Full disclosure: I consider the author a friend of mine, though we've never yet managed to meet in person. (Darn it.) I read this book out of affection, but am raving about it, because I found it to be flat out astounding.
Summary: Stefan's whole world cracked, at the death of his mother. He's been his toymaker father's apprentice, but now, bereaved, his father has vanished into mindless woodworking, not even seeing his son anymore. Old enough now to try for his journeyman status, Stefan is determined that his path in life lies elsewhere. He's just leaving when his cousin Christian, the royal Boldavian clockmaker, and his mysterious partner - jailer? - Samir, show up and decide that if he's already leaving, he can come along with them on their quest for a mythical nut that's supposed to save a princess. Their quest sounds like a ridiculous children's story -- somehow, everything with Cousin Christian does -- but soon Stefan is swept up in a crazy world of amazing people, mechanical steeds, rodent royalty and secret places between the walls and bridging the known universe with the wholly unknown. And then, suddenly, everything is up to Stefan -- the world is broken, and his father is gone, and the city of Nuremberg - and maybe all of humanity - is running out of time...
Peaks: The sheer scope of this creative madness in this book is just amazing, but Smith does not invent it entirely alone. She takes for her source material the 1816 E.T.A. Hoffmann original story, "Nutcracker and Mouse King," and spins her fancies from there. The well-known Christmas ballet owes its tame, family-friendly sweetness to Alexandre Dumas and a Russian corps de ballet who interpreted Tchaikovsky's score and the story in their own way, but I like Hoffman's dark, spooky, straight up weird, which is reflected in Smith's version -- and it is quite dark, and very weird indeed. Yet, Stefan is a character whom we immediately love - while I'm less sure about Cousin Christian - and though we're not sure what we should want to succeed -- should they cure that nasty princess? Should the mouse prince, Arthur, win? -- we're gathered up and swept along into adventure, and we're brilliantly entertained. There is just so much to wonder at -- and so little I want to give away as spoilers -- but the clockmaker guilds are awesome! I'm reminded of THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET, by Brian Selznick -- that level of towering inventiveness. Stefan is kind of spirited away into a cross-country trip (Hmm, "Spirited Away" is also a great comparison story to this, as is "The Wizard of Oz") -- from Germany to Mongolia to Boldavia and back, he's whiplashed through worlds and returns, totally changed. As the novel ends, his world is beginning to knit itself back together.
Valleys: This is not a valley, honestly, but a fact: I was entranced by the language and the smoothness of the narrative - and find it unequivocally positive that this novel does not talk down to its audience. This is a novel for the middle grader who would assay Harry Potter and not be intimidated by Britishisms. This is a novel for a lover of language, and a fearless adventurer, who stopped by the Phantom Tollbooth, visited with the madams Whatsit and Whosit, who followed the yellow brick road, and never looked back. This being said, the length and language may be a little challenging for some younger middle graders - Drosselmeyer is already just a mouthful of a name - but then, this book also lends itself handily to being read aloud. At 400 pages, Stefan and friends will keep a kid occupied for the entire Winter break, and even in its very brand-newness, there is a whiff of "classic" about it.
Reader advisory: This being a fairytale, there are some dark themes, and some folk die - so be aware that this is one of stories a la Grimm, where the good guys sometimes have painful setbacks, and the wicked are punished. The emotional arc of the story is fulfilled, however; Stefan's loss at the beginning of the novel isn't "solved" - that would be awful - but he is seen naturally beginning to feel like living again.
Conclusion: The language is rich, the story is strange, the journey is long -- dive in! You'll be glad you did, and you'll never look at sweet, tame little Nutcracker ballet the same way again.
One of the weird things about being a writer of color is the Requirements. They're in five point font, but all caps, breathing down your neck, telling you that it's not enough that you're you, and that you have stories: your stories must REPRESENT. It's a voice I've actually heard out loud, in the corridor outside of an MFA class. And, at the end of the day, it's a voice writers must learn to ignore. Not everything which comes from your keyboard must be about earnestly revising history or promoting the truth. Sometimes, you've just got to give in and write a story with a seven-headed rat... which is why I've chosen my friend Sherri's story as my pick for this year's A MORE DIVERSE UNIVERSE. Cheers, everyone, and all hail the #Diversiverse. I hope you pick this one up.
Don't forget - you can read more about the book, including interviews with the author, etc., - on THE TOYMAKER'S APPRENTICE blog tour. Check it out right here.
I received my copy of this book courtesy of Putnam Books. You can find the wildly creativeTHE TOYMAKER'S APPRENTICE by Sherri L. Smith at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!
I don't often get a chance to read a book before my librarian friends hit it. True fact: they are some voracious people with a book. I saw a couple reviews for this going by in my blog and Twitter feeds, and did my best to not see them until I had had a chance to read and digest this work for myself, and -- wow. WOW. As a writer of color, I find this book honest, tremendously brave, and cutting edge in a way that many of us don't yet have the courage to write. To me as a reader, SEE NO COLOR is a powerful, difficult book and it is beautifully painful. The novel ends with a splintered jaggedness to the protagonist's life that is a lot like the bits of glass in a kaleidoscope; constantly shifting, but coming together to create something beautiful.
Summary:Alex Kirtridge, sixteen, believes she's made for baseball. It consumes her as it consumes her father, a Minor League player whose dream of the Majors was taken from him, but which he's passed along to his kids. Alex works hard to catch hold of the dream, but a packet of letters shared by her sister, Kit, reveals a family secret. Once brought out into the open, this secret pulls other, uglier things she's been able to ignore into the limelight. Suddenly, every single incident of not blending in, fitting, or belonging to her self or her family seems enormous. Alex - neither fish nor fowl - doesn't have the language or the knowledge to help her navigate this new sense of her identity -- and neither the boy she's beginning to love, nor the family she's beginning to wonder if she really knows. The novel doesn't provide easy answers - or any answers, as readers grapple with the reality of who Alex thought she was, who she is as a transracial adoptee, and who she will become - yet still provides a achingly hopeful conclusion.
Peaks: Just. Too. Many. Good. Things. The language, the graduated awareness of the protagonist, the confusion, the longing, the realistic highs and lows of her emotional state -- this character just jumps off of the page. The father's deferred dreams. The rules of the game. The HAIR. Also very real and significant, the continual specter of the discomfort of her adoptive family -- the way they privilege their right to ignore pieces of her identity, the novel's articulation of the discomfort which people of color often encounter just by existing, and how it is shown to shape what Alex allows herself to see about herself, and how she behaves. Each of us goes through a painful tearing down and building up of our essential selves in adolescence, but possibly people lacking whatever privileged labeling do it more than once. Finding out you don't is like being knocked down to your foundations, all over again. We don't see Alex being entirely rebuilt in this novel, but we see some pretty darned strong re-bar and a sure foundation.
And while my comments on this are more from very technical perspective, I would feel comfortable handing this to a teen reader (heck, ANY reader), knowing that they would come away with a great many emotions and thoughts that would take them new places.
See also Hannah's thoughtful review.
Valleys: No valleys. I am not a baseball player, but that really is the only thing that caused me to need to read more closely, to follow baseball-ese. This did not deter me.
Conclusion: Simply a powerful narrative of identity, its loss, and the triumph of deciding who you are for yourself. While necessarily a shorter review than usual, to prevent spoilers in this very short novel, I nevertheless say this novel is worth its shiny Kirkus star, and needs to be read by and talked about by many readers.
I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. After November 1, you can find SEE NO COLOR by Shannon Gibney at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!
This book is both a quiet coming-of-age novel, and a suspenseful mystery, making it somewhat difficult to review without providing spoilers. In some ways, it was a fairly typical YA novel about a high school girl - yet, there was a lot else going on.
Summary: The book opens with Gabi Mallory worrying about the loudness of her pee. She's crouched on a toilet seat during a lockdown, too scared to finish up "normal" things like her bathroom break, because the siren and loudspeaker have indicated that it's a lockdown. She's supposed to stay where she is while they locate and dismantle a bomb. Eventually, busted in on by police and rescued (and, after having a teensy accident), Gabi joins her classmates on campus. She and her sister are relieved to see each other, both having been terrified. But their fear is nothing in comparison with their mother's fear, when they get home. She, a detective's wife and tired of fearing for those she loves, wants her girls out of that school, and essentially placed on a high shelf, where nothing can touch them, not even dust. If her parents knew that the bomber - who is still at large - has been leaving her notes in her locker on playing cards, Gabi knows she'd be yanked away as soon as possible -- so she tells no one, and makes it her business to stop bullying when she sees it, intervene with the depressed, and join the school peer counseling hotline. But, is any of that really going to make a difference?
Peaks: This book will keep your attention, and the writing in some places is evocative and beautiful. The journal entries from the Stranger's Manifesto, as the bomber's diary is called, would themselves make the beginnings of a whole different novel. Someone so disturbed and yet so articulate in his pain has its own kind of beauty. The sibling relationship in this novel, and the way Gabi changes - becoming less focused on perfecting herself for college and in changing the world around her, even if it meant losing a friend, spoke to a kind of determination that rarely shows up in real life. The mysterious element in the book came partially from the identity of the dangerous Stranger, yes, but also from the multiple unknowns calling the helpline. This is one of the stronger elements of the novel, and gives us a great deal of insight into Gabi, as she learns compassion, and how to truly listen, not just on the phone, but in her life. It was satisfying to find them resolve - by the end of the novel, the reader knows almost everyone who called the peer-to-peer hotline, and feels that they earned their happily ever after. So much about this novel works emotionally.
The story has two distinct plot arcs - the fraught relationship between Gabi, her mother, and her sister, and the suspenseful side with the school bomber. I loved both sides, but wasn't as satisfied with the resolution of the relationships; Gabi's mother is brittle and difficult throughout the novel until one day... she isn't. I wanted to be shown a little more the mechanics behind this, but felt the inclusion of their mother growing as a person was important.
Valleys: My overall frustration was the protagonist's inability to identify actual danger from drama in her life, which leaves the reader perhaps unclear about what real danger is... A bomber at your school presents actual danger. Getting separated from a potential boyfriend, not actual danger. Going out of her way to conceal clues from the police, break into her father's safe and handle evidence and otherwise break repeated promises to tell him if she knew anything seemed beyond foolhardy. It seemed disingenuous that the character just didn't want to change high schools, so she was willing to die and/or be responsible for her fellow schoolmates being maimed or dying if the bomber slipped past the police. That... annoyed me a great deal.
Other things left me with questions which weren't sufficiently answered in the novel. I wondered why Gabi and her fellow schoolmates would shelter in place indoors when a bomb threat had been called and why the administration of the school would allow students to work wholly unsupervised on peer-to-peer hotlines, but these are minor considerations. I was disappointed that when Gabi confronted her boyfriend about gratuitous violence and his machismo, domineering and aggressive attitude, that though she was frightened by his behavior, she stayed away from him for punitive reasons for a day, but returned. It seemed a little odd that she never once had the thought that if she displeased him, he might hit her - she seemed only disappointed in him for not being civilized, apparently?
Also, Gabi's Latino boyfriend is the son of her white family's house cleaner. Gabi, on discovering this fact called it "complicated." That single word felt like an opportunity missed, and I wished heartily that the issues of ethnicity and class and the realities of coming to grips with this and other aspects of how she personally - not her mother - dealt with this would have been further explored.
Conclusion: Despite some unevenness in the plotting, and the fact that an observant reader will figure out the bomber before Gabi does, this is an absorbing slice-of-life contemporary coming-of-age novel with a message about bullying and school violence that has a disturbing relevance to today. Readers who enjoy ripped-from-the-headlines novels will probably eat this one with a spoon.
I received my copy of this book courtesy of Albert Whitman. You can find ARE YOU STILL THERE by Sarah Lynne Scheerger at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!
The Toymaker's Apprentice!
...which just arrived at my house via late UPS delivery. Thank you after 6 p.m. people!
Honestly? I'm not a huge fan of the whole Nutcracker thing... in part because (Shhhh!) I've never seen the ballet. I also don't really like ballet, as its history is steeped in... *cough* upper class Eurocentric elitism and all that sort of thing. I know, I know, that is its history and a lot in the field is changing, thanks to some amazing folks, and doors finally squeaking open a crack for people of color, but that's where I come from. Though I longed for the yearly traditions wealthier families shared when I was a kid, when I got older, I realized I wasn't interested anyway. HOWEVER. Despite the fact that this story is a re-imagining of the Nutcracker tale, I adore Sherri L. Smith writing ANYTHING and will read it all, forever. Also, there is so much that is completely BIZARRO about the whole Nutcracker schtick anyway. What is with the rat with all the heads? Why are inanimate Christmas decorations moving, anyway? How is such an allegedly happy holiday filled with so much vague menace? Whose fault is it? I suspect this book may have The Answers. Or, at least be really, really beautifully illustrated, have a fab cover typeface, and entertain me in some other fashion entirely. Looking forward to it.
The relationship in dysfunctional families between kids and parents isn't something often directly discussed in YA novels, but this one, from the first paragraph, is all about what happens when a kid is accustomed to taking care of a parent. Eventually, the instructions run out... and the caretaker is on their own, no one taking care of them, no one to care for, and no idea how to live.
Summary: Arlie's flushed the drugs, washed the bottoms of her mother's feet and checked that she had on underwear... and, so that's it. Mom's dead, and she's not quite sure what to do next. Eventually, she calls the police, and the world rushes in -- social services, counselors, schedules, high school, and an uncle she never even knew she had. Order is being imposed on the chaos of her world, and though not too much changes at school -- she's still the girl with the horrible burn scar on her face and only one friend -- everything else changes. Arlie's not handling things well.
Living in a retro Airstream with her Uncle Frank, who drops everything and comes to Durango to build them a house, is ...surreal. He looks like he's trying to win father of the year, and for what? He's not her father, and where has he been? Sometimes, Arlie is furious, other times, claustrophobic. Even her best friend, Mo, doesn't understand why she sometimes goes back to the run down motel where she used to live, to see the old lady who lived down the hall, who was almost like family. Even Frank doesn't understand why she goes off by herself sometimes -- and no one will understand why it's so important to her to see her mother's old boyfriend, Lloyd, whose meth cooking is responsible for the horrible scar on her face, and who just might be the one responsible for her mother's death. Arlie has handled everything herself for so long it feels perfectly normal to keep this to herself, and deal.
Peaks: This book had an absorbing, arresting storyline, and despite the emotional distance the reader has from the protagonist, her strong character draws the reader on. Arlie makes choices the reader would not, and puts herself in danger, yet the reader can't help but keep following Arlie down the rabbit hole.
Valleys: There are myriad books out on kids in the system, and it seems an easy trope to make foster families uniformly lazy, out for money, abusive and overall bad. Being in the foster care system is no picnic for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is if you're in a "system" you're in a county monolith of paperwork and rules and that's impersonal at best. But, it can be livable and positive, and I wish more people would at least acknowledge this.
The romance in this story didn't ring quite true for me; for someone who had been so insecure - food insecure, physically insecure, etc., and utterly dependent on a female best friend, the almost immediate acceptance of physical intimacy and the L-word with a boy seemed to happen really quickly, especially since Mo held hands with Arlie and was comfortable hugging and kissing her, and they had been for so long two-against-the-world, it seemed improbable that anyone else would be welcomed as quickly into her charmed circle.
Conclusion: For those teens who enjoy reading the gritty, ripped-from-the-headlines types of novels depicting kids in trouble, this one is going to be catnip. A strong voice, absorbing details and a life utterly unlike the world of most will make this a good window to look through and give readers a sigh of relief at the happier ending.
I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. You can find BURN GIRL by Mandy Mikulencak at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!
I review this book with mixed emotions. It touches on an important piece of history, using fictional characters to give eyewitness accounts to a fictional and nonfictional events. In many ways, it is successful; its Kirkus and Booklist stars attest to this. The voice is strong and the action riveting. In other ways, though well-intentioned, the subtext is nonetheless problematic. I've tried to avoid major spoilers, but... reader beware.
Summary:The newspaper account of the CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) ride in May 3, 1961 in The Montgomery Advertiser starts the book in such a way that readers who know a little history can't help but know what they're in for -- another Civil Rights story. This version is told from the point of view of an Alabama girl named Billie Simms, white, well-to-do, and on the cusp of womanhood; thirteen and imagining flying up past the stifling atmosphere of small-town Anniston, and seeing the world. Maybe she'll go to New York City. Maybe she'll go to space. Either way, she longs to take part in the larger world in a real way. History, however, is coming to Anniston, Alabama. Her neighbor, Grant, who always has his camera up to his face, is there to record it, while Mr. Grant is at the newspaper, writing it all down. May of 1961 is a year of changes and challenges, a year that Billie wakes up and realizes that the whole world isn't like her... it's a year she will never forget.
They were just watching. It seemed harmless, but I can see now that it was a weapon. Watching can hurt. It can be painful, even if you don't lift a finger. It has weight. I felt it now, heavy against me, pushing us back, enforcing the rules. I had used it myself without even knowing it.
The passengers watched. The little girl played. The bus rode on, bound for Birmingham.
- NIGHT ON FIRE, by Ronald Kidd, from an Advanced Reader's Copy
Peaks: This is one of the nicest covers I've seen in the past little while; I'm a big fan of silhouettes, and the stylized broken glass around the edges and fire and the bell in the middle are all drawn nicely from the text. It's ironic that such a terrible night made such a gorgeous cover.
The storytelling here is vivid, and Billie's voice is very clear, as she grapples with her blind acceptance of her world as it appears, and her slow realization that All Is Not Well With Everyone. Readers will be curious about her world and intrigued by the historical circumstances surrounding this ordinary girl from a small town. Billie is a go-getter, adventurous and headstrong, and though the reasons for her journey seem more happenstance than reasoned and heartfelt, many readers will travel happily with her.
One of my favorite parts of the story was the inclusion of Janie Forsyth McKinney, the twelve-year-old girl who in real life carried water to the victims of a firebombed bus, and defied her Klansman town (which later declared her mentally incompetent, though the story doesn't get into this). I wished very much that she had made more than a cameo appearance; how she became who she is would to me have been a deeply fascinating tale, one I think any kid would have wanted to read. How does one get that kind of courage? And, where can we all get some?
All of them had baskets. It was a way of traveling I'd never noticed or thought about - proud, self-contained, able to take care of yourself. Just add wheels. Oh, and a seat, preferably up front. The view is better. The door is closer. The bumps aren't as bad.
Valleys: This is a tightly written narrative with a strong voice but also a very strong narrative presence. In some instances, it feels as if the author is speaking for the characters, and some of their conclusions seem unusually mature and more thought out than their interaction in the text supports. For instance, Billie is brave enough to join the Freedom Riders, yet has no deep realizations about equality, though her epiphanies about the family maid, Lavender being more than her job seem genuine enough once she meets Lavender's daughter. Still, she asks no pertinent questions such as, "If the Colored folk get their way, what will change in my world?" Because people are inherently selfish, for this perky, plucky little miss to throw in her lot behind her single African American friend (not counting the maid, who is not her friend although she is confused on this issue) and follow the Freedom Riders, who were nearly burned to death in front of her, bleeding and beaten -- rang a little false for me.
The character frequently talks about her uncomfortable feelings, but they're largely glossed over in favor of action. Equally, the mixed reactions of African Americans at this time are also blended into homogeneity. It is a fact that not everyone thought the Freedom Rides should continue, especially because the riders were young and in serious danger. Many folk wanted to "go along to get along," and not make waves with the white people, but the author has created in this book an entire state full of strong civil rights supporters, which is improbable at best, as individual people of color, even within a single state, hardly constitute an African American monolith. It is implied that their pursuit of civil rights, as depicted in their positioning in the front or back of the bus, can be boiled down to "better view" and "not as many bumps." This is as disingenuous as a book I read as a child which described Rosa Parks as not giving up her seat to begin the Montgomery Bus Boycott because she was tired.
At one point, a gentle African American man on the bus to Montgomery explains that the security guard who harasses Billie and Jarmaine is "caught in a vise - heart on one side, rules on the other." Billie somehow immediately knows that her father, whose casual unkindness to Lavender has already drawn the reader's notice, and whose bystander participating in the Anniston bus firebombing shocked Billie to her core - her father obviously must just have this vise on his heart, so he's excused from being part of a mob attempting to kill people...? That and other moments of egregious oversimplification gave me pause. Although I understand wanting to let young readers feel at ease with the subject matter, the inherent unfairness of the laws reflected in Alabama in 1961 can't be understated. Yes, this is an uncomfortable subject; I believe we must let readers feel a little discomfort so that they can learn empathy. Especially since middle graders aren't babies and can understand unfairness perfectly, the depth of the wounds inflicted by one segment of the American population on another should not be muted for the sake of not upsetting anyone. As a reader hoping for a deeper look at the civil rights movement from the other side of the fence, I was really disappointed.
Conclusion:As writers, we sometimes try to put readers into the moment and our modern sensibilities - what we "should" think instead of what people truly did think back then, and what the law and social mores supported in the past - inform us so strongly that they can't let them go. Especially in books intended for middle grade readers writers seem strongly led to teach and shape opinion and sometimes this interferes with the text. In this case, a hesitance to get into the ugliness of the history doesn't detract entirely from Billie's story, and most tweens and middle graders will not notice - but adults reading this with students should take a moment and talk about some of the deeper issues of being an ally for an underrepresented group, and how important it is who gets to tell the stories of that group.
I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher, Albert Whitman & Company. You can find NIGHT ON FIRE by Ronald Kidd at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!
I almost missed the fact that this week is Banned Books Week, during which we can all thank our lucky stars that very, very few books actually make it from challenged to outright banned any more (although I feel like it's sort of over the top to title one's article "Banned Books Week is a Crock" in order to make that legitimate point). It sort of feels like saying we don't need the Voting Rights Act since we don't have racist prejudice any more. But ANYWAY, enough of my snark. There's plenty of fun to be had for readers during Banned Books Week, especially for readers who like the annual reminder that we've come such a long way, and still might have a little way to go.I remember M.E. Kerr. My sister had a book called DINKEY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK, and I was in grade school and thought the title sounded awful. Who'd name their kid Dinky?
With books, though, curiosity traps me every time, and the fact that Dinky was a girl was even more enticing. Though the book was slightly dated and Dinky wasn't someone I entirely understood, there was something about her voice that seemed very real, and, being me, I simply read through the whole shelf of M.E. Kerr books in the library. Thematically, this collection of short stories -- and really, all of the work of M.E. Kerr -- is about identity and the teen protagonist. Teens are in the process of becoming, and Kerr celebrates that becoming in myriad books.
Marijane Meaker - the real surname from whence came M.E. Kerr - had other pseudonyms and wrote bestselling mysteries and suspense, articles for the Ladies Home Journal, and more. Her young adult books, though, remain the jewels in her crown.
"Strangers take a long time to be acquainted, particularly when they are from the same family." - We Might As Well Be Strangers, by M.E. Kerr
Summary: If you enjoy family stories as much as I do, you'll enjoy this book of shorts, set largely in the 1970 in New York and environs. M.E. Kerr writes about the teen as separate from the family through choice, interest, and the mere act of becoming a young adult. Themes of identity and being true to that emerging self beat strongly throughout. These fifteen short stories are drawn from various magazines and anthologies, published from the eighties through the early 2000's. Much of the time, it's not as clear that the stories are that old, but the descriptions of teens intent on marrying after high school, of having no ambition for after college but to be "college educated," and of them going to the hairdresser (!) or worrying about sitting by the phone (rather than carrying it with them) date a few of the stories, but only a little.
There aren't all happy endings - as a matter of fact, most of the stories meet the reader's regard in a way that is deeply enigmatic, not painted in distinct shades of happiness or unhappiness. One of the strengths of M.E. Kerr's writings is her ability to let ambiguity simply... sit there. Modern readers may be unused to the moment of discomfort when a story ends not with a jarring, abrupt note, severing you cleanly, but with a dying away that lingers in the mind. Kerr's stories stick with you.
Of the happier stories, "Sunny Days and Sunny Nights" was one of my favorites, as a girl learns to identify what she wants out of the man she loves, and to ignore what her father wants in a husband for her. My all-time favorite "Grace," is about a self-conscious minister's son who loves his boring old father, though his father embarrasses him by existing - until he doesn't. "Son of a One Eye" is a poignant story about a boy who never fits in with the fraternity he didn't want to join - but finds a world for himself in his imagination. Readers will be glad to see "We Might As Well Be Strangers" which was included in the 1995 AM I BLUE? anthology. In every story, the voice remains so very constant - there is a steady, singular I which informs, even from the third person, about alienation, outsider status, the Other, and being outside of the circle, looking in.
Conclusion: Before there was e.lockhart or Rachel Cohn or the surreal landscapes of A.S. King, there was M.E. Kerr, watching, recording the inner world, telling the true, and playing it back for us to hear.
I received my copy of this book courtesy of Open Road Media. You can find EDGE: COLLECTED STORIES by M.E. Kerr at Open Road or another online e-tailer near you!
There's a lot of information in the news on how female gamers aren't really thought about, or marketed to in the video game industry, so I was interested, reading the description of this book, in the female protagonist. The author didn't touch on any hot button issues particularly, but this quick-paced story will engage even non-gamers who love an adventure.
Summary: Phoenix "Nixy" Bauer is a gamer with a plan: play hard, work hard, make money, go to college, and someday, unlike her wage-slave parents, BE THE BOSS. With her buds Moose and Chang, Nixy is not terribly politically correct, a little aggressive, a lot straightforward, and really, really good at MEEP games, thus good at her job ... which is to gank unsuspecting kids out of the MeaParadisus, Inc. world known as MEEP. MEEP is a fully immersive virtual reality gaming world where people - especially teens - spend hours building and buying, fighting and flirting. They actually go under, leaving their bodies - and their ability to hear their scolding families - behind.
Nixy's parents both work for MeaParadisus, her father in programming, her mother in scripting - so in the spirit of entrepreneurship, Nixy creates a job for herself as a freelancer who benefits from the company. Retrieving MEEP playing kids who have bought a timer hack and stayed in their own little worlds longer than the allotted four hours is a great gig, and Nixy does it for a much lower price than the official "Safe Return Specialists" from MeaParadisus. "Nixy Bauer, Home in an Hour" is her tagline, and kids -- she only works with kids now, not scary loser adults -- hate to see her coming. Who would have ever thought that one of the kids who'd hate to see her show up would be Wyn Salvador, son of MeaParadisus gadzillionaire developer, Diego Salvador. But, he's been in the MEEP for four days, and Nixy's actually been hired to drag his rich, slacking backside back to reality - and a pretty cushy reality it is, at that. After all of her negotiation with the big boss for the big bucks, what with the sharks and all, it's too bad there's no way she's going to get her "home in an hour" bonus...
Peaks: For readers who appreciate a fast-paced plot, danger from a nebulous "them," confronting one's own fears and a character who goads others and battles herself into and out of trouble, this book will work well. It will appeal to guys as well as girls who have an interest in adventure - neither have to be gamers to enjoy this.
Nixy is somewhat unlikeable -- sarcastic, prickly, touchy and not really at home with her own emotions, and in her own skin. In YA fiction, there is often a surfeit of sweetness in teen girls, and a ridiculous level of mental balance and personal maturity, so Nixy is an antidote to that. She's confident to the point of swagger, believes that she can pretty well control every thing that comes across the net, and melts down completely when she can't. I loved that touch of realism. I thought it was interesting that for all of Nixy's aggression, Wyn is depicted as much more of a lover than a fighter, which I wondered at, and would have liked to see him remain aggressive and confident as well.
Valleys: While not necessarily a "valley," per se, there were things I wished had been more thoroughly explored in the novel, things which would have created greater emotional resonance for the reader. For instance, it seemed that the author may have deliberately diminished opportunities to explore Nixy's emotions. I wanted to know whether or not Nixy was proud of, or ashamed of being a gamer, whether or not she knew any other girls who gamed, whether or not she was ever given guff for it from the boys of her acquaintance, other than Moose and Chang. As Nixy and Wyn become close, we wonder if this is her first relationship? Does she wonder what her guy friends will think of this? Does she worry about what happens in MEEP-land crossing the consciousness barrier and coming into the Real World at all? Though not crucial to the adventure, these touches would have grounded the book in the here and now a bit more, and given more depth and emotional resonance.
Nixy is sarcastic and makes cracks about people's appearance, most notably women's appearances - and she and her father seem to glory in the chaos they cause, ignoring Nixy's mother, Jill, as some kind of order-bringing killjoy. And yet, Nixy learns to respect her mother's work a bit. I wish there'd been more exploration of that - Nixy feels briefly and vaguely guilty about realizing her mother is Somebody and she's ignored her - but we don't see the aftermath of this, and her character doesn't necessarily change and grow because of her revelation that her mother's work is important.
For me, the novel ended a little abruptly - Nixy has had a MAJOR wrench in her belief system and her loyalties - and I would have liked to know how it affected her emotionally. What happened was serious, and we are left hanging, wondering how it's going to affect everyone. Instead of a real conclusion, readers are given more of Nixy's nascent romance with Wyn, which felt inevitable instead of intriguing.Conclusion: A fast-paced adventure for lovers of mystery and suspense, this book will appeal to gamers and non-gamers of whatever gender who need that one last book to escape to before school starts in earnest.
I received my copy of this book courtesy of the public library. You can find THIS BOOK by This Author at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!
I have a tiny addiction to Joseph Bruchac's KILLER OF ENEMIES books, as you'll note from my original review, the review of the ROSE EAGLE novella, and the fact that I do cover reveals for the KILLERS series - which I don't often even notice are going on, with other books. In between books in this series, I generally make a nuisance of myself, poking around Tu Books and pressing my face to the glass. (Metaphorically.) Where other post-apocalyptic books are literally the stuff of nightmares, and I find myself depressed by them, or rushing through the awful parts, the characterization in these novels make the nightmare-monster-filled desert a place that seems ...kinda homey. In a terrible way. Like, I could do without the flying monkeys...
Unlike many books which bridge the first and last bits of a trilogy, there is important story happening here - with the action slowed (but not by much - still plenty of varmints that need killin'), we get to know a different Lozen, one who is still struggling with newly discovered powers and trying to learn to rely on them like she would her own five senses, we see her weaknesses and challenges and we're introduced to a terrifying, soulless evil that always returns...
I'm happy to have read this sequel, and while you're waiting to get yours (October 1, 2015), you might go back and start at the beginning of the series while you wait. It's worth your while.
Summary: Lozen keeps waiting to feel like there's been... victory. Everyone is standing upright. Nobody's dead. Even some long-lost people she respected have caught up to she and her newly reunited family. Hussein is still right beside her, and together, they're on the way to the Valley where the rest of the Chiricahua in their group was left behind -- so why does she feel like the bottom is about to drop out of the universe? And, why does she feel so... dark? So empty? The nightmares are the worst, and she keeps listening, looking, calling silently for Hally - but he's nowhere to be found, now.
Everyone looks to Lozen like she's the girl with the plan, but how did she end up in charge of this ragtag bunch of survivors? And, what is she supposed to do, when it turns out that the Valley on which she pinned all her hopes isn't a safe place at all? Her finger's are twitchy on her guns - and she's hurting beings who doesn't deserve it. Coyote isn't to be trusted - yet he's lurking, and there are hostile eyes, all around them. Lozen feels brittle -- like she's going to break -- and the feeling of being stalked increases. Something's got to give, but they're running out of time.
Peaks: There are ...pop culture references in this novel that Lozen doesn't understand, but which are little gifts for the reader, spoken by The Dreamer and Hally. Sometimes it's other books which pop up and wave, and there was a Robert Burns reference that gave me a little twinge of unexpected poignant loveliness. There's a very funny battle of wits with Coyote that I enjoyed especially - and I think the odd bits of comic relief put in when Lozen can hardly smile are important because she cannot smile. She cannot laugh. She cannot lay the battle down and pick up hope -- because Warrior Mind - or PTSD - makes it feel like you're going to be fighting a war forever.
The feeling of utter defeat after having to kill not just monsters but people? Is one that shouldn't be downplayed. This is why Lozen isn't characterized as just some noble-profiled superheroine, but a real person. All of the running around and leadership and powers-having GETS OLD. All of the people who have lost because of her, have been hurt, because others were gunning for her, or manipulating her - all of this weighs on her soul. I also appreciated that while Lozen may be struggling, when she finds help, it's not Insta-Help. The relief is immediate, but Lozen acknowledges immediately that one cannot live on a mountaintop, nor stay in a place of healing - warriors have to go down again and take up the fight, but the trick is carrying the place of peace and healing along with them.
Cover Chatter: I love that the model for the first and second books remains the same, and I can't wait to see what the final looks like.
Conclusion: Slightly slowing to let us see a bit more of Lozen's world, her soul, and her struggles, this second volume in this KILLER trilogy gives us more Chiricahua stories - and a Bedu one, too - more enemies to worry over, and more to love to in this crazy post-apocalyptic version of America. Your readers will want to finish this and then go right back to the first one like I did.
I received my copy of this book courtesy of Tu Books. After October 1, you can find TRAIL OF THE DEAD by Joseph Bruchac at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!
I am a big old sucker for girl-disguised-as-boy novels; give me a tough girl with a sword in addition to a disguise and I'm in don't-bother-me-I'm-reading mode for hours. Add to this the fact that I'd read an article this author had written on Huffington Post and you'll know why I was so intrigued -- and in the end, entertained.
"Imagine Game of Thrones with less blood and more gender confusion and you get a taste of this knightly epic."
— The Guardian
Summary: Lady Samantha knows her duty as an aristocrat of the kingdom of Thule - to marry well, produce an heir, carry on the lineage of her father, the Duke of Haywood. Lady Samantha's father is a politician before all else, and he knows the ways of power -- and if her marriage can be used as an alliance to increase his power, purchase, pull or potential, she knows he'll marry her not for her heart, but for her value. It's not fair, really - it's not what he got to do; everyone knows how he and Lady Samantha's mother married to follow their hearts - but at her mother's bidding, Lady Samantha is prepared to do what must be done -- until her mother is killed in an attack near their home. Though her life is preserved by the timely arrival of a gorgeous and heroic Paladin, Samantha's life at home is destroyed, and her father, in his grief, turns colder than ever. Left with nothing but duty the detested duty to marry well, Sam hacks off her hair, and becomes who she feels she's meant to be -- Sam of Haywood, a trainee Paladin.
It's not that easy to shed who you are, even if you can fight okay with a sword -- As Samantha or Sam she is still impatient, impetuous, and brash. She manages okay, getting along with the other trainees, but then she befriends the "wrong" type of trainee - an odd boy with silvery hair and catlike eyes that react to the light, and bizarre tattoos on his shoulder and chest. He's half-demon, half the monsters that killed her mother. As, as it turns out, he's keeping secrets, too...
Peaks: Fast paced adventure with a strong-minded protagonist and secondary characters who are just as intriguing - that's a major plus for this type of book, which has a dual hero/ine's journey going on -- inasmuch as Sam is the main character, her two partners are on their own journeys as well.
Sam - as either gender - is as subtle as a chainsaw. She opens her mouth and sticks in her foot more often than not. Accustomed to apologizing before she gets yelled at, poor Sam is constantly being yelled at - because the behavior of a Lady of Thule does not come easily to her - good thing she can at least excel in swordplay. The girl-disguised-as-boy thing isn't played for laughs; Sam is very well disguised until she has to tell one person the truth. Though she is smaller, she is muscular and quick - but not supernaturally so; she has a lot to learn. I liked the reality of that. Of course, she works with men and boys all the time, and inevitably notices them a little more than she ought - and then to suppress her natural inclinations to touch familiarly the people she likes becomes harder - but not impossible. It's nice that the author doesn't depict males and females as so far apart in behavior that they're creatures from differing planets.
And I'd also like to congratulate the publisher for allowing the character to look tough on the cover. While it's clear here the character is Lady Samantha and not her alter, Sam, the boots and the sword and the rocks give us a good preview into what's ahead in the novel.
Valleys: This isn't a "valley," but the reader should be aware that this is the beginning of a series, and there's no guarantee of when the sequel is going to be out - however, as this is a durably written adventure, rereading it will keep you sated for a little while.
I had questions as I read through the novel - not alarming, can't-keep-going ones by any means, but I wondered where the monsters in the kingdom of Thule had come from, why they were there, whether other kingdoms suffered from them, how it was that they were variously shaped, and not all one kind, and basically just the origin story of that world. When a novel is fast-paced and has a lot of action going on, these are the types of things that can be missed - not to the detriment of the story, but reading this made me want to KNOW.
Though I may have misread or generalized, this novel reads as that sort of Fairytale Landscape that mimics old Europe, and the characters seem to default to having no ethnic diversity, which I hope is merely oversight in reading on my part, but I'm afraid not.
Conclusion:I can strongly recommend this fast-paced adventure with a stroppy female wielding a sword - and if this is your particular catnip, grab a copy of PALADIN for an afternoon of reading that will leave you hoping for more - soon!
I received my copy of this book courtesy of the indie publisher. You can find THIS BOOK by This Author at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!
While this adventure isn't technically YA nor marketed as such, the protagonist is a young man in a magical "university," but given the sort of Olde English wording in some spots and the kind of feel of the story, I think "university" might be a catch-all word for "boarding school;" Veranix certainly doesn't seem much older than maybe seventeen and perfectly relate-able for most teens.
Summary: A student by day, Veranix Calbert is a Robinhood-style hustler by night, out to shut down the drug trade in the neighborhood of Dentonhill, and utterly ruin the crime lord who runs it. It's not a minor goal, and it's one which would be made a lot easier if a.) he could inform the Constabulary of his plans, and b.) they would take him seriously, and c.) work with him, but he's a student, young and impulsive - and some of the Law is pretty crooked. No matter - Veranix has his gang lieutenant cousin to watch his back, his friend Kaiana to sew him up and shake her head at his stupidity - and an information source in his roommate Delrin - and that's all he really needs. He also has the loot from an intercepted forty-thousand crown drug deal that turns out to be a rope... and a cloak. He has no idea what a drug lord was doing with them, nor does Veranix have any intention of giving them back - and soon, he realizes it would be dangerous to do so. Veranix, with a handful of magic and a head full of revenge, soon becomes as notorious as legend, and soon the street gangs, and even mages from outside the University all want a piece of his hide. He's used to scrapes, going without sleep, burning the candle on both ends, but it's all been worth it, to be a thorn in one man's side... But it's a lot harder than you'd think to be a thorn and not get yanked out.
Peaks: I could read about magic schools all day, and students who are meant to be studying, but who are doing EVERYTHING else instead - that's a cross-cultural, cross-genre trope that always plays well. The setting in the novel, a kind of Renaissance-era, quasi-familiar, somewhat "olde worlde" magical universe seems also to be where we've been before, but this Maradine has an underlying structure which intrigues - gangs fight for territorial holds on various streets, street kids below, block captains above - some of whom operate hand and glove with the crooked Constabulary, which in some neighborhoods can be bribed to look the other way. The "hoods" are about difference - the walled University, the respectable working folk of Aventil, the Waterstreet Bridge which crosses into the scrabbling underclass of Dentonhill - and what makes them the same. Interestingly, the gang life isn't glossed over as "bad people" who live on the underbelly; we get a real sense of the family ties and loyalties and pride which hold them together - and the anxieties of living on the edge of violence and hunger, in a crooked city where wealth and magic might just go hand and glove - and fist. With no real justice coming from above, an anti-hero like Veranix can rise from the ranks into greatness - if he's allowed to do so, and if he's supported by the people. I like that he has a legitimate grievance against the drug lord of his neighborhood -- this isn't some idealistic "people shouldn't do drugs" campaign, but a quest for justice which holds Veranix by the throat. He isn't going to give up. Though he is young and distracted by food and dodging authority as most students, his single-minded focus makes him unlike many fictional guys his age, and makes a refreshing change in a main character. The pacing is fast, the action is sometimes harrowing, and there is so much going on that the reader is plunged in, and really has to sink or swim.
Valleys: This is an adventure novel with a strong protagonist, supported by a strong female friend, yet I was disappointed that more time isn't spent on the positive depiction of female characters in this novel. Veranix has a mother - but she's not present in the novel. One of his best friends is female, Kaiana, but because she's a "Napa" girl - dark-skinned, and the only female on the groundskeeping staff at the university - (no reason given why she's not a student, but maybe the magical university only takes boys, or numina only comes to boys? - this is not sufficiently explored) she's discounted in many ways, even by her alleged friend Veranix. Unhappily, all the other women in the novel are drug using prostitutes or poverty-stricken former prostitutes... Women don't seem very smart, nor do they seem to have agency - they must either be protected or rescued, or, as in the case of Kaiana, they make incredible sacrifices to rescue Veranix by playing to the stereotypes about them, and are subsequently abused for it. Eventually, through zero effort on Veranix's part, Kai's sacrifice is "rewarded," -- and her "reward" is that nothing changes for her - she's still brown-skinned, still sleeping in a carriage house and working for a bigot within a sexist system, still without justice for her story or any audience for it (we are never told details, but learn Veranix's ad nauseum, so why is she helping him? How is that fixing things for her?), living on the edges and fringes and ...yay? I wanted more for her, and from Veranix, and from the world -- but I also realize that this book has sequel(s) and maybe there will be more depth, but I'm also aware that people don't necessarily demand gender and ethnic parity of their fiction, so maybe not.
Also, I found it ...maybe not surprising, but wearying that in this vibrant new universe the author created, prejudice is still based on skin pigment. Disappointing.
Conclusion: With a fast-paced plot and a driven protagonist, we're introduced to a magical world with a lot of familiarity but with a lot of "new things per page" to keep readers engaged. Readers will be glad they read this, and eager for the companion novel/sequel, which is already out from DAW.
I received my copy of this book through my own purchase. You can find THE THORN OF DENTONHILL by Marshall Ryan Maresca at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
~ "Fire and Ice," by Robert Frost
I was so impressed with newcomer Charlie N. Holmberg's Magician series last year that I immediately snapped up this book on name recognition alone... only to find that the books are, for the most part, nothing alike. The heroines are both hard-headed and exasperating (Holmberg does that well), and the towns are both kind of an industrial-revolution era small town with industry and a single school, but magic is something scary that Other People do in towns far away, and marrying well seems to be the goal for a young girl, rather than having a career of one's own - or maybe that's only the way it seems because the main character only thinks in terms of what people think of her. Anyway, it was a transition to get into this book, with such a self-absorbed protagonist. Remember Nellie Olsen from the Little House TV series? This novel is a logical progression of a "what would happen if someone acted like that all the time" novel, because the comeuppance is hardcore. This is also a deeper look at emptying out oneself for someone else -- even when you'll get nothing back, and you know it, and it hurts -- and a pretty heartfelt exploration of loving life enough to cling to it, and falling in love, too. Prepare to "Aww" at the smiley, happy ending.
Summary: Smitha: A girl so cold, she'll give you freezer burn...
Smitha's house is the second largest in the village, and the prettiest. Smitha's friends are the smartest, and the best liked around. Smitha is the prettiest in her family. Smitha is ... pretty central to Smitha. Which is to say that she's kind of a self-centered, tiresome little git. When she's avoiding the attentions of her father's hired man, she does so in the most callous, cold, and cutting way possible -- just because. I mean, shouldn't he know better than to try for someone as perfect and awesome as she? Humility in the face of such perfection is obviously impossible -- and comes back to kick her right in her padded derriere, because the guy her father hired, and whom she just so humiliatingly blew off is a wizard who had run away from the wizarding wars... and he has just enough nasty magic left to curse Smitha to be as cold as her heart.
This becomes rather literal - because Smitha's heart is sub-zero - and it's very clear that she's the author of her own destruction. But, it's still hideous - not only are her tears icicles, her spit frozen and her blood sluggish, perpetual winter follows her everywhere. People in her village sicken and die, and Smitha is cast out -- forever. There follows a tale of horror and despair, of fury and resentment, of deception and slyness, personified by Death (who is called Sabriel), of a handsome Prince and his noble cohort, an exotic desert kingdom, a survivor who learns to give up everything -- and an improbable and heart-warming happily ever after. It's the perfect fairytale.
Peaks: There's a lot to like about this book - the descriptiveness and storytelling are all-consuming, as always. This slows the pacing, but there's a thoroughness to the telling that draws the reader in -- sometimes with the horrified curiosity of watching a car wreck, but we're brought along nonetheless.
Smitha is perfect. I loathed her. Thus, the author did her job, in creating an absolutely abhorrent character whom readers nonetheless will want to continue reading anyway. If you kind of hated Nellie Olsen or the girls in "Mean Girls" but watched them with a sneer - not looking away, but still sneering - you know what I mean.
We get so many interesting and nuanced personifications of Death - I think of Martine Leavitt's Keturah and Lord Death, wherein Keturah puts him off with stories whilst he courts her, of Robin LeFevers' Assasin series living in the shadow of Saint Mortain, and of course, Sir Terry Pratchett's Death, who loves kittens and rides a noble steed called... Binky. I kind of liked that of all the Deaths in fiction, this one was... insidious. And awful. And kept. coming. back. He was scary by his mere seductiveness. Which is really awful and true to life, and is possibly a portrayal of death as something which seems desirable sometimes, for people in severe depression, as Smitha was. Fortunately, Smitha's basic nosiness about what the next day holds, and her insistence that things have got to get better turns out to be stronger than her need to lie down and give up - and she keeps getting up, as we all must do.
There are people in this book who are not Eurocentric, and while their country and its people are entirely foreign to Smitha, and she clearly is blonde and golden to their brunette and bronzed, I appreciate that they're not simply there for exotic effect, and that Smitha attempts to become a part of their community and take them as her people, too.
Valleys: I really didn't find any valleys, although some readers will find the pacing in the beginning and throughout a little slower than they would like. Smitha is, initially, excruciating -- I wanted to get away from her, badly. However, the action soon takes the reader's mind away from the general awfulness of her character, and once things start happening, the novel moves along reasonably enough. While there still is a lot of thinking and a lot of time spent in Smitha's inner mind, things speed up a bit. While this may not work for some, others will eat it up with a spoon.
Conclusion: We're privileged to have another book from this author, and I'm happily expectant that the next will be just as fun. This book is wildly different from her last series, and shows her range.
I received my copy of this book courtesy of 47North. After September 22, you can find FOLLOWED BY FROST by Charlie M. Holmberg at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!
