Book Review Round-Up, Part One: October
Okay, I am now going to catch up on my book review posts, in the hopes of starting January making individual book posts instead of crazy long two-month wrap-up posts. I will do October today, November tomorrow, and December on Monday, and then maybe do a 2008 top ten or something.
October was one of those months where I only read the books sent to me for review. Here are the thoughts, etc., that didn't make it into my actual reviews.
The Lost Island of Tamarind, by Nadia Aquir.
Juv Fantasy
Equal parts adventure, mystery, fantasy, and survival story, this first novel is quite accomplished. Maya, 13 years old, has lived her entire life on the Pamela Jane with her marine biologist parents and two siblings. After a violent storm, the parents go missing, and the kids manage to steer the boat to an unknown island. It turns out to be Tamarind, a place that features heavily in their father's stories (which they thought he was making up), and while looking for their parents, they quickly run into all sorts of dangers, including man-eating vines and a child-stealing woman who rides a jaguar. This book reminded me a lot of Kenneth Oppel's Airborn, but for a younger audience -- it has a mysterious island not seen on any map, a scientific mystery, resourceful and plucky characters forced to contend with a dangerous environment, and pirates, among other similarities.
Gamer Girl, by Mari Mancusi.
YA Fiction
After her parent's divorce, Maddy has to leave her posh life in Boston for a New Hampshire suburb, where she, her mother, and her little sister live with Grandma, who has an extensive unicorn figurine collection. She figures her life is ruined, and it only gets worse when her grandma forces her to wear a unicorn sweater to school and then embarrasses her in front of the popular kids, who quickly dub her "Freak Girl". Maddy escapes into her manga drawing and the online game Fields of Fantasy (which is WoW, basically), but eventually she has to deal with her real life, including her flaky dad who keeps letting her down. I like books about girls who are geeks (you know, they like manga or science fiction, they play video games, and so on) because there really aren't that many, and I am one of those girls. (Well, I am a woman, but you know what I mean.) Cecil Castelluci's Boy Proof is one of the best I've read so far, and this one would work well as a read-alike.
The Faerie Door, by B.E. Maxwell.
Juv Fantasy
Sometimes I feel like I read too much juvenile and young adult fantasy, and books that feel clichéd or generic to me are ones others (and I'm always trying to think of the target audience) will enjoy. This is one of those books. Parts of it were decent. Parts of it were vague. And parts of it didn't make sense once you thought about it too much (which is another part of my job as a reviewer, to think about it too much). Victoria, in 1890s England, and Elliott, in 1966 America, both find magic rings made by faeries to open portals between the worlds in times of need. Obviously it's one of those times, and the two kids escape danger to Faerieland (no, really), where they are sent on a long quest to find magic orbs in order to defeat the Shadow Knight (no, really). And they do, and somehow the evil Shadow Knight is erased in, like, two pages at the very end. I liked Victoria a lot (she has attitude), and Elliott as well (he's very sensible and a little timid), and some of the stuff they encounter on their journeys is imaginative, but the rest of it just wasn't put together well.
Persistence of Memory, by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes.
YA Urban Fantasy
I'd never read anything by this author before but I'd heard plenty about her and her books, so I looked forward to reading this despite the dumb cover aimed at what publishers think teenage girls should like and the word "vampire" in the summary. The book was . . . okay. Erin, diagnosed schizophrenic and capable of terrible violence when her alter ego, Shevaun, takes over, is finally ready to start public school again after 18 months of therapy and an arsenal of pills. Just as things are looking up, however, her episodes start up again, but this time, thanks to a couple friends, she finds out that Shevaun is a real person (a vampire) and not a construct of her mind. Somehow, she and Shevaun are mentally linked, and they need to sever the connection for both to live their lives. Erin's friend Sassy is a bright spot in this book, and the idea that supernatural powers could appear to be mental illness is intriguing, but the explanation/solution to Erin's and Shevaun's link was so confusing that I felt cheated, and it ended on an anticlimactic note.
Wondrous Strange, by Lesley Livingston.
YA Urban Fantasy
When I received this to review, I thought, ah yes, yet another teenage girl finds out she is a faerie princess and must come to terms with this other life in addition to defeating someone who Knows The Truth and is Out To Get Her. With all the teenage girls discovering their hidden faerie roots, it's a surprise that there are any normal girls left. (They're all off becoming vampires, probably.) Even more of a surprise, I ended up really liking this book. Kelley is attempting to make her stage career and gets a lucky break playing Titania in a small production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Meanwhile, in Central Park, human changelings guard the only gate between our world (Manhattan, of course) and Faerie to make sure no dangerous creatures get through. These two come together when Kelley and Sonny, one of the changelings, have a quasi-romantic introduction by the lake; after he leaves, Kelley sees what she thinks is a horse drowning in the lake and rescues it. Then it somehow appears at her balcony and decides to live in her bathtub (turns out it's a kelpie), and all hell breaks loose. Turns out Kelley is the daugher of Auberon, kidnapped as a baby, and when he shows up it turns out that Auberon isn't very nice. There's also a side-plot involving the Wild Hunt. Kelley is feisty and deals with all this craziness with aplomb, and her romance with Sonny comes about nicely. There are a lot of plot twists that strain credibility, but overall, this one is a winner in the faerie princess subgenre.
Stay tuned for my November reads, including three damn good adult fantasies, one so-so end to a fantasy series, and a YA mystery that is so ridiculous and funny the author is becoming one of my favorites.
October was one of those months where I only read the books sent to me for review. Here are the thoughts, etc., that didn't make it into my actual reviews.
The Lost Island of Tamarind, by Nadia Aquir.
Juv Fantasy
Equal parts adventure, mystery, fantasy, and survival story, this first novel is quite accomplished. Maya, 13 years old, has lived her entire life on the Pamela Jane with her marine biologist parents and two siblings. After a violent storm, the parents go missing, and the kids manage to steer the boat to an unknown island. It turns out to be Tamarind, a place that features heavily in their father's stories (which they thought he was making up), and while looking for their parents, they quickly run into all sorts of dangers, including man-eating vines and a child-stealing woman who rides a jaguar. This book reminded me a lot of Kenneth Oppel's Airborn, but for a younger audience -- it has a mysterious island not seen on any map, a scientific mystery, resourceful and plucky characters forced to contend with a dangerous environment, and pirates, among other similarities.
Gamer Girl, by Mari Mancusi.
YA Fiction
After her parent's divorce, Maddy has to leave her posh life in Boston for a New Hampshire suburb, where she, her mother, and her little sister live with Grandma, who has an extensive unicorn figurine collection. She figures her life is ruined, and it only gets worse when her grandma forces her to wear a unicorn sweater to school and then embarrasses her in front of the popular kids, who quickly dub her "Freak Girl". Maddy escapes into her manga drawing and the online game Fields of Fantasy (which is WoW, basically), but eventually she has to deal with her real life, including her flaky dad who keeps letting her down. I like books about girls who are geeks (you know, they like manga or science fiction, they play video games, and so on) because there really aren't that many, and I am one of those girls. (Well, I am a woman, but you know what I mean.) Cecil Castelluci's Boy Proof is one of the best I've read so far, and this one would work well as a read-alike.
The Faerie Door, by B.E. Maxwell.
Juv Fantasy
Sometimes I feel like I read too much juvenile and young adult fantasy, and books that feel clichéd or generic to me are ones others (and I'm always trying to think of the target audience) will enjoy. This is one of those books. Parts of it were decent. Parts of it were vague. And parts of it didn't make sense once you thought about it too much (which is another part of my job as a reviewer, to think about it too much). Victoria, in 1890s England, and Elliott, in 1966 America, both find magic rings made by faeries to open portals between the worlds in times of need. Obviously it's one of those times, and the two kids escape danger to Faerieland (no, really), where they are sent on a long quest to find magic orbs in order to defeat the Shadow Knight (no, really). And they do, and somehow the evil Shadow Knight is erased in, like, two pages at the very end. I liked Victoria a lot (she has attitude), and Elliott as well (he's very sensible and a little timid), and some of the stuff they encounter on their journeys is imaginative, but the rest of it just wasn't put together well.
Persistence of Memory, by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes.
YA Urban Fantasy
I'd never read anything by this author before but I'd heard plenty about her and her books, so I looked forward to reading this despite the dumb cover aimed at what publishers think teenage girls should like and the word "vampire" in the summary. The book was . . . okay. Erin, diagnosed schizophrenic and capable of terrible violence when her alter ego, Shevaun, takes over, is finally ready to start public school again after 18 months of therapy and an arsenal of pills. Just as things are looking up, however, her episodes start up again, but this time, thanks to a couple friends, she finds out that Shevaun is a real person (a vampire) and not a construct of her mind. Somehow, she and Shevaun are mentally linked, and they need to sever the connection for both to live their lives. Erin's friend Sassy is a bright spot in this book, and the idea that supernatural powers could appear to be mental illness is intriguing, but the explanation/solution to Erin's and Shevaun's link was so confusing that I felt cheated, and it ended on an anticlimactic note.
Wondrous Strange, by Lesley Livingston.
YA Urban Fantasy
When I received this to review, I thought, ah yes, yet another teenage girl finds out she is a faerie princess and must come to terms with this other life in addition to defeating someone who Knows The Truth and is Out To Get Her. With all the teenage girls discovering their hidden faerie roots, it's a surprise that there are any normal girls left. (They're all off becoming vampires, probably.) Even more of a surprise, I ended up really liking this book. Kelley is attempting to make her stage career and gets a lucky break playing Titania in a small production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Meanwhile, in Central Park, human changelings guard the only gate between our world (Manhattan, of course) and Faerie to make sure no dangerous creatures get through. These two come together when Kelley and Sonny, one of the changelings, have a quasi-romantic introduction by the lake; after he leaves, Kelley sees what she thinks is a horse drowning in the lake and rescues it. Then it somehow appears at her balcony and decides to live in her bathtub (turns out it's a kelpie), and all hell breaks loose. Turns out Kelley is the daugher of Auberon, kidnapped as a baby, and when he shows up it turns out that Auberon isn't very nice. There's also a side-plot involving the Wild Hunt. Kelley is feisty and deals with all this craziness with aplomb, and her romance with Sonny comes about nicely. There are a lot of plot twists that strain credibility, but overall, this one is a winner in the faerie princess subgenre.
Stay tuned for my November reads, including three damn good adult fantasies, one so-so end to a fantasy series, and a YA mystery that is so ridiculous and funny the author is becoming one of my favorites.