4 stars -- I like it.
Green Angel makes up for its slim, small size with strong storytelling and beautiful lyrical prose.
Green is a 15-year-old girl in an unspecified country, time period, or world. She has a gift with growing things. Her father has a gift of whistling, her mother of herbs and remedies, and her sister with life in general (or so it seems).
When her family goes to market to sell the produce Green grew, Green has to stay at home and watch over her crops. Resentful and angry, Green doesn't say good-bye or "I love you." And when the city is attacked and her family is presumably killed, Green is wracked with guilt and remorse and sadness.
She transforms herself into Ash--partially blinded by the embers that fell from the sky, angry and protective, covered in tattoos and spikes.
But as she loses herself, other people and creatures come to her and help her find her way back to a place where she can find healing and forgiveness.
Green Angel is a beautiful, well-told story that deserves a read, and it's a quick read that can be done in one sitting. Green/Ash is a relatable character and the transformations she undergoes are both understandable and mysterious.
The only fault I find in the book is that the tragedy, remeniscent of 9/11, talks of the collapse of large buildings from which you could see people jumping off... and then it talks about the agriculture and wildlife being affected. The book never mentions fall-out or what the tragedy was, but I would assume that a blow-up that blocks out the sun and kills trees and forests and crops miles away from where it occurred would have to be big enough that the immediate scene would be completely obliterated, ie, you wouldn't see people jumping off the building as they'd be gone instantly.
But then again, I am not a disasters expert.
So if you want a rather quick but moving read, I suggest you pick this book up. It's a modern-day fairy tale.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
5 stars -- I love this book!
So... my husband grabbed this off the library shelf (with several others I haven't read yet) and said, "I got these for you. I think you'll like them." So I read the back-ad/flap copy and took them home. And I'm glad I did!
Boneshaker (an adult book, imagine that) is a steampunk zombie book that takes place in late-1800's Seattle, Washington. But because I'm in the American midwest, I don't know the history of Seattle, and I could have believed that the book takes place in a re-imagined modern-day Seattle. After all, steampunk necessitates change in many modern conveniences... and there wasn't very much of the Victorian element in the book at all.
In the late-1800s, the Russians want to find gold in Alaska and they pay a brilliant scientist for his invention, the Boneshaker. The scientist, Levi Blue, builds it and then takes it for "a test run" under Seattle (although there are various theories about what the "test run" really was). The Boneshaker just "happens" to go underneath Seattle's financial district, which causes a lot of chaos in and of itself, but it also opens up a gas leak. The gas, hypothesized to come from Mount Ranier and called the Blight, makes people sick. And sometimes the people turn into zombies if they don't die from the Blight.
So downtown Seattle is walled in to contain the gas, and the people are evacuated to the Outskirts.
Our story begins 15 years later when Levi's widow and son re-enter the walled-in district. A small group of people have decided to live within the walls, and it is these people that both help and hinder our two main characters. They meet the Chinese, whose presence in the area is never really explained, although they are the ones who pump in fresh air; the mad scientist Minnericht, who may or may not be Levi and who has set himself up as the king of the walled-in area, and many of his cohorts; and a variety of people referred to as "Doornails" who choose to live there for no particular reason but are now in perpetual debt to Minnericht. They also meet several airship captains (pirates!) who dip in and out of the walled-in area but don't live there.
Zeke, the son, enters the district so that he can clear both his father and his grandfather's name (his grandfather, Maynard Wilkes, died due to the Blight while freeing prisoners initially left to die in their jail cells. Some people view Maynard as a hero... some don't), and Briar, our main character, comes after to find and save him.
As is wont to happen, Zeke falls into the wrong hands, and Briar falls into all the right ones.
I really, really liked this story. I couldn't put the book down and finished it in less than a day. I loved the zombies, but the book isn't so zombie-heavy as to make it seem like "just another zombie book." The steampunk comes out heavily in crazily awesome inventions, with new ones popping up all the time. Plus(this is huge for me!), a majority of the story revolves around whether Minnericht is or is not Levi Blue, and despite the fact that a majority of the story is told from Briar's POV and she appears to know the truth, the reader isn't privvy as to whether Minnericht is or is not Levi Blue until the very end.
The author did a fantastic job of keeping the who's, why's, and how's hidden without hindering the story. A lot of the time, a plot like this gets to be, "Will you just tell me already?!" or "I already know what you keep trying to hide," but in this story, neither of those things happened.
This is a fantastic sci-fi book, and if you have any interest in steampunk, zombies, Seattle, good action stories, etc., I think you should read this. It's even worth the half-day you lose trying to finish it :) Plus, the type is a reddish-brown, and I adore different-colored fonts.
So... my husband grabbed this off the library shelf (with several others I haven't read yet) and said, "I got these for you. I think you'll like them." So I read the back-ad/flap copy and took them home. And I'm glad I did!
Boneshaker (an adult book, imagine that) is a steampunk zombie book that takes place in late-1800's Seattle, Washington. But because I'm in the American midwest, I don't know the history of Seattle, and I could have believed that the book takes place in a re-imagined modern-day Seattle. After all, steampunk necessitates change in many modern conveniences... and there wasn't very much of the Victorian element in the book at all.
In the late-1800s, the Russians want to find gold in Alaska and they pay a brilliant scientist for his invention, the Boneshaker. The scientist, Levi Blue, builds it and then takes it for "a test run" under Seattle (although there are various theories about what the "test run" really was). The Boneshaker just "happens" to go underneath Seattle's financial district, which causes a lot of chaos in and of itself, but it also opens up a gas leak. The gas, hypothesized to come from Mount Ranier and called the Blight, makes people sick. And sometimes the people turn into zombies if they don't die from the Blight.
So downtown Seattle is walled in to contain the gas, and the people are evacuated to the Outskirts.
Our story begins 15 years later when Levi's widow and son re-enter the walled-in district. A small group of people have decided to live within the walls, and it is these people that both help and hinder our two main characters. They meet the Chinese, whose presence in the area is never really explained, although they are the ones who pump in fresh air; the mad scientist Minnericht, who may or may not be Levi and who has set himself up as the king of the walled-in area, and many of his cohorts; and a variety of people referred to as "Doornails" who choose to live there for no particular reason but are now in perpetual debt to Minnericht. They also meet several airship captains (pirates!) who dip in and out of the walled-in area but don't live there.
Zeke, the son, enters the district so that he can clear both his father and his grandfather's name (his grandfather, Maynard Wilkes, died due to the Blight while freeing prisoners initially left to die in their jail cells. Some people view Maynard as a hero... some don't), and Briar, our main character, comes after to find and save him.
As is wont to happen, Zeke falls into the wrong hands, and Briar falls into all the right ones.
I really, really liked this story. I couldn't put the book down and finished it in less than a day. I loved the zombies, but the book isn't so zombie-heavy as to make it seem like "just another zombie book." The steampunk comes out heavily in crazily awesome inventions, with new ones popping up all the time. Plus(this is huge for me!), a majority of the story revolves around whether Minnericht is or is not Levi Blue, and despite the fact that a majority of the story is told from Briar's POV and she appears to know the truth, the reader isn't privvy as to whether Minnericht is or is not Levi Blue until the very end.
The author did a fantastic job of keeping the who's, why's, and how's hidden without hindering the story. A lot of the time, a plot like this gets to be, "Will you just tell me already?!" or "I already know what you keep trying to hide," but in this story, neither of those things happened.
This is a fantastic sci-fi book, and if you have any interest in steampunk, zombies, Seattle, good action stories, etc., I think you should read this. It's even worth the half-day you lose trying to finish it :) Plus, the type is a reddish-brown, and I adore different-colored fonts.
Dark Visions by L.J. Smith
3.5 stars -- I sort of like this
I picked this one up off the express shelf in the library because I liked the cover. Check it out!
This book, Dark Visions is a bind-up of L.J. Smith's trilogy of the same name. Remember when I said I liked the cover? Check out the originals: The Strange Power, The Possessed, and Passion. How cover treatments change in just 15 years!
I was a bit worried about this bind-up. I know that sometimes books are bound together when the originals didn't have sales as high as initially projected. They can also be bound up if the author is really popular and the bind-up will appeal to the author's fans. They can also do bind-ups of books that are extremely popular (Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia). And finally, they can do a bind-up to boost sales by giving the books a new look and feel. I assumed this book was the first option, but now (looking at those covers *shudder*), I'm guessing it might be the last one instead.
I really like the first book in the series (or in my case, in the bind-up). The Strange Power introduces the characters and their powers, has the start of a good love story, has some really evil characters, etc. It was a decent book on its own, but it was clearly written with a sequel in mind.
However, in the second book, The Possessed, I started to lose interest... or perhaps things were getting just a bit too far-fetched. Which, when it comes to mental powers, really how far-fetched is too far-fetched? Well, survivors of Atlantis, I think, is a bit too far-fetched. Plus, I really didn't like seeing the nice love story turning all love-triangly. Granted, the back-ad assures the reader beforehand that that's how it's going to go, and really, the initial love story is just a bit sickenly sweet, but still...
And finally, the third book, Passion, just loses me completely. Our main character, Kait (she of the love triangle, corner #3), attempts to get all bad-ass and fails miserably. Corner #2 of the love triangle is this back-and-forth of love and hate, miserable self-loathing and surperiority, etc. A man of mixed signals is what I would call him. Corner #1 is clueless and helpless (but overwhelmingly GOOD and GOLD and LIGHT) and mostly not in the story at all.
The ending, I think, is what lost me. Everything is just tied up too nicely. Corner #1 gets another girl (which the author kindly hinted at throughout the third story so it wouldn't be a surprise when it happens... I found this too convenient and contrived to be believable). Corner #2 gets Kait, because they are a better match as they are not so GOOD and GOLD and LIGHT as corner #1 (he gets the girl who is WISE and PATIENT and UNDERSTANDING [and the caps are because that is how these two people are described in the books over and over and over and over again so that I can't think of them but in all caps]).
Really, though, I was pleasantly surprised with the books. They're not terrible, and I wouldn't tell you not to read them. They're just not good, so I wouldn't actually go around recommending them either. (Unlike this book, which is amazing and has a sequel coming out soon. READ IT. And I put up the kindle link, because the old cover was amazing and the new cover is NOT.)
I picked this one up off the express shelf in the library because I liked the cover. Check it out!
This book, Dark Visions is a bind-up of L.J. Smith's trilogy of the same name. Remember when I said I liked the cover? Check out the originals: The Strange Power, The Possessed, and Passion. How cover treatments change in just 15 years!
I was a bit worried about this bind-up. I know that sometimes books are bound together when the originals didn't have sales as high as initially projected. They can also be bound up if the author is really popular and the bind-up will appeal to the author's fans. They can also do bind-ups of books that are extremely popular (Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia). And finally, they can do a bind-up to boost sales by giving the books a new look and feel. I assumed this book was the first option, but now (looking at those covers *shudder*), I'm guessing it might be the last one instead.
I really like the first book in the series (or in my case, in the bind-up). The Strange Power introduces the characters and their powers, has the start of a good love story, has some really evil characters, etc. It was a decent book on its own, but it was clearly written with a sequel in mind.
However, in the second book, The Possessed, I started to lose interest... or perhaps things were getting just a bit too far-fetched. Which, when it comes to mental powers, really how far-fetched is too far-fetched? Well, survivors of Atlantis, I think, is a bit too far-fetched. Plus, I really didn't like seeing the nice love story turning all love-triangly. Granted, the back-ad assures the reader beforehand that that's how it's going to go, and really, the initial love story is just a bit sickenly sweet, but still...
And finally, the third book, Passion, just loses me completely. Our main character, Kait (she of the love triangle, corner #3), attempts to get all bad-ass and fails miserably. Corner #2 of the love triangle is this back-and-forth of love and hate, miserable self-loathing and surperiority, etc. A man of mixed signals is what I would call him. Corner #1 is clueless and helpless (but overwhelmingly GOOD and GOLD and LIGHT) and mostly not in the story at all.
The ending, I think, is what lost me. Everything is just tied up too nicely. Corner #1 gets another girl (which the author kindly hinted at throughout the third story so it wouldn't be a surprise when it happens... I found this too convenient and contrived to be believable). Corner #2 gets Kait, because they are a better match as they are not so GOOD and GOLD and LIGHT as corner #1 (he gets the girl who is WISE and PATIENT and UNDERSTANDING [and the caps are because that is how these two people are described in the books over and over and over and over again so that I can't think of them but in all caps]).
Really, though, I was pleasantly surprised with the books. They're not terrible, and I wouldn't tell you not to read them. They're just not good, so I wouldn't actually go around recommending them either. (Unlike this book, which is amazing and has a sequel coming out soon. READ IT. And I put up the kindle link, because the old cover was amazing and the new cover is NOT.)
Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda
4 stars -- I like it.
I would have been better served writing this immediately after I read this book, but a busy work schedule and spotty home internet connection make for difficulty in the blog-posting area. Plus, as I've said before, I procrastinate :)
Devil's Kiss has a female protagonist, but the author is male. And while I could tell that Billi was a little less girly than most female protagonists, I wouldn't have guessed the author was male. Mr. Chadda did a fabulous job writing from a girl's POV!
15-year-old Billi has grown up training to be a warrior for the nearly extinct Knights Templar. They exorcise demons and ghosts and kill werewolves and vampires. Every now and then, they have to banish one or more of the the three different kinds of angels. And to make a tough life even tougher, Billi is resentful of her father's treatment of her and jealous of (but possibly in love with...) the other young knight, Kay, with whom she grew up.
The culmination of the story is that Kay's new budding romance turns out to be the insane-and-banished angel of death, Michael. Kay has to defeat him herself (as Kay prophesied she would) after her dad is severely injured, her godfather is killed, and Kay sells his soul to the devil (literally). But I don't want to give away too much...
Regardless, this fast-paced story starts with a bang and continues that way. The ending is not as predictable as most YA endings, and there are a lot of terrifying new ideas (based on really old stories) that are fun to think about. Readers might get a little annoyed with Billi's angsty-ness, but that is, after all, how 15-year-olds tend to be.
If you like the sci-fi/fantasy YA that's been coming out lately, you'll probably enjoy this one too.
I would have been better served writing this immediately after I read this book, but a busy work schedule and spotty home internet connection make for difficulty in the blog-posting area. Plus, as I've said before, I procrastinate :)
Devil's Kiss has a female protagonist, but the author is male. And while I could tell that Billi was a little less girly than most female protagonists, I wouldn't have guessed the author was male. Mr. Chadda did a fabulous job writing from a girl's POV!
15-year-old Billi has grown up training to be a warrior for the nearly extinct Knights Templar. They exorcise demons and ghosts and kill werewolves and vampires. Every now and then, they have to banish one or more of the the three different kinds of angels. And to make a tough life even tougher, Billi is resentful of her father's treatment of her and jealous of (but possibly in love with...) the other young knight, Kay, with whom she grew up.
The culmination of the story is that Kay's new budding romance turns out to be the insane-and-banished angel of death, Michael. Kay has to defeat him herself (as Kay prophesied she would) after her dad is severely injured, her godfather is killed, and Kay sells his soul to the devil (literally). But I don't want to give away too much...
Regardless, this fast-paced story starts with a bang and continues that way. The ending is not as predictable as most YA endings, and there are a lot of terrifying new ideas (based on really old stories) that are fun to think about. Readers might get a little annoyed with Billi's angsty-ness, but that is, after all, how 15-year-olds tend to be.
If you like the sci-fi/fantasy YA that's been coming out lately, you'll probably enjoy this one too.
Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor
3 stars -- It's okay.
Waiting for Normal is, like The Unfinished Angel, a bit younger than my normal reading age range. Unlike The Unfinished Angel, it didn't make me feel okay about reading so young. Don't get me wrong, it was fine for its age range. I'm sure 9-12-year-olds would enjoy, but I didn't very much.
Like Ash, I put this book down and would pick it up days later without qualms. It was slow moving; there just wasn't much going on. Granted, for a younger age range, this is probably perfectly acceptable. It's also very realistic, which I think is a plus.
The main character, Addie, is 12 years old, and she appears to be the adult in the relationship between herself and her mother. They've just moved into a trailer owned by Addie's ex-step-dad, which means Addie is starting at a new school, has to make new friends, has to explain her learning problems all over again.
Addie's mom is clearly neglectful, leaving Addie alone for days at a time and using the money the step-dad sends for her own personal uses rather than to buy, say, food or clothing. But Addie loves her mom (as most children do... for a few more years at least), and she goes out of her way to protect her and to hide the extent of the neglect... until it just can't be hidden any more.
The story does have a happy ending for Addie, although her coming sibling leaves the adult reader a tad worried (albeit for a fictional unborn character). The book addresses the issues of cancer, homosexuality, neglect, stealing, adoption, step-relationships and half-relationships, and many other things that I think the juvenile crowd would find beneficial to read about and become familiar with. It also does it very well. I was not offended by any of the issues, nor did I feel like I was being beaten over the head with them. If a reader is very young, they probably wouldn't even notice.
So my 3 stars is merely because I wasn't drawn into the story very much, and that I am, obviously, much too old for the genre. But I really feel like readers in the juvenile age range would enjoy and could benefit from reading this story. It's very well written, and Addie's story is relatable and realistic.
Worth introducing to a young reader in your life!
Waiting for Normal is, like The Unfinished Angel, a bit younger than my normal reading age range. Unlike The Unfinished Angel, it didn't make me feel okay about reading so young. Don't get me wrong, it was fine for its age range. I'm sure 9-12-year-olds would enjoy, but I didn't very much.
Like Ash, I put this book down and would pick it up days later without qualms. It was slow moving; there just wasn't much going on. Granted, for a younger age range, this is probably perfectly acceptable. It's also very realistic, which I think is a plus.
The main character, Addie, is 12 years old, and she appears to be the adult in the relationship between herself and her mother. They've just moved into a trailer owned by Addie's ex-step-dad, which means Addie is starting at a new school, has to make new friends, has to explain her learning problems all over again.
Addie's mom is clearly neglectful, leaving Addie alone for days at a time and using the money the step-dad sends for her own personal uses rather than to buy, say, food or clothing. But Addie loves her mom (as most children do... for a few more years at least), and she goes out of her way to protect her and to hide the extent of the neglect... until it just can't be hidden any more.
The story does have a happy ending for Addie, although her coming sibling leaves the adult reader a tad worried (albeit for a fictional unborn character). The book addresses the issues of cancer, homosexuality, neglect, stealing, adoption, step-relationships and half-relationships, and many other things that I think the juvenile crowd would find beneficial to read about and become familiar with. It also does it very well. I was not offended by any of the issues, nor did I feel like I was being beaten over the head with them. If a reader is very young, they probably wouldn't even notice.
So my 3 stars is merely because I wasn't drawn into the story very much, and that I am, obviously, much too old for the genre. But I really feel like readers in the juvenile age range would enjoy and could benefit from reading this story. It's very well written, and Addie's story is relatable and realistic.
Worth introducing to a young reader in your life!
Ash by Malinda Lo
2 stars -- I didn't like it.
Ash is a re-telling of the Cinderella fairy tale (Cinderella=Cinders=Ashes=Ash). I usually find fairy-tale re-tellings very entertaining. I like to see how different people can either tell the old story in a new and interesting way (some people just have a beautiful way with words) or how they can take the story and make it their own. Ash definitely falls into the latter category... and I didn't like it.
I'm not going to say much, but in my defense, I didn't read the flap copy carefully enough when I checked this book out, and after I re-read the flap copy, I finished the book because I thought, "Is that really where this is going?" Reading the author bio before I had that thought would have clarified that it definitely was going that way.
Ash, to be specific, is a lesbian re-telling of Cinderella. I'm not going to get into it, because I don't want hackles raised, but I really dislike when people take fairy tales and turn them "grown-up." It just ruins the innocence and magic of the fairy tale for me.
Also, I thought (and I could be totally wrong) that the main problem the LGBT community had with most people was the assumption that sexuality is a choice. Malindo Lo is a big proponent in that community. But the message I read in this book was that Ash is in love with a male fairy, doesn't really understand sexuality, carries on in a little bubble, finds out that a woman's in love with her and decides to be in love with the woman as well. It didn't even occur to Ash that she could love a woman until, as I said, she found out a woman loved her first.
Overall, the story was slow without much action. I had no problem putting this down and picking it up days later. I also think Cinderella in its original form was just fine (sans fairies who fall in love due to curses and King's huntresses). I wouldn't recommend this book.
Ash is a re-telling of the Cinderella fairy tale (Cinderella=Cinders=Ashes=Ash). I usually find fairy-tale re-tellings very entertaining. I like to see how different people can either tell the old story in a new and interesting way (some people just have a beautiful way with words) or how they can take the story and make it their own. Ash definitely falls into the latter category... and I didn't like it.
I'm not going to say much, but in my defense, I didn't read the flap copy carefully enough when I checked this book out, and after I re-read the flap copy, I finished the book because I thought, "Is that really where this is going?" Reading the author bio before I had that thought would have clarified that it definitely was going that way.
Ash, to be specific, is a lesbian re-telling of Cinderella. I'm not going to get into it, because I don't want hackles raised, but I really dislike when people take fairy tales and turn them "grown-up." It just ruins the innocence and magic of the fairy tale for me.
Also, I thought (and I could be totally wrong) that the main problem the LGBT community had with most people was the assumption that sexuality is a choice. Malindo Lo is a big proponent in that community. But the message I read in this book was that Ash is in love with a male fairy, doesn't really understand sexuality, carries on in a little bubble, finds out that a woman's in love with her and decides to be in love with the woman as well. It didn't even occur to Ash that she could love a woman until, as I said, she found out a woman loved her first.
Overall, the story was slow without much action. I had no problem putting this down and picking it up days later. I also think Cinderella in its original form was just fine (sans fairies who fall in love due to curses and King's huntresses). I wouldn't recommend this book.
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