strange and random happenstance

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Published by: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: March 18th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Haymitch Abernathy was born on July 4th which is also the start to Panem's annual Hunger Games. It's the day of the reaping. He has never lived in a world where the games didn't exist and when catching a few quiet moments with his girlfriend Lenore Dove before the Quarter Quell festivities kick off he honestly tells her that he can't envision a world where the Capitol isn't in power. He has a better life than most, a little money in his pocket from bootlegging, a girl whom he loves, and a family he cares about. If he can just get through today he'll be safe for another year. This year though there are double the tributes and he has twenty entries. After the four names are called and he and Lenore believe themselves to be safe one of the tributes, Woodbine Chance, tries to make a break for it and is shot and killed. Lenore Dove tries to keep the Peacekeepers away from Woodbine's body and Haymitch steps in to protect her, unwittingly putting a target on his own back. He is chosen to be Woodbine's replacement. Lenore herself would have been killed for her insubordination if not for the fact that Plutarch Heavensbee thinks her tears will play well with the Capitol. On the train to the Capitol Haymitch appraises his fellow tributes, Wyatt Callow, whose family is into bookmaking, so he knows the odds, Louella McCoy, a sweet girl whom Haymitch instantly forms an alliance with despite the disadvantage to himself, and Maysilee Donner, her family owns a sweet shop so she and her twin sister have always been well-off, Haymitch doesn't think she'll be of much use, but she is far more strategic than he could have imagined. Because District 12 is looked down upon and therefore never really viewed as a contender. This year they aim to change that despite everything. When Louella is accidentally killed during the chariot ride Haymitch snaps. He decides that what he wants to get out of these games is to prove to the Capitol that they are people, just like them, and his death, all their deaths mean something. This means he needs alliances to rival the careers. And a young tribute who's in the game just to control his father might be the key. Ampert Latier, the son of victor Beetee Latier, says his father wants to discuss tactics with Haymitch. And when they meet Haymitch asks if it's possible to break the arena. Time is running out, President Snow has told Haymitch that he will die in the games, and yet, a spark could change everything. Once Haymitch escapes the Cornucopia bloodbath he has a chance. A chance to survive and perhaps start a revolution. After all, he's found the allies he needs, now everything else just has to fall into place. He knows that the house always wins, but there's always an exception that proves the rule. He needs to be the exception.

While no one could accuse Suzanne Collins of writing light fare, the two Hunger Games prequels that have come out in recent years show the true depravity of the world she has created and her creature Coriolanus Snow. And I am here for it. Because I adored this book so much I decided to pick up the original trilogy for the first time in years and I was really struck by how much is left unsaid. Finnick Odair's spilling of the tea is more about what Suzanne Collins omits. At least on the page. Because victors were sex trafficked. They were used for their bodies and for their minds. Little spies for their president. And The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping are far more upfront about these horrors. These show the true darkness, the true depths of despair, and how far Coriolanus Snow will really go. This is a man who will literally poison himself to kill his enemies and will kill everyone you love. He doesn't do anything by halves. And that's what I kind of feel like the original trilogy is after the brilliance of the prequels, it was only half the story. Sunrise on the Reaping showed me why I could never fully get behind the original books, and it's Katniss. Until I got to see Haymitch in action I never realized how passive Katniss is. It's not that she doesn't want to survive. She does everything in her power to survive. It's that she doesn't act she reacts. She's a hunter-gatherer, going from day to day and kill to kill, not someone destined to plan a rebellion, just someone who is in the right place at the right time and is willing to trust Haymitch's instincts to become the spark that ignites the fire. And that rebellion? Well, here at the 50th Hunger Games people are already testing the boundaries in part due to Snow's extra barbarity with regards to the second Quarter Quell. Quite literally when Beetee finds a way for Haymitch to attempt to break the machine that is the arena by targeting the boundary which ends with a literal earthquake and a victory for Haymitch. After all, there's a reason they don't re-air Haymitch's game. It showed the fallibility of the gamemakers. Everyone was already working, already secretly rebelling, it would just take twenty-four more years for the right candidate to arrive and twenty-five years, to the 75th Hunger Games, the third Quarter Quell and Snow's mistake of placing his victims all in one arena, for everything to fall into place. Which oddly made this book a comfort read for me. Yes, revisiting characters you know and love is generally a comfort, but here I took comfort in the fact that Panem was completely at the mercy of a madman and yet by coming together they defeated him. It didn't happen overnight, but it did happen. That's the message I'm taking from this book. It's possible. We can get through this. It might just take awhile. And while we might never fully heal, but a pet goose couldn't hurt.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Capitol, Coriolanus Snow, District 12, Haymitch Abernathy, Lenore Dove, Panem, Prequel, Quarter Quell, Rebellion, Revolution, Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, Top Ten

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Published by: Anchor
Publication Date: March 6th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 496 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

In Orïsha King Saran put an end to the maji. He didn't just find a way to stop the flow of magic he also murdered all divîners over the age of thirteen to protect his land. A decade later divîners are still persecuted. Maligned, taxed, and looked down on, they are second-class citizens. Zélie is a powerless divîner still mourning the murder of her mother. But she trains with Mama Agba so that she will be able to protect her family should King Saran send anyone else to finish the job he already started a decade ago. On the day of her graduation royal guards descend on the fishing village of Ilorin and levy an increase in taxes. One Zélie and her family can ill afford. Zélie and her brother Tzain decide to go to the capital city of Lagos to sell a rare fish at market to pay the new taxes. While they are successful in making money they also run into a heap of trouble, the Princess Amari. She has stolen a scroll from her father after he used it to awaken the powers of Amari's one and only friend whom she then witnessed him murder. Hiding Amari in Ilorian will put the entire village at risk, especially as Amari's brother Inan is the commander of the Royal Army and will do anything to prove his loyalty to his father, even hunt down his own sister and burn a village of innocents to the ground. It's Mama Agba who tells Zélie, Tzain, and Amari that they must travel to the ancient temple of Chândomblé to restore magic. Their journey will not be an easy one with Inan on their tail. Especially as it turns out he is a maji who can infiltrate Zélie's dreams. It is his self-loathing that drives him to carry out his father's wishes. At the temple Zélie's powers are awakened, though it leaves her in a weakened state. Once again escaping the clutches of Inan they realize that he isn't the only risk as Orïsha is rife with those who wish them harm from corrupt guards to nefarious nobles. Battles, kidnappings, corruption, the trio are hunted but occasionally they find help from those who want magic restored and the balance of power to shift. But can they succeed when the odds are stacked against them? Will Zélie be able to forge a link with her ancestors back to the Sky Mother and save Orïsha? Only time will tell.

I read this book when it was released and the one thing that I hoped would come of it is that it would open the door to similar, though better written, literature. Which if you peruse the shelves of your local bookstore or library you will see it has done. Because without it's legacy this book is nothing. It doesn't even feel like a finished book. It needed to be more polished, more refined, and the errors definitely had to be removed. And don't get me started on how rough the worldbuilding is. Orïsha doesn't work, compass points are all over the map. And not figuratively. This feels like it was rushed to print. They saw their chance to label Tomi Adeyemi the next J.K. Rowling and went for it. A label that hasn't aged well. At all. In fact with the big climactic scenes it almost felt as if this was a treatment for a movie. Tomi Adeyemi would just fill in the details later with the VFX people and not bother to put it on the page now. But seeing as the film adaptation has been in production limbo for years now, perhaps the time could have been taken to tighten up the book? Because, shocking as it may be to some people, a book can be the final form of a story, not everything has to be adapted into a film or television show. In fact some people don't want their favorite books adapted to appease the masses. And who is this book really written for? The sheer amount of tropes strung together to faintly resemble a story shows Adeyemi to be an immature writer. The story is told through different character's voices and you could not tell the voices apart. When I really lost it though was when I found lines in this book that were in a "Which YA Trope Do You Hate?" Quiz that I took online. The most notable being "she released the breath she didn't know she was holding." Though in fairness, a lot of authors stumble into that one. It was more the cumulative effect that got to me. The lack of originality, the warring evolutionary progress of different people, and the fact that she did high seas Hunger Games. That one was just a step too far. A desert town wastes ALL there clean water to have a battle to the death on boats? Um, why!?! I mean, really, why!?! In the end this book had me wondering what the actual fuck. But at least reading other reviews I don't feel alone. Everyone was confused. Well almost everyone. Those few who weren't were this book's target audience.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Africa, Children of Blood and Bone, Diviners, For the Love of Book Clubs, J.K. Rowling, Legacy, Maji, Mythology, Orisha, Sky Mother, The Hunger Games, Tomi Adeyemi, Tropes, VFX, Worldbuilding, YA, Zelie

A Hero for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: May 8th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Eva Nine thought that her search for humans had ended. That like New York City they were an ancient civilization whose time had passed. But just as she was ready to admit defeat a ship appeared in the sky and a boy walked out. A human boy. Hailey. Hailey Turner is the pilot of the Bijou and he's going to take Eva Nine to New Attica. New Attica is the hub of the Human Repopulation Project and where all the humans live in a utopic society led by their benevolent leader Cadmus Pryde. It's everything Eva Nine has been looking for, which makes her friend Rovender Kitt warn her to be wary. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is. But Eva Nine is ready to embrace her new life, getting a tour of New Attica from Cadmus Pryde's own daughter, Gen. She even gets a makeover to make her more like the three Gens, aka Gen and her friends. But soon she starts to see that not everything is perfect in New Attica. What's more shocking though is finding out she has an older sister! Eva Eight was raised in Eva Nine's sanctuary by the same Muthr. Eva Eight left the Sanctuary for New Attica hoping to start a family which sadly never happened. At one point she even returned to the Sanctuary for Eva Nine, but Muthr refused her the child. But Eva Eight knew that one day Eva Nine would come to New Attica and there they would meet. And one night, in the Aviary, Eva Eight approaches her sister and tells her the dirty secrets of New Attica. The aliens held captive, Cadmus Pryde's plans for the human race to once again spread out over the globe destroying all other life. Eva Nine agrees that this isn't right. They need to flee New Attica and free the prisoners. They need to warn the world about what Cadmus Pryde has planned. Eva Nine might have just discovered the wide world around her, but it's already time for her to step up and save it.

The middle book in a trilogy is always tricky. You have to advance the plot enough to make it worthwhile but simultaneously keep the really big action for the finale. For the most part A Hero for WondLa does this nicely. We get to see Eva Nine experience interacting with humans for the first time and learning what it is to have peers. What's more we learn she has family with her radical sibling Eva Eight. But we also learn the lesson humanity has learned over and over, that supposed utopias come at a cost. That those who are "different" or "other" aren't part of this ideal society and they must be exterminated. So yes, it explores the dark human need to expand and control, colonialism and all it's evils. Which makes sense here, but at the same time I felt it was too much of the same. We've heard this all before, sure turning Eva Eight into a sentient tree is something new, and yes, that does happen if you think I'm making it up, but humans killing everyone off is just the same old same old. The thing is, I'm trying to think if there are any dystopian novels that don't do this... And I'm coming up blank. It's kind of the go-to trope, survival at any cost. And the one trilogy in particular I keep thinking about is The Hunger Games. Now I'm a huge fan of that series and oddly enough think the middle book is the strongest, but all I can think about with the three Gens is that they belong in The Hunger Games. I mean, come on, robotails? When they take Eva Nine out to do her makeover I couldn't help thinking of when Katniss Everdeen met Cinna. Sure, lots of dystopian books have the elite wear impractical and fanciful clothing, but I felt like this was too much of a similarity with another franchise so that it made A Hero for WondLa a little less than it could have been. On the whole it's so original in how it uses the building blocks and tropes of dystopian fiction that I felt let down a little. And seriously, it's just a little. But it was enough to make a difference.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Hero for Wondla, Cadmus Pryde, Cinna, Colonialism, Dystopian, Eva Eight, Eva Nine, For the Love of Book Clubs, Human Repopulation Project, Katniss Everdeen, New Attica, The Hunger Games, Tony DiTerlizzi, Utopian

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Published by: Tor.com
Publication Date: September 9th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Gideon wants nothing to do with the Ninth. The house is nothing more than a creepy death cult guarding a locked tomb that is quickly dying out. She wants off the planet and out of the life she's begrudgingly lived. But her countless escape plans have never worked and this newest one is no different, even if it's the closest she's ever come. She is once again stopped by her nemesis, Harrowhark Nonagesimus. Harrowhark is the scion of the Ninth. A wickedly powerful necromancer who has been puppeteering her parents corpses for years in an effort to make it look like the Ninth is still functional and not on it's last legs. This appearance is more important than ever as the Emperor has called all nine houses to his abandoned palace, Canaan House, to compete for the honor to become Lyctors, eternals who serve at his side. The problem is that each house has to have a cavalier, a warrior, indefatigable and unbeatable, who protects the necromancer. And Harrowhark's actual cavalier is more interested in poetry. Therefore the only real contender for Harrowhark's cavalier is Gideon. The problem is Gideon wasn't trained for this role and more importantly she'd rather see Harrowhark dead than be the one having to save her. So Harrowhark makes a deal. They go to Canaan House, they put on the show of a lifetime, Harrowhark wins and becomes a Lyctor and Gideon gets to ride off into the sunset. Gideon doesn't like this plan. Gideon doesn't think it will work. I mean, how can she pass herself off with frilly fencing when she fights with a two-hander? Gideon better be a fast learner because Gideon doesn't have a choice. When they arrive at Canaan House Gideon is quickly abandoned by Harrowhark who plays up the mystique of the the Ninth House by being wreathed in shrouds and totally unavailable to Gideon. Gideon sees quite quickly that the reputation of the Ninth makes all the other houses wary of her, and yet, slowly, she starts to befriend them. That's when they start dying. This Lyctor test was set up in a way that makes the suspicious houses unable to win, but amply able to die. Will Gideon even live to cash in on Harrowhark's promise or will she die screaming in agony on a distant planet? At least she won't die near the benighted locked tomb...

Me and much lauded books rarely get along. My tastes are rarely the tastes of the masses. Yet again and again I feel drawn to read them. That's how I picked up Gideon the Ninth. I mean, lesbian necromancers in space sounds awesome, but there was that voice saying, but is it for you? Turns out it was. But it wasn't love at first sight. This is a book that improves on reread because, just like Jane Eyre, there's all this dark exposition that takes place before the book actually gets good. But thankfully, just like Jane Eyre, the second time you read it you fly through the dark bits knowing the good stuff is coming soon. And that good stuff? Well, it's the Gothic space thriller of my dreams! Teams of two pitted against each other in order to find keys to literally unlock secrets in the biggest most haunted space palace you could imagine. There were elements of The Haunting of Hill House and The Hunger Games and Rose Red! But the joy in a reread is that knowing the twists and turns to come I was watching the magnificent setup that Tamsyn Muir was orchestrating with awe. I wasn't furiously reading to figure out what was going on, I was luxuriating in the twists and turns. Though what I found interesting this time is that I was reading this book with friends, so all those theories I had about the book being the victim of hype to it just being very polarizing came into play in another way, in that it really divided my book club. And the thing is, I can see where they're coming from because for awhile that's where I was when I first read it. Opinions ranged from complete love to those who wanted to love it but just didn't to those who claimed it ruined their holidays. So, the complete gamut of emotions and responses on display. The one thing I found fascinating though is apparently this book is just crammed with meme references and cultural jokes deriving mainly from The Office. There are literally websites and Reddit forums dedicated to this. Personally I only caught a few so I thought it was like a funny Easter Egg, there so that if you know you know but not infringing on the text. But the thing is I've never really watched the US version of The Office, and two members of my book club said there were so many jokes just from that show they couldn't take the book seriously and it sullied it. So my advice is don't watch The Office? Seriously, I never "got" the US version anyway.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Canaan House, For the Love of Book Clubs, Gideon Nav, Gideon the Ninth, Gothic, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Jane Eyre, Lyctor, Memes, Polarizing, Rose Red, The Haunting of Hill House, The Hunger Games, The Office

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Published by: Tor.com
Publication Date: September 9th, 2019
Format: Kindle, 479 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Gideon wants nothing to do with the Ninth. The house is nothing more than a creepy death cult guarding a locked tomb that is quickly dying out. She wants off the planet and out of the life she's begrudgingly lived. But her countless escape plans have never worked and this newest one is no different, even if it's the closest she's ever come. She is once again stopped by her nemesis, Harrowhark Nonagesimus. Harrowhark is the scion of the Ninth. A wickedly powerful necromancer who has been puppeteering her parents corpses for years in an effort to make it look like the Ninth is still a functional house and not on it's last legs. This appearance is more important than ever as the Emperor has called all nine houses to his abandoned palace, Canaan House, to compete for the honor to become Lyctors, eternals who serve at his side. The problem is that each house has to have a cavalier, a warrior, indefatigable and unbeatable, who protects the necromancer. The only real contender for Harrowhark's cavalier is Gideon. The problem is Gideon wasn't trained for this role and more importantly she'd rather see Harrowhark dead than be the one having to save her. So Harrowhark makes a deal. They go to Canaan House, they put on the show of a lifetime, Harrowhark wins and becomes a Lyctor and Gideon gets to ride off into the sunset. Gideon doesn't like this plan. Gideon doesn't think it will work. Gideon doesn't have a choice. When they arrive at Canaan House Gideon is quickly abandoned by Harrowhark who plays up the mystique of the the Ninth House by being wreathed in shrouds and totally unavailable to Gideon. Gideon sees quite quickly that the reputation of the Ninth makes all the other houses wary of her, and yet, slowly she starts to befriend them. That's when they start dying. This Lyctor test was set up in a way that makes the suspicious houses unable to win, but amply able to die. Will Gideon even live to cash in on Harrowhark's promise or will she die screaming in agony on a distant planet? At least she won't die near the benighted locked tomb...

Me and much lauded books rarely get along. My tastes are rarely the tastes of the masses. And yet again and again I feel drawn to read them. That's how I picked up Gideon the Ninth. Though I was circumspect in that I knew it might not be for me and therefore got it from my local library. I mean, lesbian necromancers in space sounds awesome, but there was that voice saying, but is it for you? Turns out it was. But not without the reservations continuing for quite awhile. After my first night of reading I actually reached out to my friends asking them "has anyone read Gideon the Ninth? I am a die hard must finish a book and have literally only given up on one in the last decade...but this isn't catching my interest at all..." Theories ranged from it being the victim of hype to it just being very polarizing. But I refused to give up and this book is literally why I don't give up on books, aside from that one a few years back which I try not to think of. Gideon the Ninth literally took a third of the way through the book to click and when it did it became magnificent. This became the Gothic space thriller of my dreams! Teams of two pitted against each other in order to find keys to literally unlock secrets in the biggest most haunted space palace you could imagine. There were elements of The Haunting of Hill House and The Hunger Games and Rose Red! I literally was dumbfounded that the book I had bemoaned became this epic read. One of my friends was shocked it went from a possible DNF to four stars in the span of a week. I was even encouraging him to keep going because he would be surprised by what it became. Therefore I use this book as a reminder, whatever you use to cull your TBR Pile, a hundred page rule, a quarter rule, whatever, it wouldn't have worked here. Never judge a book until you read that last line, it might end up one of your favorite reads.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cavalier, Gideon Nav, Gideon the Ninth, Going Gothic, Gothic, Harrowhark, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Haunted House, Necromancer, Rose Red, Space Opera, Tamsyn Muir, TBR, The Haunting of Hill House, The Hunger Games

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Published by: Scholastic Press,
Publication Date: May 19th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 528 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Coriolanus Snow's life is about keeping up appearances. No one must know how far the great and illustrious Snows have fallen since the Dark Days. That Coriolanus, his cousin Tigris, and their Grandma'am struggle daily to put food on the table and clothes on their back. Coriolanus is a top student at the Academy but if he has any hopes of continuing on to the University he needs a full ride, something The Hunger Games could give him through the Plinth Prize, a monetary reward set up by the father of one of his classmates. If the tribute Coriolanus is assigned to mentor in the tenth annual Hunger Games wins all his worries will evaporate. But then he gets a slap in the face, he's assigned District 12's female. He knows he has no chance of winning with a tribute from this district, but he must try. This might just involve rewriting the rules but he will do anything to succeed. Lucy Gray Baird might seem unlikely to win, but she captured the hearts and minds of the Capital during the reaping with a song. He decides this unique individual needs a different approach than is traditional, so he greets her when she arrives and treats her like a human being. He makes sure she is taken care of and fed. She rewards his kindness by saving his life when the Capital Arena is bombed during a tour organized for the mentors and tributes. He knows he can't let Lucy Gray be just more fodder in the arena. If she can stay alive long enough she has a chance. Luckily Coriolanus's scheme to allow inhabitants of the Capital to bet on and sponsor tributes has been enacted by the Gamemakers and Lucy is a favorite of the viewers. The only problem is Coriolanus is starting to have too much of a personal investment in Lucy. He doesn't just care about the Plinth Prize anymore, he cares about her, and that makes him reckless. He cheats. He's caught. He's punished. He must find a way to rise again. No matter the cost.

It is a sadly rare occurrence when one of the year's most anticipated books is actually worthy of that accolade. But maybe that's just my jaded opinion because I so rarely agree with all those "best of" lists. Yet another reason for why I make my own. Therefore I was delighted when The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes actually exceeded my expectations as well as proving to all those people who said the title seemed to be randomly generated by a YA book title generator how wrong they were because it makes so much sense in context! IT MAKES SENSE PEOPLE! And yes, I'm dredging up arguments I had with people online almost two years ago over a title of a not yet released at that time book. It's what I do. You'd think a prequel starring an anti-hero who by the time we've met him later is an out and out villain would lack any way for the reader to connect and be invested in the character's journey, but you'd be so wrong. It's not that I felt emotionally invested in Coriolanus, it's that I felt pity for him and became invested in how he manipulated the world around him and those in his orbit to survive and thrive. It was a peak behind the curtain, seeing that this man, at one time, had vulnerabilities and how he exploited his connections to armor himself. There was even a glimpse at redemption, that maybe we had judged him all wrong, until the worm twisted. This isn't A Christmas Carol people, Coriolanus isn't going to give a goose to a poor family after a pleasant memory of charades. He's a tyrant who will die a tyrant after the violent overthrowing of the Capital. What's more we see how Coriolanus's need to grasp the golden ring leads him to make connections that others wouldn't. He finds ways to make The Hunger Games not just a punishment for the other Districts but something those in the Capital can be invested in. Again, this is all backstage stuff, we're seeing how the Capital suffered in the wake of the District uprisings and how they were ravaged and how revenge then festered and bloomed into The Hunger Games as we know them in Katniss's time. This is about the complete human experience, deprivation, desire, determination, and death. This is a prequel not just worthy of the original series but perhaps even better.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Christmas Carol, Antihero, Coriolanus Snow, Dark Days, District 12, Gamemakers, Katniss Everdeen, Lucy Gray Baird, Money, Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, The Capital, The Hunger Games, YA

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Published by: Tor.com
Publication Date: September 9th, 2019
Format: Kindle, 479 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Gideon wants nothing to do with the Ninth. The house is nothing more than a creepy death cult guarding a locked tomb that is quickly dying out. She wants off the planet and out of the life she's begrudgingly lived. But her countless escape plans have never worked and this newest one is no different, even if it's the closest she's ever come. She is once again stopped by her nemesis, Harrowhark Nonagesimus. Harrowhark is the scion of the Ninth. A wickedly powerful necromancer who has been puppeteering her parents corpses for years in an effort to make it look like the Ninth is still a functional house and not on it's last legs. This appearance is more important than ever as the Emperor has called all nine houses to his abandoned palace, Canaan House, to compete for the honor to become Lyctors, eternals who serve at his side. The problem is that each house has to have a cavalier, a warrior, indefatigable and unbeatable, who protects the necromancer. The only real contender for Harrowhark's cavalier is Gideon. The problem is Gideon wasn't trained for this role and more importantly she'd rather see Harrowhark dead than be the one having to save her. So Harrowhark makes a deal. They go to Canaan House, they put on the show of a lifetime, Harrowhark wins and becomes a Lyctor and Gideon gets to ride off into the sunset. Gideon doesn't like this plan. Gideon doesn't think it will work. Gideon doesn't have a choice. When they arrive at Canaan House Gideon is quickly abandoned by Harrowhark who plays up the mystique of the the Ninth House by being wreathed in shrouds and totally unavailable to Gideon. Gideon sees quite quickly that the reputation of the Ninth makes all the other houses wary of her, and yet, slowly she starts to befriend them. That's when they start dying. This Lyctor test was set up in a way that makes the suspicious houses unable to win, but amply able to die. Will Gideon even live to cash in on Harrowhark's promise or will she die screaming in agony on a distant planet? At least she won't die near the benighted locked tomb...

Me and much lauded books rarely get along. My tastes are rarely the tastes of the masses. And yet again and again I feel drawn to read them. That's how I picked up Gideon the Ninth. Though I was circumspect in that I knew it might not be for me and therefore got it from my local library. I mean, lesbian necromancers in space sounds awesome, but there was that voice saying, but is it for you? Turns out it was. But not without the reservations continuing for quite awhile. After my first night of reading I actually reached out to my friends asking them "has anyone read Gideon the Ninth? I am a die hard must finish a book and have literally only given up on one in the last decade...but this isn't catching my interest at all..." Theories ranged from it being the victim of hype to it just being very polarizing. But I refused to give up and this book is literally why I don't give up on books, aside from that one a few years back which I try not to think of. Gideon the Ninth literally took a third of the way through the book to click and when it did it became magnificent. This became the Gothic space thriller of my dreams! Teams of two pitted against each other in order to find keys to literally unlock secrets in the biggest most haunted space palace you could imagine. There were elements of The Haunting of Hill House and The Hunger Games and Rose Red! I literally was dumbfounded that the book I had bemoaned became this epic read. One of my friends was shocked it went from a possible DNF to four stars in the span of a week. I was even encouraging him to keep going because he would be surprised by what it became. Therefore I use this book as a reminder, whatever you use to cull your TBR Pile, a hundred page rule, a quarter rule, whatever, it wouldn't have worked here. Never judge a book until you read that last line, it might end up one of your favorite reads.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cavalier, Gideon Nav, Gideon the Ninth, Gothic, Harrowhark, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Haunted House, Necromancer, Rose Red, Space Opera, Tamsyn Muir, TBR, The Haunting of Hill House, The Hunger Games

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Published by: Scholastic Press,
Publication Date: May 19th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 528 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Ambition will fuel him.
Competition will drive him.
But power has its price.

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined - every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute...and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes."

Because, what better way to distract yourself from the collapse of civilization than to read about a favorite post apocalyptic world?

Lost in Space: Infinity's Edge by Kevin Emerson
Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: May 19th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The second thrilling, original novel based on Netflix's smash hit Lost in Space! This all-new story focuses on twelve-year-old Will Robinson and his closest friend and greatest protector - a mysterious Robot with a dangerous past.

The Robinsons - Will, his two teenage sisters, and their parents - are members of a colonist group who had been traveling across the galaxy to establish a new home, only to have had their ship attached and stranded on an alien planet. Just when they had finally managed to get off-world, the Robinsons were thrown off course yet again and were sent drifting toward an unknown location.

Now, six months later, the Robinsons are stuck on an inhospitable water planet with no contact from their fellow colonists or from Will's beloved Robot. The twelve-year-old doesn't have any friends in his new home, until he discovers a mysterious girl...from the future. Her name is Clare, and she desperately needs Will's help to save her family. Will is eager to bond with his new friend, but - little does he know - something sinister lurks just beneath her surface. Can Will find a way to help Clare while keeping his own family safe?"

Here's a Lost in Space book to help you cope with the fact we're only getting one more season of the show. 

These Women by Ivy Pochada
Published by: Ecco
Publication Date: May 19th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the award-winning author of Wonder Valley and Visitation Street comes a serial killer story like you’ve never seen before - a literary thriller of female empowerment and social change. In West Adams, a rapidly changing part of South Los Angeles, they’re referred to as “these women.” These women on the corner...These women in the club...These women who won’t stop asking questions... These women who got what they deserved...

In her masterful new novel, Ivy Pochoda creates a kaleidoscope of loss, power, and hope featuring five very different women whose lives are steeped in danger and anguish. They’re connected by one man and his deadly obsession, though not all of them know that yet. There’s Dorian, still adrift after her daughter’s murder remains unsolved; Julianna, a young dancer nicknamed Jujubee, who lives hard and fast, resisting anyone trying to slow her down; Essie, a brilliant vice cop who sees a crime pattern emerging where no one else does; Marella, a daring performance artist whose work has long pushed boundaries but now puts her in peril; and Anneke, a quiet woman who has turned a willfully blind eye to those around her for far too long. The careful existence they have built for themselves starts to crumble when two murders rock their neighborhood.

Written with beauty and grit, tension and grace, These Women is a glorious display of storytelling, a once-in-a-generation novel."

Just reading the description you know this IS going to be a different kind of serial killer story. AKA, just what I need at the moment.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ivy Pochoda, Kevin Emerson, Lost in Space, Netflix, Serial Killer, Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, The Hunger Games, These Women

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E.Schwab
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: February 23rd, 2016
Format: Paperback, 512 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

In four months a lot can change. Lives have been lost. Lives have been changed. Rulers have fallen. Worlds are in flux. In Grey London the natural succession has occurred on the death of the mad king. But in White London power is what you need to rule, and that comes from a surprising and dangerous source. A source that almost destroyed Red London four months ago on the Black Night when the prince died and his life was tethered to Kell's and Lila Bard, going against all her instincts, helped save a world by putting her neck on the line. Since that night Kell is virtually a prisoner of the crown. If something happens to him Rhy's life is in danger and therefore Kell must never be in danger. Frustrated and ashamed at his part in that deadly night he trains and trains to be the weapon he needs to be to protect Rhy. Lila Bard is also training. That night showed her that she has powers. She might come from a London where magic is dead, but there is magic in her. Reluctantly she is learning from Captain Alucard Emery of The Night Spire. She initially wanted to steal his ship and lead the life of piracy she always dreamt of, but it dawned on her that she doesn't know the first thing about ships and this is a good way to learn. But she is becoming complacent. Life should never be comfortable or safe and when the ship returns to London for the Essen Tasch, a magical tournament between the countries of Arnes, Vesk, and Faro, she decides that like her captain, she wants to compete. The problem is the competitors list is set. So she needs to steal an identity... but little does she know that Kell is also competing under another identity. Juggling multiple identities and The Essen Tasch are such distractions that it might be too late before our heroes realize that Red London is in danger. Again.

A Darker Shade of Magic is such a frenetic book literally taking place over the span of hours the relatively languid pace of A Gathering of Shadows tripped me up. I felt like this book was almost unnecessary to the Shades of Magic series and was wondering if perhaps Tor had told Schwab that they were only interested in trilogies at the time she was selling the series and she turned a duology into something more by just having our characters drag their heels through "The Hunger Games: Red London Edition." But I'd really like to take that back now. The thing with time is that opinions often change. I have often wondered how many books that I disliked and therefore sold I would like if I read at a later time and then I'm gripped by the opposite of buyers remorse, sellers remorse. What if I just got rid of a book I'll love years from now!?! I try not to dwell on those thoughts but re-reading A Gathering of Shadows kind of triggered my sellers remorse because literally what a difference a year made with me and this book, and oddly enough it was literally almost a year to the day! What I found as hundreds of pages of nothing happening turned into a character study where I finally had the luxury of connecting to the characters in a different way. The Essen Tasch which I viewed as the dominate theme of the book was now just something to highlight our characters flaws and strengths, nothing more or less. All the issues I had with Rhy and Kell's relationship previously, while not fully assuaged, I at least got to see them together more and understand their connection versus just being told that they were close. New characters, backstories, wish fulfillment, all these concepts are explored and they gave the series a depth it lacked before. So seriously, I was hasty to judge, so sorry.

Though there is one character I grew to dislike with all this added time I got to spend with her and that's Lila Bard. Oh Lila, I have so many issues with you and the truth is, I shouldn't! When I was younger I dreamt of being a pirate, adding thief and magician on top of that would have made me the happiest girl in the world. But I do. I have so many issues. I think once I realized you were written more as the reluctant anti-heroine in the vein of Becky Sharp I understood you more, but I still don't like you. OK, let's talk about why I dislike Lila! She self-sabotages anything good in her life, be it her berth aboard The Night Spire, or her friendships, because if she feels the least bit safe she runs. Now that's more a problem for a psychiatrist and I can understand where she's coming from even if I'm yelling at her to stay. What my issue boils down to is how selfish she is. Yes she's had a hard upbringing but that doesn't give her the right to screw people over to get what she wants and that is exemplified by her assuming the identity of Stasion Elsor. Stasion Elsor is a man who presumably worked his ass off to compete for Arnes in the Essen Tasch. Of ALL the magicians in Arnes, and seeing as Red London is so magically rich there are a lot of people who could compete, he was selected as one of the twelve competitors. And Lila takes that all away from him because he has the same build as her and she just attacks him in an alley and ships him off to a penal colony! WTF! How is that acceptable? Even Alucard is like, that's too much. Yes, she is using this to push those who have gotten close to her away, but more importantly it shows that she thinks that she deserves whatever she can take. I'm just not OK with this. Becky Sharp at least got what was coming to her and I have a feeling Lila won't.

Yet oddly enough Lila isn't the character I had the most problems with, that would be her captain, Alucard. Here's the thing about creating names in a fantastical story, they have to be close enough to English that you know they're like a more magical version of everyday names but at the same time be easy to read and easy to say. I can still remember LONG before there was a Game of Thrones TV series I went to a George R. R. Martin book signing for A Feast of Crows and almost all the questions asked were how to pronounce character names. Because readers want to know what this new name sounds like. So that there is rule one and Alucard passes that one with flying colors. Rule two is that the name shouldn't make you think of someone else in another story because it will take you out of the narrative. Alice Cooper in the Archie Comics does this for me but I will be quick to point out that the singer Alice Cooper actually came later so it's not the Comics fault. This is where Alucard fails MISERABLY. Because do you know what Alucard is? It's freaking Dracula spelled backwards! WTF Schwab!?! While Schwab claims "YOU GUYS ALUCARD EMERY IS NOT A VAMPIRE. I DIDN'T REALIZE HIS NAME WAS DRACULA SPELLED BACKWARDS I JUST LIKED IT" I call foul. HOW can you look at the name Alucard and NOT see Dracula? Not to mention several books, even ones by my friend Paul Magrs, use Alucard as Dracula's "in disguise" name. I mean seriously!?! And not one editor went, hey Schwab, do you mean to be referencing a book that in your series chronology doesn't come out for another 77 years!?! I just don't get how NO ONE caught this. It's just so freaking obvious and EVERY SINGLE TIME I read his name I inwardly groan and am taken out of the book. At one point I even thought of given him another name to not annoy me, but that just seemed like too much work. But it was Westley if you're interested.

Though I think for me, at least the first time I read this book, the biggest disappointment was the lack of Grey London. Those sections just draw me in every time. There's something about seeing Kell, such a magical being, in this normal historical setting that captures my imagination. Seeing the opposite with Lila in Red London just isn't the same. She was outside the bounds of polite society in her London, never fitting in there, and she's actually attempting to fit into Red London so there's no real excitement to be had in the dichotomy. But I think this is just my desire to make this book more of a traditional Regency Magic book... I should embrace it for it's differences not lament it because I want to see what would happen if the Prince Regent tried to kidnap Kell and force him to do magic for him. And yes, I really really wanted that to happen. But this is just me wanting to be surrounded by the familiar because it gives me comfort and if anything is a comfort read to me it's firstly Jane Austen and secondly anything Regency Magic. On top of this my favorite character is Edward Archibald Tuttle III, AKA Ned. Perhaps this is because I relate most to Ned, and he'd be SO happy I was referring to him as Ned, because that means we're friends, and we are. He lives in this dark grey world and has always believed in magic and he was proven right. Here's someone I can relate to, someone I can love. What's odd to me is going back to Lila, she's the character we're supposed to relate to because she's from our world and we're following her on her adventure, but she has so many negative traits I can never connect to her. Now if Ned was the one who went on this adventure? Well, it might be more interesting... Lila is a survivor and has proven her mettle on the street time and time again so of course she'll succeed, but could Ned? Now I'd read the heck out of that!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Darker Shade of Magic, A Feast for Crows, A Gathering of Shadows, Becky Sharp, Dracula, George III, Grey London, GRRM, Paul Magrs, Pirates, Regency Magic, Shades of Magic, The Hunger Games, V.E. Schwab

Winter by Marissa Meyer
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: November 10th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 832 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Kidnapping Kai on his wedding day was basically a declaration of war against Queen Levana. But Kai needed to know the whole truth about Levana, and more importantly, about Cinder; that she is Princess Selene, the true ruler of Luna. The rebels, Cinder, Iko, Cress, Thorne, and Wolf, need to get to Luna to broadcast Cinder's identity, foment a rebellion, and rescue Scarlet. After their plan is formed they return Kai to his now decimated palace where he declares his continued allegiance to the alliance with Luna and his desire to still marry Levana. The wedding is rescheduled for ten days later. In Artemesia, the capital of Luna. Just as they had planned. They are going to use Kai's ship as a Trojan Horse and sneak right into the capital. Levana had thought of this outcome and was prepared, but so had Cinder and her friends, enough distractions and they have escaped Levana's grasp once more. Winter has also escaped Levana's grasp, with the help of her guard Jacin and Scarlet, her death was faked and they were able to escape the capital. The two groups meet at Wolf's mother's house in the outer sectors. Maha Kesley offers them shelter, but they know any illusion of safety won't be long lived.

They are now not just outlaws but have an entire moon's worth of soldiers actively hunting them. As rebellion begins to take hold Cinder and Wolf are captured by Levana. But with Winter using her natural charisma to enlist help for Cinder out in the outer sectors there is still hope. What's more, by putting Cinder on trial Levana made a major mistake. Cinder was able to capture Levana's true face. Using her cybernetics Cinder was able to document not just Levana's biggest secret but the travesty of her own trial. Escaping from certain death once again the rebels marshal their forces and plot their final assault. They need to attack the palace head on with their forces from the other sectors, forces that Levana has tried to kill by releasing the letumosis virus. If Levana thinks that victory will be that easy, she is sadly mistaken. Using stealth and forces within the palace as well as those without Levana just might be defeated. But in the end it will come down to just Levana and Cinder in a room. One will be victorious and the other will be dead. Can Cinder get her happily ever after for herself and her friends or was it all just a glamour?

The Lunar Chronicles for me has been a ride of smooth freshly paved concrete and Illinois highways that peter out into dirt roads. There was the perfection that was Cress and the low point of Scarlet. But through it all it has been an overall enjoyable ride. The end of the journey was just a little bumpier than I would have liked. Winter was overlong and many chapters felt like the wheels where just spinning and there was no forward momentum. I'm not saying I wasn't satisfied by the ending, everyone ended up exactly where they should, it was just rough getting there. There was just too much toing and froing. They're in the palace, they're out of the palace, they're captured, they're free, they're in danger, they're safe. Over and over and over again. Exactly how many times do you have to break into a palace only to have to break out again only to have to break in again in one book? Many many times if Winter is the benchmark and with many different subsets of characters. There's literally only so much stalling I can take, which is exactly what every setback felt like. Stalling. It's like Meyer didn't want the end to happen too quickly so she threw in so many obstacles it was almost laughable. This ending was a long time coming. At times it felt like it wasn't going to come at all.

Also, while I admit that everyone ended up where they should, perhaps there should have been some repercussions? Yes, yes, I know this is a retelling of a Fairy Tale so a Fairy Tale HEA is expected, but wouldn't there have been more weight to the story if not everyone got an HEA? In particular I'm thinking about Wolf and his non-transformation transformation. When Wolf and Cinder are captured Wolf is forcibly turned back into one of the Queen's Guards. But more than that he's not just reprogrammed, he's remade into an even more wolfy mutant wolf solider. Snout elongated, mouth widened, my grandmother what big teeth you have, the whole Big Bad Wolf makeover. All that bio-engineering to make him not the Wolf Scarlet and the rest of them knew and loved. It is stressed over and over again that Wolf has been changed so dramatically that he is no longer who he was but just one look at Scarlet and it's all fine!?! It's like all that extensive surgery actually didn't change his appearance much at all. Say what!?! Pages and pages about how he's different and then it's all fixed with a kiss. This is the most Fairy Tale aspect of the entire book and I think that if some reality had been brought to bear just in this one instance the book would have been elevated. Wolf and Scarlet die for the cause? That makes much more sense.

But overall there were a lot of things that just didn't make sense as this series drew to a close. Not just the repetitive nature of the story or the fact that EVERY SINGLE PERSON gets an HEA, but there's The Hunger Games aspect. What I have loved about The Lunar Chronicles is that it took stories that were well known and loved and gave them an entirely new spin. Cinderella is a cyborg but also a space princess! How much more out of the box and original is that? And then when we meet all the wealthy residents of Artemesia they're just extras from The Hunger Games who happened to also be residents of The Capital, in that series and this. Um, what!?! This really just threw me for a loop. I've always touted this series as inventive and original and then in the entire structure of Luna it became a rip-off of another dystopian series. Instead of districts we have sectors, many devoted to the same purposes as those in The Hunger Games. Oh, and the Capital residents, glamours and gaudy clothing and wild looks aplenty. I seriously thought that Caesar Flickerman was going to do a play-by-play of Levana and Kai's wedding. And what baffled me most of all? This wasn't the Luna that we saw in Fairest! This is an entirely new and entirely derivative Luna! WTH people! I just couldn't get beyond this and I still can't. Why, just why!?!

And in the end, the saddest thing of all was that my predictions for the character Winter came true. When Scarlet came out I bemoaned the fact that with all the new characters being added in each volume that by the time we got to Winter's story she would be entirely sidelined. And she was. And this just makes me pissed. Why? Because this book is overly long and filled with all this unnecessary padding and somewhere, deep down in its heart, is this amazing story that is only Winter's. The way Meyer has updated the story of Snow White is exquisite, from the fake death in the menagerie to Levana handing her the apple dosed with the letumosis virus, each and every aspect of this book that is only Winter's story is perfection. There's an elegance and a sadness to her story that captures the bittersweet nature of looking back on Fairy Tales when you think you've outgrown them. The way she doesn't use her power because it's against her core beliefs but is making her insane, the natural charisma that makes the Lunar people drawn to her. I just wanted a book about Winter. No one else. She deserved her own story. She has spent her life in the shadows, tortured by Levana, the least she deserved was not to have the new Queen, Cinder, do the same thing. But such is life. No one, not even fictional characters I have come to love, get what they deserve.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Backlog Bonanza, Caesar Flickerman, Cinder, Cress, Dystopian, Fairest, Fairy Tales, Glamour, HEA, Levana, Luna, Marissa Meyer, Scarlet, Snow White, The Hunger Games, The Lunar Chronicles, Trojan Horse, Winter, Wolf

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: September 9th, 2014
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

The famous actor Arthur Leander died on the last night of the old world. He wasn't one to suffer like those in the ER on that snowy night in Toronto hailing the arrival of the Georgian Flu which would kill all but one in two hundred people. Arthur had a fatal heart attack onstage during his star performance in King Lear. He'd never know of the horrors that came after or of how he was a tenuous link between some of the survivors. He was blissfully ignorant of what was to come. Twenty years later Kirsten Raymonde is touring around what used to be Michigan with the Traveling Symphony. When she was a young girl she was in a production of King Lear with the great Arthur Leander. Now she is in a troupe that specializes in bringing Shakespeare to the various outposts of remaining civilization. The troupe tried other playwrights, but people seem to want what was best of the old world, and Shakespeare and classical music remind them of that. While Kirsten herself was too young to remember what was lost from the world before or even the first year after the collapse, she scours abandoned houses for mentions of the great actor who was kind to her and who gave her her most prized possessions, two issues of the comic Station Eleven.

To understand how lives have played out in this new world, we must go back to the previous world. The world where Arthur's first wife was working on a comic, a world where his second wife was conspiciously present at a vapid dinner party celebrating Arthur's wedding anniversary to his first wife. The birth of Arthur's son while Arthur was already moving on to wife number three. Arthur's oldest friend betraying him while his dearest friend Clark will live long past Arthur's death. Each and every step and decision plays a role in a world that Arthur could never imagine and which he will never live to see. A world where an airport is a sanctuary, where survival is insufficient, and where Shakespeare brings people hope. A world that is at one and the same time embracing the past while trying to forge a future. A world that is dangerous to live in. A world where a prophet could spell destruction and ruin for people who only wish to live as they choose. Every moment could be these people's last, yet their survived the end of the world so they must try to rebuild it. To move forward, no matter the cost.

The irony isn't lost on me that a book that touts the credo from Star Trek that "survival is insufficient" is literally only about survival, and I really hope it wasn't lost on the author. There are many ways in which Station Eleven differs from your typical post-apocalyptic story, but the lofty ideals of the book might be the biggest difference. It wants so much to be different, to show that art is needed for sanity and survival, yet in the end all the Traveling Symphony's journey boils down to is surviving to the next day, the next outpost of civilization. If it wasn't for this dichotomy between the book's ideals and what the book actually represents I think it would have worked better. Station Eleven is an intriguing mood piece that embraces different ways of storytelling, from lists to dialogue to interviews, slipping through time and the character's timelines to create a vibrant world which in no way embraces the ideals of that Star Trek quote. It just feels so shoehorned in. Like Emily St. John Mandel heard that line of dialogue and jumped off from there, forgetting that the story and this motto should actually connect. And it's not that I don't fully embrace the idea that we need more to survive, it's just that Station Eleven, boiled down to it's essence, is only about surviving, nothing more. The book might have lofty ideals, but in the end it's a post-apocalyptic story, and those are all about survival.

Aside from this quibble I liked that the narrative wasn't your typical post-apocalyptic story. Post-apocalyptic stories tend to fall into two categories, one is that the apocalypse has just happened and our hero or heroine has to survive the initial destruction of the world to help rebuild it in some nebulous future. The second is that the apocalypse happened generations ago and our hero or heroine is living under a not ideal future regime, in other words, think The Hunger Games. Here we see the initial outbreak, but then we flash forward. Not to some "Hunger Games" world but to a more pioneer world, where the old world isn't long gone, but the new world hasn't fully been formed yet. It's not just about getting from day to day, but also trying to come to terms with the life they now have while still clinging to memories of the past. This, coupled with the flashbacks to the world before the flu, makes this a more intimate and personal story. It's not so much what happened to the world but what happened to these people. What happened to these characters who were connected to Arthur and how they survived in this new world. I can't help thinking about when asked what she most missed of the old world Kirsten won't answer, because it's too personal, and that, right there is why this book works. It's about these people.

Yet by spending so much time with these people and with their pasts we don't get any sense of what the future holds. Perhaps we could say that "survival is insufficient" should be the outlook going forward. All we see is them coping, surviving day to day, year to year, without any real forward momentum. The Traveling Symphony and how they are continually stuck touring one route, year in, year out, kind of symbolizes humanity at it's current stage. They have found a comfortable routine and now don't deviate from it. Yes, their might be risk venturing off the accustomed path, but humanity is stagnating. They aren't trying to fix the world, they're just living in it. My mind kept getting stuck on questions like why don't people try to do this that or the other. Why can't they have electricity? Get some smart people together, congregate in a large community, and FIGURE IT OUT! Twenty years and they have grown lazy. Sure, the author tries to romanticize the situation a bit with the Traveling Symphony harking back to days gone by when troupes traveled the countryside bringing culture to the masses and how Shakespeare himself lived in a plague ridden time. Yes, these are interesting comparisons, but also remember people in Shakespeare's time were trying to better themselves, to move forward, not live in the past and not move on. The only flicker of hope happens in the last few pages; while personally I could have done with the hope a little earlier.

And, of course, because this is a post-apocalyptic story the Big Bad has to be a Prophet who has multiple wives and runs off anyone who doesn't play by his rules. This is Stephen King 101 people. Think of The Stand. This Prophet is the main reason this book is problematic to me. Yes, I can look beyond the lack of hope, I can look beyond the disconnect between the message and what really happens, but I can't look beyond cliched characters that bog down the narrative. This character should have been spooky, terrifying, someone to run from. Instead he's meh. It's not just that his beliefs are bog standard for any post-apocalyptic Prophet, it's that he's predictable. The least you can do with going with a cliche is embrace it. Go all out! Make him over the top, someone so big for their britches that the megalomania carries the character on a wave of crazy through his predictability. Instead I just hoped for him to have as little time on the page as possible. As for his back story... well, if you didn't figure out who he was about two seconds into his first mysterious reveal, aka what he named his dog, there might not be any hope for you. Now I'm not going to spoil this reveal for you, because that is truly cruel, but the predictability of who he is and how he got this way, well, it quite literally smacked this book down a few stars. In fact it made the whole back end of the book slide from a pretty original story into predictable meh.

But in the end what did I expect from a story where the lynchpin is a dislikable actor? Yes, we could go on one of those endless debates about how there are antiheroes and antiheroines, and that characters don't need to be likable, yeah yeah, the Vanity Fair of it all; but I'll always come to the same conclusion, sure, they don't need to be likable, but they at least have to be fascinating. For some people, aka, the people who love to watch Entertainment Tonight and read People and think TMZ is the best news out there might take glee in having an actor, even a fictitious one, be the lynchpin to a story. Because they like celebrity gossip and dishing dirt. But for me celebrity in and of itself doesn't make a character interesting. In fact all Arthur's cheating and his storytelling about his home island made me just want to smack him for his pretensions. The more I learned about him the more I disliked him. I honestly can not see the draw to him. Telling us over and over what a great actor he is doesn't make it so. Making him your lynchpin in a story without fully investing the time to make him fascinating makes your narrative weak. Station Eleven started out so strong, with memorable visuals and interesting developments, like the comic book, but it kept falling off in quality till it ended with a whimper. Much like what the dog Luli would do if reprimanded.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Apocalypse, Backlog Bonanza, Big Bad, Celebrities, Comics, Emily St. John Mandel, King Lear, Post-Apocalyptic, Prophet, Shakespeare, Star Trek, Station Eleven, Stephen King, The Hunger Games, The Stand, Vanity Fair

Shadow and Bone (The Grisha Book 1) by Leigh Bardugo
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: June 5th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Alina and Mal only have each other. Orphaned in the wars they grew up looking to each other for everything. Now they are in the first army together, Mal's a tracker and Alina's a cartographer. But little does Mal know Alina's true feelings for him. The way her heart thumps when he's near or how she worries that they might be parted. Their parting is near at hand. The land of Ravka is divided by a darkness, a nothing. The capital is cut off from the ports and the country has been vulnerable for hundreds of years while creatures roam the blackness killing those who try to cross. Mal and Alina are about to attempt the crossing with their units; only everything goes wrong. The evil creatures with their blind eyes attack and it looks as if they are both going to die, but then a light as bright as the sun shines out and cuts the creatures down. Little does Alina realize that the light emanated from her.

Being called before the leader of the second army, the Darkling, Alina thinks that for some reason she is in trouble, but doesn't know why she is brought before the Grisha. The Grisha are masters of the small science, innate abilities in them that classify them as Corporalki, Etheralki, or Materialki, with powers ranging from stopping a human heart to metallurgy. Summoning the Sun means that Alina is a Etheralki who somehow avoided detection. Finding out that she isn't in trouble but is in fact what their country has been praying for since the arrival of this dark rift puts pressure beyond measure on Alina. Not only is she trying to forget being separated from Mal, but dealing with the cosseted little world of backbiting Grishas, all while she's trying come to gripes with a power she never knew she had and hoping that it's all a big mistake or joke. Yet what if the Darkling has a different purpose in mind for Alina's powers the banishing the darkness? Will she be able to withstand his magnetism and the allure of life at court?

I remember reading a review about Shadow and Bone wherein they said it was dark, Russian, and left a vivid impression on me of a girl wandering a desolate landscape of evil shadows. Now that I've read the book I wonder if the reviewer had actually bothered to pick it up because this isn't some Russian Dorthy Gale lost in the wilderness, but the reviewer I guess could be said to have done their job because it did make me pick it up. And you know what? I wasn't disappointed that the only thing the reviewer really got right was the Russian and the darkness because it was a fun fast read. There's nothing overly original or revolutionary in this book, it is too obviously like other books then like itself to be called first rate literature. The plot set up is typical YA in structure, outcast has an ability they never knew they had and can save everyone... sounds familiar right? It's Tamora Pierce meets Buffy meets Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games meets The Neverending Story meets on and on and on. But somehow Bardugo makes it work more for her then against her. Even if Mal is too obviously Nathan Fillion in Firefly, name and all, it just works. Plus, I've a habit of wanting Nathan Fillion in all my books, so here I didn't even have to make an effort!

The real reason this book works more then it fails is that it was fun having a different setting then usual. YA literature tends to break down into a few distinct categories; post apocalyptic society, fairy tale re-tellings, or fantasy world. You rarely get to see re-imagings of past time periods but with fantastical elements, their are of course exceptions to this rule like Robin LaFevers' His Fair Assassin Series, but Russia, Russia is rarely tackled. Yet, with all things there are the parts that work and the parts that don't. I was enthralled with the court life and how Bardugo took a simple coat and was able to hint at the culture, but also was able to break down that culture with the use of colors and the distinctions in the threading. It was the little things, the details that she got just right. But she also got some big things quite wrong. Sometimes the place names or wordings, well, it was kind of overly kitschy or bang your head dumb. Kind of a when in doubt add a "ki" or a "nik" to the end of the word worldbuilding. No, I'm sorry, that doesn't make it Russian. Also Tsibeya for Siberia... not really feeling that. Funny spellings, no. The worst is Fjerda, which I'm taking to be Norway, because of the Fjords that the country is noted for. The problem I have with this is every time I see the word Fjerda or Fjerdian, the way it sounds in my head is like the Swedish Chef trying to talk, so it's the land of Børk Børk Børk.

But it's the subtler undertones of Mother Russia that coheres the book versus the more absurd elements (Børk). The mirroring of the political situation of Russia at the beginning of the last century was spot on. Strip out all the Grishas and the magic, take out an evil nothing and what have we got? We have a country with a widening gap between the haves and the have nots. The King is just a figurehead that no one respects and has a mysterious religious leader as counsel. The power of the country resides in the army and out of this a megalomaniac leader will take the country's reigns for his own will. So the Darkling is Stalin or Lenin, with the Apparat as Rasputin. I would not be the least bit surprised to see the Tsar and his family hurried into a cellar in the next book so that they can never be a threat to the Darkling ever again. Yet by seeing this through a filter of fiction and fantasy it somehow makes it more real then less real. When we travel with Alina from her life of drudgery in the army to her life of splendor in the Little Palace, we get to see in stark relief the widening gap between the haves and the have nots. Sometimes it takes another medium to filter events for us to get at the truth of something, and that is what Leigh Bardugo has done in Shadow and Bone. It might not be perfect, but it is memorable and echoes down the ages to our shared history.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alina, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Darkling, Firefly, Grisha Trilogy, Harry Potter, Leigh Bardugo, Nathan Fillion, Ravka, Robin LaFevers, Russia, Shadow and Bone, Swedish Chef, The Hunger Games, The Neverending Story

Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Daughter of Smoke and Bone Book 3) by Laini Taylor
Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 8th, 2014
Format: Hardcover, 624 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

The war between the Seraphim and the Chimera has come to Earth. Cunningly arriving in a guise to lull humanity into submission Karou and Akiva know that their only chance to succeed against these "angels" led by Jael is to return to Eretz and convince the Misbegotten Seraphim to ally themselves with the few remaining Chimera in an attempt to destroy Jael and bring peace to the two worlds. The fact that Jael brings a warning to the Vatican of the "beasts" and "monsters" that have been warring with them makes it even more imperative that the outcasts lead by Karou abandon the hideout in Morroco, which is soon found and studiously dissected by scientists, and escape through the tear in the dimensions. But aligning the previously combative forces looks like it might be harder then Karou and Akiva thought. If they can't pull off a compromise how will they destroy Jael and get a chance at making a future together? Going against their natures a plan is hatched that will at least save Earth and lure the fight back to the one dimension. Hopefully they can defeat the enemy on the land that has been soaked with their blood for many a year, if not, at least they have saved Earth. Yet their destinies might already be written in the stars.

What the godstars was that? In all seriousness, there is always a problem with final books in a series that have been predominately about the battle of good versus evil. Because the final installment will always be the final showdown. I don't really want to read about battles, which is the fatal flaw in The Hunger Games series when Mockingjay basically became a post apocalyptic version of The Hurt Locker. Dreams of Gods and Monsters nicely sidesteps this by focusing on the main characters who are peripheral to the battles because they are involved in other schemes, but quickly falls of a cliff. You really need to watch your footing in perilous denouements, a cliff or quicksand could be there waiting to smother all your hopes for a satisfying conclusion. The fact that, while sometimes rambling, I liked where the book was going until about the last thirty pages makes the ending even more of a betrayal. Yes, you can't make everyone happy, I get that, but still, I was hoping for something more.

Because my issues with this final book occur in the final pages I don't think that my talking about spoilers will be that surprising, because my need for discourse with my issues is greater then my need for silence, but I will therefore just warn you that spoilers are ahead. So you have been warned. Spoilers. So you're not reading anymore unless you want to know why I was so disappointed? Good. I shall continue my rant. The last few chapters don't give us a denouement they give us a beginning. Instead of being successful, reaching the end of their battles, and getting a happily ever after, we get this amorphous ending that is both unsatisfying and puzzling. Yes life is complicated, yes endings aren't necessarily tied up with a bow, but that doesn't mean you introduce tons of new stuff that no one gets, not even the characters, with twenty pages left and call it a day. I cry FOWL! As an author the worst thing you can do is give us a beginning instead of an ending. There's different kinds of endings, you can have some lack of closure, you can make it not happy for everyone, but you can't give us something that doesn't even make sense to the characters in the book. I was left wondering if there is going to be a spin off series, like many YA series are doing now, because this isn't an ending. I don't know how many times I can say this in regard to this book. Starting something new and different without giving closure first makes me want to burn this book a little.

Ok, let me break it down more. Akiva's people, the Stelians, they've always been mysterious and doing whatever they do, so it does make sense that they finally arrive and explain to Akiva that he needs some training, whatever, I'm cool with this. But then to have this mystic vision wherein this outside force, a force we've just learned of fairly recently in this book, will be defeated by everyone in the room becoming gods, aka the godstars? Gorram it, what the hell is this about? And trust me, Karou and Akiva and just as mystified as you and me! It's like the book became an entirely different book. The humor goes away and we are left with this idea that somehow they will all become stars? What, like at the end of Stardust where when they die they become stars? But that doesn't seem to be what this book is saying. They have a big battle ahead, a battle we don't understand or know about, but it's coming, here's a tacky epilogue with the characters still not knowing what's going on but at least Karou and Akiva get some action in some semblance of a happily ever after. How could this satiate anyone?

This also negates the wonderful worldbuilding that this series was known for up until this point which still has many previous questions unanswered. By adding in this unnecessary and convoluted worldbuilding with the Stelians and their weird dimension punching more questions are asked rather then answered. It is almost like Laini Taylor was going, "Oh shit, I forgot everything about Akiva and his people, what do I do?" Followed by a glut of information that will lead to a WTF reveal with an ending that no one, not even the characters get. I seriously cannot state it enough. The characters don't know what's going on so how can I!?! But the most annoying fact is, until the Stelians take Akiva down into that little cave, Laini had set up the perfect ending. Everyone was where I thought they should be. Even Liraz and Ziri were perfect, and of course Zuzana and Mik were more then perfect, and then vomit. I was hoping for them rebuilding their world, bringing their people together, learning more about how exactly the magic works, not getting ready for some big battle that I couldn't care less about because I just learned about it. This series connected with me, even if I never really liked Akiva and had some issues, but the fact that Laini made me even care about characters that I don't really like I felt they deserved more then this. And it's not that I deserved more, it was ok if unsatisfying, I just felt that these characters I have loved so much were just worthy of so much more, and not becoming some nebulous gods in some epic battle for the worlds.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Akiva, Chimera, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Dreams of Gods and Monsters, Gods, Godstars, Karou, Laini Taylor, Mockingjay, Seraphim, Stardust, Summer Series, The Hunger Games, The Hurt Locker, Worldbuilding, Zuzana

Mockingjay: The Final Book of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Published by: Scholastic
Publication Date: August 24th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy
"Fire is cathing. And If we burn, you burn with us." Katniss may be out of the area and in the medical ward of District 13, but she is not out of the games. The inhabitants of 13 lead a very ordered life with everything planned and regimented, from your schedule printed on your arm when you wake, to how much food you need to survive. All of which Katniss ignores, choosing to sleep and hide. But President Coin has plans for how they will destroy the current government and the Capital. Plans that hinge on Katniss being the Mockingjay. After much to and fro Katniss acquiesces. But President Coin's use of Katniss is very similar to her use in the hunger games... Katniss will be the face of the rebellion with staged skirmishes and perfectly disarrayed hair. In other words, the rebellion will be just as fake as the government it is trying to destroy. The problem is Katniss rings false, she can't act, so in the end she gets just what she wanted, action. She's thrown into situations with her own film crew who then create the rebellion's propaganda. The capital retaliates with Peeta and a few bombs, the rebels counterattack with harsh truths of prostitution and poisonings. One thing is clear, having any of the victors at the mercy of the Capital is now unacceptable and a jail break is planned. They succeed, but maybe they were meant to. Peeta has been turned against them with all his memories distorted so that he no longer trusts Katniss and attempts to kill her. Having the one thing she was sure of yanked out from under her she realizes that it's time to step it up and take on the Capitol on their home turf. A home turf that has been rigged and bobby trapped more elaborately than any arena ever. As the death toll rapidly rises and mutts are at their heals, it is clear that Katniss doesn't plan to survive if she can win. But can you trust anyone? President Snow may be evil, but he has never hidden the fact. A new regime that is built on false promises and hidden cruelty could be a greater sin than letting the current leaders stay. But the real question is, will there be another Hunger Games?

The final book lived up to my expectations, true or not true? Not true, sadly. While I think, in the end, everyone ended up where I wanted them to be, there were some people left missing. Suzanne Collins killed some characters I can never forgive her for. Yes, I know it's a rebellion, yes, I know casualties are inevitable, but still, there are some people who shouldn't die. There are some people who should be safe. This is fiction, you can have the good live and the bad punished. Despite it being a chilling depiction of war, let some innocents live please! I think that's where this book failed me, it's just a long war. Katniss is a pawn at the mercy of this giant war machine where we don't get the minute to minute struggles, we get the greater picture while Katniss spends a lot of her time in a drug induced haze. This book is so contemporary while being a distopian future that it's jarring. The human race has fought and will always fight, maybe even to the brink of extinction. But it's the battle scared, drug addicted, pained wrecks that are left to re-create the world, when all they want to do is retreat. The characters seemed to have lost themselves and we are left with shells. It's a PTSD lineup of who's the most damaged. It's almost as if everyone has become Haymitch. They all have a crutch but have all lost their sense of humor. I am glad it's over, I'm glad they won, but I'm still sad because I feel like it could have been so much more than a post apocalyptic version of The Hurt Locker.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Katniss, Mockingjay, Peeta, President Coin, President Snow, PTSD, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, The Hurt Locker

Now that Harry Potter is over and done with, what is there to look forward too... oh yeah! The Hunger Games! Look at this goregoues poster that was repelased today. These books stick with you and one thing that really sticks with you is how they would be a simply amazing summer blockbuster. Glad someone is thinking the way I do in Hollywoodland!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Harry Potter, The Hunger Games

Mockingjay: The Final Book of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Published by: Scholastic
Publication Date: August 24th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year."

Literally THE BOOK of the summer, sadly my summer ends today with school starting... but still, school be damned! MOCKINGJAY!!!

Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs
Published by: Scribner
Publication Date: August 24th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A perplexing death in Quebec occupies Dr. Temperance Brennan in Reichs's fine 13th novel featuring the forensic anthropologist (after 206 Bones). The fingerprints of a man who died during autoerotic asphyxiation indicate that the deceased is John Charles Lowery of North Carolina, but Lowery supposedly died in Vietnam in 1968. Unsurprisingly, Lowery's father is reluctant to allow Brennan to reopen old family wounds, but she's determined to find out who's buried in Lowery's grave if Lowery died in Quebec. Brennan heads to Hawaii to seek the help of an old friend at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), whose mission is to find the remains of American war dead and bring them home. But instead of clarifying matters, Brennan's investigation only raises more questions, including parallel inquiries into a series of shark attacks and escalating island gang violence. Reichs, who once again uses her own scientific knowledge to enhance a complex plot and continually developing characters, delivers a whopper of a final twist."

I really didn't expect any other books to be released today, seeing as most people wouldn't want to share the day with Mockingjay, but I think Bones' friends are different enough that it shouldn't hurt Brennan one bit.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bones, Kathy Reichs, Mockingjay, Spider Bones, Suzanne Collins, Temperance Brennan, The Hunger Games

Today must be the day for bookcovers! Two, count 'em, two! Books that I can't wait for had their covers revealed today. I'm sure by now you've all seen the new Suzanne Collins cover, seeing as everyone who's anyone is posting it. It makes the wait till August 24th a little harder, but at the same time the book is that much more real, plus how awesome is the title? We also got the new Lauren Willig cover for her Christmas themed book, The Mischief of the Mistletoe. The lovely lady look a little familiar to you too? Could that be here on the paperback of The Masque of the Black Tulip? Who knew her hair was that golden? I sure didn't...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 4:41 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Christmas, Lauren Willig, Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, The Masque of the Black Tulip, The Mischief of the Mistletoe