strange and random happenstance

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

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Published by: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 415 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Lily Hu knows she's different than other girls. It's not just that she's smarter and likes math it's that, unlike her best friend Shirley, she really doesn't have any interest in boys. Lily can use her parents' strictures as the reason why she doesn't date, but the real reason is she doesn't want to. Boys don't stir anything in her like they do Shirley. But then, one day helping out at Shirley's parents restaurant, Lily sees an ad in the paper that stirs something in her. It's for Tommy Andrews, a male impersonator at the Telegraph Club. She furtively rips the ad out and it becomes a talisman for her. A dangerous talisman. One day it slips out of it's hiding spot and her fellow classmate Kathleen Miller picks it up. Kathleen and Lily are the only two girls in the advanced math class, both with dreams in the heavens, and it turns out they have more in common than Lily thought as Kathleen says that she has been to see Tommy at the Telegraph Club. Her friend Jean took her and Kath will take Lily if she wishes. It is Lily's greatest wish to go, but the experience is more unnerving than she thought it would be. It's not lying to her parents and risking their safety, or even being in a bar with so many women free to be themselves, it's the fact that the Tommy of her imagination was a matinee idol yet the real Tommy is flesh and blood and female. How she's feeling inside is no longer hypothetical, it has shape and form, and that form is looking more and more like Kath. But there are consequences to Lily's actions, Shirley has warned her about Kathleen and in particular Kathleen's friend Jean who was thrown out of school when she was found with another girl in the band room. When she first heard the story Lily couldn't understand what could drive someone to do something so risky. Now she's endangering herself every minute with her thoughts and actions. But love, true love, is worth all the consequences.

When Last Night at the Telegraph Club was released to such acclaim, topping best of lists left and right, I thought it sounded like a rich historical fiction novel about the LGBTQ experience in 1950s San Francisco. And it is that, don't get me wrong, I just didn't think it would be so YA. And Last Night at the Telegraph Club is epicly YA in all the good and bad ways. YA, even YA done right, has a certain cringe factor, you're looking back at your teen years and you feel all the feels all over again. The sweats breaking out when you see your crush, the itch on your skin as they draw near, the horrible replay of how your tongue fumbled to form coherent words around them. It's all here. Even the horrible betrayal of a former best friend. Everyone's teenage years seem to distill down to the same level of hormonal tension and Malinda Lo has captured that universality for good and for ill. But she has also captured the deeper identity struggle that happens when you realize you're not like everyone else. I was also forcefully reminded of a situation I was in in college. One of my friends started dating a guy. She was Vietnamese and he was white. She knew her parents wouldn't approve so one day when they were on a date she told her mother she was with me. I was not informed that I was her alibi and called her house. Her cover was blown and thereafter she created a fake girl who she was hanging out with when she was really with her boyfriend. I commented that it was lucky she wasn't gay because otherwise her mom would be suspicious of this new girl friend. Her response was that "that wouldn't happen." Reading Lily's mom say there "are no homosexuals in this family" brought that moment back to me after twenty years. To have someone who you love so much deny who you are, I just don't get how anyone could be so cruel. Love is love. I'm just lucky enough to have been raised in a family that believes this.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1950s, Communism, Drag King, For the Love of Book Clubs, Historical Fiction, Kathleen Miller, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Lesbian, LGBTQ, Lily Hu, Love, Malinda Lo, San Francisco, Tommy Andrews, YA

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Published by: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 415 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Lily Hu knows she's different than other girls. It's not just that she's smarter and likes math it's that, unlike her best friend Shirley, she really doesn't have any interest in boys. Lily can use her parents' strictures as the reason why she doesn't date, but the real reason is she doesn't want to. Boys don't stir anything in her like they do Shirley. But then, one day helping out at Shirley's parents restaurant, Lily sees an ad in the paper that stirs something in her. It's for Tommy Andrews, a male impersonator at the Telegraph Club. She furtively rips the ad out and it becomes a talisman for her. A dangerous talisman. One day it slips out of it's hiding spot and her fellow classmate Kathleen Miller picks it up. Kathleen and Lily are the only two girls in the advanced math class, both with dreams in the heavens, and it turns out they have more in common than Lily thought as Kathleen says that she has been to see Tommy at the Telegraph Club. Her friend Jean took her and Kath will take Lily if she wishes. It is Lily's greatest wish to go, but the experience is more unnerving than she thought it would be. It's not lying to her parents and risking their safety, or even being in a bar with so many women free to be themselves, it's the fact that the Tommy of her imagination was a matinee idol yet the real Tommy is flesh and blood and female. How she's feeling inside is no longer hypothetical, it has shape and form, and that form is looking more and more like Kath. But there are consequences to Lily's actions, Shirley has warned her about Kathleen and in particular Kathleen's friend Jean who was thrown out of school when she was found with another girl in the band room. When she first heard the story Lily couldn't understand what could drive someone to do something so risky. Now she's endangering herself every minute with her thoughts and actions. But love, true love, is worth all the consequences.

When Last Night at the Telegraph Club was released to such acclaim, topping best of lists left and right, I thought it sounded like a rich historical fiction novel about the LGBTQ experience in 1950s San Francisco. And it is that, don't get me wrong, I just didn't think it would be so YA. And Last Night at the Telegraph Club is epicly YA in all the good and bad ways. YA, even YA done right, has a certain cringe factor, you're looking back at your teen years and you feel all the feels all over again. The sweats breaking out when you see your crush, the itch on your skin as they draw near, the horrible replay of how your tongue fumbled to form coherent words around them. It's all here. Even the horrible betrayal of a former best friend. Everyone's teenage years seem to distill down to the same level of hormonal tension and Malinda Lo has captured that universality for good and for ill. But she has also captured the deeper identity struggle that happens when you realize you're not like everyone else. I was also forcefully reminded of a situation I was in in college. One of my friends started dating a guy. She was Vietnamese and he was white. She knew her parents wouldn't approve so one day when they were on a date she told her mother she was with me. I was not informed that I was her alibi and called her house. Her cover was blown and thereafter she created a fake girl who she was hanging out with when she was really with her boyfriend. I commented that it was lucky she wasn't gay because otherwise her mom would be suspicious of this new girl friend. Her response was that "that wouldn't happen." Reading Lily's mom say there "are no homosexuals in this family" brought that moment back to me after twenty years. To have someone who you love so much deny who you are, I just don't get how anyone could be so cruel. Love is love. I'm just lucky enough to have been raised in a family that believes this.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1950s, Communism, Drag King, Historical Fiction, Kathleen Miller, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Lesbian, LGBTQ, Lily Hu, Love, Malinda Lo, Pride, San Francisco, Science Fiction, Shirley Lum, Tommy Andrews, YA

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

Bookstore: The King's English Bookshop

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

The Official Patter: "The King’s English Bookshop opened its door (there was only one, to start) in 1977. Betsy Burton and Ann Berman, book lovers and aspiring writers, thought they had it all figured out. They rented an old building with several rooms, thinking they’d write their Great American Novels in the back, emerging to sell a book or two whenever the bells on the front door jangled to announce the arrival of a customer. The women soon realized the jingling bells were not a distraction from their writing life but a welcome sound, signalling the opportunity to meet new friends and talk books. The bookshop became a full-time labor of love."

Why I Love Them: The interesting thing about Utah is this was the epicenter for the rise of the YA movement. Just look at all the authors who write in that genre and still live there: James Dasher, Ally Condie, Shannon Hale, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson (in a one-two Brandon punch), and Jessica Day George. If we go back to those who've since left we'll see the darling of the YA genre, Stephenie Meyer, was also a member of the Utah literati. Having that many big name authors is a boon to an independent bookstore, and that boon was 100% there for The King's English Bookshop. But it's friendliness to YA authors meant it also became a hub for authors on tour, so you could catch everyone from Marissa Meyer to Leigh Bardugo stopping by.   

Best Buy: For more years than I can remember I've been a fan of Shannon Hale. I was lucky enough to meet her once at a bookstore here in Wisconsin and another time down in Illinois. But in recent years as her proliferation as a writer has grown her author appearances outside the sphere of Utah and it's environs has waned. So needless to say the reason I first became away of The King's English Bookshop was because she was signing there. Since then all my Shannon Hale books have come from The King's English, in fact I'm impatiently (very impatiently) awaiting two books at this very moment! But of all her books there is one that I view the most important, the true best buy. When the fourth book in her Bayern series Forest Born was released in 2009 it had a cover that broke with the look of the previous three books. The previous three volumes had simply gorgeous covers by the amazingly talented Alison Jay. These covers are in fact why I picked up the series. But then artistic covers were no longer in vogue and instead we got a picture cover with some YA waif instead of Alison Jay artwork for Forest Born. I was no happy. Shannon Hale herself didn't seem that happy with the change and saw that her fans weren't happy and did something about it. In 2011 a "special edition" of Forest Born was released with an Alison Jay cover and I didn't think I could be happier. But then Shannon was doing a signing at The King's English and I was able to get a signed copy of this much hoped for edition. Therefore it is easily my best buy, and a book lovers dream come true to have all the covers of a series matching!  

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alison Jay, Bayern, Forest Born, Illinois, Impatient, Jessica Day George, Leigh Bardugo, Marissa Meyer, Online, Shannon Hale, Support Your Brick and Mortar, The King's English Bookshop, Utah, Wisconsin, YA

Victoria Schwab, AKA V.E. Schwab if she's writing for adults and not YA or middle grade or just embracing the whole J.K. Rowling book readers are sexist vibe, is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen books. She had an eclectic childhood with a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a southern upbringing leading to some interesting linguist habits if you are lucky enough to meet her. Her love of fairy tales and folklore has made her someone who is obsessed with writing about magical portals, just look to Kell's abilities in her Shades of Magic series. Because, if anything, doors are what seem to define Victoria's life. A wandering soul she has never settled on just going through one door. Why would you when you could try to go through them all? This lead her to changing her major six times when she was at Washington University in St. Louis. Physics, Film, Set Design, Art History, English, Communication Design doesn't seem so unsettled when you look at all the jobs she's had; department store clerk, assistant caterer, personal chef, dog daycare attendant, bookstore clerk, writer. I for one am very glad she finally landed on writer.

Her "wicked case" of wanderlust means she's not even settled in where she lives, splitting her time between Nashville (where she grew up), rural France (where her family lives), and Edinburgh (where she buried her heart), as well as touring to promote her latest book. But as she's haunting the Paris streets or trudging up English hillsides, or even tucked into the corner of a coffee shop she's dreaming up monsters and stories, because the fact is wandering is a good way to "stir up stories." All those questions that can be drawn from old tales of what is under that burrow, where could that door lead, what about the "places between, and the cracks where reality slips into something darker, stranger?" For the constant reader who loves hearth and home over the wider world, it's wonderful to be a fan of an author who, while sharing similar loves from BBC Shows to baking cookies, also is the exact opposite. She goes out into the world and then brings back the stories, twists and turns them, and makes them into echoes of this world and others. I can't wait for her next adventure to make it to print! I need a good escape.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Doors, Edinburgh, Fairy Tales, Folklore, France, J.K. Rowling, Kell, Middle Grade, Nashville, Paris, Regency Magic, Shades of Magic, St. Louis, V.E. Schwab, Victoria Schwab, Wanderlust, Washington University, YA

The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead
Published by: Razorbill
Publication Date: April 5th, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Lady Elizabeth Witmore, the Countess of Rothford, can't stand her life. Orphaned and raised by her grandmother on their ever diminishing funds she is being forced into a marriage with a distant cousin who has a very overbearing mother. Her household is being scattered and she is surprised to find out that one of her maids, Ada, has been approached by The Glittering Court. The Glittering Court is in essence a mail-order bride service for those wealthy men who have a pioneering spirit and have relocated to the New World, Adoria. The Court spends a year training the girls in all the skills Elizabeth has had drilled into her since birth and then they are sent to Adoria where hopefully a bidding war will ensue. The Court makes money and the girls are given a chance at a life they could never have dreamt of. Though Ada seems oddly reluctant. She'd far rather go home to her family's dairy than go to Adoria. Which gives Lady Elizabeth an idea. She will take Ada's place. The idea formed in her mind has to be acted on quickly. The Court is picking up Ada that night. Elizabeth quickly sends Ada off to the dairy of her dreams and feigns a headache. As soon as she is alone she dons Ada's clothes and leaves her house as Adelaide, leaving "Lady Elizabeth" behind.

The first hurdle happens almost immediately. Cedric Thorn, whom Ada and Elizabeth met that afternoon, is in the carriage and soon the alarm is raised for a missing Countess. But Cedric keeps her secret and when they arrive at the manor where "Adelaide" will be taught they reach an agreement, Cedric explaining how she mustn't excel, she must reign in all that is natural to her, and he won't tell anyone who she really is. Over the following months she feels freer than she ever has before. She has real friends in her roommates Mira and Tamsin. She has a future that is of her own making. But soon her heart starts to betray her. She's falling for Cedric and he's the number one person she shouldn't be falling for. As it turns out Cedric himself has secrets, and their bond grows stronger through the sharing of their true selves. Yet if anything, this friendship doesn't dampen "Adelaide's" desire to succeed, she throws caution to the wind and becomes the diamond in the crown of the Court. This might not have been the wisest plan, making herself so visible, but it affords her the greatest leeway in choosing a husband as well as helping to protect Cedric's big secret. Yet truth will out and soon life in the New World is more dangerous than just worrying about the natives.

When I was listening to the buzz surrounding this book I was all like, yeah, Elizabethan YA awesomeness, I'm so there! And yes, there's Elizabethan, but there's also Jamestown and Salem and the California Gold Rush and Braveheart and and and... there was too much and. The Glittering Court felt like a book with a multiple personality disorder, or to be more accurate a multiple period disorder. Richelle Mead clearly didn't know what time period she wanted to emulate so instead of forging the story's own unique blend she borrowed liberally from all these different periods. The key problem is this lack of integration. When the book is Elizabethan it's obviously Elizabethan, when the book is Salem it's obviously Salem. These abrupt shifts in period are jarring and take you out of the story. You never once get a true feeling for the world of Osfrid and Adoria, they are just aspects of our own past that aren't filtered through the narrative but clumsily transitioned to from one to the other. Each time period feels uniquely of it's own time never merging the story into a cohesive whole. Therefore the narrative never has a chance to be anything other than a clumsily told story that could have been so much more but instead is so much "other" that it never had a chance to be itself.

While these period shifts became more and more jarring I was surprised that I actually latched onto one of them. For a short while the book actually captured my attention. After Adelaide and Cedric have declared their love for each other and been ostracized from Adorian Society they try to make it panning for gold. This is obviously the California Gold Rush/Oregon Trail period of the book and totally not the Elizabethan book I had signed on for, but somehow it worked. By stripping the narrative of all the extraneous characters and customs and eras, by stripping it down to the bare minimum, all of a sudden I liked it. The book no longer had these multiple periods fighting for dominance and it proves 100% that if Mead had forged her own unique and simpler path then perhaps this book could have worked. Adelaide and Cedric panning for gold was delightful. For the first time you really felt their connection. Their relationship was no longer a plot contrivance and the HEA we were working towards. It was no longer them being thrown together, it was them coming together and forging their future. Plus, seeing the two of them outside their comfort zone and dealing with new challenges and everything this new environment threw at them was priceless. Cedric's lack of carpentry skills is truly a highlight of this book.

But this one little slice of the book didn't make up for how predictable and just plan meh it was overall. Literally each and every single "twist" was seen coming so far in advance it was like Mead was telegraphing the punches to come. Semaphore anyone? I mean as soon as I heard they had to sail to Adoria I'm all, shipwreck! And of course there is. But by that point I was all shipwreck fake out, and of course that was the case again. If I hadn't been trying to force myself to finish this book I might have been laughing at the book, instead I was groaning. I mean, seriously, the country they sail across the Sunset Sea to is Adoria!?! Horrid saccharine backlash, teeth aching from the sweetness. If at some point in your book about mail-order brides there is an attempted rape, perhaps tone down the Disney Princess vibe? The closest example to what this book reminds me of is the TV show Reign. Because despite being ostensibly about Mary Queen of Scots, it has modern pop music and dresses that sometimes look like they were designed by Dior. This combination of the Elizabethan time period and Gossip Girl works because of one key element, they know they are camp and play it up to the hilt and therefore it is fun. This lack of self-awareness, this inability to see what The Glittering Court really is it's downfall.

Yet even if Mead had camped it up or bothered to do some worldbuilding the book still couldn't have worked because of Elizabeth/Adelaide. I have so many issues with the lead I just want to smack her. Some of her faults could be blamed on her upbringing but keep in mind, she's fictional! So her tunnel vision, her self-absorbed, self-centered ways don't come off as quirks or obstacles to overcome, they just come across as annoying. Even when she's "helping" others it's really only to help herself. Oh, and her grief over her lost friend? Um... that seemed like self-indulgent whinging. Yes, there's pain, but she freakin' caused it by being so self-centered. If she had been a little self-sacrificing, perhaps she could have been redeemable, but even working the gold claim with Cedric is just so she can get Cedric. Every. Single. Thing. She. Does. Is. For. Herself. The ONLY aspect of her personality that I found interesting was her ability to forge artwork. This could have led somewhere, but instead it is a contrived plot device used as the deus ex machina. Imagine if this ability to mimic was used as a commentary on "Adelaide" herself? A girl who could be the perfect society woman, who could mimic what all the others did and in fact surpass them but in the end could never be unique. Now that would have added some depth to this book.

Yet, with a book titled The Glittering Court I should have realized it would all be surface, no depth. The old saying all that glitters isn't gold, just points out this is all glitter, the kind that rubs off onto your hands and gets everywhere. Because time and time again there were opportunities for depth, and time and time again they were pushed aside, and have resulted in a major plot hole. The central conceit of the book comes down to the feasibility of an actual "Glittering Court." Does this idea for fantastical Elizabethan mail-order brides seem possible? Well yes and no. Yes, what we've seen of it seems to work, but no because what about the previous brides? THIS is the plot hole. The previous members of the "Court" are mentioned ONCE in passing. Aiana is mentioned as an employee of the Court who checks up on the previous wives. But why is this the only mention of them? Don't you think that perhaps a goodly portion of these women are probably living in the main town in Adoria? Why don't we meet any of them? Don't you think that they could sell us, the readers, as well as the hesitant girls on accepting marriage proposals and the viability and success of this operation? But no, that's too much thinking for this book. Perhaps it will be addressed in a later volume. A volume which I won't be reading.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Art Forgery, Deus Ex Machina, Dior, Elizabethan, Gold Rush, Gossip Girl, Jamestown, Mail-Order Brides, Mary Queen of Scots, Oregon Trail, Reign, Richelle Mead, Salem Witch Trials, Shipwreck, The Glittering Court, YA

Ah, YA. I remember when you used to be a very small section near the Children's books and then slowly rose claiming more and more shelf space in bookstores until you were victorious and practically the entire second floor of Borders. In fact some of my favorite books and indeed many of my favorite series that I currently read are YA. I can't describe how fascinating it was to have watched this development. I think it's akin to when teenagers became a word back in the late thirties. They were always there, always present, but not quite fully formed because there wasn't a brand, a label that explained exactly what they were. And then one day, they were teenagers. And then one day, there were books for teenagers. And then a little while later, there was YA. Books written just for these young adults, but really, there are a lot of adults that read them to, because books and book genres shouldn't define your reading habits or shame you. OK, so that might have gotten a little ranty, but the truth is, YA books are so well written that most authors are fighting to release books in this genre. In fact, just a two summers ago I reveled in reading YA series for that whole summer. I read books by authors I hope never to read again, but I also found authors that I love so much I'm now a convert to anything they write. Therefore when looking at this current summer I realized I couldn't skip a YA section. There are just too many YA books out there that I want to read and not enough time! So I hope you'll join me with these final four books to end Backlog Bonanza with a bang.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Backlog Bonanza, Bookstores, Borders, Cassandra Clare, Children, Leigh Bardugo, Summer, Summer Series, Teenagers, YA, Young Adult

While I do love creating theme months and reading lists to go with these months, sometimes there's only so many Downtonesque books or Regency time period books one can take. The long and short of what I'm saying is that I read a lot more books than reviews I post here. On average I have about 104 reviews on my blog per year while I write anywhere from 50 to 70 more reviews... So I kind of have a backlog of book reviews that are just sitting around, collecting dust, being pushed further and further back in my blog queue. Therefore I was pondering, why not utalize this backlog for a theme month, or months... in fact I could throw in some books I've been dying to read and haven't had the time to get around to.

I was warming to this idea very fast when I concocted it a few months ago. And then I started playing with my blog calendar, and once I start playing with my blog calendar it's kind of a foregone conclusion that it's going to happen. Only once have a scraped an idea after it reached the calendar phase. So yes, Backlog Bonanza is happening. NOW! I've thematically divided the books up into categories from biographies to modern classics to science fiction. I'll also talk a little about each genre that is spotlighted and why I'm drawn to it. I'm also bringing back a giveaway! Because nothing says summer party like a free book? So let's get this party started!

Giveaway Prize:
A copy of the book of your choice from one of the books reviewed during Backlog Bonanza.

The Rules:
1. Open to EVERYONE (for clarification, this means international too).

2. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if your name is drawn, either your blogger profile or a link to your website/blog or you could even include your email address with your comment(s) or email me.

3. Contest ends Wednesday, August 31st at 11:59PM CST

4. How to enter: Just comment on this post for a chance to win!

5. And for those addicted to getting extra entries:

• +1 for answering the question: What is your favorite genre?
• +2 for becoming a follower
• +10 if you are already a follower
• +10 for each time you advertise this contest - blog post, instagram (miss.eliza), twitter (@eliza_lefebvre), etc. (but you only get credit for the first post in each platform, so tweet all you like, and I thank you for it, but you'll only get the +10 once from twitter). Also please leave a link! 
• +10 for each comment you leave on other Backlog Bonanza posts with something other than "I hope I win!" 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Backlog Bonanza, Biography, Blog, Book Review, Downtonesque, Fiction, Giveaway, Historical Fiction, Instagram, Modern Classic, Mystery, Regency, Science Fiction, Theme Month, Twitter, YA

The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead
Published by: Razorbill
Publication Date: April 5th, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A dazzling, romantic fantasy series set in a mix of Elizabethan and frontier worlds from Richelle Mead, #1 internationally bestselling author of Vampire Academy.

Big and sweeping, spanning the refined palaces of Osfrid to the gold dust and untamed forests of Adoria, The Glittering Court tells the story of Adelaide, an Osfridian countess who poses as her servant to escape an arranged marriage and start a new life in Adoria, the New World. But to do that, she must join the Glittering Court.

Both a school and a business venture, the Glittering Court is designed to transform impoverished girls into upper-class ladies who appear destined for powerful and wealthy marriages in the New World. Adelaide naturally excels in her training and even makes a few friends: the fiery former laundress Tamsin and the beautiful Sirminican refugee Mira. She manages to keep her true identity hidden from all but one: the intriguing Cedric Thorn, son of the wealthy proprietor of the Glittering Court.

When Adelaide discovers that Cedric is hiding a dangerous secret of his own, together, they hatch a scheme to make the best of Adelaide’s deception. Complications soon arise—first, as they cross the treacherous seas from Osfrid to Adoria, and later, when Adelaide catches the attention of a powerful governor.

But no complication will prove quite as daunting as the potent attraction simmering between Adelaide and Cedric. An attraction that, if acted on, would scandalize the Glittering Court and make them both outcasts in wild, vastly uncharted lands..."

THE most anticipated YA book of the spring... seriously people, all I hear is how much everyone wants to read this! Including myself!

In the Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: April 5th, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the Labyrinth of Drakes: the thrilling new book in the acclaimed fantasy series from Marie Brennan, as the glamorous Lady Trent takes her adventurous explorations to the deserts of Akhia.

Even those who take no interest in the field of dragon naturalism have heard of Lady Trent's expedition to the inhospitable deserts of Akhia. Her discoveries there are the stuff of romantic legend, catapulting her from scholarly obscurity to worldwide fame. The details of her personal life during that time are hardly less private, having provided fodder for gossips in several countries.

As is so often the case in the career of this illustrious woman, the public story is far from complete. In this, the fourth volume of her memoirs, Lady Trent relates how she acquired her position with the Royal Scirling Army; how foreign saboteurs imperiled both her work and her well-being; and how her determined pursuit of knowledge took her into the deepest reaches of the Labyrinth of Drakes, where the chance action of a dragon set the stage for her greatest achievement yet."

I should be all, awesome author alert, she's totally cool, instead I'm just really happy I can now spell Labyrinth... yeah. It's the small goals in life. 

The Reluctant Duchess by Roseanna M. White
Published by: Bethany House Publishers
Publication Date: April 5th, 2016
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A Riveting Edwardian Series Set among Britain's High Society.

Lady Rowena Kinnaird may be the heiress to a Highland earldom, but she has never felt good enough--not for her father, not for the man she thought she'd marry, not for God. But after a shocking attack, she's willing to be forever an outcast if it means escaping Loch Morar.

Brice Myerston, the Duke of Nottingham, has found himself in possession of a rare treasure his enemies are prepared to kill for. While Brice has never been one to shy away from manor-born ladies, the last thing he needs is the distraction of Lady Rowena, who finds herself in a desperate situation. But when Rowena's father tries to trap Brice into marrying his daughter, Brice makes a surprising decision.

Rowena wanted to escape the Highlands, but she's reluctant to marry a notorious flirt. And when she learns that Brice is mixed up in questionable business with a stolen treasure, she fears she's about to end up directly in the path of everything she was trying to avoid."

I might be on a Downtonesque hiatus at the moment, but as soon as that ends, this book is at the top of the pile!

Lost Among the Living by Simone St. James
Published by: NAL
Publication Date: April 5th, 2016
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"England, 1921. Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared, shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss. Working as a paid companion to Alex's wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to the family’s estate in the Sussex countryside. But there is much she never knew about her husband’s origins…and the revelation of a mysterious death in the Forsyths’ past is just the beginning…

All is not well at Wych Elm House. Dottie's husband is distant, and her son was grievously injured in the war. Footsteps follow Jo down empty halls, and items in her bedroom are eerily rearranged. The locals say the family is cursed, and that a ghost in the woods has never rested. And when Jo discovers her husband’s darkest secrets, she wonders if she ever really knew him. Isolated in a place of deception and grief, she must find the truth or lose herself forever.

And then a familiar stranger arrives at Wych Elm House…"

Anybody else recognize the stock photography? Perhaps from a book that was released just last week?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Downtonesque, In the Labyrinth of Drakes, Lady Trent, Lost Among the Living, Marie Brennan, Richelle Mead, Roseanna M. White, Simone St. James, The Glittering Court, The Reluctant Duchess, Tuesday Tomorrow, YA

Marissa Doyle was raised in a family of readers, which just might be a prerequisite for becoming a writer, I haven't looked into that. Growing up in Massachusetts, where she still lives, she has an affinity for the ocean and is happiest near or on the water, sailing Cape Cod. Being raised in Massachusetts means being steeped in this countries history, I mean, have you been to Boston? This might have a lot to do with her love of the past. In fact it was history, not writing, that she majored in in college, getting a degree in history and archaeology at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. Somehow she got distracted after graduation and the history she studied and the non-fiction she stills reads is now to inform her own writing of historical YA and fantasy for all ages. One piece of advice she's learned in her varied career is that "quite often, real life is far stranger and more wondrous than any fiction." It's these little oddities combined with real people and places that makes Marissa's writing stand out among typical Regency Genre fare.

While she's known for her writing, writing isn't all she does, being a wife and mother to children both human and fluffy bunny shaped. Marissa is also into collecting 19th century fashion prints. And if you love fashion, there's a pretty good chance you're into sewing of some kind. Marissa has "a strong drive to create, so when I'm not writing I'm quilting or knitting or needle-pointing or reupholstering furniture or sewing." I've always wanted to learn quilting, do you think Marissa might have time to teach me? Then again, I don't want to take her away from her writing... or her bunnies... As for the more clothing side of sewing, she's a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, which helps lend her books a veracity that sometimes is sadly lacking when the author doesn't even know what a Regency silhouette looks like. As for her "surprising fact" about the comfort of corsets (see below) I do agree they can be comfortable... thus again adding to the historical truth that her books hold. But enough from me, let's hear from Marissa.

Question: When did you first discover Jane Austen?

Answer: I read my first Austen in my mid-teens...and it wasn’t Pride and Prejudice. I loved (still do!) old books, and found a very small leatherbound volume of Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion in a used bookstore. Persuasion is still tied with Pride and Prejudice as my favorite Austen. Oh, I did try P and P as a much younger girl, and couldn’t get past the beginning because I found Mrs. Bennett way too irritating. In my defense, I'll say that twelve-year-olds don’t always have the best-developed sense of irony.

Question: What do you think Jane Austen would think of her impact with so many literary offshoots, from parody to pastiche?

Answer: I expect she would be both bemused and amused, and would lampoon herself quite mercilessly to Cassandra and Fanny.

Question: Where do you get your inspiration from?

Answer: A better question might be where don’t I get inspiration from. Everything is grist for the mill: historical factoids, random snippets of conversation, artwork, dreams, music, casual brainstorming...you never know where the kernel of a plot or character might come from. It's why I always have a notebook and pen everywhere--my purse, my car, my bedside table. The bedside table pen lights up, in case I need to write something down in the middle of the night.

Question: What makes the early 19th century mesh so well with magic?

Answer: I’m not sure it’s just the early 19th century—I think almost anything before 1945 (and the first nuclear bomb) meshes well with magic. Maybe because science didn’t have all the answers yet (not that it does now, but it’s trying hard) so there seemed to be more room for magic in the world. And because in the 19th century, there were still so many physical remains of earlier centuries that hadn’t fallen to the wrecking ball of “progress” and development—remains that might have contained more than just historical presence.

Question: The world building and system of magic varies greatly in the regency fantasy genre, how did you go about creating yours?

Answer: The magic in my books very much runs in families, and in the female line (with a few notable exceptions.) I like being able to give girls power in an era during which girls and women didn’t have many rights and privileges. And because I love starting out with history and then layering magic in underneath it, I tend to prefer real-world historical settings where magic is secret and known only to a few, rather than alternate history where magic is an accepted part of the world.

Question: If you had to choose between writing only period literature or only fantasy literature, which would win?

Answer: Oh, that is a cruel, cruel choice! I think I’m going to have to say fantasy literature, just because while I’ve got ideas for two or three straight historical novels, I’ve got ideas for many fantasy stories, with settings from completely made up worlds to the here and now (and a few historical periods other than the 19th century...would those count?)

Question: Be honest, have you ever dressed up in Regency clothes just to pretend for a moment you are in the past?

Answer: You know what? I have been in entire ROOMS full of people dressed in Regency clothes doing that very thing. Not to mention Victorian clothes and medieval clothes. I met my husband in the Society for Creative Anachronism, for goodness’ sake. This totally doesn’t faze me. Surprising fact: Regency and even Victorian corsets can actually be very comfortable, because they offer excellent back support. All those old photographs you see of alarmingly straight-backed women? Don’t feel too sorry for them—underneath all those layers of clothing they were slouching against their corsets, which were doing the actual work of holding them up.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 19th Century, Bunnies, Cape Cod, Corset, Knitting, Magic, Marissa Doyle, Massachusetts, Notebook, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Quilting, Regency, Regency Magic, SCA, Science, Sense and Sensibility, Victorian, YA

Garth Nix (yes it's his real name) was born in 1963 in Melbourne, but raised in Canberra, which is the capital of Australia. Originally intending to be a solider he soon turned away from that insular world and focused on his love of writing. Nix got a BA in professional writing from Canberra University, but had to supplement his income with, well, an income, till he was able to quit his day job and become a full-time writer in 2001. Yet during those years of struggling to be a writer he was always on the periphery of the literary world. Starting in a Canberra bookshop after graduating he has since been a literary agent, a marketing consultant, a book editor, a book publicist, a book sales representative, and finally a full-time author. Nix's wife is even in the literary world, being a publisher. Though as Nix has pointed out, all these jobs didn't help him get his leg up as an author, just kept him connected with that world.

The fact that he is a fantasy writer should come as no surprise when you learn he spent his formative years playing Dungeons and Dragons, only to go on to write scenarios and articles for the RPG. His books, which have sold more than five million copies around the world and appeared on numerous bestsellers lists, include the award-winning young adult fantasy novels Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen, and Clariel, which is a prequel to the Old Kingdom trilogy; the dystopian novel Shade’s Children; and the space opera A Confusion of Princes. His fantasy novels for children include The Ragwitch; the six books of The Seventh Tower sequence; The Keys to the Kingdom series; and the Troubletwisters series and Spirit Animals: Blood Ties (co-written with Sean Williams). And while he might live in a Sydney beach suburb with his family, in his newest book, Newt's Emerald, he inhabits England during the Regency era with a magical romance.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Confusion of Princes, Abhorsen, Australia, Canberra, Clariel, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Garth Nix, Lirael, Newt's Emerald, Regency Magic, RPG, Sabriel, Sean Williams, Spirit Animals, The Ragwitch, YA

Manor of Secrets by Katherine Longshore
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: Point
Publication Date: January 28th, 2014
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

The garden party is stifling and Lady Charlotte would give anything to break free of the watchful eye of her mother, Lady Diane. She spies a servant sneaking off into the woods and daringly she follows. Janie is nothing more than a kitchen maid but as Charlotte watches her servant reveling in the shallows of the lake she wishes for such freedom. Charlotte has so many dreams and ambitions that are unacceptable for lady. She wishes for nothing more then to write and marry for love. But fantasizing about the footman is one thing, actually acting on those impulses are another, though kissing a servant might not be as alien to Charlotte's mother as Charlotte thinks. With the arrival of Charlotte's Aunt Beatrice hours before the shooting party The Manor has been turned on it's head. Yet Charlotte can not understand why the return of a relative she never knew of is causing such chaos. She needs information and everyone knows that servants know everything. Turning to Janie Charlotte breaches the rigid divide between upstairs and down. The two forge a tenuous friendship confined by societal expectations, but even trying to work within these strictures they are both jeopardizing more than they know. Can Charlotte find a way to live within her world and find love where she least expects it? Can Janie hold onto her position and her home with Charlotte undermining her? And what does a secret pregnancy from the past hold in store for these two girls divided by more then a baize door?

Manor of Secrets is an odd little book because it comes across that it doesn't quite know what it wants to be when it grows up. Much like the upstairs heroine Charlotte this book is in the midst of an identity crisis. The main issue I take is I don't know who the audience for this book is. It claims to be YA yet it feels Middle Grade. The simplistic writing, the laughable "secret," the overly large font used to bump up the page count, if there was a category somewhere between YA and Middle Grade, it might just fit there, but towards the Middle Grade end of the spectrum. While as a reader categorization doesn't matter to me so much as a good story, I will read anything, but knowing the intended audience sometimes helps you with your expectations. Especially if the story isn't catching you perhaps it's because of the author "writing down" to her audience, which in my mind is never acceptable, but alas, happens quite frequently. While I have bemoaned another "secrets" series I can't help feeling that for how much I disliked that series the characters actually had a little more depth, and that is a sentence I never thought I'd write.

The simplistic writing causes merry havoc with the story, dragging it down to a flat and superficial level. The lack of depth and detail is astounding considering that this book runs to over three hundred pages, see previous mention of font size. The great manor house that everyone lives in is literally called "The Manor." Um, could you think of a more generic and bland name oh author? I mean seriously, you couldn't come up with, oh, I don't know, anything more original than using the word that actually describes what kind of house it is? Heck, your last name "Longshore" could have been a better name than "The Manor." This lack of originality actually shines light onto the stupidity of Charlotte and her inability to see beneath the surface of someone. This "teaching moment" that smacks of moralizing Middle Grade reads isn't hard to understand when you look at the bigger picture. Charlotte lives in a simplistic two-dimensional world, it makes sense that she wouldn't be able to grasp three-dimensionality, it's beyond her ken. She doesn't get that people have depth and that you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover because in her world depth doesn't exist!

Continuing on to the upstairs/downstairs dynamic, the simplicity remains and makes this dynamic off. You have the "good" servants and the "bad" servants and no one can reside in a grey area. I SAY NO ONE! And the upstairs and downstairs people must be completely ignorant of each other because never the twain shall meet! Yet within their realms everything is just peachy and keen because everyone knows their place. Yes, they natter on about this radical concept of "change" but does anyone actually change? Oh no, that would be too radical and too multidimensional! When you look at what is really going on, the love affairs, the relationship dynamics, you should have a drama on the scale of Gosford Park with someone meeting the pointy end of a knife! Instead you get snide comments, from the bad, reassurances, from the good, and everything working out. Seriously? I really kept dwelling on Gosford Park and how the upstairs/downstairs dynamic when concerning a pregnancy shows the class iniquities and the abuse of power but here that isn't even addressed. With the world apparently changing, or so the rumors go, shouldn't this stop the culture of silence that is pervasive in this class system?

But then again, the truth of Charlotte's parentage isn't even viewed in a negative light except by those "bad" people. This is what, 1910 or so, the Titanic is under construction, and yet the heroine is all, "Hey everything is awesome, I have a sister." Once again pointing out how dim her world view is. She would be ostracized from society, she would be ruined, and instead she gets everything she wants! Perhaps living in a two-dimensional world has it's benefits, like being to totally ignore the reality of a situation? Yet there's something distinctly off in my mind about what the friendship between Lanie and Charlotte really says. Yes they are friends, but it only seems to be condoned because it turns out they are half-sisters. Would this class and rank defying friendship been accepted if they were just friends? If they had no blood ties at all? While the book would like you to think so, I don't think that's the actual truth. I think this is the one aspect where the book is right and is hiding a darker secret in plain sight. Their relationship is unconventional, yet somehow allowable because of this familial bond. While the "bad" people might still frown upon it, it is not as shocking as it could be and therefore fine.

In the end what everything boils down to is Beatrice. She is the catalyst for change. She represents the force of the future. Yet it is ironic that a person who went to such lengths to hide their sin would then be the one trying to destroy the system she bowed down to... but perhaps that's why she's doing it? One would hope, but again, two-dimensional shallows are being waded in here so that might be asking too much. Plus it's not like anyone likes her until the last ten pages. Throughout the book there's the theme of the world changing, but it's all talk and no action until the very end when Beatrice is like, I'm a suffragette, let's go be the change we want to see in the world. All while everyone is like, yeah, we're not sure about you and this whole actually standing for something thing. And then there's her household run completely by women. This makes you think two things, one she's removed temptation and therefore can't get pregnant again or two that she's a lesbian now. The whole women's suffrage doesn't even get on the radar until they're half-way out the door and on the way to Italy. Plus, just a question, the whole idea of woman's suffrage is equality. They want to be equal to men so shouldn't her household be staffed by the best no matter their gender? Equality NOT segregation. But that would require the book to actually look into causes and motivations and there is nothing here but surface.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Downton Denial, Downton Denial Denouement, Downtonesque, Gosford Park, Katherine Longshore, Manor of Secrets, Middle Grade, Secrets of the Manor, Shallow, Suffrage, Suffragettes, Titanic, Upstairs Downstairs, YA

Necromancing the Stone (Necromancer Book 2) by Lish McBride
Published by: Henry Holt & Company
Publication Date: September 18th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 344 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Sam is having a hard time adjusting to his new life. If he could just have time to come to terms with what he is, then perhaps life would fall into place. But no, he has no such luxury. He hits the ground running and must come to terms with this new world he's been thrust into on the fly. His home being the home of his enemy whom he killed, if it isn't weird enough, apparently wants to kill him to return for the loss of their master. Then there's his new duties taking over from Douglas as the area Necromancer with a seat on the council, something Douglas loved and had decades to prepare for, thrust at a moments notice on Sam. Add in complications of being in love with a werewolf, trust issues with his family, and, well, it's not going to be easy. When the head of the local werewolf pack is murdered, as a man dealing in death, Sam is called in to solve the case. The death means he's lost a friend, his girlfriend, and, if he's not careful, his reputation and maybe his life. But Sam is getting very good at learning things as he goes... it's the only chance he has of survival.

People don't like change. This one fact is the only justification that I can latch onto for the tired old trope of the indestructible bad guy. At the end of every installment, be it book or movie, the erstwhile heroes triumph over evil by killing the baddie and saving the day. Or did they? Bad guys have a sad tendency not to stay dead. As Buffy says to Dracula at the end of the season five episode "Buffy vs. Dracula": "You think I don't watch your movies? Rolling her eyes. You always come back." I hate this trope. I don't care if you loved the bad guy and love the interaction with the hero and all that jazz, I don't want the bad guys to "always come back!" I want something new, something excited, not the same old villains again and again. This is why I hate daleks, cybermen, and Douglas! I despised Douglas in the first installment of Lish's Necromancer series, and even if he is stuck in that nebulous world between life and death and he's "different", well, it's not going to make me like her bringing him back, that's for sure!

Necromancing the Stone seems hell bent on trying to humanize Douglas, to make us have some empathy for him by fleshing out his backstory. Here's the thing, you can't humanize someone this evil. It's like saying that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince humanizes Voldemort! No, it doesn't. The backstory gives us insight and knowledge, but it can never absolve evil. We can get origins of evil, never justifications for evil. There are some people, some acts, that no matter what we learn or what knowledge is imparted, what they did can never be forgiven. It would be like saying Hitler had his reasons and you can kind of get where he was coming from. No! Not only does Lish take a trope I hate but she uses that trope to try to empathize with evil. By hanging her narrative off this misshapen and ill conceived structure I can never fully embrace this book, it's tired, derivative (there might be more Harry Potter then I have previously hinted), and flawed. Also Lish really needs to add some mystery, because having a backstage seat with the bad guy means having everything laid out in front of you and gives the book no driving force and makes it all sadly inevitable.

The tired tropes aren't my only issue. Sometimes you get the feeling that author's aren't connected to the world around them. It's not that they don't get cultural references or jokes, it's that they are "out of time" if you will. What do I mean by this vague statement? I mean that the jokes are old. The characters in this book are in their late teens, early twenties, and they are making jokes that make sense for my generation, people in their thirties. There is NO WAY kids of today would get jokes about the "Care Bear Stare." Or Jerry Maguire! This isn't happening. Yes I have to admit that it would be hard to tap into this younger generation and make your jokes relevant, when you, as a writer, are probably totally amused by your own writing. The thing is, you are writing this book for an audience, and that audience isn't you. Yes, we could argue that all books are written for yourself, but let's not, let's look at the realities of publishing and the fact that this is a YA book for people who don't know about Care Bears or other 80s ephemera. Go find the teens, hang out with them for a minute and get out of your own youth. Lish, you're not the only author to suffer from this disorder, look to the Veronica Mars writers, just know that it should be addressed in future works.

Yet despite all these tropes and flaws and tired jokes there's something that I just can't resist in this book. Lish has a unique sense of humor and the times when Sam is just hanging at his house with his army of attack gnomes and his nymphs and minotaur playing Frisbee in the yard, everything is oddly quirky and right and you want to live there. It's the down time in the book that she's nailed. The vignettes that lend themselves to short stories or novellas. The interaction between James and his new "masters." The inconvenience of having a chupacabra as a pet. It's the little things that are so perfect that you want to somehow have Lish find a way to translate this small scale perfection to the larger structure of the book. If she could just expand on the little moments of bliss and not lose them in the translation to plot or large action sequences she could be a force to be reckoned with... sadly she is not yet there.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Care Bears, Chupacabra, Dracula, Gnomes, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Lish McBride, Necromancer, Necromancing the Stone, Veronica Mars, YA

Summer is that time of year when it becomes fashionable to read. Everyone has to have a nice big thick beach read for when they fall asleep to the lapping of the waves. While I personally believe that reading is fashionable all year long, I won't go so far as to say I am immune to this silly season and yearn for different types of books. Summer is the fun books, the series, the non-scholarly Olde English texts that are "improving" literature and have language you have to wade through (though I did spend one summer devouring Austen and another E.M. Forster). I want to curl up on my side porch and sway in the breeze on my porch swing while delving into Stephen King or re-reading all of Harry Potter. I have spent innumerable days and evenings just falling into another world while the cicadas sing and the lightning bugs slowly come out one after another. Angling my book just so so that I can catch the lights inside the house and read for a few more minutes before having to forsake my warm bower and go back into the chill house and reality.

While contemplating what I wanted to feature this summer on my blog I realized that the time had come to just revel in summer. To think back to devouring Harry Potter during these sultry months and try to recapture that joy. Today there are YA book series popping up like mushrooms after a rain and I have gotten woefully behind. With Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments Series coming to a close, as well as many other series having their final or penultimate book coming out I figured this summer I would revel in YA. Devote the whole of summer to YA Series that I have been meaning to pick up or to pick up again. To make the beach read of this summer the YA book series. I hope you will join me in curling up in a warm place, letting the sun shine down on you and catching up with a new or favorite series.

And now, a giveaway...

The Prize:
A lovely hardcover copy of the first book in Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's The Caster Chronicles, Beautiful Creatures.

The Rules:
1. Open to EVERYONE (for clarification, this means international too), just because you haven't been following me all along doesn't mean you don't matter, you just get more entries if you prove you love me by following.

2. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if your name is drawn, either your blogger profile or a link to your website/blog or you could even include your email address with your comment(s) or email me directly.

3. Contest ends Sunday, August 31st at 11:59PM CST (Yes, I know it's a holiday weekend, so be sure to get your entries in early!)

4. How to enter: Just comment in the space below!

5. And for those addicted to getting extra entries:

• +1 for answering the question: What is your favorite summer read?
• +2 for becoming a follower
• +10 if you are already a follower
• +10 for each time you advertise this contest - blog post, sidebar, twitter (please @eliza_lefebvre), etc. (but you only get credit for the first post on each social media plateform, so tweet all you like, and I thank you for it, but you'll only get the +10 once). Also please leave a link! There's also a handy code on the side for your blog/website sidebars!
• +25 if you comment on any of the posts during the YA Summer Series Celebration, with something other than "I hope I win" or a variation thereof.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Beautiful Creatures, Cassandra Clare, Caster Chronicles, E.M. Forster, Giveaway, Harry Potter, Jane Austen, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Stephen King, Summer, Summer Series, YA

Dodger by Terry Pratchett
Published by: HarperCollins
Publication Date: September 25th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Dodger is a Tosher. The best Tosher there is, if he was asked. He knows all the secrets of the sewers under London and all the perfect places for a coin to get trapped in the muck, or more fortuitously, a bit of jewelry. Everyone knows and likes Dodger. His is a simple life, he doesn't desire more. Though one act of heroism will change everything forever; not just his reputation, but his outlook on life. Maybe Dodger does want something more, if there was a someone to want the more for...

It was a dark and stormy night, as all good stories start, and Dodger rescued a damsel in distress from some thugs by leaping out of the sewers and thwarting their attempts to do a bit of mischief. Shortly the sewer rat and the damsel are stumbled upon by Charles Dickens and his good friend, Henry Mayhew. These two eminent Victorians take the care of the young girl to heart, knowing more about the underbelly of London than the average citizen. But Dodger still follows, concerned for the young girl's safety. The young girl, who they dub Simplicity, is in a bad way, she has miscarried and it is obvious that the danger to her life is coming from someone rather high up the social ladder, if the fancy ring she is wearing is anything to go by. She is scared, but she trusts Dodger implicitly.

Dodger, totally smiting, makes it his goal to find these evil men and make the world safe for Simplicity. Easier said than done. Ever since that night Dodger seems to be attracting danger. He thwarts a robbery at Dickens' newspaper, he fights of Sweeney Todd, has dealings with Disraeli, and all the while, he feels as if what's happening and what people think is happening are two entirely different truths. That's something Charlie specializes in, the malleability of the truth. Let people believe what they want to. Could this work to Dodger's advantage? Could he create a new truth, a false truth, by playing with what people expect to see versus what they really see? Dodger sure is learning a lot and his star is definitely coming up in the world.

There is one thing that mystifies me about this book and it's how they are promoting it as a historical fantasy. To me it is historical fiction plain and simple. I mean most historical fiction is quite fantastical, just look at some of the things Philippa Gregory has written, or even The Tudors TV series. License in writing historical fiction gives you a lot of leeway, without having to add the additional "fantasy" label. I really didn't find anything in this book that would have been totally unrealistic for the time and setting and therefore needing this added genre. But, I have a feeling it was more for the fans of Terry. Terry Pratchett writing historical fiction? No no, you must be wrong, there has to be a bit of fantasy in there cries the fan base. Personally, I don't see why they bother, they being the publishers, Terry's fans are some of the most loyal out there, I mean, even this hideous and totally not at all relating to anything in the book cover hasn't put them off. I mean, this book was one of the few books willing to go up against J.K. Rowling's new book with the same release date, unlike other authors, like Ian Rankin, whose publishing date was pushed back. Than again, it is a YA book, so a different list... which brings me to another point, why YA? But then again, I've never been one to really separate why some books by an author are YA and some are not. Pratchett is Pratchett and Discworld is Discworld, no matter what those wack jobs who always insist that the YA Discworld shouldn't be counted... yes, that was a huge argument I had a few years back on Goodreads, thankfully Terry himself was in favor of my reasoning. Suck it YA haters!

If Terry's purpose in writing this book was to create an homage, not just to the world of Dickens, but to Dickens' style of writing and his characterization, I have to say he succeeded admirably. Dodger feels like a modern book that Dickens himself would have written. There is a vast cornucopia of interesting characters from Dodger's "landlord" Solomon and his adorable and loyal dog Onan (wiki that name and you'll get a funny joke, like Pratchett, I will not repeat it myself), to the French lady who feeds soup to the destitute, to the Mayhews and their love of social reform and rehabilitation, to Charles Dickens himself. The characters though are just one level of Dickensian drama. The plot itself, especially the solution for Simplicity, is one that I'm sure Dickens himself would have written, it has some of the more far fetched elements of say Our Mutual Friend. More than anything though, it was the pacing that made me think of Dickens. This isn't a book to be ploughed through, beginning to end, it's a world you stroll through, leisurely, savoring the characters. I think Dickens would be proud, and if this even ended up being adapted for stage or screen, I'm sure Dickens would demand to play himself.

Yet underneath that Dickensian shine, there is Pratchett. That lovely little devious Brit in black. There are footnotes and asides that only Terry could do. And in the end, this book deals with one of Terry's favorite themes, Truth, and yes, it needs the capitol "T." Terry has explored in various books, including one called The Truth, the idea that Truth is malleable, that it is what we make it. The way Dickens tries to explain this to Dodger shows that Dickens is Terry's conduit, the author within the book telling you how it is. Truth can easily be changed by writers, and more so by writers in the press. Yet, there is Truth that needs to be accepted, people need their fantasies, they need to believe certain things to survive. Everyone needs their own Truth, and it's what you make of it that matters. My Truth? I need a world with Terry Pratchett in it.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Charles Dickens, Dickensian London, Dodger, Henry Mayhew, J.K. Rowling, Our Mutual Friend, Philippa Gregory, Sweeney Todd, Terry Pratchett, The Truth, The Tudors, Victorian London, YA