The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

4 stars -- I liked it

By the same author of The Gates comes The Book of Lost Things. I'm having trouble classifying this book for adults or young adults (or in this case, juvenile), just as I did The Gates. I'm not sure that having a young main character, in this case 12 years old, determine whether a book is YA or not is necessarily the best way of sorting books, especially since this book definitely has some dark happenings completely unsuitable for 12-year-olds to read about.

Though not as clever and wittily written as The Gates, The Book of Lost Things is still a fascinating read. Reminiscent of the Narnia series, young David travels to another world from World War II-ravaged London. Once there, the portal closes up, and David has to travel across the countryside to meet the apathetic king of this new and foreign land. The king has a "Book of Lost Things" that David has been told will enable him to return home.

Chased by a type of werewolves and their packs, haunted by a crooked man, and meeting various allies that teach David how to be strong and courageous on his own, David's journey is wrought with peril and enchantment, new-found friends and loss, and is broken occasionally by re-imagined (and less happy) versions of commonly known fairy tales.

In the end (as with most journey stories), David learns a lot about himself, his family, and his feelings, which actually impacts the entire kingdom that David has found himself thrust into.

While not necessarily packed with action and adventure (though there is a somewhat-decent amount), I think it's the ending of this story that really pulls the book together. It's a very sweet and appropriate conclusion. Though the majority of the story is to point out that not everything in life will turn out "happily ever after," the end of this story is a happy, sort-of-realistic one (realistic in the sense that the moral seems to be "just because things don't always go your way doesn't mean you can't live happily).

I'm really beginning to like John Connolly as an author, and I'll keep an eye out for other books of his that are in this same type of genre.

Devoured by Amanda Marrone

1 star -- I hated it!

Oh, my goodness! I can't get over how much I dislike this book. I have read two fabulous books and one mediocre book, but I choose to write about this one first. Because I really can't get over how terrible this book is!

Devoured has a gorgeous cover. It's a complete knock-off of Twilight (is that Bella with the apple and Jacob and Edward lurking behind her?), but the imagery works for this book (unlike Twilight where I don't really remember a connection to the apple). Because, well, this is a continuation or expansion of Snow White.

I was really, really hopeful in the beginning. The story started off pretty well! Snow White's stepmother uses the magic mirror to curse Snow White's offspring forever and ever to feel what she felt. It's really quite a nice idea. It has possibility.

But a million years later (or just a couple hundred... whatever), in modern-day America, 16-year-old Megan deals with a comatose father, a distant mother, and the ghost of her dead sister (who remains seven years old). She's getting a new job in a fairy-tale themed amusement park to keep an eye on her new boyfriend and his best friend, a female who's completely and unabashedly in love with said boyfriend.

It's immediately apparent that the people under the influence of the mirror (as that is the evil in the story) are the owners of the park, and I had to shake my head when Megan blindy befriends obviously insane Ari (the daughter of the park owner).

The tension Megan feels about the two boys (seen lurking on the cover) is fine, though I'm sure most readers think, "Why don't you listen to Nikki??" As Megan's best friend, she certainly sees things clearly and seems to know what's going on.

The part that really got to me and made me want to throw the book across the room was when Nikki gets killed. Megan's been having visions (from her sister's ghost) about some dark-haired girl dying. They're so powerful and drastic, that they cause Megan to have panic attacks and faint.

When Nikki calls Megan one night and talks about being stalked and then suddenly drops the phone, Megan knows what's wrong. She calls 911 and immediately gets her boyfriend to drive her to the area and calls Luke, the other love interest (who can conveniently talk to ghosts), to meet her there. This is fine... what loses is me is that when Megan runs through the woods with only Luke on her heels, finds Nikki's body WITH A GAPING HOLE IN HER CHEST WHERE HER HEART USED TO BE, she shudders once, is held by Luke and goes home.

I'm pretty sure that as a teenager, had I come across my best friend's body in the woods with her heart cut out, I would have passed out. And if she passed out due to visions, why wouldn't she in real life? Also, had I come across my best friend's dead body, I would need some serious therapy. I would be sobbing uncontrollably for months and months. I would not be doing well at all.

Megan? Well, after two weeks, Megan breaks up with her boyfriend, has sex with Luke, and returns to work at the amusement park, where of course you know the killer is waiting.

Two weeks just doesn't cut it for me. Never mind that death is tragic under any circumstances, when you're 16 and it's your best friend since kindergarten, your emotions and hormons don't let you move. If you happened to find that friend's body? If you happened to find that friend's body mutilated? And if you know that you could have saved that friend? Megan should be bedridden and guilt stricken. Not having sex with her new boy toy.

Urgh... terrible book. Very poor plot line. Please don't read this!!! (Or if you do, do it just so you can complain to me about horrible it was.)

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.