jacob?  JACOB NEVER HAD A CHANCE!  Why would readers stand so ardently behind a character who obviously was not Bella’s interest?  Oh but it’s okay fans!  Stephenie Meyer didn’t leave you hanging, she conveniently made the who Renesme creepiness to make fans happy and tie Jacob up all nice and neat so that nobody had to go home a loser.  Was this a case of a writer pandering to her audience to make them happy?  The cynic in me wants to scream “Of course!”, but the reality is, I can’t make those judgements, I can only speculate.  

Jo, forget everything you want and be with me!
Little Women - Columbia Pictures

Now, it seems, love triangles and team picking exists in every YA series.  I’m continually surprised to see fans picking the side of the character they like best, and not the character who is the best match.  Look at Cynthia Hand’s Unearthly series.  SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T READ HALLOWED SKIP THIS PART: You have Christian, and you have Tucker.  Now, let me assure you that I love Tucker as much as everyone else, but after reading Hallowed, I am not cheering for him to end up with Clara.  Why?  Because at the end of the day, Christian is a better option for her to be happy, and to not hurt the one she’s with.  END SPOILERS.  The same thing happened in the classic, Little Women.  People still rant about Jo not ending up with Laurie, but guess what?  They would have been a terrible couple!  Just because Laurie is wonderful and an awesome friend doesn’t mean he was the right choice to make Jo happy for the rest of her life.  He wasn’t.  Mr. Behr challenges Jo and compliments her personality in ways that Laurie never could.  

I love you, shame I'll have to kill you.
The Hunger Games - Lionsgate

Then there’s those series where it’s a coin toss, like The Hunger Games.  Suzanne Collins presents us with two potential mates for Katniss, Peeta or Gale.  They’re both essentially good guys, both of them compliment Katniss in different ways and could be good matches.  So how did Collins reconcile this?  SPOILERS FOR MOCKINGJAY LOOK AWAY:  She makes one go essentially war crazy so that we can feel all warm and snug in our beds at night knowing Katniss made the right choice. END SPOILERS.  Again, this to me is the author’s way of worming out of having the characters make a tough decision, and a way to make readers happy.

I’d love to hear what other readers think about this dynamic.  Do you think authors consider readers too much when making the tough relationship decisions?  Do you think they do it to make us happy, or to make themselves feel better?  Do you wish that one person would end up with their heart crushed all over the floor and everyone would just deal with it?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.