strange and random happenstance

The Ghosts of Nothing by Cecily Walters
Published by: Cecily Walters
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Kindle, 380 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

If your last name is Morrighan you're going to have a tough time of it in Nothing, a town typically topping "most haunted" lists. Nelly Morrighan knows this all too well. She has been bullied and ostracized her entire life because the town believes all their woes can be laid at the feet of the Morrighans. All her sixteen years have been spent holding in the pain, keeping her head down, not thinking about her missing mother and her institutionalized father. Because the one time she lashed out at her bullies a kid ended up in the hospital. Her one reprieve is school, far away from Nothing, even if she's saddled with a roommate from home. Until her strict grandmother changes her mind and Nelly ends up boarding at the local school which is run by the mother of the boy she hospitalized. But these changes are nothing compared to the bigger changes ahead when she uncovers a secret. A secret that has been kept from her her entire life and revealed by two otherworldly figures she encounters on the Morrighan Farm late one night, Jack and Fig. Who just happen to be fairies. And Nelly's a half-fairy. And unlike almost all offspring of these forbidden interspecies liaisons she has power. And for someone who has spent their entire life cowering, you know when you are given power you must wield it responsibly. Which is why Nelly's off to the land of fairies. It was her powers that hospitalized her bully, and it was Fig's powers that has done the same to Nelly's grandmother. They can put things right by travelling to the other realm. Which is dangerous for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is what Nelly is and the fact that Fig is a wanted criminal and that the government assumes that she is dead, which is what she will be if she is found back in fairy. But Nelly's eyes are opened there and she feels free for the first time ever, the food tastes different, she feels powerful, and no longer haunted by her name. Will she be able to hold onto this feeling when she returns to Nothing or will the past come back to haunt her?

As one of my friends said about The Ghosts of Nothing it's cinematic. He put into one word what I was struggling to say with way too many. This book reminds me of epic eighties fantasy movies, you know, cinematic. The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, Return to Oz, The Secret of Nimh, movies that are part of my DNA. These films showed us wonders as well as horrors. Sure, they might have traumatized an entire generation, but I wouldn't have had my childhood any other way. Because these films made me believe in magic. The Ghosts of Nothing connected me to memories I had long since forgotten. Growing up I had a huge sugar maple in my front yard and I would spend hours under it and near it, carefully prying open the propellers while watching a very specific section of sky which, thanks to the eighties Serendipity books series, I was convinced was the only place where a pegasus could come through to our world. I saw a unicorn at the circus, so surely a pegasus would visit me! I mean, I now know that that wasn't a unicorn I saw, but there was still the magic of nature under that maple. And reading about the maple keys, the distinct turn of phrase the inhabitants of Nothing use for maple propellers, brought all these memories flooding back. It also made me wonder how the inhabitants of this town use such a fairy turn of phrase. I'm wondering if there's a lot more cross-pollination between the worlds that we will learn about in the coming books. And that again feeds into the fairy tale origins of it all. The way stories are passed down through the generations and are used to teach us lessons and morals. And the thing is, these lessons can be terrifying, and those morals, they might just mean you life. This book doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of life. The politics in particular in the fairy realm will feel eerily prescient to anyone following today's news. Which is what fairy tales are all about, telling us a story but reflecting the world around us. Dark and light. I can't wait to see how Nelly embraces her powers, but I think the real lesson she needs to take to heart is to not be too hard on herself. The world is dark and full of monsters, be the light even if other people can't see it.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 80s, Cecily Walters, Fairies, Fairy Tales, For the Love of Book Clubs, Labyrinth, Maple Keys, Nelly Morrighan, Return to Oz, Serendipity, The Ghosts of Nothing, The Neverending Story, The Secret of Nimh

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark by Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Golden, and Troy Nixey
Published by: Hyperion Books for Children
Publication Date: July 19th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Blackwood Manor has a dark past. Something happened to Emerson Blackwood one night in the basement. Someone died at the hands of Emerson Blackwood that night when he snapped. But that isn't where this story starts, that is where this story ends. It starts with an eager young Emerson Blackwood and a colleague showing him an unusual skeleton. Emerson is a young naturalist and what he sees upends his knowledge of what he knows about the natural world. Because he was shown the skeletal remains of a Tooth Fairy. He buys the remains and goes public with the discovery, only to be laughed at and then shunned. His colleagues think he has gone insane. But he hasn't. At least not yet. Emerson is undeterred by the disapprobrium as he writes of his continuing discoveries in his journal. He takes it upon himself not just to travel the world looking for a deeper understanding of Tooth Fairies, but also to create a guide to all dangerous fairies that the unsuspecting populace doesn't know about. He takes to travelling with an old man and his daughter who have also spent years researching the unseelie world. Though Emerson's tunnel vision for Tooth Fairies puts all their lives at risk. He has come to unearth evidence that they are prolific across the entire world. Fairy tales often vary from region to region, but not the stories of the Tooth Fairies, otherwise known as Bloody Gums, Gnaw Bones, and Bone Crunchers. They are unique. They are organized. And they are dangerous. Soon the old man dies and Emerson marries his daughter and they have a child. Tooth Fairies love nothing more than the teeth of children. And Emerson made a miscalculation in Italy. They are on to him. He flees to America and holes up in his house. But they are coming and they want revenge.

This is an odd little volume. It's half narrative and half field guide and in my mind only one of those works. Hint, it's not the guide. I've read enough guides in my time to know a good one, and there needs to be more depth, more worldbuilding, more thought for it to work. I should probably have prefaced that with, and I haven't actually watched the movie this is a tie-in for so maybe there is more worldbuilding there, but I really couldn't be bothered after reading the book and the book should be able to stand on it's own. I love Christopher Golden and it is patently clear that he wrote the part of the book I love, Emerson Blackwood's journey of discovery. Emerson is an interesting character in that he seems perfectly normal and reasonable at the beginning, but one taste of the supernatural and he starts a descent into obsession and madness. That madness deals with Tooth Fairies. It is a truth universally acknowledged that we humans are prone to nightmares about our teeth. I don't know why it is, but I've always had them. I can even remember having them way back in kindergarten. Usually they crumble and then choke me and I'm spitting them out. It's horrible. For years and years I thought I was alone, but then one day I was talking to my friend Grant and he was doing a piece about teeth and I commented on it by telling him about my teeth nightmares, his were almost exactly the same. So I started asking more and more people. I don't know what percentage of the population has these dreams, because another friend who was in on this conversation was like, I've never had that dream, but when you google it it says it's "a very common dream." Though some of the analysis online is absurd. No, I don't have a fear of public speaking, I have a fear of my freakin' teeth falling out! This book taps into that fear. I don't know why I never had a fear of the Tooth Fairy even though I had a fear of my teeth falling out. Probably because no one was referring to them as Bloody Gums, Gnaw Bones, or Bone Crunchers. So, yeah, my teeth nightmares have been expanded exponentially.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Blackwood's Guide to Dangerous Fairies, Christopher Golden, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Emerson Blackwood, Fairies, Fairy Guide, Going Gothic, Guillermo del Toro, Nightmares, Teeth, Tooth Fairies, Troy Nixey

Burn Bright by Patricia Briggs
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: March 6th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★ 
To Buy

Bran is MIA after helping rescue Mercy in Europe. This leaves his son Charles in charge of the Aspen Creek Pack. Instead of Anna and him being on the outer fringes of the pack and living in their home that is more a haven than anything else they are ensconced in Bran's house, Pack HQ, and Bran's wife Leah isn't taking too well to having house guests. She's used to having the pack in and out of her house at all hours, but not her step-son and daughter-in-law underfoot. It's almost a relief when a crisis arises. The hills behind their small Montana town are filled with wolves that are under Bran's protection but can not live amongst the pack. A danger to themselves and others, they live off the radar. These wildings are often left to their own devices but can call on the pack in times of crisis. One such crisis has arisen. Men have shown up in the woods. Well armed and prepared men. They have abducted Hester, a member of the pack, and her Fae mate Jonesy has called for help. Due to the remoteness of their location it's a miracle that Anna and Charles arrive before Hester is gone. The ensuing fight leaves many dead but even more questions that need answering. These militant attackers came into the Marrok's territory and attempted to take a pack member under his protection when they knew Bran was gone. They were too well prepared and well informed, indicating an enemy that is well funded and a possible mole within the pack. Yet there is a surprise in store. One of the attackers is known to Anna. He was there when she was abused in her old pack. Charles would kill him if the man wasn't already dead. Hopefully there will be no more death. With that goal in mind the strongest wolves set out to visit the wildings and when Anna meets the werewolf artist Wellesley and connects with him everything starts to make sense. The puzzle pieces are falling into place. But will they be able to accept what is revealed?

An ongoing perk of being a blogger is access to NetGalley where you can request digital advance reader copies of books. Yet NetGalley is a double edged sword, not just because you might end up requesting so many books there's no chance you'll ever finish them, of which I am guilty, but because sometimes instead of allowing you to request a book, in it's place, taunting you, is the "I Wish" button. Of course sometimes they do grant wishes, they tell you right there as you're desperately clicking the button hoping it will transform into a request one. Of all the authors I've read through NetGalley over the years I have never gotten such a thrill at seeing a book listed as with Patricia Briggs. Those gorgeous covers by Dan dos Santos though are always followed by nothing more than a wish. Yet in these instances my wishes have all been granted, thankfully without some nefarious deal with a fairy on the back end; just a request for my honest opinion, and my honest opinion is that I love Patricia Briggs and all her books set in the world of Mercy Thompson. Yet it's hard to review these books if just for the simple reason that after fifteen installments it's hard to find something new to say... except this time there is something new to say, and that's my realization that I love the Alpha and Omega series more. As long as there aren't any more horses. Yes, I entered this world through Mercy's adventures, but I relate more to Charles and Anna. At first I was wondering if it's because with only five books under their belt they had less baggage, but as seen here this series carries Mercy's baggage as well as it's own. Therefore I thought, perhaps it's the more focused narrative with less characters, but here we dealt with a pack bigger than the Columbia Basin Pack. In the end it comes down to the fact I relate more to Charles and Anna. They are more introspective, more removed. They are a part of their pack yet cherish their alone time, and that's something I can relate to.

As for the Aspen Creek Pack, they really take center stage in Burn Bright. Aside from their first adventure, Charles and Anna have been traipsing all over the continental United States and rarely have time to take in the Montana air. This time isn't downtime either, with Charles's farther Bran MIA after helping rescue Mercy in her previous adventure, but Charles being placed in charge of the pack means he's stuck on his home turf. Therefore, for what I feel is the first time, we're really getting a firsthand look at the pack. It's not filtered through Mercy's memories or passed down gossip that eventually gets to Charles and Anna, it's on the ground and immediate. We get to not only see the pack, but see what they are like without Bran present, who is such a dominate force he can overpower any plot line. And while each and every revelation of how the pack structure works was interesting to me, what I was most drawn to was the insight into Leah. Leah is Bran's mate, a mate who no one likes. Sometimes it seems that Bran doesn't much care for her either. In each and every one of her appearances, be it Mercy's stories or Charles's, she comes across as a really self-centered and bitchy stepmother. I won't say wicked, because she's never done anything altogether malicious, but she's always appeared to be cut from the same cloth. Burn Bright started out in this same vein and yet, while Leah never changed we readers finally got insight into how she became the way she is and the benefits of that. It's often the case that being able to put yourself in someone else's shoes lets you empathize with them and so it is here. We got to the bottom of her rage and came out seeing her with new eyes. She has even earned the respect of Charles, and that's saying something.

We also learned about "secret" pack members. Enter the wildings! Oh, how I love that Patricia Briggs has taken a word that is so heavily associated with Game of Thrones and George R. R. Martin and made it her own. The wildings, instead of being people just living behind a really big wall are werewolves, occasionally with their mates, who can no longer live in a pack setting. They are either too damaged or too dangerous, or a combination of both, to be allowed entrance to the town of Aspen Creek. Some of them occasionally can join the pack hunts, but most of the time they are secreted away on their own large parcels of land under Bran's supervision. Why this resonated with me so strongly is that I've felt for awhile that the black and white nature of who deserves to live and who deserves to die due to their behavior in this fictional universe was needing some grey. Having Charles as executioner to Bran's judgment was harsh. Bran seemed to make Aspen Creek a haven for the damaged, but only up to a point. Yet now we find out that he's actually been hiding his people out in the woods to protect them instead of giving them a fatal punishment. It makes Bran more human to me. He's no longer this untouchable, this unknowable force, he has a heart, and not just for Mercy. This is also seen in the expanding of Leah's past. The superhumans are coming down to our level and that just makes this a more relevant series. Briggs has always explored the all too human side of suffering with her series, and this is another great entry into seeing ourselves more clearly through something that is "other."

All the wildings could be considered crazy, to an extent. It's almost as if Briggs is creating her own spectrum, from unable to take human form to will kill you rather than look at you, we see a wide range of problems. Yet all this boils down to the notion of what makes us crazy and who cares for crazy. I was drawn to the first problem, what makes us crazy. Due to things that have been happening in my own life I felt the importance, the weight of this question. Is it environmental factors? A genetic disposition? An outside factor like drugs? Or, as we are in a supernatural world here, magic? With each different wilding we see a different presentation of madness, and yet, Anna shows that by approaching the situation with compassion these issues can be dealt with. With how Anna carefully deals with Wellesley we see what it is to be an Omega. She is the carer. She has had so much pain inflicted on herself that she knows what others who are injured need. So much of the book ties back into Anna's past traumas, in other words perhaps a re-read of her introductory short story from On the Prowl is needed, that we see there is no instant cure. Anna is still recovering. Her marriage and mystical connection to Charles didn't automatically heal all wounds. In fact, through dealing with her problems and then helping the Wildings, Anna is finding her place in the pack. Your damage, your illness, your problems, whatever they may be, they don't make up who you are, they inform who you become, and Anna is becoming an amazing heroine. My heroine.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alpha and Omega, Anna, Bran, Burn Bright, Charles Cornick, Fairies, Game of Thrones, GRRM, Leah, Marrok, Mental Illness, Mercy Thompson, Netgalley, Pack, Patricia Briggs, PTSD, Werewolves, Wildings, Witches

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf
Publication Date: October 19th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Malcolm Polstead is pretty content with his life. With his faithful daemon Asta at his side he helps his parents run their establishment, the Trout Inn, located in Godstow. The best part about the Trout is all the academics that frequent the pub due to it's proximity to Oxford. Malcolm is a bright lad and his school leaves something to be desired but he's able to fill in the gaps in his education through the conversations that swirl through the pub. He also benefits greatly from the Abbey located directly across the Thames. The nuns look on Malcolm as one of their greatest friends, whether he's helping Sister Fenella in the kitchen or Mr. Taphouse in the shed. All his free time is spent in his little canoe, La Belle Sauvage, traveling on the Thames. It's a life of little worries, with the dishwasher Alice Parslow being the only throne in his side. Though little does Malcolm know that everything is about to change when three distinguished gentlemen arrive at the Trout one night and question him about the Abbey. Soon there are rumors swirling that the nuns are caring for a baby of great importance. Malcolm quickly learns the truth, they are indeed protecting a young baby girl, Lyra Belacqua, and it's a matter of an instant for him to realize that he will protect her with his own life if it came to that. Being at Lyra's side means Malcolm has unwittingly become a focal point for various organizations and their needs, both nefarious and otherwise. The one he chooses to ally himself with, due to a horrific incident he witnessed, is called Oakley Street and his contact is Hannah Relf, a member of the research group studying the alethiometer. Malcolm's a valuable asset and his information, particularly concerning a disturbed man with a three legged hyena daemon, are very important. Yet soon a cataclysmic event will prove Malcolm's love for Lyra and his true worth to Oakley Street, if only he can outrun the laughs of that hyena.

La Belle Sauvage is a rare book in that not only did it meet my expectations it exceeded them. Reading this book has actually made me more excited for the rest of the series not less. I literally don't know how I'm going to handle the wait until The Secret Commonwealth which is hopefully coming out next year, not next week like I wish it was. Yes, it's not perfect, the cataclysmic and biblical flood goes on too long, the ending is abrupt with a lot of new concepts introduced but not yet fully explored, but these are pacing issues similar to His Dark Materials in that Pullman views the three volumes of each series as just one of three sections of a single book. In simple parlance, a book in three parts. A book in three parts that have their endings randomly decided by the length and by the arc of each section. Yet almost all problems that I have can be glossed over by the wonder that is Malcolm Polstead. There are many characters in the world I love, but there are few that I feel an instant connection with and have every fiber in my being devoted to protecting them. One such character in recent years was Neville Longbottom. Neville is just so vulnerable and sweet and had such a tragic backstory that if anything had happened to him I would have rioted. Malcolm is similar but in an entirely different way. He's gregarious and competent and smart and just loves the world and I want to shelter him from the harsh realities that are to come, much like Hannah Relf with regard to Oakley Street, but at the same time I know he can take the world on. If I had a kid I would love for him to be like Malcolm, he's just the sweetest most wonderful kid ever. I see him as a miniature Nick Frost, all 4' 6" of him just sauntering into the pub and going up to the elderly patrons and slipping into their conversations like he'd been doing it for fifty years and he knows all about what it's like to have lumbago. There's so much I want and hope for him, but even if it all comes to nought he'd run the best pub in the world if that's what he fell back on.

Malcolm's goodness and humanity is balanced by a rather odious organization that forms at his school. Through the Consistorial Court of Discipline, an arm of the church, a league is formed, The League of St. Alexander. This league's job in all schools is to inform on people in honor of St. Alexander who turned in his own parents for worshiping false idols. Teachers, parents, friends, neighbors, anyone is in danger from this group if these children decide they aren't loyal to the church. The children who join quickly become the power structure in Malcolm's school with the headmaster being ousted for trying to dismiss the league. Many teachers soon vanish as they are supposedly being "reeducated" in the ways of the church. Every lesson must start with a prayer, or else that teacher faces removal. Malcolm's school becomes a haven for fear and hate and while I'm sure Pullman had been planning this book for years and taking things from the historical context of the church one can't help feel that it's oddly prescient. They are like little Hitler Youths where the zealotry brings out the worst in everyone. Living in a country where hate, fear, racism, bigotry, and sexism, are all alive and well and spouted by those in charge, to have a league indoctrinating this in those who will one day lead? It makes me shudder. Really, think how terrifying this is, children can be vicious and merciless and they can make an accusation against anyone and have adults believe them and applaud them. Their bad behaviour is being rewarded! The scores they can settle all because they have righteousness on their side? The fear and hate they can spew because they have a little enamel badge on their lapels!?! I want to hope that this isn't the future we're building here, but more and more it looks like it is.

Though these terrifying thoughts, though they need to be processed and dwelt on, just added another level to the book while not taking away my enjoyment. What truly gripped my attention was all the spycraft. THIS is what I expected Tinker, Tailer, Solider, Spy to be! La Belle Sauvage is like Oxford academia meets Bletchley Park and I loved every single second of it. And, in fact, so many academicians were involved in the world wars and the cold war that this makes total sense. Yet while things like Oakley Street passing messages in acorns made me wildly giddy, the true success of the spycraft here is that we focus on two characters that are new to the game. There's the higher ups, the lords and ladies, but it's the lowly reader of the alethiometer Hannah Relf and her naivete and her relationship with Malcolm as a sort of den mother that make me just love this story. Firstly there's just cute little things like Hannah hating crosswords, which figured prominently in the placing of code-breakers at Bletchley Park and were favorites of the famous Oxford resident, Inspector Morse. Or the books Malcolm borrows from Hannah, and for some reason here Agatha Christie being in all universes makes sense whereas I've had issues with things from our world being in Lyra's world previously. Perhaps because it felt more grounded in the world of Oxford than the land of the dead... But the book once again goes to the bigger issues: how do you know you're on the right side? Hannah has been working for years for Oakley Street without really questioning who they were or why she was doing it, only that she trusted the man who approached her. When she brings Malcolm in it's then she starts to go, "hang on a minute, am I working for the good guys?" In this world basically anyone working against the church is good because the church wants to propagate ignorance and indoctrination, so Hannah is on the right side. But just the fact that she questions them, much like Malcolm questioned The League of St. Alexander shows that they are on the side of knowledge. They do not blindly follow.

With having such weighty issues as false faith, hate culture, and subversion, I find it odd that once again Pullman sidesteps some fairly important sexual issues. Again, I don't know if this is because of his audience or what, but I feel like obliquely talking about it is doing more harm than good. The disturbed man with the three legged hyena daemon, Bonneville, believes he is Lyra's father. He had also just finished serving time for a sexual offense in which Mrs. Coulter was the witness for the prosecution. The only way that he could believe he's Lyra's father, despite Malcolm's insistence on Bonneville being deluded, is if Bonneville had been intimate with Mrs. Coulter. Either they were in a consensual relationship, much like Bonneville and one of the younger nuns, and Mrs. Coulter decided to punish him for some reason and get him sent off to jail which I wouldn't put past her, or, and this is my belief, he raped Mrs. Coulter and assumed the pregnancy was from the rape and not from Lord Asriel's relationship with her. Whatever way this actually played out I think skirting the issue does damage to the story in not explicitly saying that rape is bad. This could have been, and how I hate myself for using this phrase, a teaching movement. Rape is bad. Period. Later in the book when Alice and Malcolm are attacked by Bonneville at the mausoleum it is hinted at by the blood on her legs that Alice is Bonneville's latest victim. But again, it's not spelled out. There seems to be this barrier that Pullman has set up that IF he were to state these things baldly then childhood innocence would be lost. But hinting at it is far worse. State it. Remember it. Then let the story continue with this knowledge firmly in place. But then again, Pullman casually drops using Malcolm as bait for a pedophile for the benefit of Oakley Street and the only one who objects to that is Hannah. So maybe there's some issues that Pullman needs to address in himself with regards to what is and isn't acceptable even in a fictional universe.

As I previously stated there was a lot thrown at us readers in the last chapters of the book, lots of supernatural fairy tale aspects with otherworldly beings that are not in the least handled. Of course, seeing as the gyptians refer to these phenomena as "The Secret Commonwealth" and that's the title of the second book I'm not too concerned about getting my answers eventually... but there is ONE thing that I wondered throughout La Belle Sauvage and have been wondering ever since I first read The Golden Compass and hope that the answer is near at hand. Lord Asriel has some "otherworldly gifts" as his manservant told Lyra on Svalbard. Whatever he needs, be it beautiful glass windows or a child to sacrifice, he sets his mind on it and it appears. Now Malcolm has a strange phenomenon happen to him, an aura in his eye, which he mentions to Hannah. Of course, he adorably mishears it and calls it his aurora. But the first time it happens is the night he meets Lord Asriel and helps him to see Lyra at the Abbey and then gives him his canoe. Later it happens again when he looks at the card Lord Asriel left for Malcolm in the canoe and it sways Malcolm to take Lyra to her father than just back to the nuns. Again it happens when Alice and him have lost Lyra and they see the place she is being kept high on a hill. Could Asriel be guiding Malcolm to help him protect Lyra and reunite them and this aurora is the signal? We've never seen what Asriel's will looks like from the one it's being acted on. Could it be a simple corona of light in the eye? Could it have origins with the fairies? Or could this be a gift of Lyra's... it is seen that she is a bit of a fairy child. Well, only time and Philip Pullman's next book can answers these questions. So I will stew on them until the next book. And no, I'm not going to stew patiently.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Different Kind of P and P, Dust, Fairies, Hannah Relf, Hitler, La Belle Sauvage, Lyra Belacqua, Malcolm Polstead, Neville Longbottom, Oxford, Philip Pullman, Rape, The Book of Dust, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf
Publication Date: October 19th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Malcolm Polstead is pretty content with his life. With his faithful daemon Asta at his side he helps his parents run their establishment, the Trout Inn, located in Godstow. The best part about the Trout is all the academics that frequent the pub due to it's proximity to Oxford. Malcolm is a bright lad and his school leaves something to be desired but he's able to fill in the gaps in his education through the conversations that swirl through the pub. He also benefits greatly from the Abbey located directly across the Thames. The nuns look on Malcolm as one of their greatest friends, whether he's helping Sister Fenella in the kitchen or Mr. Taphouse in the shed. All his free time is spent in his little canoe, La Belle Sauvage, traveling on the Thames. It's a life of little worries, with the dishwasher Alice Parslow being the only throne in his side. Though little does Malcolm know that everything is about to change when three distinguished gentlemen arrive at the Trout one night and question him about the Abbey. Soon there are rumors swirling that the nuns are caring for a baby of great importance. Malcolm quickly learns the truth, they are indeed protecting a young baby girl, Lyra Belacqua, and it's a matter of an instant for him to realize that he will protect her with his own life if it came to that. Being at Lyra's side means Malcolm has unwittingly become a focal point for various organizations and their needs, both nefarious and otherwise. The one he chooses to ally himself with, due to a horrific incident he witnessed, is called Oakley Street and his contact is Hannah Relf, a member of the research group studying the alethiometer. Malcolm's a valuable asset and his information, particularly concerning a disturbed man with a three legged hyena daemon, are very important. Yet soon a cataclysmic event will prove Malcolm's love for Lyra and his true worth to Oakley Street, if only he can outrun the laughs of that hyena.

La Belle Sauvage is a rare book in that not only did it meet my expectations it exceeded them. Reading this book has actually made me more excited for the rest of the series not less. I literally don't know how I'm going to handle the wait until The Secret Commonwealth which is hopefully coming out next year, not next week like I wish it was. Yes, it's not perfect, the cataclysmic and biblical flood goes on too long, the ending is abrupt with a lot of new concepts introduced but not yet fully explored, but these are pacing issues similar to His Dark Materials in that Pullman views the three volumes of each series as just one of three sections of a single book. In simple parlance, a book in three parts. A book in three parts that have their endings randomly decided by the length and by the arc of each section. Yet almost all problems that I have can be glossed over by the wonder that is Malcolm Polstead. There are many characters in the world I love, but there are few that I feel an instant connection with and have every fiber in my being devoted to protecting them. One such character in recent years was Neville Longbottom. Neville is just so vulnerable and sweet and had such a tragic backstory that if anything had happened to him I would have rioted. Malcolm is similar but in an entirely different way. He's gregarious and competent and smart and just loves the world and I want to shelter him from the harsh realities that are to come, much like Hannah Relf with regard to Oakley Street, but at the same time I know he can take the world on. If I had a kid I would love for him to be like Malcolm, he's just the sweetest most wonderful kid ever. I see him as a miniature Nick Frost, all 4' 6" of him just sauntering into the pub and going up to the elderly patrons and slipping into their conversations like he'd been doing it for fifty years and he knows all about what it's like to have lumbago. There's so much I want and hope for him, but even if it all comes to nought he'd run the best pub in the world if that's what he fell back on.

Malcolm's goodness and humanity is balanced by a rather odious organization that forms at his school. Through the Consistorial Court of Discipline, an arm of the church, a league is formed, The League of St. Alexander. This league's job in all schools is to inform on people in honor of St. Alexander who turned in his own parents for worshiping false idols. Teachers, parents, friends, neighbors, anyone is in danger from this group if these children decide they aren't loyal to the church. The children who join quickly become the power structure in Malcolm's school with the headmaster being ousted for trying to dismiss the league. Many teachers soon vanish as they are supposedly being "reeducated" in the ways of the church. Every lesson must start with a prayer, or else that teacher faces removal. Malcolm's school becomes a haven for fear and hate and while I'm sure Pullman had been planning this book for years and taking things from the historical context of the church one can't help feel that it's oddly prescient. They are like little Hitler Youths where the zealotry brings out the worst in everyone. Living in a country where hate, fear, racism, bigotry, and sexism, are all alive and well and spouted by those in charge, to have a league indoctrinating this in those who will one day lead? It makes me shudder. Really, think how terrifying this is, children can be vicious and merciless and they can make an accusation against anyone and have adults believe them and applaud them. Their bad behaviour is being rewarded! The scores they can settle all because they have righteousness on their side? The fear and hate they can spew because they have a little enamel badge on their lapels!?! I want to hope that this isn't the future we're building here, but more and more it looks like it is.

Though these terrifying thoughts, though they need to be processed and dwelt on, just added another level to the book while not taking away my enjoyment. What truly gripped my attention was all the spycraft. THIS is what I expected Tinker, Tailer, Solider, Spy to be! La Belle Sauvage is like Oxford academia meets Bletchley Park and I loved every single second of it. And, in fact, so many academicians were involved in the world wars and the cold war that this makes total sense. Yet while things like Oakley Street passing messages in acorns made me wildly giddy, the true success of the spycraft here is that we focus on two characters that are new to the game. There's the higher ups, the lords and ladies, but it's the lowly reader of the alethiometer Hannah Relf and her naivete and her relationship with Malcolm as a sort of den mother that make me just love this story. Firstly there's just cute little things like Hannah hating crosswords, which figured prominently in the placing of code-breakers at Bletchley Park and were favorites of the famous Oxford resident, Inspector Morse. Or the books Malcolm borrows from Hannah, and for some reason here Agatha Christie being in all universes makes sense whereas I've had issues with things from our world being in Lyra's world previously. Perhaps because it felt more grounded in the world of Oxford than the land of the dead... But the book once again goes to the bigger issues: how do you know you're on the right side? Hannah has been working for years for Oakley Street without really questioning who they were or why she was doing it, only that she trusted the man who approached her. When she brings Malcolm in it's then she starts to go, "hang on a minute, am I working for the good guys?" In this world basically anyone working against the church is good because the church wants to propagate ignorance and indoctrination, so Hannah is on the right side. But just the fact that she questions them, much like Malcolm questioned The League of St. Alexander shows that they are on the side of knowledge. They do not blindly follow.

With having such weighty issues as false faith, hate culture, and subversion, I find it odd that once again Pullman sidesteps some fairly important sexual issues. Again, I don't know if this is because of his audience or what, but I feel like obliquely talking about it is doing more harm than good. The disturbed man with the three legged hyena daemon, Bonneville, believes he is Lyra's father. He had also just finished serving time for a sexual offense in which Mrs. Coulter was the witness for the prosecution. The only way that he could believe he's Lyra's father, despite Malcolm's insistence on Bonneville being deluded, is if Bonneville had been intimate with Mrs. Coulter. Either they were in a consensual relationship, much like Bonneville and one of the younger nuns, and Mrs. Coulter decided to punish him for some reason and get him sent off to jail which I wouldn't put past her, or, and this is my belief, he raped Mrs. Coulter and assumed the pregnancy was from the rape and not from Lord Asriel's relationship with her. Whatever way this actually played out I think skirting the issue does damage to the story in not explicitly saying that rape is bad. This could have been, and how I hate myself for using this phrase, a teaching movement. Rape is bad. Period. Later in the book when Alice and Malcolm are attacked by Bonneville at the mausoleum it is hinted at by the blood on her legs that Alice is Bonneville's latest victim. But again, it's not spelled out. There seems to be this barrier that Pullman has set up that IF he were to state these things baldly then childhood innocence would be lost. But hinting at it is far worse. State it. Remember it. Then let the story continue with this knowledge firmly in place. But then again, Pullman casually drops using Malcolm as bait for a pedophile for the benefit of Oakley Street and the only one who objects to that is Hannah. So maybe there's some issues that Pullman needs to address in himself with regards to what is and isn't acceptable even in a fictional universe.

As I previously stated there was a lot thrown at us readers in the last chapters of the book, lots of supernatural fairy tale aspects with otherworldly beings that are not in the least handled. Of course, seeing as the gyptians refer to these phenomena as "The Secret Commonwealth" and that's the title of the second book I'm not too concerned about getting my answers eventually... but there is ONE thing that I wondered throughout La Belle Sauvage and have been wondering ever since I first read The Golden Compass and hope that the answer is near at hand. Lord Asriel has some "otherworldly gifts" as his manservant told Lyra on Svalbard. Whatever he needs, be it beautiful glass windows or a child to sacrifice, he sets his mind on it and it appears. Now Malcolm has a strange phenomenon happen to him, an aura in his eye, which he mentions to Hannah. Of course, he adorably mishears it and calls it his aurora. But the first time it happens is the night he meets Lord Asriel and helps him to see Lyra at the Abbey and then gives him his canoe. Later it happens again when he looks at the card Lord Asriel left for Malcolm in the canoe and it sways Malcolm to take Lyra to her father than just back to the nuns. Again it happens when Alice and him have lost Lyra and they see the place she is being kept high on a hill. Could Asriel be guiding Malcolm to help him protect Lyra and reunite them and this aurora is the signal? We've never seen what Asriel's will looks like from the one it's being acted on. Could it be a simple corona of light in the eye? Could it have origins with the fairies? Or could this be a gift of Lyra's... it is seen that she is a bit of a fairy child. Well, only time and Philip Pullman's next book can answers these questions. So I will stew on them until the next book. And no, I'm not going to stew patiently.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Different Kind of P and P, Dust, Fairies, Hannah Relf, Hitler, La Belle Sauvage, Lyra Belacqua, Malcolm Polstead, Neville Longbottom, Oxford, Philip Pullman, Rape, The Book of Dust, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

The Dark Water by David Pirie
Published by: Pegasus Books
Publication Date: May 1st, 2003
Format: Hardcover, 354 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Arthur Conan Doyle's nemesis has returned to England. He and Dr. Bell have made it their life's work to capture this man, Dr. Neill Cream, and see him pay for his crimes, not the least of which is murdering Elspeth, Conan Doyle's fiance. Yet Conan Doyle didn't expect Cream to strike first, kidnapping the would-be author and holding him hostage while heavily drugged. But Conan Doyle miraculously escapes, and thanks to some help in the unlikeliest of places, he reunites with Dr. Bell in Edinburgh. They retrace Cream's steps through England, where he is using the name Dr. Mere, and realize that this murderous man is in desperate need of funds. Dr. Bell starts going over everything that Conan Doyle remembers of his incarceration and Cream's mention of the sea seems to coincide with a suspicious disappearance of a wealthy man in the town of Dunwich. Sir Thomas Jefford had just inherited a house in Dunwich, The Glebe, when he disappeared. His friends thought it was a joke, but locals believe it is tied up in the legend of the Witch of Dunwich Heath, which Jefford was planning on writing about. Conan Doyle and Bell set out for this remote village on the Eastern Coast and slowly start to piece together what has happened. But soon there are not just dealing with a disappearance, but deaths. Murder! Can they separate facts from fiction and catch Cream before he has a chance to escape their grasp once more?

Recently I was having a conversation with one of my friends about people who rate books on Goodreads when they haven't finished them. We were in total accord that it's unfair to the book and the author. To give a star rating that is factored into the overall rating for something you couldn't be bothered to finish skews the results. You either finish the book and rate it or abandon it, there is no middle ground. This then morphed into a discussion on when do you give up on a book. Do you give it fifty pages, a hundred pages, what? When do you know in your gut that enough is enough? When do you know that you can't make it to the end and have the satisfaction of adding your two cents on Goodreads? I'm a masochist, because I can really count on one hand the number of books I have actually given up on. I'm in it for the long haul, no matter what. Rage reading, incentives, whatever it takes, I WILL finish that book. The reason I bring this up now, other than the wacky serendipity that made these two events happen within days of each other, is that if I was the type of person to actually give up on books, well, The Dark Water would have been abandoned early. Yet you will notice that in the end I really liked it. I mean, I REALLY liked it. So how long did it take for me to get into it? 123 pages. This just proves that there is no magical page number at which you should abandon hope. A book with a disjointed and awkward start can click from one page to the next and become a true page-turner. Plus, it's always nice to have your patience rewarded, it's awkward when the book goes the other way, ie, to the dogs.

The Dark Water is actually the third book in David Pirie's series about Dr. Joseph Bell and Arthur Conan Doyle. While I didn't actually know this when I bought the book, before reading it I looked up the summaries to the first two books, The Patient's Eyes and The Night Calls, and realized that they sounded very familiar. See, this series actually didn't start out as books, but as a television show, Murder Rooms, therefore doing the opposite of most adaptations out there. 'The Patient's Eyes' was the first episode after the pilot, while the pilot became The Night Calls. While I think 'The Patient's Eyes' is one of the strongest episodes, the pilot isn't of the highest quality, so I figured I'd be safe just skipping to the new story. Because that is what I was really excited about. I was sad when Murder Rooms was cancelled and here, with this book, it felt like the axe hadn't fallen. Yet upon starting The Dark Water there were all these mentions to things I hadn't heard about, little stories that didn't line up with the show. References or asides I just didn't get. This could in fact be one of the reasons it took me 123 pages to get into the book. It was just a weird experience, like hearing a story you've heard a hundred times but with key points changed for no perceptible reason. I almost felt as if the books took place in a parallel dimension to the television series. You knew enough about the world to get around but it was just that little bit off to be disconcerting. Therefore, given the chance to do this over, I would read the first two books first, because maybe it would make those first 123 pages interesting.

But then again... I think not. The reason those first 123 pages don't work is because of Cream. Dr. Thomas Neill Cream is an historically interesting person; a Scottish-Canadian serial killer known as the Lambeth Poisoner who tried to claim the victims of Jack the Ripper as his own. So we have historical precedence of his evil deeds and ways. But, despite this book being fiction, the sheer unlikelihood of his ever crossing paths with Conan Doyle, nine years his junior, let alone becoming his arch-nemesis just strains credulity. Add to that the whole lovelorn Conan Doyle who lost his first love at the hands of Cream and we're in absurd penny dreadful territory. While there's a disconnect between the fictional Conan Doyle and the actual, artistic license allows a little freedom, but taking Cream and forcing him into the role of Moriarty to Conan Doyle's Holmes... it just doesn't work. And not just the fact that Bell is the true Holmes of this narrative. It's fun seeing the little hints of how life became fictionalized in Conan Doyle's stories, but this is too heavy handed. Too obvious. Cream is taking Moriarty too far, especially at the end. Subtlety is needed to make this conceit believable. Subtlety and just enough reality. Cream is too over the top. Too theatrical. His kidnapping of Conan Doyle and holding him hostage is so overly dramatic and also tedious that it bogs down the first two sections of the book. It's not until Cream disappears offstage that the book starts to work. If it wasn't for Cream this could be a near perfect book, but alas, it isn't. Also, is there anyone else that thinks the name Cream doesn't inspire terror?

Getting beyond Cream and into the history of the small English town of Dunwich captivated me. Dunwich is a small coastal town on the eastern coast of England that was mentioned in the Doomsday book. Much of the town has been lost to coastal erosion and now lives under the sea. They have stories that you can still hear the bells of the churches under the water calling you. This locale brought with it the haunting atmosphere that made The Hound of the Baskervilles so memorable and easily Conan Doyle's greatest story in the Sherlock Holmes canon. There's something about desolate and bleak settings that just up the Gothic impact of a mystery and make me all the more invested in it. It's the haunting landscape of Cornwall coupled with her writing that makes Daphne Du Maurier so memorable. Her writing wouldn't have had the same impact set anywhere else. Plus she had a symbiotic relationship between her and the land that makes me think if it wasn't for Cornwall who knows if she would ever have really written anything memorable. That is what Dunwich does for The Dark Water. The town becomes a reflection of the story and becomes a character in it's own right. The treacherous walks along the cliffs where even holy landmarks to God were destroyed by the forces of nature sends a frisson of excitement through me just thinking about it again. The wind and the rain which might be a detriment anywhere else here become a real danger. Now I'm not saying I ever want to go there, but the way this book transported me there, it feels like I've already been.

Yet Dunwich wouldn't have had the impact unless it was coupled with the mythology and folklore that surround the town, and not just the ghostly bells. The way "The Wylde Hunt at Dunwich" and the Witch of Dunwich Heath not only added an otherworldly element to the story but spread fear and cleverly concealed the real killer is the beating heart of this book. I have always been fascinated by the idea that Fairy Tales may be real and that mythology and folklore must have some basis in fact. I love how Dr. Bell instantly sees through these scare tactics, such as the howling man roaming the moors, but realizes the importance of these stories and the effect they will have on the surrounding community if they are believed. He works backward, from the stories that have survived, knowing that they have a grounding in reality. He is able to find how seemingly impossible deaths were accomplished by using the truth within the story. But it's not just the ability to use these stories to catch a killer, but the stories themselves that give you a glimpse into the past. You get a mini history of this small community through their folktales. Regional folktales are the way history has been passed down through the generations. You learn more about an area and it's past from it's stories than from some staid history written to set the record straight. Plus let us not forget that in his old age Conan Doyle set more store in fairies and folklore than in his own writing. Fairy Tales are just history and mystery coming together, and in this instance they are used to catch a killer.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Arthur Conan Doyle, Daphne Du Maurier, David Pirie, Dr. Bell, Dr. Neill Cream, Dunwich, Fairies, Fairy Tales, Moriarty, Murder Rooms, Mythology, Sherlocked, The Dark Water, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Witches

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett
Published by: HarperCollins
Publication Date: September 1st, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Time doesn't stand still. Time is always moving forward. A witch, more then most, knows about life and death and the inevitability of both. The inevitable is about to happen in Lancre as Granny Weatherwax cleans her house for the last time and prepares to walk with DEATH. The rest of the witches can't believe that Esmerelda Weatherwax would do something so predictable as dying. At least her final wishes cause a stir as she leaves her steading to the young Tiffany Aching. But Tiffany isn't about to let Granny down! She will prove to all the other witches that Granny Weatherwax knew what she was doing, because didn't she always? Though the death of such a powerful witch has sent a shudder through the world. What was once safe and secure is now vulnerable, permeable, and those who were kept out sense it too. The fairies have long been trapped in their realm, unable to hunt among the humans, unable to enslave musicians, kidnap children, and kill indiscriminately. The Queen had an unforgettable encounter with Tiffany Aching and since that time the Discworld has become more and more inhospitable to their kind, banding the world in iron and steam. But the Lord Peaseblossom defies the Queen and decides that it's time for the fairies to take back the human world. Only they have one problem. Witches.

When Terry Pratchett died earlier this year I might have cried more than a little. Here was one of the most amazing authors I've ever read whose life was cut way too short. I had seen him only four years earlier, and sadly in those four years it was a rapid decline for him. He had all these stories left to tell and in the end he gave us one more before going. It's not just the nostalgia in me, this book really did feel like one more for the road. Before even picking it up I just intuited that Granny Weatherwax was leaving this world, because Terry was taking her with him, moreso than the other characters. It was his way to say goodbye. Granny Weatherwax organized her little cottage, put everything in order, let her wishes be known, and walked with DEATH hand in hand out of this world. This was the goodbye Terry wanted to leave us with, his work was as done as it could be and he and DEATH walked together, with a very opinionated witch by their side. This slim volume has everything there that you could want in a Discworld novel, but it lacks that final something. It's not unfinished, it's unpolished. The text wasn't pushed to it's furthest point and repetitive phrases weren't excised. This makes it even more bittersweet. The goodbye we were given was a hasty one. Everyone has one last quick cameo and then they shuffle off, stage right, living on through their stories though their creator is no more.

Terry has admitted more than once that his favorite character he created was Tiffany Aching, and that is perhaps why his fanbase, me included, have connected so strongly with her. Therefore it makes sense that the last tale to tell was one from Tiffany. But there's a part of me which is asking why. Why write it? Why write The Shepherd's Crown at all? This might seem ungrateful, like asking someone to take back this great gift they have given you, but might I rejoinder with I Shall Wear Midnight. Five years ago Terry Pratchett released what was to be the final Tiffany Aching story, I Shall Wear Midnight. This book is amazing, brilliant, perfection. It was a flawless ending. Tiffany came into her own and you could see the shape of her future. You could see her happily ever after. Then along comes The Shepherd's Crown and pokes holes in that happily ever after. Yes, we got to see more of her future and her inheritance from Granny Weatherwax, but I don't think that future needed to be spelled out, implying it was enough. Instead of envisioning this lovely future with her working side by side with Preston, the perfect match for her, we see their relationship fraying, and one can't help hoping that Tiffany and Preston's future doesn't mirror that of Granny Weatherwax and Mustrum Ridcully. We are told that work is more important then love. Perhaps in the end work was what was most important to Terry, finishing the stories he still had in him. But he was surrounded by people who loved him and fans who still love him. Love not duty seemed a better tone to end on, even if it's not as realistic.

Yet I can counter my own argument by saying, this wasn't so much a Tiffany Aching story as it was a witches story and therefore partially exempt from my displeasure. Prior to Tiffany coming along and hijacking all the witches plot lines they had six books of their own. Despite her being the protagonist here, it's more like those first six books with her filling the figurehead status that Granny Weatherwax did in those books. Therefore I guess you could say it's a more conventional Discworld book and perhaps that's where it fell a little flat for me, I like the individual character studies a little more. The threat isn't just a threat to Tiffany, and therefore her story, it's a threat to all witches, and therefore their story. So the gang is all here. Every witch that has ever graced the pages of Pratchett's writing, and even a wizard, show up. Magrat Garlick threw off her mantle of Queen and once more embraced her witchiness. Agnes took time out from singing to do battle. And of course Nanny Ogg was Nanny Ogg (and if one day she isn't played by Dawn French in some kind of movie or miniseries my life will have been in vain). It was great to see not only the newer witches but those who have been relegated to asides and background characters come to the fore again. Magrat has even got her battle armor on! Though this again brings about that nostalgic feeling. They're being let out for one last battle, one last moonlit broom ride before leaving us forever. Sigh.

Though for me, the best part of this book wasn't any witch or wizard, it was You. And by You I mean Granny Weatherwax's cat. Since that little white fuzzball first appeared I have been fascinated how she and Granny Weatherwax have gotten along, but more then that, how she is kind of a totem for Granny Weatherwax. While a cat would be the first to admit that they are in no way representatives of any person, being their own creatures, I think that cats might just induct Granny into their species, what with her prickly attitude and superior demeanor. After all "witches were a bit like cats. They didn’t much like one another’s company, but they did like to know where all the other witches were, just in case they needed them." Terry Pratchett just has this supernatural ability to understand cats. How You herself is just a fuzzy living bit of magic, able to get from one place to another with the simplest of ease, even if it takes Tiffany hours and hours to get between the two locals. Also, by having You approve of Tiffany it cements her status as Granny Weatherwax's successor. More than missing Terry, I'm going to miss his insights into those furry little mass murderers I love.

As for the real fault in the book? It has nothing to do with it's lack of finish and all to do with the villain. So therefore, no matter how much I could have loved this book if it was 100% finished, I would still end up at the level I feel now because of the fairies. OK people, especially you writers on Doctor Who, I don't like Big Bads coming back. I like fresh villains, wraiths with no eyes, the spirit of Winter, stuff like that, that's original. Cybermen, Daleks, no. The fairies again? No thank you. So far there have been two witches books dealing with these damn fairies, Lords and Ladies and The Wee Free Man. Why are they back? Why why why? It's not good enough to say because they ALWAYS come back. They always come back because writers are lazy and think if it worked once it will work again and readers on the whole like the predictable. For me this doesn't make interesting reading, it makes me bored. It makes me sit back and check out a little, occasionally tuning in to see if they have moved on yet. I will admit in the height of the battle I was a little caught up in the action, but overall, no. But the real truth? If I could get a few more Discworld books and Terry Pratchett back, I would read about as many fairies as he cared to write.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Big Bad, Cats, DEATH, Discworld, Doctor Who, Fairies, Granny Weatherwax, I Shall Wear Midnight, Lords and Ladies, Nanny Ogg, Terry Pratchett, The Shepherd's Crown, The Wee Free Men, Tiffany Aching, Witches

Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: May 1st, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Sookie's life is a bit of a mixed bag at the moment. Her job is wonderful, better than ever. Sure Merlotte's is still in a slump, but since she helped Sam with a loan he now views her as a partner. Sookie loves the new responsibilities and the new decisions, like lockers for the staff! Yet then there's Eric. Eric and his fiance... when Sookie is already technically his wife! Why do vampires have to be so complicated? Then to add to the problem, the King comes to visit inquiring after the man they all plotted to murder. Keeping secrets from a powerful vampire is dangerous, but what happens next could cause even more trouble. There's a dead girl in front of Eric's house, one Sookie just happened to catch him snacking on. She knew Eric had to get his sustenance from somewhere, but the way he did it so cruelly and callously in front of Sookie makes all her senses tingle. This wasn't right.

Sookie has got to prove Eric's innocence, even if their relationship doesn't survive this, Eric is not responsible for this death, others yes, just not this one. There is a way out for Sookie, a magical, oh so easy way... the cluviel dor. The fairy magic that Sookie found tucked away in her attic. It has basically made her fairy catnip, yet the one wish it contains could solve all the problems of her and Eric. The thing is, does Eric know she has it and is trying to force her hand? As she tries to solve the murder she realizes that everything that is happening to her, vampire, fairy and werewolf might all tie into the cluviel dor. If you had one wish, what would you use it on?

I know there are many people out there who didn't like this book because not much happened, and you know what, I liked that. Being the penultimate book, this seemed to be Charlaine clearing the decks and getting Sookie back to her human roots. I loved that! Sookie's world has become so convoluted and she's ended up so entwined with all the Sups that it was nice to take a step back, see her as she was before and could be again. Some reviewers have been bandying about the deus ex machina way that Charlaine handy got rid of Jannalynn and established the deeper bond between Sookie and Sam. So what? It's her world and I loved that she just wiped Jannalynn out of existence and just with the flick of the pen got rid of all the fairies. As for those Eric shippers out there... you KNEW that she was never going to end up with Eric. Sookie, in a logical world, in my logical world, gets a life. Not an undead vampire forever life, but sun and daylight and love and children. She gets everything she deserves and a man that loves her unreservedly. All that she could only get from Sam, in my mind, Alcide, with his pack and troubled past could never give this to her. Eric in the end loves power and money more than her could ever love a human.

There where also tons of just little human moments I loved. Sookie waiting for the birth of Tara's twins. Sookie going all Gollum over her cluviel dor. Sookie having a birthday! If she where to be reborn, a birthday would lose it's significance. Just going to the library and picking up a book or swinging by the Dairy Queen to have a blizzard. It's the little mundane things that made this book magical to me. I really can't wait for the final book and hope that all that I wish for Sookie comes true... if the direction that Charlaine took for this book stays true, then I think Sookie is going to get the happily ever after I wish for her. After all these years of reading her exploits, she deserves it... and yes, I know she's fictional, but is she really to you or me?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Charlaine Harris, Deadlocked, Eric, Fairies, Sam Merlotte, Sookie Stackhouse, Southern Vampire Series, Vampires, Werewolves

Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse Book 9) by Charlaine Harris
Published by: Ace Trade
Publication Date: May 5th, 2009
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
Challenge: Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
Sookie has lived through the were wars and the hostile take over of her state by the Nevada vamps... but can she still keep the status quo when the weres finally come out and an all out fairy war looms on the horizon, seeing to make the previous battles look like a game. Would have been nice if she'd known in advance all the heaps of trouble having a fairy lord as a relative could bring down on her. But issues with her immediate friends and family make the fairies a secondary concern. Sam has left the bar under Sookie's supervision because his mom got shot by his stepfather when she revealed herself as a shifter. Plus, they're down a  waitress when Arelene quites because she can't work for a shifter, bigot that she now is. Sookie inadvertently ends up "married" to Eric. Also Jason's two timing ex wife ends up crucified in the Merlotte's parking lot. Which could end up as Sookie's fate if certain people have their way, or if the fairies don't get her first. But everything in the world becomes insignificant when she's kidnapped by two sadistic fairies and just staying alive from one moment to the next is all that she can focus on. The question becomes, how many of them will make it out alive?

With more death than in previous installments, we do get quite of few questions answered as well as a tying up of the fairies, which seemed to be just thrown in because a) supernatural beings and why don't we add another supernatural species and b) this could be a handy way to explain away Sookie's powers. Also, the deaths and crimes have reached a new level of gore. While Sookie has always been hurt and in danger, I don't think she's ever been hurt to the extent she was in this book and I will be interested to see how this affects her sunny disposition and outlook on the world. Plus, while she is now "married" to Eric, why wasn't he there to help her when she needed him most? He would of course have felt her pain and terror! While main plots were resolved and longtime mysteries wrapped up, in particular Sookie's parents, I always knew there had to be something more, there are many questions still left. Ah Charlaine, you keep us coming back for more, I just wish you could write faster! Also, I don't think I want to ever be a pregnant lady in Charlaine's world, Tara, keep a look out!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Arelene, Charlaine Harris, Dead and Gone, Eric, Fairies, Pregnany, Reading Challenge, Sam Merlotte, Sookie Stackhouse, Tara

Hunting Ground (Alpha and Omega Book 2) by Patricia Briggs
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: August 25th, 2009
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
Challenge: Shifter Challenge 2011, Horror and Urban Fantasy
Rating: ★★
To Buy
Charles and Anna are still adjusting to married life. Charles isn't used to letting anyone into his closed off, sequestered little world and Anna is having trust issues after the brutality she faced at the hands of her previous pack. But personal issues have to be set aside for the greater good of the werewolves. Bran, the Marrok, the Alpha of all North American Alphas, has called a meeting in Seattle where the European werewolves can voice their concerns about the announcement of their existence. They don't have a vote or a choice. This will be happening. But Bran is willing to offer them whatever they need in return, from monies to shelter. The Italians, Germans and French werewolves are the main factions, with England being solely represented by their leader Arthur. They all have personal grudges and feuds. The Italians are bringing another Omega, Ric, whom they swiped away from the Germans, and France is being represented by Chastel, THE BEAST, whose blood lust is notorious. Charles has such concerns over his fathers safety that he does the unheard of and stands up to his father saying that he and Anna will go in his stead. Charles does not care if the others view this as a slight. It's for his father's protection. Arriving at the local packs landing strip, Anna and Charles head into Seattle. For Charles, this is not his element. He is one with nature, not concrete and noise, which is what Anna is. She loves the bustling metropolis right on the water, reminiscent of her hometown, Chicago. Their first stop off is to visit the fairy that Bran has negotiated with. Dana is to see that there is no bloodshed and the truth is spoken, of course, it is virtually impossible to do that around werewolves anyway.

Once their offering has been given to Dana all sorts of hell starts to break loose. There are too many Alphas in once place. First they all show up at a local restaurant and the fracas has to be calmed. The next day Anna is taken shopping by a member of the local pack and his white witch wife, where they are promptly attacked by vampires using werewolf pack magic. But this doesn't stop business from continuing on as usual and dinner parties needing to be attended. Anna and Charles visit Arthur and his human mate Sunny for dinner. Arthur believes he is the reincarnation of the real King Arthur, and even carries around a sword he claims is Excalibur. Sunny will be the first victim. It should have been Anna, but, her life seems to be worth something, unlike others. As death starts to reign down on what was to be a "peaceful" conference, Charles is glad his father isn't present, but he sure wishes that Anna was out of harms way. Trying to untangle who is really behind these attacks and who they can trust will take all the courage and strength the newlyweds have. And hopefully they'll get a happily ever after.

Intertwining myth and pack politics, this is the least successful of Briggs' novels I've read. So much of what drove the first installment of the Alpha and Omega series was the ping ponging back and forth between the confused minds of the two leads. Will they make this work, can they truly be mated. Seeing as at the beginning of this book they are together and everything is going as smoothly as it can given that they have just recently met, there is way to much uncertainty in each other and too much possessiveness on the part of "Brother Wolf." They are MATED. In the world Briggs has created, they are together, there's no going back. They are one. To then have them doubt this over and over makes you kind of want to slap them. But aside from their obvious character flaws, this book took to long to get to the center of all the swirling red herrings. Once you finally got there you realized, it's kind of cool. This is a neat integration of Arthurian Legend and other mythologies into a world of werewolves. But it took a long time of "are we there yet" to reach the point of satisfaction. While I am interested to see what happens to these characters, if they keep doubting themselves and their purpose, I'll start doubting why I'm still reading this series.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 2011 Reading Challenge, Alpha and Omega, Anna, Charles, Chastel, Excaliber, Fairies, Hunting Ground, King Arthur, Marrock, Mate, Patricia Briggs, Seattle, Werewolves

Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson Book 3) by Patricia Briggs
Published by: SFBC Science Fiction Book Club
Publication Date: 2008
Format: Hardcover, 710 Pages
Challenge: Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Never be in debt to a fairy. Never say thank you to a fairy. But most importantly, when you borrow something from them, just do what they tell you, nothing more. Mercy did a little something "more" and now has a debt to pay off. The fae have been sequestered in their own little camps ever since they came out a dozen or so years earlier. Whether it was for their protection or ours is a matter for debate. The fae are a secretive lot, not trusting the police or government. So when a killing spree happens in the Walla Walla Reservation, they aren't likely to turn to the police. They'll police there own. But sometimes it's good for a little outside help. This is where Mercy comes in. She knows enough to keep her trap shut. Plus there was that whole "favor." Also, in human form, but even more so in coyote, she has remarkable smell, which most fae lack. After persuading the rent-a-cop on duty who works for the BFA (Bureau of Fae Affairs), O'Donnell, Mercy is let into the reservation. Cookie cutter houses in perfect rows that surely are an illusion, or so her nose is telling her. From crime scene to crime scene she is led as she tries to sort out the various smells to find the one link. But her nose does tend to lead her into trouble and she stumbles past the glamors and sees the sea. The faries higher ups, the Grey Lords, are not going to like this one bit. And neither does Mercy, she can't figure out why the murders are happening. What is there link besides the person who killed them?

Things don't start to look up for the fae when Zee is arrested for the murder of O'Donnell, the reservations guard. Zee won't suffer in prison like other fae, seeing as he has an affinity for the substance that harms most, iron. Despite Zee's protestations that Mercy is done with this case, that she can't stick her nose into fae business anymore, she's not one to listen. She's a very nosey coyote, especially when her friends are at stake, despite the Grey Lords ruling that Zee is the fall guy. Soon she's embroiled in anti fae groups with an Arthurian nut Tim and has attracted a fae artifact to her, the walking stick comes and goes as it pleases, but if she wanted to have lots of sheep, she's all set. But maybe this loyal stick is a clue. What if the other victims were also guarding objects of power? Objects that held magic so great that they are a danger. Magic that not even the fae can do anymore in this waning world. Objects they will do anything to get back and to silence Mercy about. But in a world filled with the supernatural, sometimes it's just the plain natural that can do the most damage and can ruin your life. Just when Mercy had sorted through her feelings about Adam and Samuel, everything changes by the violent act of one human being.

The magical masquerading as the everyday. That which is normal posing the greatest threat. This book just completed my love of Mercy Thompson and became my favorite book in the series. The intermingling of fairy tales and myth becoming real, but in the most dangerous and threatening of ways. Fairy Tales are real. Just that thought sends chills down my spine. I love the idea that these simple bedtimes stories are really warnings. We see, more than before, how much power the fae have at their disposal and how nice they have been playing, without killing children and eating their bones, which many, I'm sure, want to do. There is more of an old world, mythic feel. The vampires, for the most part, just keep themselves to themselves with their little herd of sheep that feed them. The fae are an entirely different situation. They have been exposed to the world for a long time. Exposed in a way they controlled, just as the werewolves are trying to do. As meek and magicless. They spend everyday hiding what they are. And now, being attacked, they lash out and show their might. But their artifacts are even more dangerous. Because while the fae just protect them. When a power hungry human gets his hands on them, it shows that humans and their greed and avarice are far more of a threat than the fae are. Because the fae, while hiding their "monsters" are still known to be something "other" not far below the surface. Whereas a human as a monster... it just makes it that bit more scary. There's no way for Mercy to sense magic or otherness. There's no way for her to protect herself. What Mercy goes through and how she deals with what happens has made me connect to her on a new level. Seeing beneath her bravado, giving her vulnerability makes her more relatable. More like me, though I have never been through what she has on a human level. I've never had men fighting over me, which thankfully is resolved in this book on the flirty end of the spectrum, to the horrors of the attack at her garage. But I have had moments of panic and despair, and tearing down a little of her armor has made her a little more human.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Fae, Fairies, Fairy Tales, Mercedes Thompson, Mercy Thompson, Murder, Patricia Briggs, Reading Challenge, Tri-Cities, Walla Walla Fae Reservation, Zee

So here's a bit of news that made my day... who am I kidding, it made my week, perhaps even fortnight, month might be pushing it, we'll have to see. Anyway, the lovely people over at Blog with Bite are a group of bloggers who "unite for a common purpose: an obsession with vampires, werewolves, fairies, witches, demons, shamans... ooh the paranormal list can go on and on." They are a group review club who pick about two books a month to review. Then anyone who wants to read the book and hand in a review before the given deadline has a chance to spread the word on the book and author as well as be in with a chance at the nifty Top Reviewer Award. The current selection was Soulless by Gail Carriger. I loved this book and felt it my duty to enter, I should also point out I've been wanting to participate for a long time but sometimes laziness will out. But as luck would have it my participation paid off! I still can't believe that I got the Top Reviewer moniker, it was a lot of bleary eyed disbelief coupled with bad typos when I announced my joy earlier today. So, if you feel like it, you can head over and see my review re-posted over there, and while you're at it take a look at the poll for Blog with Bite's next round of reading... perhaps you might get bitten!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 9:08 PM 4 comments  

Labels: Blog With Bite, Demons, Fairies, Gail Carriger, Shamans, Soulless, Top Reviewer Award, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches

Artemis Fowl: Artemis Fowl Book 1 by Eoin Colfer
Published by: Miramax
Publication Date: April 2001
Format: Paperback, 277 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Artemis Fowl is in a dire financial situation, his father is missing and his mother has suffered a mental breakdown, while the Fowl fortunes have dwindled making them (gasp) millionaires. But the conniving boy genius has thought of a fool proof plan to get the Fowls firmly ensconced back in the billionaires club. Artemis, along with Butler and Butler's wrestling loving younger sister, Juliet, are going to con the fae. Step one is easily accomplished, getting one of the fae's personal books that has all their cultural and magical knowledge. Step two takes some time, but it doesn't take long for a boy with a mind like Artemis' to crack the book's code using a little bit of imagination with a little Egyptian hieroglyphics and a lot of computer skills. The final step takes even longer, waiting for the right time and place...but eventually they find a fairy low on power and kidnap her to hold for ransom. Because Artemis' end goal is he just wants the Leprechaun's gold...and not that gold of legend, but the LEP squad's ransom fund. Because the fae have not been hiding underground wasting their time living in the past. Oh no! Shalali carrying and pot o'gold toting fairies are a thing of the past. They've got the newest in technology with everything from computers to strap on wings. They are techno fairies in the extreme, with Foaly, their centaur, as their one stop IT squad. The fairy that Artemis happens to capture is none other than Holly of the LEPrecon division of underground police. She's the squad's first female officer and she's got to do her best. So getting captured is not exactly something that will keep her employed for long, especially after that night's incident in Italy with the troll. Luckily her boss, Commander Root holds a soft spot for Holly and he and Foaly make it their goal to get her back safely. The stakes set, the two parties converge on Fowl manner outside Dublin. This is a simple hostage negotiation like any other, only with fairies. Each side tries to one up or out smart the other, but in the end can they both get what they want? Will they work together or back-stab each other? And can Artemis really do what has never been done by any mortal before?

As other reviewers have aptly stated, this is Die Hard with fairies. Take away all the magic and it's a very simple hostage plot. Now add back in the techno savy fairies and you have a book that took me a really long time to get into. My problem was I really like Artemis and his evil machinations, but the fairies just pissed me off. There is so much time spent on the minutiae of the fairies' gadgets that you don't really get to like or know the characters for a long time. Plus for a society that is so technologically advanced they spend way to much time harping on the destruction that the "Mud People," aka humans, wreak on the world. Isn't it all the cars and computers and electronics that cause this destruction...the same things the fairies are using IN ABUNDANCE under the Earth's crust? Hypocritical much? I think unless these are run differently than our gadgets then the fairies are just as much to blame...and please Eoin Colfer, do not take this as an invitation to explain in even more detail pointless fairy techobabble!

I picked this book up in anticipation of the new Hitchhiker's book that Colfer wrote. I was going to a signing of his (you can read all about how that went here), and I wanted to be mildly informed of his other works. Plus I really wanted to see what kind of writer he is and how his style might lend itself to Adams' writing style. I think it might work...I probably will pick up a few more books in this series down the road too, after I read And Another Thing. Because despite almost putting down this book several times, once the hostage standoff started I began to enjoy myself, which I didn't think I would. While the technojargon got to be too much, the characters did become interesting. The fairies kind of went from overly annoying to more just there, but the humans, fascinating! Artemis is so complex. He's such a wounded traumatized genius with parental issues. I kept thinking he was of a Joss Whedon ilk, the likes of Warren Meers or Fray's twin brother. I'm really interested to see how he matures and what kind of evil genius he becomes...extremely evil or Dr. Horrible evil? Plus the "files" indicate that his ways are not quickly mended. Bring on the evil!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:16 AM 3 comments  

Labels: And Another Thing, Artemis Fowl, Book Review, Butler, Commander Root, Die Hard, Dublin, Eoin Colfer, Fae, Fairies, Foaly, Fray, Holly, Joss Whedon, LEPrecon, Shalali, Warren Meers