Audio Review: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

  Title: An Abundance of Katherines [Amazon|GoodReads] 
  Author: John Green [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
  Standing: Stand alone novel.
  Genre: Young/New Adult, Contemporary
  Published: September 21st, 2006 by Brilliance Audio (in print by Dutton Juvenile)
  Format: Audiobook; 6 hrs. 47 min. Read by Jeff Woodman
  Source: Borrowed from my local library.

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He's also a washed-up child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin's on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl. Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin's hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere.

I’m not sure why this didn’t occur to me until long after I’d finished An Abundance of Katherines that of course I was going to thoroughly enjoy it.  The whole ‘being attracted to someone with a particular name’ thing has The Importance of Being Earnest written all over it, and I don’t think it’s any secret that I am a fan.  And enjoy it I did.  Thoroughly.  An Abundance of Katherines was the book I chose to give my John Green V-Card to, and I really don’t think I could have made a better decision.  This book, to me, was hilarious, but not over-the-top-trying-too-hard ridiculous hilarious, completely-plausible-real-life hilarious.  The kind of hilarious that means you probably shouldn’t listen to this audiobook while working out if you have asthma, because you will inevitably have a laughing fit while already low on breath and have an asthma attack somewhere far from home and your inhaler that you left sitting by the sink.  Quite possibly when Hassan is having a fat kid asthma attack of his own.  So, so worth it.

Jeff Woodman, the narrator, has a pretty sweet backlog of audio goodness behind him.  I’ve listened to his narration of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and Life of Pi, but he also narrates books I’d love to listen to including The Westing Game, The Queen’s Thief series, and other John Green books.  Those are some legit credentials people, and he’s earned them.  His narration of An Abundance of Katherines was spot-on—not the kind of narration that makes a good book better, but the kind of narration that brings a great book to life and lets you consume it in an ideal format.

One of my favorite aspects of An Abundance of Katherines was that I did not like the protagonist, Colin Singleton.  Quite frankly, the kid was a tool, and I love well-written characters that are the types of people I would never hang out with enough to observe in real life.  I mean, I’m all for nerdome and smarty pants and what not, but Colin Singleton just takes it too far.  He’s the kind of kid who’s socially awkward, and knows he’s socially awkward, but only because he has a friend like Hassan to give him clues as to what is and is not interesting for other people to hear.  I was less shocked by the idea that Colin had been dumped by nineteen Katherines than I was by the notion that this dweeb could get nineteen girls to go out with him in the first place.  His social awkwardome doesn’t shut him up or turn him into an introvert, and I kind of love that.  Colin is who he is, and even though I wouldn’t be caught dead with the kid, more power to him for not compromising and for finding friends who do enjoy him for who he is.

Even though Colin is a quirky mega-brain character with many life experiences the rest of us will never have, I feel like he’s incredibly relatable.  He grew up labeled as a child prodigy, and now that he’s finished high school and is ready to move out into the world, he has to decide what it is he’s going to do that will mark his future.  Colin wants to matter.  I think most of us go through a similar experience at one point or another.  We all grew up with certain labels, and we all have to decide whether or not those labels will continue on with us, and what we’re going to do with our lives.  But, as the character Lindsey so poignantly puts it: “What matters to you defines your mattering.”  To Lindsey, her mom, and many people in Guttshot (the town Colin and Hassan end up in on their quarter-life-existential-crisis road trip), it’s stories that make us matter.  For Colin, it’s the idea that he could be a genius—he could figure out what it is that makes someone either a dumper or a dumpee. 

An Abundance of Katherines is full of profound eureka moments about what it means to be an average person living life and what impact that might have, not on the world but on you.  It was hilarious, fun, and full of insight about becoming who you are supposed to be.  My one complaint about the audio version of this book is that you don’t get to see the equations and graphs that Colin writes for his theorem.  For someone very visual, like me, it was kind of hard to picture.  Luckily, other people have posted pics of them, like Chachic, whose review I’ve linked below!

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  Of course!  I’m reading The Fault in Our Stars for book club, and I plan to listen to Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska on audio.

Recommended for:  Any contemporary fan, people who enjoy road trips, existential crises, eureka moments, and nerds. 

Real life repercussions of reading this book: Um, remember that somewhat vague allusion to this book making you have an asthma attack it’s so funny.  Yuuup.  That was me.

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Review: The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

  Title: The Book of Blood and Shadow [Amazon|GoodReads]
  Author: Robin Wasserman [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
  Standing: Stand alone novel.
  Genre: Young/New Adult, Mystery
  Published: April 10th, 2012 by Random House Children’s Books
  Format: Kindle edition; 448 pages.
  Source: ARC from publisher received via NetGalley.

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up.  When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love.  When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead.  His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

The Book of Blood and Shadow was, for me, one of those reads that is almost but not quite right.  I enjoyed it as a read, but found myself far from blown away with a story that was more tepid than bone chilling.  The story starts with the gruesome murder of Nora’s best friend, Chris, but then backtracks to that fall in order to give us a greater scope on the scene.  Nora, Chris, and Chris’s freshman roommate, Max, are hired on as research assistants for a local scholar of old manuscripts, where they are set to translating from Latin.  Chris and Max are given the more prestigious task of attempting to translate and decode a manuscript that has been of interest to conspirators for centuries, while Nora is relegated to translating a pile of letters.  Nora, though put out by the belief that she has been assigned this ‘lesser’ task by virtue of being a high schooler or a girl, soon finds herself enraptured by the letter writer, Elizabeth’s, story.  Nora feels a certain kinship and understanding between herself and Elizabeth, feeling the need to keep her most private correspondence private, and understanding her words with more ease and depth over time.

While all of the characters were well-written, I found myself unable to connect with any of them or feel truly invested in their futures.  Chris, undoubtedly the most likable character, is announced dead before the story even gets going.  Nora’s relationship to Chris, and to Elizabeth, were the only relationships I really felt in the book.  Her romance with Max seemed very lukewarm to me, and as such I couldn’t really grasp her devotion and faith in him (I’ll admit it, I’m prejudice against boys who recite poetry to come across as ‘smart’ or ‘romantic’, to me it just reads lame).  Nora’s relationship with Adriane also seemed rather mild, but I did enjoy having Adriane around as she was the only character that seemed to bring any humor to the book.  I suppose in the end, I would have to state that The Book of Blood and Shadow, as a mystery, seeks to be both plot and character driven, but is lacking somewhat on both accounts.

The writing in The Book of Blood and Shadow is nearly poetic, a story that seems like it should be adrenaline filled is instead more quiet and subtle.  The mystery to be solved presents a fun and engrossing trail throughout the book, with various twists and turns to uncover.  I did, however, question the plausibility of the mystery itself.  The information uncovered from Elizabeth’s letters didn’t really seem that difficult to figure out.  I suppose the best reasoning one can come up with for previous scholars not having uncovered it is the supposed unimportance of Elizabeth’s letters.  This didn’t really line up for me though, given events and beliefs exposed later in the story.  

The setting of Prague always lends and air of mystery and intrigue to any story, and The Book of Blood and Shadow is no exception.  I found myself craving more detail of the city, like those we received in Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but as the character in that book lived in Prague, while the characters in this one are only visiting, it seems fair that we don’t get quite the same feel for the city.

The Book of Blood and Shadow, despite its faults, is a book worth reading for those who enjoy uncovering age-old mysteries.  I very much enjoyed that while this was a contemporary mystery, it had many elements of historical fiction in play.  The mystery, those involved, and even the city of Prague lended the perfect elements of a good historical fiction, while at the same time having the conveniences of a contemporary novel.  This book will appeal to those who enjoy conspiracies, and secret societies; with a more subtle Indiana Jones and the Arc of the Covenant feel, The Book of Blood and Shadow was intriguing and fun.  I will say that this book presented three very different but interesting views on faith and God, all of which presented a possible extreme; I do think that my inability to align with any of these extremes is part of the reason I felt disconnected from the story.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  I do still want to read Robin Wasserman’s Skinned series, but I won’t be prioritizing it based on my experience with The Book of Blood and Shadow.

Recommended for:  Fans of Indiana Jones and the Arc of the Covenant, Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco, or The Divinci Code by Dan Brown.  Basically those who enjoy mystery and adventure with religious themes.

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Review: There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff

Title: There Is No Dog [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Meg Rosoff [Website|Twitter]
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Speculative Fiction
Published: January 24th, 2012 by Penguin Group USA Inc (First published August 2nd, 2011 by Doubleday Canada).
Format: Hardcover; 256 pages.
Source: Borrowed from my local library.

Perhaps the way to succeed is to think of life on Earth as a colossal joke, a creation of such immense stupidity that the only way to live is to laugh until you think your heart will break.

You know God?  He’s kind of a dick.  It’s not all his fault though, he’s incredibly spoiled, and his mother won this planet for him ages ago in a poker game, even though he was completely unqualified for the job.  He’s only 19 after all, and like most teenagers, he mucks a lot of things up.  People created in his own image?  What was that about?  Tying the weather to his emotions?  Probably not the best move.  And the duck billed platypus just had to be the product of boredom and alcohol.  Luckily, Mr. B is always about to wade through the paperwork and attempt to keep some order.  This is next to impossible, however, when Bob (that’s God) decides he’s in love with (another) human girl.  He won’t be happy until Lucy loves him back, but how can he expect her to fall for him when he’s himself?

It is rare that one book can make so many different factions equally happy.  There Is No Dog will satisfy optimists, pessimists, atheists, religious people (okay, maybe it’ll insult quite a few religious people, but personally I loved it), etc.  Basically, it’s the perfect book for that old question--”Is the glass half empty or half full?”  

Okay, okay, maybe There is No Dog isn’t really the book for everyone.  It’s very quirky, whimsical, and off-kilter.  Some people might deem it just plain weird.  But me?  I loved it.  The spirit of it reminded me very much of some of my all time favorite reads, like Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens or Douglas Adams’s Long, The Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.  The entire time I was reading I was thinking ‘Jim Dale needs to do this audio’, as the tone reminded me very much of the narration to Pushing Daisies.

I adored the writing style of this book.  It’s written in third person omniscient perspective, in which perception flits from character to character in a way that many readers find unnerving, but I personally enjoy very much when done well.  In There is No Dog, it was done very well indeed!  We get to see into most of the character’s thoughts at some time, including into Eck’s, which was one of my favorites.  Eck is a furry penguiny ardvarky creature, who despite being an animal has some very real concerns about life (his in particular).  The characters are divided between the immortal, and the mortal, the practical, and the impractical, and I liked that the lines weren’t always cut and dry the way one would expect. I particularly loved that while Bob was seemingly the main character, he was so unlikable. We have zero invested in him or his success, and as such, get to love and cheer for so many of the other wonderful characters around him. I mean, how often do you find yourself actively cheering for the downfall of your protagonist?

While There is No Dog may have presented some questions about religion, it was ultimately a book about faith.  It was full of hope, wisdom, the miraculous, and a pleasant outlook for living life.  It was full of rich characters who were both selfish, romantic, goodhearted, and fun, though yes, it was a little weird too.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  Oh I’ve been meaning to read Meg Rosoff for ages, and now that I fell head over heals with There is No Dog I’ll certainly be pushing her other books up the pipeline.

Recommended for:  People who enjoy quirky reads ala Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, etc.  

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  Someone buy me an Eck, please!  Or you can buy your own.

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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: Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers

Title: Grave Mercy [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: R.L. LaFevers [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: First in a new series, His Fair Assassin, though it seems they will be more like companion novels, so yay!
Genre: Young Adult, Historical, Fantasy
Published: April 3rd, 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Format: Kindle edition.
Source: ARC from publisher via NetGalley.
Challenge: YA/MG Fantasy Challenge

I can dodge a blow or block a knife.  I am impervious to poison and know a dozen ways to escape a chokehold or garrote wire.  But kindness?  I do not know how to defend against that.

Ismae is forced into an arranged marriage to a man who terrifies her, by another who is just as bad.  When her new husband sees the scar marking her as a daughter of Death, he beats her savagely, and locks her away.  She is rescued by those who would send her to the convent of St. Mortain, filled with women who serve as the handmaidens of Death.  There she is trained in all manner of assassination tactics before being released on her first assignments to test her for full initiation into the convent.  These tests lead her on an assignment to the high court, where she must ferret out traitors and protect the young Duchess.  She is supposed to watch one man in particular, but soon Ismae doesn’t know who she can or cannot trust, including herself.

You know those books that fill you up and leave you positively giddy and excited about life?  Well, this may sound odd, but that for me was a book about this female assassin who is the daughter of Death.  Morbid much?  Well, maybe a little, but in this case I don’t think so.  Grave Mercy was a beautifully rendered historical fiction with touches of fantasy, mythology, and a slow burning romance that will have any girl holding her breath.  I was hooked in from the first paragraph, where we learn that Ismae bears a scar from her mother’s attempt to abort her as a fetus; the fact that she survived indicated that she was the daughter of Death himself.  

The story takes place in Brittany, which is now the upper NW corner of France, but at the time was its own country sitting uncomfortably between England and France.  LaFevers creates a haunting and wonderful mythology where the country’s nine gods have been transposed into saints under the Christian church (as the Christian church was wont to do).  Ismae escapes a desperate and cruel life under the abusive men that raised her and bought her as wife, to study under the tutelage of the sisters of St. Mortain’s convent.  The convent trains its members as assassins, as they are all offspring of their saint, Death himself.  Literally. Like Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief series, or Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar, the gods are very present and important in a more direct way that we often see. As full initiates of St. Mortain, these women work as his handmaidens, dolling out vengeance to those who put Brittany in danger.  

Dudes, can I even express how awesome Ismae and her sisters in Death are?!  Apparently not without reverting into surfer lingo.  If you love strong women who don’t take no crap from no man, Grave Mercy is for you!  Ismae and the other girls all have horrors in their pasts that have led them to the convent.  At St. Mortain’s, they are offered a chance at a new life, one where they will be the wolves that prey.  They are trained in skills of weapons, combat, poisons, and seduction.  They have a seeress that forsees those who have been marqued for death.  To them, their work is not murder, it is a sacrament to their god and father.  Ismae has her own unique talents given by her father; she can see maques indicating when and how a man will die, and she is immune to poison.  Ismae gratefully accepts a place at the convent, looking forward to proving herself and casting vengeance on men, who in her experience are only cruel and untrustworthy.  

And then there’s Duval.  Duval!  Prepare for the slow-burn romance of the year because man oh man.  It’s a good thing corsets weren’t around yet, or there’d be lots of swooning going on up in here.  Duval is unwillingly saddled with Ismae, each have their own agendas and countless reasons not to trust one another.  And they don’t.  Not only is this a romance that takes hundreds of pages to unfold, it develops from the very depths of mistrust.  Personally, I loved Duval instantly.  It was clear by the relationships he had with his friends, and the fierce dedication and support he showed for his half-sister and country, that he was a wonderful man.  And he would have to be to earn any leeway from Ismae, who has only known men as dangerous, conniving, treacherous, and cruel.  Duval never pushes Ismae, or asks her to be anything but who she is, and I love it.

I will say that this is one of those books that I’m torn about seeing the ‘YA’ label on.  Yes, this is great for YA readers, but at the same time I am sad at the amount of adults who will not read this series because of it.  The characters and situations, to me, make this a very adult book, so I’m hoping there will be plenty who give it a shot!  I am so excited to see this series continue, largely because I believe it will be set up in a companion novel sort of fashion.  The second book will be about another of the girls at the convent, Sybella, and so I am hopping the third will be about their friend Annith.  I love series that do this, and though I adored Duval and Ismae, I am happy they won’t be the focus of Dark Triumph.  Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll get all huffy if they were to make an appearance!

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  I’ve already considered stalking and/or bribes to get my hands on Dark Triumph asap.  Not only that, but I can see myself rereading Grave Mercy in the future, such was my love for it!   

Recommended for:  Anyone whose favorite SoIaF character is Arya, or I suppose fans of strong women who persevere through tough times in general.  This is a fantastic historical fiction, even for those who prefer theirs fantasy free--all of the politics are very true to life, and it would be a strong book even without the mythological elements (though I loved the mythological elements!).  

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  I learned something very important about reading historical fiction!  If you aren’t familiar with the history don’t go read about it before you finish the book.  Total spoilers.  If you’re interested, I read some history of Brittany on Wikipedia, and the author also has a lovely post on the specific era here.  Do read it, but after.

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Salute Your Shorts: Tomorrow is Today by Julie Cross

Hi friends!  I've decided that since I love to talk about short stories and novellas, I'm going to make it my own little feature, complete with this awesome banner my bf made me (with a nod to the show of my childhood of course).  If you'd like to participate when talking about shorts you've come across, you're more than welcome!  Just grab the pic above, and shoot me a link in the comments and I'll do a round-up.  I plan to do at least two Salute Your Shorts posts a month, but you're welcome to post as often or on whatever day you'd like.

Title: Tomorrow is Today [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Julie Cross  [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Tempest #.5
Genre: Young Adult, Sci Fi
Published: December 6th, 2011 by St. Martin's Griffin
Format: Kindle edition.  
Source: Tomorrow is Today is available free for Kindle.

Sometimes I love shorts because they give me that extra little peek into the lives of characters I adore.  And then there’s those times when I love short stories because they save me from committing to a full-length novel I won’t enjoy.  That, for me, was Tomorrow is Today.

Jackson and his recent friends Adam and Holly are training to be camp counsellors for the summer.  He’s just finished his freshman year at NYU, while Adam and Holly have just graduated from high school in Jersey.  Adam is helping Jackson document and perform scientific experiments to explore his time travel abilities, while Jackson is busy lusting after Holly.  Jackson and Adam are hoping to find out more information about why he has the abilities he does, and also what the limits are.  

When I heard of Tempest, I was super excited.  I’m a massive time travel geek and absolutely could not wait to check it out in YA form.  But given the preview I was provided through the short story, Tomorrow is Today, I’ve determined it’s not going to be the story I was hoping for.  I was looking for it to have a good male point of view, be action packed, and a cool take on time travel.  I wanted more sci fi, and less romance.  It seems like it’s going to be fairly romance-centric, I didn’t like Julie Cross’s writing of Jackson (yes, some authors can write wonderfully from the perspective of the opposite sex, I do not feel like this was happening here), and the time travel aspect seemed iffy.  I found myself peeved by the dialog, and Jackson seemed like a bit of a douche. So I’m sorry to say I will not be joining the crowds of people who have adored Tempest as I had to force myself through the 60 or so pages of this short.  I do think that a lot of people will really enjoy this book, many of you have, but it’s just not going to do it for me.

Review: Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul by Leanna Renee Hieber

Title: Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Leanna Renee Hieber [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: First in a new series.
Genre: Young/New Adult, Historical Fiction, Gothic, Paranormal
Published: November 8th, 2011 by Sourcebooks Fire
Format: Paperback; 317 pages.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.

New York County, Municipal Jurisdiction
Manhattan, July 31, 1880

New York City Police Record Case File: 1306

To whoever should have the misfortune to review this closed--but still unresolved--case, I extend my condolences.  I tell you truly that all persons involved have been insufferably odd.

All we know directly of Miss Natalie Stewart, disappeared at age seventeen, is what you will read here in what was left behind as an absurd testimonial.

Herein you shall find pertinent newspaper articles enclosed by Miss Stewart regarding Lord Denbury and his infamous portrait.  There are also letters from involved parties.

I am left to conclude that everyone involved is a certifiable lunatic.  Should you wish to indulge yourself and read a young lady’s foolish reveries on such highly improbable events, so be it.  Should you believe any of it, I hope you have no business with the New York Police Department now or in the future.

Regards,
Sergeant James Patt

Natalie Stewart hasn’t spoken since her mother’s death when she was four.  Despite the pitying looks she’s constantly receiving from those who meet her, she is neither deaf nor dumb, but rather quick of wit and strong of character.  Her father’s employment at the fledgling Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has put her in the position to pressure him into working with the buyer of a unique painting to put that painting on loan--and more importantly--give Natalie time to view it.  The portrait of Lord Denbury has gained renown for its lifelike image, and many believe it to have supernatural qualities.  Natalie alone, however, will find herself privy to the reality--that Lord Denbury’s good soul is indeed trapped in his portrait, and that a devil roams New York wearing Denbury’s body.

Natalie’s story is told, as indicated from the letter above, through her own words recorded in her diary and the addition of relevant newspaper articles and letters.  I enjoy this narrative style quite a bit when it is done well, and Natalie’s ability to recount events in the written word is believable in particular as she is an intelligent and well-spoken character who has had no other way to express herself (save for those few who understand sign language) for the bulk of her life.  However, this style also has its limitations, in that it limits the possibilities of where a story might go.  I kept expecting/almost wanting some horrible betrayal or event to occur, but how could it when somehow losing our narrator would also guarantee our loss of story?  I did very much enjoy Natalie’s character as a narrator with a disability, however mentally stimulated, though I think I would have preferred it had it not been something she could ever physically overcome (she technically has the capacity to speak, she simply has a traumatic mental block keeping her from doing so).   

I have found the idea of souls being trapped in pictures mind suckingly terrifying since I first read Roald Dahl’s The Witches as a child.  This terror is carried through in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Darker Still.  The devil that wears Lord Denbury’s body like a suit uses it to partake in his carnal pleasures, and the results of his behaviors are reflected in the waining health of the Lord Denbury trapped in the portrait.  One Lord Denbury is good and kind to the point of making him vulnerable to those who would take advantage, the other is quite frankly a total creeper.    

As an obvious fan of Oscar Wilde, I could hardly pass up the chance to read a tale with such a clear nod to The Picture of Dorian Gray.  Leanna Renee Hieber’s tale used choice elements of this story beautifully, and in such a way as to make me rethink aspects the original.  While it is lacking the horrific edge of the Dorian Gray, Darker Still was a wonderful illustration of the possibilities fermented in Wilde’s novel.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: I really enjoyed Darker Still, though I honestly went in thinking it was a stand alone.  I was happy with the ending, but the series premise could be interesting enough to keep me going--we’ll see.  I also now want to read The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker.   

Recommended for:  Fans of The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the Gemma Doyle series.  Not for people looking for a horror novel (which is how it was categorized at my library); this is a paranormal romance with some admittedly creepy aspects, but it is not what I would call overly scary.

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  The likelihood of me ever sitting for a portrait is shrinking significantly from an already unlikely number.

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.