Bonus Review! Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses by Ron Koertge, Illustrated by Andrea Dezso

This one is too short to count toward my CBR goal but I didn’t want to leave it off my review list because I really enjoyed it.

Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses is (are you ready?)  a collection of retold and re-imagined fairy tales.

I love this genre.  I don’t know if it’s possible to have a favorite of any type of book when you love books so much, but fairy tales and folklore are way up on the list, and when they turn into retold tales and urban fantasy, my knees get weak.

There are twenty two stories here, including Rapunzel, the Twelve Dancing Princesses, Hansel and Gretel, the Ugly Duckling, Rumpelstiltskin, Red Riding Hood, and the Princess with that damned pea.

The tales are told as short poems without much introduction.  We know who Cinderella is, so when we hear the aftermath from the stepsisters’ point of view, we don’t need to hear all that crap about the ball again.

To make these stories all the more sweet is the amazing mix between Once Upon and Time and Modern Time.

Cinderella’s stepsisters have surgery instead of their mother hacking off their toes.

Rapunzel’s mother talks about her three times a week therapy appointments.  The prince meets other princes in rehab while he waits for his eyes to heal.

The Little Match Girl is selling her CDs on the corner.  The cops find her dead, but what are you going to do?

A soldier makes a pact with the devil where he’ll wear the bearskin for seven years so his PTSD will stop.

The Beast is a bit bored now.  The weather is perfect, he’s a man again, but sometimes he really misses those fangs.

Hansel and Gretel?  Oh, they are pissed.  So very pissed.

Death makes his godson an amazing football player, poised to win the Heisman.  Things don’t go so well.

If you spit jewels when you speak and your sister spews toads, how on earth to you expect to keep a husband?

When you’re the only one speaking the truth about the Emperor’s New Clothes, how long can you hold out?

The miller’s daughter in Rumpelstiltskin?  Life is so boring after you’ve won a dangerous game.  Surely there’s got to be something much more dangerous out there in the woods.

Little Red Riding Hood is trying to tell the story to her mom, but god, stop interrupting me!  The whole thing was, like, gross?  But whatever.  I let him.  And then some dude shows up with scissors and it’s wicked gay, but whatever, I’m hungry and you need to get off my back, OK?

I love it.

The illustrations are amazing.  Koertge wrote some beautiful lines, but without Dezso’s art, this book wouldn’t have been as good.  The art is all black on white in  woodcut style.  The lines are sharp and deep.  Shadows and movement surround the cuts and you can almost see the red of the blood as it drips down someone’s chin.

Even better?  Dezso is an art professor at Amherst College, so I bet I could go see her work in person somewhere.  http://andreadezso.com/

Hole.  Lee.  Shit.  She did embroidery of things her mother said to her as a child.  Transylvanian moms are AMAZING!
http://andreadezso.com/DRAWING_embroidered.html

I need to stop looking at her page or I’m going to stay up for another hour and I should really go to bed.

In conclusion:

If you like folklore, fairy tales and slightly fucked up shit, get this book.  It’s much tamer than the monkey sex in Robert Coover’s Briar Rose but not purified like Disney.

 

#12: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

I was in love with this book a few sentences in.  By the end of the five page prologue I realized I was going to stay up all night reading it cover to cover, but it was a work night, so I forced myself to stop before 2:00am.  I was not happy about this.

Seraphina lives in the kingdom of Goredd.  There has been an uneasy truce between the humans and dragonkind for four decades.  The humans distrust the dragons living in Goredd, even though they remain in their human shape all year, except for the anniversary of treaty day.  Although time has passed, many in the kingdom still hate the dragons and wish to return to war so they may completely wipe them from existence.  A few hours into their cups and they seem to forget that the dragons are bigger and more dangerous than any one man.

The dragons are distant and logical, and humans confuse them.  They’re sort of a mixture of Spock and Aspies.  (I am aware that people will fight to the death defending the point that Spock is/is not an Aspie.)  Because they live so long, they see humans as quick flickers and don’t bother to learn things like emotion, body language, or even the correct pronouns.  Why refer to a baby as “she” when “it” works just as well?  Their world is pure logic and reason, and when they spend too much time with humans, they return to their Board of Censors where their minds are erased and all ideas of emotion are taken away.  Anything that can be considered self-pleasure, such as music or love, is pointless and makes a dragon weak.  It makes them humanlike, which is abhorrent.

When in human form, they must wear bells to distinguish themselves from the humans, although their manner would quickly show the truth.  Many wear their bells proudly, although a few try to keep a low profile so as not to attract the attention of the Sons of St. Ogdo, the group craving to rid the world of dragons, preferably in the most violent manner they can think of.  A few are allowed to remove their bells and study and teach without having to deal with Goredd’s human interference.

It is quickly revealed that Seraphina is part of both worlds.  No spoilers here; we know very early on that she is half human/half dragon.  This is an abomination on both sides and her father is furious and heartbroken that the woman he loved lied to him.  He didn’t know she was a dragon until she died in childbirth, silver blood pooling around her.

He creates a world of lies for the girl, possibly more to keep himself safe than her.  Perhaps if she was never born, he never would have know what his wife was.

Seraphina’s two sides are almost constantly at war.  Her mother implanted memories in her and if Seraphina is not careful she collapses to the ground, overwhelmed with her mother’s visions.  Her dragon uncle, one of the dragons allowed to teach in secret, has taught her to control her dragon mind and hide her identity to keep herself safe.  She must take time each day to calm her dragon side in order to maintain her secret.

And of course she almost blows her cover in the first chapter.

Her whole life she’s tired to remain invisible, but when she is forced to play at the Prince’s funeral, she’s suddenly known to all.

The Prince’s funeral threatens to destroy the treaty between Goredd and the dragons.  His death is suspicious and points to dragonkind.  They have sworn off eating humans, but perhaps their taste for blood has returned.

Seraphina finds herself on both sides, desperate to keep her true self hidden while saving both kingdoms and the treaty.

She quickly makes friends with members of the royal family as well as discovering that there are more like her.  These other abominations have also crafted secret lives for themselves and are horrified that there are others which makes their secret that much easier to reveal.  If  you’re the only one, you’re safe.  However, a part of them is relieved that they aren’t alone.

There’s lots of twists and turns and forbidden love and heartache and loneliness as Seraphina is forced to confront who she is and what it means.  How does she keep her friends and family safe and will she be forced to choose a side?  If her true nature is discovered, she’s not safe with the humans or dragons and if she is somehow not killed, there is nowhere for her to go that will be safe.

Family secrets are revealed and her own mind and memories begin spilling out  and she’s caught up in so many undragonlike and intense human emotions that it seems impossible that she won’t be found out by either side.  The constant hiding, lying, and redirections are exhausting and I kept expecting her to slip up or simply give in so she didn’t have to struggle anymore.

Hartman follows traditional fantasy paths and I liked it.  Seraphina is a fairly strong YA character, even though at times she does fall a little bit into the plot device of a lost young woman desperate for friends but forced to hide a terrible secret.  There’s also a teeny bit of Mary Sue lurking about when she quickly makes powerful friends who either willingly overlook her oddness or are completely blind to the signs.  I’m willing to forgive this because I liked all of the characters so much.  Sometimes it’s OK to use a pattern if you make it enjoyable.

I’m very pleased that this is Book One and I hope the follow ups get better and better as Hartman reveals more of the story and her writing gets stronger.

If you liked The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater or Kristin Cashore’s Graceling Realm series, then try this.  Seraphina isn’t as strong as the female leads in the others, but she’s a good companion.

#48: Switch by Carol Snow

Quick and easy premise:

Fifteen year old Claire is a girl with normal and fairly easy teenage problems.  Nate, the love of her life, sees her as a bro.  Her body, while strong from swimming, isn’t going to turn any heads.  She’s average.  Well, she would be if it wasn’t for two things: she hangs out with her dead grandmother and she sometimes switches bodies with other girls.

OK, so everything is normal and quiet about her except for that whole switching bodies.  Turns out that electricity does something to her and she wakes up as someone else.  The first time it happened was quick and weird and the result of a science experiment at school.  She tried to put it out of her mind.  But the second time she woke up in a strange body she freaked the fuck out.  Wouldn’t you?  It’s the middle of the night, there’s a crazy thunderstorm, you wonder how you got into someone else’s room and then you catch sight of yourself in the mirror and HOLY SHIT THAT ISN’T YOU!!!

Luckily she falls asleep, wakes up in her own body, and her grandmother is all “Uhm, yeah.  That’s a thing you can do now.”

So she does it.  Grandmother Evelyn hangs out and when electricity shoots Claire into someone else, Evelyn slips into her body and holds it for her until she falls asleep and returns.  The other girl sort of hangs out, neither dead or alive, asleep or awake.  As soon as Claire falls asleep, Evelyn moves out of her body, Claire moves back in, and hover girl returns to her own body.

When the book starts, this whole thing is commonplace to Claire.  There’s been a few uncomfortable nights, but for the most part she waits for a thunderstorm to roll in, closes her eyes, wakes up in a new body, goes back to sleep and wakes up back at home.  Easy, breezy, lemon squeezy.

But then…

When Evelyn is hanging out somewhere else in the house, Claire gives herself one hell of an electrical shock.  Not expecting to be shot into a new body, she sits up in bed and tries to figure out why this happened.  Shrugging, she figures she’ll go back to sleep to reset the whole deal, but she is curious to find out whose body she’s in.

She looks into the mirror and falls in love.

She’s beautiful.  More than beautiful.  She’s perfect.  The kind of girl who looks amazing no matter what she wears.  The kind of girl who makes boys fall over themselves just to get a glimpse of her.  The kind of girl who can roll out of bed and be stunning.

The girl that Nate has been trying to meet.

Larissa.   Even her name sounds luscious.  Gorgeous Larissa, visiting the beach town where Claire lives year round.  Hating the beach town.  Scornful of the boys who think they are worthy enough to even speak to her.

Things get fun for a bit.  Claire, ever unhappy with her swimmer’s body, pulls out just about every article of clothing from Larissa’s closet and has a one woman fashion show.  It’s like playing dress up Barbie, except it’s her body now and she gets to admire it.  Well… it’s not permanently her body, but since she’s borrowing it, she’s going to squeeze as much fun out of it as she can.

But too soon she realizes that she needs to go to sleep so she can go home and give Larissa her body back.

And then she wakes up and she’s still Larissa.

Oh.  Shit.

For the rest of the book, Claire has to figure out why she’s still Larissa, how to get her body back, how to keep people from finding out, and what to do about her grandmother.

Also?  She’s totally going to make out with Nate.  Hard.

This isn’t too challenging of a book and I liked how much fun Claire had in Larissa’s body.  At times she did feel a bit guilty for taking advantage of this body, but on the other hand… just look at this body.

I was a but surprised that she didn’t feel guilty or conflicted about her “relationship” with Nate.  At some point Larissa was going to get her body back and have no memory of Nate.  It’s pretty convenient that she’ll be leaving town as soon as this happens.  Claire creates a fake email account so that Nate can stay in touch with her.  Larissa.  Claire.  Claire/Larissa.

It’s kinda skeezy.

Getting back to the non-challenging parts of the book:

1. There is a piece of foreshadowing that foreshadows so hard that the only way it could foreshadow more is if there was a bright red arrow pointing at it that said “FORESHADOW!!!”
2. The set up of who Claire can switch with is a total cop-out.  Snow didn’t want to write a book where Claire could switch into older and younger people, and definitely not boys, so she comes up with a pretty bullshit set of rules that dictates what happens.  I get why she did it, but I rolled my eyes when I read it.
3. There is very little fallout in this book.  Everything ends well and life goes on.  This goes back to my skeezy feeling about her and Nate.  She knows he’s out of her league, so she’s happy that she got to make out with him as someone else and now she’s probably going to cybersex him all the time with Larissa’s fake email.  Dude.

One thing that really pleased me about this book is that it was nothing like Wake by Lisa McMann.  It’s a sort of similar premise and I was worried that this was also going to be shit writing and easy answers.  Happily, the writing was good, there were some challenges in the plot, but it wasn’t anything that was going to keep you up at night.  Well, unless you’re paranoid that someone is going to take over your body during a thunderstorm.

 

 

#46: A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

I’m coming right out with it:

There’s a cat in this book and it dies.

I knew it was going to die from the moment it appeared, but FFS!  Can we get some books where stuff happens that doesn’t involve the death of a beloved pet?

Our protagonist in A Mang0-Shaped Space is Mia Winchell.  She’s been keeping a secret from everyone since she was eight years old and learned it had to be kept a secret.  She has synesthesia, only she’s never heard that term before and doesn’t know it’s a thing.  All her life she’s seen letters and words as colors and textures.  Intense sounds explode into colors in her head.  When she realized that other people don’t see the same things, she learned to pretend and hide it from everyone.

But she’s thirteen now and school is finally falling apart.  She can’t make the numbers be something different in math and she can’t make words match up to the wrong colors in Spanish.  After another F in math, she decides it’s time to tell her parents.

After a trip to the pediatrician and a disastrous visit with a cruel psychotherapist, Mia is sent to a neurologist to see if she has a brain tumor.  Lucky for her, the nearby neurologist is studying synesthesia and is able to tell Mia and her parents that while it isn’t a normal thing, it’s not going to kill her and it’s not something that needs to be cured.

Mia then explores her brain to see what else it can do.  She learns from others who have synesthesia and experiments with different stimuli to increase the sensations and intensify her reactions.

While she does this, it looks like she’s going to lose her best friend, have her first romance, continue to fail at school, and help a five year old boy.

I didn’t love it.

When the book started I was really into it.  You see Mia panicking and holding everyone at a distance.  She’s mourning the death of her grandfather and coming to terms with starting a new year in school.  She knows she’s not normal and wishes that she could just be liked everyone else.  It’s painful.  No one needs extra pain on top of the run of the mill teenage angst.  She has no one to talk to.

I thought that it was going to take a while for her to get caught or willingly reveal her secret, but it happens fairly quickly.   And then she takes off on a mad path to see what else she can do and how much she could control.

Here’s where things got weird for me.  On the one hand, I totally understood her celebration.  For the first time in her life she has a name for what she has… for what she IS.  She doesn’t have to hide it and she has an online connection to other people who have the same thing.  It makes sense that she’s eager to explore and share and learn.

But for some reason it fell apart for me here.  I didn’t feel like it fit her personality to shut everyone else out so completely even though she had kept them away from her secret for so long.  I wish there had been more exploration for this giant shift in personality.  I know that it makes sense, but at the same time I wish Mass had shown it more.

Mia’s friendship issues worked well.  A lot changes for girls in the eighth grade.  Boobs start appearing.  Priorities change.  Boys become interesting.  Schoolwork become challenging in different ways.  There are plenty of books that just explore these issues.  Throw synesthesia in and you’ve got an entirely new path to explore these problems with.  Along with her best friend, Mia has other girl friends to share with and push away.  For the most part, I liked these scenes.

I did feel like some of the the conflicts got too easy.  Mia has a huge falling out with her best friend.  There are a few moments where the friend explains why she’s so hurt and it makes sense.  We see their relationships before Mia tells people her secret and to have it change so drastically so quickly didn’t work for me.

Her first romance, on the other hand, did work for me.  It was awkward and unexpected and it felt very realistic.

And then, of course, her cat dies and things change.

Why do the pets always have to die?

I think this is a great book to learn about synesthesia.  I liked the characters and the story, but overall it wasn’t a huge win for me.  It did make me wonder about my own math games.  Growing up, I assigned personalities to the numbers one – ten to help myself get work done, especially when it came to multiplication.  I always figured I had an overactive imagination.  Was that a mild form of synesthesia or did I just like to make up stories?

In case you’re wondering, eight is a fucking bully.  I hated that guy.

#45: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This is a book that has been on a ton of READ THESE BOOKS OR DIE! lists since it was published last year.  I kept flipping through when I saw it in the store and added it to my TBR list, but for whatever reason, I didn’t pick it up.  Since the paperback was recently released, my book group decided it would be a good choice for October, so here we are.

There have been many reviews of The Night Circus in this and last year’s CBR. Several friends gave it five star reviews and have added it to their lists of favorites.  I liked it a lot, but don’t have the passionate love that they do.

It’s a fairly simple plot, which I like because then the details can get insane.  Two magicians have been dueling for ages, only they never go after each other directly, each choosing a student to fight for them instead.  Prospero the Enchanter is delighted that he has found a winning player when his five year old daughter is delivered to him.  Testing her skills he knows that she will be able to destroy anything Mr. A.H. can find.  The two agree to the same rules, although Mr. H. does pause and ask Prospero if he is sure he wants to bet his own daughter.  The pact is made and the game begins when Mr. A.H. plucks an orphan from obscurity and surrounds him with books to prepare him for the challenge.

Celia and Marco are doomed without knowing what has happened.

The two magicians leave much of the competition to fate.  They do not know how the game will be played, when it will start, or even what it will look like.  Years pass and the two students train constantly, even though they don’t know each other, don’t know the rules, and don’t know how the game is played.  All they know is that they will compete and one must win.

Fate chooses the game to be held as a circus.  Chandresh Christophe Lefevre is chosen by Prospero to bring Celia and Marco together.  Chandresh doesn’t know what’s happening, only that he wants to create an amazing circus, something no one has ever seen before.

Almost without realizing it, Celia and Marco begin the challenge within the circus itself.

Things get very confusing at this point, but it works because Celia and Marco don’t know what’s going on.  Marco isn’t able to travel with the circus and had to bind himself to it on opening day so he can keep track of Celia.  Celia doesn’t realize that Marco is her competition for some time, but knows that she must keep growing the circus from within.  She uses her magic to create amazement for the visitors.  They are enthralled with the tents, the food, the music, and the performers and are swept up in the fantasy.  No one ever pushes themselves to look for the wires and strings that must be holding everything together.  They simply smile and enjoy the magic, not realizing that it actually is magic.

It was obvious early on that Celia and Marco would fall in love, and of course they do, and of course this causes problems.  They still don’t know how the game ends.  If they try to quit or walk away, they can’t.  So, they keep creating magic and pushing themselves to strengthen their skills and create new levels of magic. Their respect for each other pushes them to create more and more powerful pieces and it seems that neither will win.

Eventually things are built too high and begin to crumble.  Marco realizes he made an unforgivable mistake when he bound the circus.  Chandresh and the other architects begin to push against the magic, not realizing what is happening. Celia slowly begins to understand the rules and doesn’t know what will happen to the circus performers once the competition is won.  They have become her family and she is terrified to hurt them, but knows she cannot walk away.

For me, the strongest aspect of this book was the supporting characters.  At times Celia and Marco’s story doesn’t feel like the main one, even though everything revolves around the two.  We have moments from other POVs and get to see the circus in very different way.  I wanted to know what the sacrifice was going to be and where it was going to touch.  No one was safe and I quickly sped through the last part to find out how it would end.  These characters played wonderfully against Celia and Marco because there was so much love and friendship.  Neither of them was raised with kindness, yet they responded to it and wanted to protect the others even if it meant losing the game.
I also enjoyed the pacing of the book because time felt fluid.  It was confusing at times to flip back and forth between the chapter headers to see when you were and what had already happened or hadn’t happened.  Thing slowed down a lot in the middle, but this worked for me because I felt like Celia and Marco were in a holding pattern.  They knew what they had to do, but not how to do it.  Or where.  Or when.  Or to whom.  When things started revealing themselves, the book began to pick up speed and fly to the end.

I was pleased with the ending of this book because a choice had to be made.  Neither could walk away and someone had to win.  The way they created the circus meant that it couldn’t continue forever, no matter how powerful their magic was, together or as individuals.

I wish the Night Circus was real.  Not so much the part with the cruel competition, but I want there to be a place where everyone believes in magic and  pauses for a moment to watch it happen all around them.

#39: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, Illustrated by Jim Kay, Inspired by Siobhan Dowd

How do you grieve for something that isn’t over?  If you acknowledge your fears, does that mean you’re giving permission for the end to happen?

Thirteen year old Conor has been having nightmares.  12:07 on the dot.  Wide awake, trying not to scream, wishing he  had someone to talk to.  He’s been alone since everyone found out his mom has cancer.  The kids at school figured out that the best way to deal with their own unease is to ignore him.  The bullies know he won’t fight back or tattle, so he spends his school time invisible and bloodied.  His only friend betrayed him and he can’t look at her without feeling angry, and he doesn’t want to feel anger because that reminds him of the dreams.  Reminds him of the monster.

But then a different monster appears.  Huge, reaching branches.  Roots that could crush his house in a moment.  A gaping maw that can swallow him whole.

But he doesn’t care.  He’s not even afraid.

This isn’t the real monster.  It’s not his monster.

But why is it here and why does it insist that Conor has a story to tell?

This book is beautiful, and that’s before the illustrations.  Siobhan Dowd began to create this book but died before she could start.  Patrick Ness, who never met her, was asked to complete her work.  Wisely, he realized he couldn’t tell her story in her voice.  What he could do was take her ideas in, let them grow, and tell a different story to honor her characters.  It’s not Dowd’s story, but it is her reflection.  Jim Kay finishes the tribute with black ink and textures to capture Conor’s fear and hope along with his helplessness and isolation.  It’s painful and perfect and I had to keep putting the book down to scrub away the tears that were running back into my ears and into my pillow.  The hazards of reading in bed.

There is so much to like about this book.  My favorite genre is folklore and retold tales, and Ness pulls from the Green Man legend to create a character that is made of shades of gray.  There are stories within the stories and Conor, and you, aren’t sure who the bad guy is.  What enemy are you supposed to be paying attention to?  What do you hold on to and what wishes to you make when nothing makes sense?  Maybe the new monster is actually black and white with nothing in between.

The most powerful thing about this book was the idea of grief as permission.  Conor and his mother refuse to let her cancer take them down, but things are getting worse.  She’s fighting and she’s pulled through before.  But what if…  What happens if you finish that sentence?  If you admit that bad things can happen, are you letting them in the door?  If Conor allows himself to feel fear, does that mean he’s giving up on her?  If you grieve for something that’s in process, does that mean you’re admitting that it’s over and you no longer trust your mother to live?

Did I mention I had to keep putting the book down to deal with the tears?  Have you ever gotten to that point where you’re not actively sobbing anymore but tears continue rolling down your face?  And then you think you’ve pulled yourself together so you can keep going and you take a deep breath to steady yourself and you hear your breath catch and skip and you realize you’re not done crying but you’ve got to finish this book because who is the monster and what is going to happen to Conor’s mom?

It hurt so much because the story and words were so true.  Kay’s artwork is a perfect match to the fear and overwhelming helplessness that Conor feels.  When you’re thirteen, you have moments where you already feel minuscule and when you add cancer to the mix, you might as well disappear.  Kay pulls these feelings in and his pictures capture those moments where you’ve trapped all of your emotions into a tight ball into the center of your chest, but you know at any moment it’s going to explode.  He smears blackness across the pages and it is a perfect companion to Ness’ story and Dowd’s beginning.

I highly recommend this book, but you probably don’t want to read it in public.  So much sniffling and tears.

#34: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

This is another book I absolutely raced through and felt breathless when I was done because it is that good.  I have no clue why it’s taken me so long to write this review.

It’s post 9/11 and Homeland Security is the norm.  17 year old Marcus lives in San Francisco and spends his time in the world of computers and figuring out how to outsmart the near constant surveillance of his school and city.  His real life friends and online crew bristle against the pressure being put on them on both sides of the computer, but Marcus has no clue what reality is until he’s temporarily removed from it.

While skipping school to search for the next clue for an intense online game, the Bay Bridge is blown up and Marcus and his friends are taken in for questioning.  It doesn’t matter that he knows his rights; he hasn’t been arrested, and he’s not talking to the police.  Homeland Security has him and all they want him to do is prove that he’s not guilty.  After being tortured and humiliated he finds himself willing to say or do anything they want if it means they will let him go.  At the mercy of their sadistic methods, he signs for his life and is dumped on the sidewalk, “free”.  Too bad one friend is still missing.

Terrified and angry, he can’t tell his parents what happened.  Even if he did, he’s not sure if they’d believe him.  His dad is in full Rah-Rah-America mode, celebrating the surveillance and security measures that are now in place.  Getting pulled over for questioning makes him proud to be an American and do his civic duty, and he’s angry at the thought that Marcus would dare speak out against what’s best for the country, their city, and their home.

As anger grows bigger than fear, Marcus decides to fight back.  No one can speak the truth and no one really knows what the truth is.  Using his knowledge of computers and pulling from his friends, he creates an online network that appears to be safe.  They begin frantically sharing data and stories and trying to jam Homeland’s systems.  Some of it is laughingly easy to disable and Marcus is saddened by the impotence of what was created to make people feel safe.  Was it even put in place to work or do people just want to see cameras on the streets?

Marcus knows he doesn’t have much time.  As he’s pushed closer to having to go public and needing more support, he knows he’s being watched and can be grabbed at any moment.  How much information can he get out before he disappears into a trailer again?

This book was exciting, depressing, hopeful, and wonderful.  On a happy coincidence, I’d recently read Finding George Orwell in Burma [my review is here] and then 1984 [my review is here] and this made an incredible third partner.  Doctorow read 1984 for the first time when he was twelve and in the bibliography he explains how it affected  him.  A lot of what is happening with Homeland Security is foreshadowed by Orwell and it’s terrifying to know that this is reality.  It’s easy to ignore it.  It’s easy to agree with Marcus’ dad and feel that if you’re not doing anything wrong, you don’t have anything to worry about.  Only “those people” get caught, so why is this my problem?

The parts that take place in Marcus’ school are especially suffocating and frustrating.  High school can suck without any help, but what happens when your classmates are rewarded for reporting terrorist-like conversations and your favorite teacher suddenly can’t be found after facilitating a powerful and educational debate on the Bill of Rights?  What do you do when motion detecting sensors are placed in the hallways and classes are recorded to keep kids safe?  How do you fight back when every word you chose can be used against you?  It’s a double lock of having no power as a minor and having no power as a public high school student.  It’s enough to kick the reader into an anxiety attack because all of this can happen and it is happening.  Oh, and on top of all of this?  He’s got his first girlfriend and is dizzy with hormones and bliss.

Although the paranoia can feel overwhelming, this book is hopeful and there are fantastic references at the end.  I hope it encourages readers of all ages (this is tagged as YA) to learn more about how computers are being used, and how they can use computers.

The second book, Homeland, will be published in 2013.  I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes next.

#31: Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

NPR recently published a list of the 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels as nominated by their listeners.  After arguing on FB about what makes a book YA (an ongoing discussion almost everywhere people talk about books) and screaming about the reasons why certian books were deemed not YA (A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.  A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN!!!) I happily went through the list and added a ton to my To Be Read list over on Goodreads.  I was thrilled that they listed all the books that had been nominated and added even more titles.  I then hit the inter-library loan website and filled my greedy little mitts with new books.

Enter Jasper Jones.

Our narrator is Charlie Bucktin.  It’s summer break in a small town in Australia and Charlie plans on spending his time off reading piles of books, working on his writing (his secret passion), and hanging out with his equally nerdy, best friend Jeffrey.

And all of this changes with the very first sentence of the book.

Jasper Jones is the town outcast.  He’s fourteen years old, and whenever anything goes wrong in town, you can bet that Jasper is behind it.  Your good kid stays out past curfew?  That Jasper must have put him up to it.  Some money goes missing.  Where was Jasper?  A few loaves of bread stolen?  You know it was Jasper.  The post office burns down?  Who else but Jasper?

He’s become mythical in his badness, yet Charlie is thrilled when Jasper shows up at his window in the middle of the night, begging for help.  Terrified at the thought of sneaking out, but even more scared that Jasper will think he’s a wimp, Charlie crawls out of the window and into the night.

And for the rest of his life he’ll wonder if he would have been better off had he told Jasper to go away and pulled the blankets over his head.

Jasper shows Charlie his secret and nothing can ever be the same.  Not for Charlie, not for Jasper, not for the entire town.  Something horrible has happened and if Charlie doesn’t start to keep secrets, Jasper will be blamed.

I loved the way Charlie was written.  Silvey captured the amazing mixture of a thirteen year old bookish boy.  One sentence shows him struggling with adult ideas and you can see him slowly taking the first few steps into adulthood.  The next sentence shows him still made up of boyhood and giggles.  It’s hilarious and heartbreaking.

The scenes between Charlie and Jeffrey are especially fantastic.  Charlie has to keep his secrets from Jeffrey, and it’s killing him.  He’s walking around feeling like he’s got a brick in his belly.  He is holding on to information that no one should have, let alone a thirteen year old boy.  His relationship with his mother is starting to spin into something dark and dangerous.  He’s worried about Jasper.  And then he gets into a debate with Jeffery about Superman versus Batman.  And then how queer Jeffrey is versus how queer Charlie is.  It’s pitch perfect and wonderful.  There’s a lot in this book that is fantastic, but Silvey should be especially proud of how perfectly he wrote Charlie’s inner dialogue and his conversations with Jeffrey.

Like most thirteen year olds, Charlie really is two different people.  He’s still a boy, which you see with Jeffrey, but he’s also growing  up, and you see that with Jasper and with Charlie’s mom.  He’s still able to ebb and flow between the two worlds. but you know that soon enough he’ll leave all the boyishness behind.

I really enjoyed the layers in this story.  There’s the major plot of Jasper’s crisis that changes Charlie and then there’s his changing relationship with his mother.  I wondered at times if the first caused the second.  However, Charlie’s mother is clearly going through a crisis of her own, and Charlie was going to get dragged down into it even if Jasper hadn’t shown up.  Jasper, simply by being who he is, gives Charlie the strength to question what he sees, to know when to speak up, and to know when to keep his head down.  Charlie’s dad especially helps with that last one.  Their relationship is wonderful to see and his dad tries to explain to him that some battles just aren’t worth it.

I honestly had no clue how this book was going to end.  There is some heavy foreshadowing early on, but it felt way too easy and I refused to believe it.  There are certain characters that I was sure would become important later on, but I couldn’t figure out why.  I wanted to know if Charlie would reveal his secrets to anyone, and what the fallout would be if he did.

It was frustrating and sad and wonderful.  It put me right back in the mindset of being thirteen and starting to see all the inaccuracies and injustices of the world and having no clue how to handle it.  It reminded me of the times when you’re sure you can’t go to any adult for help because even if they think they understand, it’s not going to work out the way you know it should.  You keep your head down and hang on to  your friends.  And you hope you’re doing the right thing and not destroying everything you love in the process.

 

#28: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Oh how I loved this book.  A friend often refers to her checklist of things she likes in books and when she reviews them she talks about what boxes were checked off.

This books checks off so many boxes for me.

• Reminders of my schoolgirl horse phase
• Strong female teen character that doesn’t go to pieces because she starts to like a boy AND doesn’t give up when thing get hard OR wait for someone to solve her problems
• Strong male teen character that quietly and thoughtfully takes in the world around him without giving in to what he “should be doing”
• Kids forced to take care of each other after parents die (Is that a weird thing to “like”?)
• Folklore magic
• Cape Cod-like island life with crazy stormy weather
• Realistic jerks for bad guys.

In a world of sweeping generalizations, boys go through their firefighter stage and girls go through their horse stage.  Somewhere around the third or fourth grade, I destroyed everything written by Marguerite Henry.  When I found out Chincoteague and Assateague Island were real places and there were actual ponies that you could go and see, my elementary school mind bent.  Pair this with my love of Cape Cod and the ocean and thunderstorms and it was nearly too much for my body to handle.  Ponies?  Sand dunes?  The ocean?  Are you kidding me?  Was this world built for me and me alone?

Flash forward to me at 36 years old picking up The Scorpio Races.  Not only do we have a wild horse race, we have freaking folklore horses.  The men of the island will venture into the sea to capture a deadly capaill uisce and see if they are strong enough to control it.  You can’t tame a capaill uisce but you can hope your horse sense, knowledge of faerie magic and strength is enough to build trust and prevent you from being torn apart and left to bleed to death in the sand.

Every November the capaill uisce are raced.  Sean Kendrick races for the love of his capaill uisce mount, the horse he hopes to some day own.  The same horse that killed Sean’s father in the race when Sean was a boy.  Puck Connolly is racing to try to keep her family together.  Her parents were killed by a capaill uisce years ago, and since then she and her brothers have barely held on to what little they own.  She doesn’t care about magic or tradition, but doesn’t mean to insult the history of the race.  She doesn’t have much time, and winning the race is her only option.  Sean, on the other hand, is expected to win.  Even though he’s an outsider on his own island, everyone knows he’s a master when it comes to the capaill uisce.  His only dream is to own Corr, the beautiful mount who trusts him.  When a stranger comes to the island to watch the races and learn more about the horses, both non-magic mounts and capaill uisce, Sean begins to wonder if he should be asking for more from the island.  Puck, simply by being who she is, continues to challenge him as a rider and a young man.  Everything is changing for both of them and the race is going to decide the next phase of their lives.

My two favorite parts of this book are the folklore of the capaill uisce and Puck.  Folklore is almost always going to be a win for me in any book.  And Puck?  She is a perfect mix of confidence and terror as she deals with things she shouldn’t even have to think about.  She both relies on and is infuriated by her brothers.  She misses her parents, especially her mom, while at the same time using what she learned from them to keep it together.  She doesn’t change when she meets Sean and refuses to be the kind of girl who would back down to impress someone.  She quickly realizes she’s going to have to fight to race since she’s the first female to attempt it, and although she is sometimes reduced to angry tears, she’s not the kind to give up because someone tells her she has to.

The supporting cast was just as wonderful as the two main characters.  The balance between Puck and her brothers was great to read because you can see how the death of their parents affected them individually and how they all compliment each other, even when they’re fighting.  The two villains are disgusting and easy to hate, even if you understand why they want Puck and Sean to fail.  Actually… other than money, I’m not sure what Malvern the elder’s motivation is.  Still, it’s good to hate him, especially when he shows moments of almost being human.

The suspense of the ending was perfect.  Both of them had to win in order to get what they want and need.  I kept wondering how Stiefvater was going to pull it off without making me hate her.  Would Puck win?  Would Sean?  Would they both cross the finish line at the same time?  (I would have hated her for that one.)  Would one throw the race for the other?  Would they both lose?  HOW WERE THINGS GOING TO BE RESOLVED???

I’m happy to report that the ending was wonderfully done.  It was heartbreaking and beautiful and I sniffled through the last few pages.  I was honestly happy for these characters.  It’s definitely a group that’s going to continue to live in my head and I wish they were real so I could check in with them every few years to see how they’re doing.

#20 – 23: The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld

It’s time for a YA series! 

It’s also time for a massive review to cover all four books and my response.  I read these months ago and am going to lump this all together.  There will be spoilers, although if you read the back of the books you’ll know who makes it from book to book to book.

The Uglies

All Tally Youngblood wants is to turn sixteen so she can become Pretty. 

The world as we know it is gone.  We’ve fought and blown ourselves up and wrecked the environment and Tally’s world is making up for our mistakes. 

They figured out quickly that one of the best ways to avoid problems to make everyone equal, and the best way to do that is to make sure everyone is Pretty.

It’s simple, really.  You turn sixteen and are made Pretty.  When Uglies see you, they are stunned and overwhelmed with desire to protect you, to make you laugh, to make you like them.  Not that Uglies get to see them that often.  After all, you wouldn’t want to upset a Pretty by forcing them to look at a natural, hideous face.

The science of Tally’s world is incredibly advanced.  You’re taken into a room where your entire body is changed to make you as beautiful as all the other Pretties.  If you’re too tall, your bones are ground down to the accepted Pretty height.  Scars are erased.  Well, your entire skin is erased, really.  It’s sanded down so that new, better skin can be applied.  Your eyes become bigger, your nose perfect, your lips full and soft.  Your teeth are replaced, your hair is new, your fingernails are flawless.  Everything about you is crafted so that no one will feel inadequate and therefore no one will have to fight to earn equality.  You’re even given a better immune system to help you from getting sick and to heal quickly if you’re hurt while doing fun, Pretty things.  Life is perfect.  And if a flaw is discovered later, hurry back to surgery to get fixed up.

Tally’s best friend has already turned sixteen and left her to live the Pretty life and she is bored, depressed, and nervous while waiting to join him.  What if he’s forgotten her?  What if she won’t be Pretty enough?  What if she’s still not perfect even after the surgery?

While waiting for her birthday, Tally meets Shay who is also about to turn sixteen.  Shay is wild and dangerous and she and Tally become fast friends.  Shay’s a little different from anyone else Tally has known.  She seems a bit quiet and distant at times, and she doesn’t seem too interested in becoming Pretty.  Tally shrugs it off, knowing as soon as it happens, she and Shay will be Pretty together and that will mean they are happy.

And then Shay disappears.  And then Tally, still Ugly, finds out what happens when you cross The People In Charge.  Is being Pretty the best thing to be?  Is there more?  Is it worth telling lies if you think everything will work out in the end?

Some of our main characters and places in the Uglies Series:

Tally – our conflicted protagonist.

Shay – our super angry, rebellious girl who is always looking for more and doesn’t deal well when things go wrong.

The Smoke – a whispered about area where people are living outside of Pretty control.  This is a secret world where people have fled after deciding not to become Pretty.  They have little access to the comforts of society and the government of Pretty Town is looking to bring them under control and get everyone into surgery to keep fights from happening.  Some members have lived there their entire lives, while others have joined them after escaping their cities. 

David – son of the founders of The Smoke.  He’s lived his entire life outside of the cities and is disgusted by the vapid, materialist life of the Pretties.

Maddy – David’s mom and one of the founders of The Smoke.  She knows a lot about the surgery to make people Pretty and has a special interest in Pretty brains.

Special Circumstances – a government agency in Pretty Town that is dangerous and secret.  People talk about it as a threat, but also think it might not be real.  It appears to be there to protect the Pretties and make sure things stay equal to avoid war and fighting, and it seems happy to use its power in any way to make sure things stay the way they are.

Dr. Cable – head of the Specials. She is terrifying and is able to decide Tally’s fate throughout the books.  She has a lot of power, both in Pretty Town and out.

Spoilers are coming, so if you’re interested in reading the whole pretty dystopia on your own, stop right here.

The Pretties

Things end badly at the end of The Uglies.  Tally’s mind opens when she meets David, she’s trying to figure out how to fix things with Shay, and she managed to destroy The Smoke by trying not to decide anything at all.

She’s also Pretty now.

The life she imagined for herself just a few months ago is now reality.  She and Shay are going to the best parties, enjoying the best of what Pretty Town has to offer, and enjoying their fame as criminals (Crims) for their reputation as runaways and Smoke Dwellers.

Life is perfect.

Except that Tally keeps having un-Pretty thoughts and memories and starts remembering things that don’t make sense.  Why should she still be thinking of David and The Smoke and being Ugly?  She has an amazing Pretty boyfriend named Zane and all she should be worrying about is what to wear at the next party and what new cosmetic surgery to get.

Zane starts asking questions about not being Pretty and Tally, Shay and the rest of their clique start looking for ways to have moments of clarity.  Zane and Tally especially start to realize that their minds don’t seem to work the way that they should.  Shay, once again, is left out of these discoveries and turns to a more violent method to find the clarity she craves.

Members of the New Smoke are hunting for Tally and she doesn’t know why.  Everything is confusing, and seeing David is horrifying.  She knew he was Ugly, but now that she’s Pretty, seeing him again is sickening.  She also feels confused and guilty because she’s in love with Zane but she knows she once had feelings for David.

Tally continues to bring destruction and chaos through indecision and non-action.  Her decisions again push Shay away, and when Tally is caught by Special Circumstances, it’s Shay that brings her in.  Shay is no longer just Pretty; she’s Special.  She’s a Cutter.

The Specials

Yet another surgery and a new version of Tally Youngblood.

Dr. Cable has worked with Shay to create an elite offshoot of Special Circumstances.  The Cutters have been given the best body modifications possible.  Tally has been redesigned to be a lethal hunter, and has technology to back up her flawless body.

Shay keeps Tally close as they hunt down Uglies who are working with the New Smoke to smuggle in the Pretty cure.  Dr. Cable has given the Cutters immense power to keep the city secure and make sure the Pretties are safe.

They need to find the New Smoke, and they need to destroy it.

Tally continues to exist with a muddled brain.  No matter what version she is, she is never able to fully commit.  As an Ugly, all she wanted was to be Pretty.  Then she met David, but she still wanted to be Pretty, but to take him with her.  When she became Pretty she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was supposed to be doing something else.  Now that she’s Special, she’s not sure if she can trust Shay, or even trust herself.

Things really fall apart when she finds Zane and sees how damaged he is.  He’s still Pretty, but his body is damaged and she is repulsed.  Perhaps another Special or Pretty would have ended it there and walked away without another thought, but Tally doesn’t want to lose her feelings for him.  She’s angry at herself for not being able to accept him, but everything in her Special mind and body is disgusted by his weakness.  It’s worse because he’s not some Ugly – he was Pretty and perfect and now he’s disgusting.  Like she wanted to do with Shay and David before, she figures she can fix everything by making Zane perfect again and things will go back to the way they should be.

Things move quickly in this one.  The Cutters find the New Smoke, a war starts that might become a World War if Dr. Cable has her way, Shay finds a new clarity and again turns on Tally, and Tally realizes she, once again, has started a chain of events that is ending in destruction.

The Extras

This was a nice addition.  I think Westerfield could have ended it after The Specials, although he did leave himself room to keep going.

We are now living in a new world with new characters.  The time of the Pretties has ended, and now it’s all about Science.

It’s been three years since Tally has ended the Pretty world, and she and David have gone into hiding.  They’ve left a strong message that if things start to go wrong anywhere in the world, they will be there to stop it.

Our new protagonist is fifteen year old Aya Fuse.  In her town, you gain status and money through fame.  The more people talking about you, the more power you have.  Everyone runs their own live stream video blog and works hard to get followers so they can move up on the reputation list.  Money comes from fame, and everyone wants to be number one.

Aya is desperate to earn in the reputation economy.  She becomes a “kicker” - amateur  journalists who earn fame by kicking new stories that capture everyone’s interest.  It’s a viral video economy where reputation comes and goes as quickly as new videos can be posted.  The top story this morning can be forgotten by noon and the reputation list is constantly changing, except for those way at the top.

Aya thinks she’s stumbled on the next amazing story, and when she kicks it, she knows she’ll be rushed up the face rank ladder.

She spies on a group known as the Sly Girls.  They meet in secret and seem to operate outside of rank, which Aya can’t understand.  If any of them were to broadcast their adventures, they would move up in rank, but they are determined to remain secret and are furious and distrustful when they catch Aya filming them.

Aya gets to know the members, and like Tally with the Smokies, finds herself becoming friends with them, but lies and says she won’t kick their story.  She’s torn between wanting to keep their secret and wanting to earn face rank.  She’s sick of being faceless and she knows she’s destined for more.

And then things get weird.

While out one night, Aya and the Sly Girls see strange, alien like creatures open some sort of door into the side of a mountain and start removing large cylinders.  They return later to find the room and stumble onto something huge and dangerous.

The Sly Girls disappear, giving Aya permission to kick their story, but she waits a little while to try to figure out the entire puzzle.  With help from her older brother Hiro and his friend Ren, they study the cylinders and being to piece everything together.  Horrified, they realize the alien creatures are building some sort of bomb that can be launched and will level cities easily.

Aya kicks the story, and just as she dreamed, her face rank streaks into fame.  She can suddenly afford the best place to live, which turns out to be good, because someone is coming to kill her.

Some old friends show up and Aya, Hiro, Ren and Aya’s new boyfriend Frizz are whisked away to safety.  Sort of.  Things get worse and no one knows what the truth is. 

Aya is frantic since kicking the story because she doesn’t know if she’s saved the world from war or is about to cause one.

Who are these aliens and what are they building?  And will she live long enough to enjoy her new face rank?

***
And now… my response.

First off, I love the world and language that Westerfield created for this book. The slang and Pretty Speak is a lot of fun.  The technology is also fantastic.  Everything has been created to make the Pretties and to keep them happy.  The advancements in science based around cosmetic surgery and entertainment are fascinating, especially when it’s used in conjunction with extremely powerful weaponry.

I liked the idea of using beauty as equality in dystopia.  No one has to worry about anything once they become Pretty, except for having fun.  There’s an idea that someone is in charge, but it’s vague.  The world has been created for young, beautiful people to do young, beautiful things.  There are mentions of what happens as people age and have surgery done again to ease them into an older pretty life, but none of that matters because now you’re young and Pretty and life is wonderful.

I liked the excess and wealth and vapid society of Pretty Town.  Everyone is happy and it is utopia, as long as you don’t think.  Most people would probably take the surgery and give up thought process, and I can see this appealing to a YA audience.  How much would you give up to be Pretty?

A minor problem I had with this is that the writing felt a bit fluffy at times.  I thought the plot and themes were solid and sophisticated, but the writing was sometimes too easy.  At the same time, this probably makes it more accessible for some readers.  I can take some simple sentence structure if it gets more people to read.

I was also not thrilled with the inaction that Tally and Aya often had.  Several times they couldn’t commit to a choice, so they let things keep happening to them until everything blew up, and then they felt guilty.  They tried not to hurt anyone’s feeling in the first place by not doing anything, but then everyone got mad in the end.  This felt like a total teenage girl stereotype to me and made me nuts.  I wanted them to make a decision and stick to it.  They had moments where they did, but they also felt guilty about it because even they could see it might be a shallow choice.  However, this was a big part of their personalities, so it sort of fit but I wished Tally would have grown out of it by the time her story arc ended.

This is a good series.  It’s not on the top of my Must Read YA list, but I can see the appeal for a lot of readers and the topics are interesting and thought provoking.