Flight into Fantasy

I’ve been making an effort to read more deliberately. By which I mean I’m trying to savor the books I read and not power through them. I got that opportunity last week when I visited relatives in New Mexico. (I’d gone to spend time with the two-month-old nephew, who of course is adorable and deserves a post of his own at some point.)

Anyway, the book I took on my plane was the audio version of venetia by Georgette Heyer. For those of you not up on your romance novel history, Georgette Heyer was basically the creator of the Regency romance as we know them today. She wrote from 1926 until her death in 1972 and in addition to historical romances she wrote mysteries as well. I would argue that there isn’t a historical romance author who isn’t a little bit influenced by Heyer. If they’ve never read Heyer, then they’ve certainly read other authors who have.

I have read a couple of Heyer’s other romances, and quite enjoyed them, but Venetia was the first Heyer book I loved. And I loved everything about it–the characters, the plot, Heyer’s writing. I’m afraid I am not capable of reading another historical romance for a little while, since I don’t want to be drawing comparisons between whatever unfortunate bookI choose to read and this one.

The plot is nothing romance readers haven’t seen before. We have Venetia, the young and inexperienced country girl living in impoverished gentility at her fammily estate, managing it and taking care of her scholarly and crippled brother, Aubrey. Venetia is vaguely discontented with her life, but she doesn’t really see any way out of it. At least not until her older brother Conway returns home, which he’s not inclined to do. However, her life changes rather abruptly when Lord Damerel, a notorious rake, moves into the estate next door, which has belonged to his family but remained unoccupied for years. Even though people have warned Venetia about what a horrible reputation Damerel has, she falls in love with him anyway. And then, like all good drawing room comedies, a series of circumstances contrive to keep them apart until the inevitable end.

The characters are absolutely wonderful. Venetia is unconventional in a way that other romance heroines wish they were. I liked her, because she was guileless and flirty and full of laughter. She doesn’t take the world all that seriously, nor does she expect the world to take her seriously in return. She’s not a whiny martyr, either, and she doesn’t view the world through rose-colored glasses. She is also perfect for Damerel, who she can laugh with and who finds the world absurd. Damerel’s cynicism is an excellent compliment to Venetia’s unworldliness. And then there’s Aubrey. Y’all know how squeamish I am about reading about disabled characters in my books. But Aubrey was wonderful. He wasn’t the moral center of Venetia’s life, and he was as flawed as any other character, despite his disability. And, of course, the thing that endears Damerel to Venetia is how Damerel treats him.

The plot is perfect for a Regency romance. There are the requisite drawing room visits, the look at London’s fashionable set, and in the end everyone gets what they deserve. But here again Heyer surprises me. Venetia doesn’t need to be rescued from wild scrapes. When she decides to go after Damerel, she does so with a vengeance and she gets him in a way that was perfect.

As for the romance, despite the fact that there are no bedroom scenes, it was hot. I very much felt the chemistry between the two of them. Of course, it might have helped matters that I was a little bit in love with Damerel myself. I loved his passion, and I loved his vulnerability, which was evident in his self-mocking attitude. I also liked that he was as ruthless as Venetia turned out to be. And the best part about the romance? Heyer lets us see their developing friendship. She contrasts Venetia’s friendship with Damerel to the other men who’ve sought her hand, and leaves the reader in no doubt whatsoever as to her suitability with Damerel.

I don’t know how much more I can squee about this book before y’all get sick and tired of hearing about it. Just go forth and read it. You will not be sorry that you did, especially if you like a well-written romance with excellent characters. I did not want this book to end, and I took a lot longer to read it because I was so much in love with these characters that I didn’t want their story to be over. Obviously, this one rates an A.

Other Opinions

• Vulpes Libris

I’ve come to the conclusion fairly recently that my appetite for horror novels is not nearly as strong as it used to be. And not being a twelve-year-old boy, my tolerance for scatalogical humor isn’t all that high, either. But for some reason, Mark Henry works for me as an author. I absolutely adore his Amanda Feral series, of which Road Trip of the Living Dead is the second.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, go read my review of Happy Hour of the Damned, the first book in the series.

In this installment, Amanda’s gay vampire best friend Gil has started a vampire-making business. It goes horribly wrong, however, and the vampire he’s just made vows revenge. Plus, Amanda’s received news that her mother may be on the point of dying. So she, Gil, and their friend and fellow zombie, Wendy, embark on a road trip which turns out to be more exciting than any of them could have predicted. Along the way, they meet a hot werewolf, a creepy family, some cultists, and a moderately accurate psychic, as well as a host of others.

If you liked Happy Hour of the Damned you’ll like this installment. Amanda is still snarky, the jokes are often scatalogical, there are footnotes, and Henry still inverts and deconstructs urban fantasy tropes with aplomb. This time, Amanda gets a real love interest–or at least a lust interest, this being Amanda–which will complicate her life quite a lot. In fact, the requisite sex scene was absolutely hillarious, something I don’t find all that often.

I don’t really want to say much more about the book than that. Amanda should be experienced without my biases coming into play, and if I went into further detail, I’d be entering slavering fangirl mode, and nobody wants that.

There is a new book in this series, Battle of the Network Zombies which I have already purchased and plan to read. This series is great fun, and totally unlike anything else out there, as far as I know. A- for this one.

Other Opinions

• Love Vampires
• Tez Says
• The Book Girl

It was pretty much impossible not to hear about Liar by Justine Larbalestier last year. First there was the controversy in which Bloomsbury, its U.S. publisher, decided to put a white girl on the cover when the book’s heroine is, in fact, biracial. Then the reviews started trickling in, and the book received a lot of praise. So I added it to my TBR pile, and finally, finally got around to reading it.

I should point out that I am not really a fan of unreliable narrators. Generally, I like to cruise along trusting the narrator of the book I’m reading to tell me the story. I guess it boils down to the fact that I really don’t want to have to think about what I’m reading, especially since so much of what I do have to read outside of leisure time requires intense thought.

To that end, it took me a while to get enmeshed in Liar. I knew that Micah was a liar. She says so on the first page. And knowing that I couldn’t trust her made it hard to get involved, at least at first. Then something happened–I’m not sure what, exactly–and I got sucked in anyway. I needed to know what was true and what wasn’t. And when I reached the second part of the book and the plot twist that I’ve seen other reviewers mention, well, from there I just didn’t stop.

In the end, the novel worked for me. I still wasn’t sure that I liked Micah, but she is a character that will linger in my mind. For days after I read about her, I would wake up with questions and theories that I couldn’t tell anyone about, because this is not a book that should be spoiled. And, ultimately, I think that’s the best compliment an author can receive. Liar still makes me think. I still want to talk about it, and I definitely recommend it. An A for sure.

Other Opinions

There are zillions of reviews of this book. You can find oodles of them here.

P.S. I listened to this one on Audio. The narration was neither brilliant nor horrible, though they did cast the narrator well, since she had an appropriately young-sounding voice.

Title: The Sugar Queen
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Genre: Contemporary fiction, magic realism
Source: Bookshare
Reason for Reading: I’ve had this book TBR, but was finally inspired to read it by a review from Angie.. (See below.)

Synopsis:

In this irresistible follow-up to her New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, author Sarah Addison Allen tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets–and secret passions–are about to change her life forever. Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds it harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesis–and two parts fairy godmother… Fleeing a life of bad luck and big mistakes, Della Lee has decided Josey’s clandestine closet is the safest place to crash. In return she’s going to change Josey’s life–because, clearly, it is not the closet of a happy woman. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey is soon forgoing pecan rolls and caramels, tapping into her startlingly keen feminine instincts, and finding her narrow existence quickly expanding. Before long, Josey bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who makes the best sandwiches in town, is hounded by books that inexplicably appear whenever she needs them, and–most amazing of all–has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. As little by little Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any time–even for her. It seems that Della Lee’s work is done, and it’s time for her to move on. But the truth about where she’s going, why she showed up in the first place–and what Chloe has to do with it all–is about to add one more unexpected chapter to Josey’s fast-changing life. Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love–and the enchanting possibilities of every new day.

My Thoughts: One of the things I wish I saw more of in the fiction I read is the positive effects of female friendship. It’s irritating to have a female best friend be portrayed as shallow, or merely a vehicle to introducing the heroine to a love interest, or, worse, a complete and total cow. And when I find a book that celebrates the beauty of female friendship, I want to embrace it and crow about it to everyone who’ll listen.

This is just such a book. Josey meets and befriends several interesting women over the course of the story, from Della Lee, the tramp living in her closet, to Chloe, the sandwich shop owner. And it is those friendships that make this story magical, as they set in motion all of the changes that happen in Josey’s life.

Josey herself is the kind of character that, if written badly, can be a real pain to read about. She starts the story a beaten-down woman who dreams of leaving her small North Carolina town, even though she feels guilty about being such a rotten child and therefore thinks she ought to stay home and take care of her unappreciative mother. In the hands of a less skilled author, Josey is the kind of character I’d want to smack upside the head, then feed them a slice of get-over-yourself cake. But the magic of this book was that I sympathized with Josey’s plight. I know what it’s like to feel like you have no other choice but to retreat into a more pleasant world of your own creation, and that is the way that Josey copes. But once Della Lee makes her escape the confines of her comfort zone, Josey finds that her life is much more interesting and rewarding.

The other characters in this book are drawn with just as much depth. Chloe in particular I loved, not least because of her affinity with books–they literally pop up around her whenever she needs them. Josey’s love interest, far from being simply a shallow but good-looking man, has demons of his own. Even Josey’s mother, far from being the one-note villainous character she could have been, is drawn with surprising warmth.

The plot of the novel centers around the self-actualizations of the major characters, and it’s done well. The magic realism touches, far from being a distracting nuissance the way they generally strike me, added an element of wonder to the setting. I found myself wishing for a secret closet like Josey’s, and sighing wistfully over the fact that books do not pop up around me like they do for Chloe. I loved the fairy tale aspect of the story, and I adored the romances, both the one between Josey and Adam, which was very sweet and tentative, and the one between Chloe and her boyfriend, which was very much passionate, but in some ways a bit more realistic, by which I mean that I suspect a few strictly romance readers might have issues with Jake. Ms. Allen drew me into the world she created, and I practically read the book in one sitting, taking only a brief break because I simply didn’t want the story to end. In fact, it is the kind of book that I think I could get a lot out of rereading, which I very much want to do.

Final Thoughts: This book reminded me of another recent read, Like Water for Chocolate. However, I understood Josey far better than I understood Tita, and I was completely drawn into Josey’s world and the lives of her friends.

Final Grade: A

Other Opinions

• Angieville, who made me want to read it.

• Book Addiction
• At Home with Books
• Books on the Brain
• Bookfoolery and Babble

Title: Once was Lost
Author: Sarah Zarr
Genre: Contemporary YA Fiction
Source: Bookshare
Reason for Reading: This time I remember the specific review that enticed me to grab this book. (See below.) Also, it tackles themes I find interesting, namely struggles with faith and figuring out exactly what you believe.
Synopsis from sarahzarr.com:

Samara Taylor used to believe in miracles. She used to believe in a lot of things. As a pastor’s kid, it’s hard not to buy in to the idea of the perfect family, a loving God, and amazing grace. But lately, Sam has a lot of reason to doubt. Her mother lands in rehab after a DUI and her father seems more interested in his congregation than his family. When a young girl in her small town is kidnapped, the local tragedy overlaps with Sam’s personal one, and the already-worn thread of faith holding her together begins to unravel.

My Thoughts: This book grabbed me from its opening lines and never let me go. Samara, our protagonist, is dealing with a lot in her life. Her mom–whom she’s really close to–is in rehab. Her dad seems to be more interested in his congregation than he is in his family, and Sam doesn’t feel like she can talk to anybody about what’s going on in her life, even though there are people who care about her and would help if they knew what to do. It’s that feeling Sam experiences of wanting to reach out to people but being unsure quite how to do it that really grabbed me, because I have been in her shoes, and so I connected with her on a deeply personal level. It’s not easy to learn that your parents aren’t perfect, and that they’re just as fallible as you are, but Sam eventually does, and she comes to accept that fact.

The mystery element of the plot wasn’t quite as central to the story as I’d been expecting, but it did influence everything, from the way Sam wasn’t sure about whether or not she could trust anyone to the way her father became more anxious and overprotective. In fact, in the end, when we finally figure out who kidnapped Jody, it was a bit anticlimactic for me, which was OK, because it was Sam’s story I was really interested in reading, and Sam’s journey that gave me the greatest satisfaction.

I do have to give Zarr kudos for not tripping some of the things that have been bothering me about YA novels I’ve read lately. I liked that Sam’s parents were both flawed characters with struggles of their own. I appreciated that, because it seems that mostly parents in children’s fiction are benign, background characters at best, or terribly abusive at worst. Sam’s mom and dad were neither, and I particularly appreciate, as someone who has always been closer to my mom than my dad, that Sam was, too, that it was her mom she really wanted to be with and talk to, that she felt betrayed every time a day would pass that her mom didn’t call.

The faith element I also thought was done well. I thought the questions Sam asks herself about what she believes were quite honest, and in the end I really liked how she came to terms with faith. She didn’t lose it entirely, nor was she caught up in some kind of reconversion experience. She just gradually felt a sense of peace, and I really liked that.

Final Thoughts: This review is so squeeing and fangirly it makes my teeth hurt, but I did love love love this book. Highly recommended.

Final Grade: A

Other Opinions:

• A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy: This was the review that made me want to read this book, so yay Liz!

• My Friend Amy
• The Well-Read Child

Title: Tipping the Velvet
Author: Sarah Waters
Genre: historical fiction
Source: Bookshare
Reason for Reading: I’d actually been wanting to read this for a while, but recently Kailana and Nymeth were discussing the awesomeness of the author on Twitter and I decided I needed to check her out and see if the hype was true.
Synopsis from Fictionwise, where you can buy this book for a whopping $16 in ebook form, if you’re a masochist and really want to pay that much):

“Lavishly crammed with the songs, smells, and costumes of late Victorian England” (The Daily Telegraph), this delicious, steamy debut novel chronicles the adventures of Nan King, who begins life as an oyster girl in the provincial seaside town of Whitstable and whose fortunes are forever changed when she falls in love with a cross-dressing music-hall singer named Miss Kitty Butler. When Kitty is called up to London for an engagement on “Grease Paint Avenue, ” Nan follows as her dresser and secret lover, and, soon after, dons trousers herself and joins the act. In time, Kitty breaks her heart, and Nan assumes the guise of butch roue to commence her own thrilling and varied sexual education-a sort of Moll Flanders in drag-finally finding friendship and true love in the most unexpected places. Drawing comparison to the work of Jeanette Winterson, Sarah Waters’s novel is a feast for the senses-an erotic, lushly detailed historical novel that bursts with life and dazzlingly casts the turn of the century in a different light.

My Thoughts: This book was absolutely beautiful. The writing was lovely, and the voice felt authentic. I had to check the copyright date to make sure the book hadn’t actually been written in 1898, because the voice felt very old-world-y and Victorian. Waters takes her time to introduce us to the characters in Nan’s life, and in the end they all felt real to me. Nan especially is quite likeable, and I enjoyed getting to know her over the course of the story and watching her grow from a shy, awkward girl to a confident and out (at least as out as the times would allow) lesbian. Horrible things happen to her along the way, and she makes some decisions that were hard for me to accept as a reader. (At one time she lives as a kept woman with a rich older widow, and for most of that section I really wanted to smack her hard and make her get out of that particular situation.) But in the end, she’s a stronger and wiser person with a definite sense of who she is and what she wants out of life.

One of the things that most surprised me about this book was how plentiful and how graphic the sex was. This, of course, doesn’t bother me, as long-time readers can attest, but for a novel that felt fairly literary, I was kind of surprised by some of the detail. Again, though, Waters does a good job of imbuing all of the sex Nan gets to have with genuine emotion. It all served its purpose, and some of it was raunchy and dirty while some of it was sweet and tender and some was furtive and hesitating.

While this book is not a romance, I think many romance readers would like it. The historical detail is lush and vibrant, and there’s a lot of character growth, and in the end, the courtship between Nan and the woman she ends up with is lovely, and the two of them together left a smile on my face.

Final Thoughts: I adored this book. Usually, I am quick to find flaws and little things that bothered me, but this book was damn near a perfect read. I highly recommend it for lovers of historical fiction, and think it would be a great book for people wanting to read more GLBT fiction.

Final Grade: A

Other Opinions

• A Striped Armchair

• Books I Done Read

P.S. They made this book into a miniseries. I’m not a big TV watcher, but I have to admit this would be fun to see.

Title: Benighted
Author: Kit Whitfield
Genre: Urban fantasy
Source: I bought it.
Reason for Reading: Ms. Whitfield is a regular contributor to the comments at Slacktivist, which is one of my favorite blogs ever. I always think her posts are clever and insightful, so I was curious about her fiction.

Synopsis from Fictionwise:

It is a world much like our own, with one deadly difference: ninety-nine percent of the population is lycanthropic. When the full moon rises, humans transform into lunes, bloodthirsty beasts who cannot be reasoned with or tamed. Those few born unable to change are disparagingly known as barebacks, and live as victims of prejudice and oppression. All too often, they are targets of savage mauling and death by lunes who break the law to roam free on full-moon nights. Twenty something bareback Lola Galley is already a veteran of the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activities. When her friend loses a hand to a marauding lune, then is murdered before the attacker is brought to trial, Lola is desperate to see justice prevail. But the truth is seldom simple–and Lola may not like the shocking answers she uncovers.

My Thoughts: First of all, you should know going into this book that this is not your standard, run-of-the-mill urban fantasy. Lola, our heroine, is an ass-kicking chick with something of a snarky sense of humor and a bad attitude, but from there, the similarities end. You’re not going to find shallow motivations and annoying love triangles here, and when Lola fucks up–as she does quite often–she really fucks up. I liked that Ms. Whitfield chose to make her characters completely accountable. All of their actions had consequences, and I never felt like she was piling on the angst for the sake of angst.

This is also not your typical UF because it’s not an easy book to read. It’s long, for starters, and it deals with some weighty issues, namely the actual, real consequences of prejudice, what it’s like to live as a minority, and how we can justify torture and mistreatment, even and most especially to ourselves. And in my book, actually having something to think about other than what love interest I should root for when it comes to my urban fantasy heroines is an awesome thing.

The plot unfolds gradually, at a pace that felt very organic to the story. The solution to the murder of Lola’s friend Johnny surprised me, and I appreciated that Lola was proactive when she went about doing her investigation, rather than simply letting things happen to her. However, what the plot doesn’t do is wrap everything up in a nice tidy ending. Some people will find that frustrating, but for me, it worked. While there are other questions that could be answered about Ms. Whitfield’s world, Lola’s story was done.

As for Lola the character, I’ve said a lot about her, but I don’t think I can sing her praises enough. It’s not that she’s especially likeable, but she is an antiheroine, and the world needs more of those. She actually reminded me quite a lot of Sirantha Jax in Ann Aguirre’s Grimspace books. Both women are profoundly messed up in the heads, both have undergone a lot in their short lives, and both of them have a lot of growing up to do during the course of their books. However, for Lola there really isn’t a happy romance. I know that’s a bit of a spoiler, but if you’re a romance reader picking this book up, you will probably want to know you’re not going to like the way her relationship turns out. I know I didn’t, but I also don’t think the story could have gone any other way, and I’m grateful that Ms. Whitfield chose a more realistic ending rather than going for something that would appease readers.

The world Ms. Whitfield created is also interesting. She never out and out uses the term “werewolves”, and I think that’s an interesting choice, because of the fact that everyone in this world with very few exceptions are lycanthropic, and they probably wouldn’t identify themselves as particularly monstrous. I also found the Department of the Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity, where Lola, being a non-lyco, works, to be an interesting place. The life of a non-lyco is very grim and nightmarish. (The descriptions of what goes on in the creches where non-lyco children stay during full moon nights are absolutely chilling.) And the absolute, blatant misuse of DORLA’s power is all the more chilling in general because it makes sense and feels like something that could happen in the real world.

Final Thoughts: Obviously, I loved this book. I am dying to read Ms. Whitfield’s second novel, because I really like what she has to say. If you’re looking for a dark, non-fluffy urban fantasy, I highly recommend it.

Final Grade: A

Other Opinions

• Scooper Speaks

• Callico Reaction
• Read for Pleasure
• Rape and Adverbs

Title: Christy
Author: Catherine Marshall
Genre: Historical fiction, religious fiction
Source: Bookshare
Reason for Reading: I’d actually read this book when I was young, and found myself thinking about it because of My Friend Amy and the Christy Awards challenge. It occurred to me that this book qualifies as Christian fiction I’d very much enjoyed reading when I first read it, and so I thought I’d give it another go.
Synopsis: Christy Huddleston, a young woman living in Asheville, North Carolina, is inspired by a talk given at a revival meeting to volunteer for mission work. This brings her to teach school at Cutter Gap, Tennessee, an isolated Appalachian village. There, she must deal not only with the people’s impoverishment, but with greater dangers as well, from blockade runners to feuds to typhoid.

My Thoughts: I think what most bothers me about my idea of Christian fiction is that in Christian fiction, the characters have all the answers. Or if they don’t have all the answers, all they need to do is zap a prayer up to the Almighty and answers will come at convenient moments. I know that’s not a fair assumption on my part, but that’s what sticks in my mind from the bad Christian fiction I have read.

That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by how lacking in the answers this book actually is. Christy struggles with faith a lot, mostly in defining what her faith is for herself, but also in questioning what God means for her to do, and, though she gets answers that work for her, I never felt that Ms. Marshall was preaching or prosselitizing. This book’s faith, like the moral center of the Cutter Gap mission, Alice Henderson, is quiet and reflective and not at all pushy. Not to say that it isn’t there or it isn’t important, but the spiritual bits are woven seamlessly into the text. I was reminded of the way one of my other favorite authors, Madeleine L’Engle, handles spirituality. It’s there, and it’s important, but you can enjoy her books without believing necessarily in her God.

That all aside, I loved this book. Christy was a very relatable character, and I found it easy to root for her as she comes of age in the mountains. She’s very much a product of her upbringing, but she proves to be made of very stern stuff. The other characters, from the young preacher, David Grantland, who isn’t sure how he can best preach to the mountain people, to the gentle Miss Alice, to the children Christy teaches, to the other mountain folk, are drawn with equal care and depth. I was pleasantly surprised by how many of them I remembered from my first reading of this book, and how many of the details about them had stuck with me.

Ms. Marshall brings the Apalachians to life beautifully with this book, and I wanted to go traipsing through them with Christy and Fairlight spencer. I also appreciated that she genuinely loved the people and their way of life. They aren’t noble savages, and have as many good and bad qualities as anyone else.

Final Thoughts: This is just a lovely, quiet, introspective book, a comfort read if ever there was one. Highly recommended.

Final Grade: A

Other Opinions

Have you read this book and reviewed it? If so, link me in the comments!

Title: The Tea Rose
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Genre: historical fiction
Source: I bought it.
Reason for Reading: I thought the premise looked interesting. I like the idea of family sagas, and rags-to-riches stories, and the sequel, The Winter Rose looks amazing, too.
Synopsis:

East London, 1888–a city apart. A place of shadow and light where thieves, whores, and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled streets by day and a killer stalks at night, where bright hopes meet the darkest truths. Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, a bright and defiant young woman dares to dream of a life beyond tumbledown wharves, gaslit alleys, and the grim and crumbling dwellings of the poor. Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day, together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger’s son. With nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe struggle, save, and sacrifice to achieve their dreams. But Fiona’s dreams are shattered when the actions of a dark and brutal man take from her nearly everything–and everyone–she holds dear. Fearing her own death at the dark man’s hands, she is forced to flee London for New York. There, her indomitable spirit-and the ghosts of her past-propel her rise from a modest west side shopfront to the top of Manhattan’s tea trade. Fiona’s old ghosts do not rest quietly, however, and to silence them, she must venture back to the London of her childhood, where a deadly confrontation with her past becomes the key to her future. The Tea Rose is a towering old-fashioned story, imbued with a modern sensibility, of a family’s destruction, of murder and revenge, of love lost and won again, and of one determined woman’s quest to survive and triumph.

Soundtrack: This book made me think of a piece that Irish musicians Mick Moloney, Robby O’Connell and Sean Keen put together called “The Green Fields of America” which is a medley of songs about primarily Irish immigrants to America.

My Thoughts: There will be those among my readers who won’t like this book. I was not one of these people, but I figured I would put the problems people might have out front. Fiona, our erstwhile heroine, suffers from something of a Mary Sue streak. She is anachronistically strong, indomitable, and direct. The good guys all love her. The bad guys, not so much. None of this bothered me about Fiona, because I was charmed by her, but I can see how she might bother others. Also, the romance here is not one of the more sophisticated offerings in that genre. Most of what keeps Fiona and Joe apart are external forces, and there are times when the only thing that keeps them apart is the author’s machinations.

Here’s the thing, though. I was so charmed by this whole story that, even though I recognized these flaws, I still enjoyed it. I mean, why even read a story about a woman’s rise to power and glory if you’re sensitive about Mary Sue characters?

I did like Fiona a lot. I felt that her Mary Sue qualities were more than offset by the sheer amount of crap she has to go through in the course of the novel. For the most part, she was smart and ambitious, and not at all “feisty” or silly. Ms. Donnelly takes her time showing Fiona’s rise in social status, so I was convinced it was all very plausible.

The rest of the characters are great, too. I felt like I was being privileged to watch the lives of these interesting people, and I felt as if I’d been welcomed into their confidences. I cared about a lot of them, not just Fiona and Joe, but the rest of Fiona’s family, her friends, and Joe’s family as well. I never felt that Ms. Donnelly was trotting out all the stuff she’d learned in her research, but I could tell that she had done a lot of research, because it all felt so natural and authentic. I could smell the tea, I could hear the sounds of the market where Joe first sells his produce, and I was swept away by the hustle and bustle of New York.

Though Amazon says this book is 768 pages long, it was a quick read. I even finished the last quarter of it during off time while I was hanging out on campus, something I rarely do except for books I’m loving. The plot was engaging, and though it wasn’t particularly innovative or original, I was so captivated by the characters that I didn’t care. I also loved that Ms. Donnelly introduced Jack the Ripper as an important background character. Now I want to read more about Jack, and people’s theories about him.

There is a sequel to this book, The Winter Rose , and it features a minor character from The Tea Rose, whose identity was a complete surprise to me. I’m definitely going to read it sooner than later.

Final Thoughts: This isn’t a perfect book, but it gets a high grade from me because I was engaged with the story. I loved Fiona, I loved Joe, I loved watching them triumph over the horrible things in their lives, and I can’t wait to encounter them again.

Final Grade: A-

Other Opinions

• Literate Housewife

• Fyrefly’s Book Blog
• Outlandish Dreamings

Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go: Chaos Walking, book 1
Author: Patrick Ness
Genre: YA science fiction/dystopia
Source: Bookshare! Finally!
Reason for Reading: There’s been so much hype about this book, and I knew, from the first time I’d heard of it, that I wanted to read it. But it wasn’t being made into an ebook, and it wasn’t being made into an ebook, and no matter how much whining I did, there was never an accessible version of the book. Then it showed up a couple of weeks ago on Bookshare, and as soon as I possibly could, I put aside everything I’d been reading and dove into it.

Synopsis:

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd’s gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.

My Thoughts: The best kind of books are the ones that provide an experience so visceral that you can’t help but feel that you’re a part of it. For me, this was one of those books. Todd came to life for me, and, whereas most of the time I find that I’m reading with a kind of detachment, observing rather than interacting with the text, Todd’s narration hooked me and never let me go. When he suffered, I suffered with him. When, about halfway through the book, he does something really stupid, I had to take a break for a few hours before I could pick it back up again, because I didn’t want Todd to be doing that. At the end, I was left frustrated–though in a good way–by the cliffhanger. How could there just be no more story? How am I going to know if Todd’s going to be all right? And now, of course, I am waiting with barely restrained patience for the second book to be made available.

I can’t talk a whole lot about the plot, because I don’t want to ruin it for you, but I will say that it moves along rapidly. I was never bored, and I was as surprised as Todd was by some of the things that happen.

As I mentioned, I loved Todd. Normally, I don’t really like books written in dialect, but I liked that this one was. Todd’s not a well-educated kid, and I liked that this was reflected in the way he spoke and the way he thought about things. Everything he wrote related to the world, and I never felt like there were infodumps just for the sake of the reader. This world is a chilling place, made even more chilling by how casual Todd is. He brings up the fact that the mayor of the town he’s from insisted all the books be burned, and then he moves on. I think that was the moment at which I decided I was in love.

Also, so much happens to Todd. In some ways, he really does become a man, and watching him on his journey, I felt like I’d made a friend. I hate how much suffering he goes through, and I know there’s more to come, but at the same time, I’m hoping he will emerge victorious.

The rest of the characters were quite vivid. Todd’s dog, Manchee, provided moments of comic relief, and was the most loyal friend anyone could want. The girl Todd meets, Viola, is strong and determined in her own way, though she does occasionally exhibit some damsel-in-distress behaviors that kind of irritated me. The villains are quite terrifying, but I never felt that they were the moustache-twirling, “Bwahaha look how eevil I am” sorts.

Final Thoughts: I know I’ve not said anything original in this review, but I did love this book. It is dark and gritty, with lots of violence and horrible things happening, and the cliffhanger at the end is positively evil. I highly, highly recommend it.

Grade: A

Other Thoughts

You know how there are some books that, even though the pages absolutely fly by, all you really want to do is sink into the story and hang out with the characters for a long time? For me, Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes was that kind of book. It was compulsively readable, and I did not want to finish it.

This year, Karl Shoemaker’s senior year, is his year to be normal. Every other year, he’s been included in the Monday morning therapy group that the members call the Madman Underground. But this year, Karl doesn’t want therapy. He just wants to lay low so he can graduate high school and get the hell out of podunk Lightsburg, Ohio. Of course, that doesn’t quite work so well, because if nothing else, Karl’s a good friend, and he can’t just abandon the other Madmen. Complicating his life further are the antics of his alcoholic hippie mom, his near-constant working, and the realization that he’s not the only one trying to have a normal year.

The thing about novels written in first person POV is that the narrator has to be someone the reader can at least like. And I loved Karl. He’s basically a good kid, maybe a little screwed up, but justifiably so. He’s got a lot on his plate, and he handles it all with aplomb. He’s not perfect, but his loyalty and his basic goodness as a person warmed me to him immediately. Plus, he’s a snarky narrator, and there can never be too many of those.

The other Madmen are well-developed. I got a sense of who each of them were, from the pretty, perky Cheryl, whose family is seriously screwed up, to loyal jock Squid, to my favorite, Darla, a brassy, crazy girl who regularly talks to her stuffed rabbit and thus gets away with saying all kinds of crazy stuff. It’s clear these kids are close-knit and there for each other, and I really felt their connection.

Best of all, this isn’t one of those novels where the adults are basically just stock characters. Karl’s mom is a real piece of work, and Coach Gratz, one of Karl’s teachers, is well-meaning but misguided. As with the kids, the adults have their flaws, their weaknesses, and things that make them human. What’s more, Karl seems to genuinely like them.

The story is all about the connections to other people. Not a whole lot that’s earth-shattering happens to Karl over the first week he spends at school, but he does a lot of growing up and learning about what it means to be a part of a community. In the end, he’s in a much better place than he was, and it was fun taking that journey with him, through the happy times, the frustrating times, and the tear-jerker moments.

I find myself drawn to YA fiction of this type lately. I find these coming of age stories intensely satisfying, and this one was no exception. Parts of it have stuck with me days later, and for that I have to give it a rare A. Apparently, John Barnes has written science fiction. I really need to find some of it and read it, because if his science fiction is as good as this YA novel, then he’ll become an instant favorite author!

Other Reviews

• In Bed with Books

Title: Thirteen Reasons why
Author: Jay Asher
Genre: Young Adult
Reason for Reading: Several bloggers I read loved this book, so I put it on my list.

Synopsis:

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list.
Through Hannah and Clay’s dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.

Other Takes:

• Tiny Little Reading Room: mixed

• Becky’s Book Reviews: very positive
• Teen Book Review: 5 stars
• Beth Fish Reads: mixed, but she also listened to and commented on the audio.
• Trish: mostly positive
• My Friend Amy: positive, but very thoughtful.
• A Reader’s Respite: very positive
• Last but not least, Kailana’s review: positive.

My Thoughts: This is why I read YA. This book epitomizes the very best that the genre has to offer, and is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year. It’s raw, it’s real, it resonates on an emotional level. It is also not to be missed on audio, as the style lends itself to audio narration. The two narrators of the audible version do a great job portraying Hannah and Clay, and they lend an immediacy to the story that I’m not sure would have been there in print. What’s more, this book gets a place of honor as one of my rare keepers because it evoked a visceral reaction. I happened to read it alone in the house, and I literally had to seek out company once I was done reading, because the emotions it evoked were so huge and primal that I just wanted someone to give me a hug.

After I finished the book, Kailana told me she’d read and hadn’t reviewed it, so we decided to do a joint review. I asked her some questions about the book, and she asked me some as well. Here are my answers to her questions. You can click on her review above to read what she had to say.

< 1. Did you find the book believable once you read the entire thing? Did it seem like something that could really happen, or did you think it was blown out of proportion?

I did find it believable. I mean, all those things that happened to Hannah were cumulatively pretty small, but still, I was convinced they could add up. I tend to be a pretty tough reader, and I never once had one of those “Wait a minute! This would never happen in real life!” moments. In fact, the things I realized that people had a problem with just never crossed my mind until I started collecting other reviews for this post.

2. Who do you think the marketing age for this book is? Is it just for high schoolers, or do you think it is a more far-reaching topic? Do you think it should be a book taught in schools?

That’s a good question. I think it’s definitely a far-reaching topic, and I could absolutely see teaching it in schools. I know we had teen suicide when I was in high school–I remember one guy fairly clearly because a mutual friend had confided that she should have seen it coming and didn’t think she could do anything about it. So I think it’s a relevant topic, and I think the book works as well because it doesn’t talk down to kids, either.

3. How did you feel when you finished this book? What are the first thoughts that came to mind, or, what are thoughts that are coming to mind now?

I was glad it was over, but I wasn’t sorry I read it at all. This was one of the few books I’ve ever read that has managed to make me cry. As I said, I was at home by myself while I was reading, and I remember burying my face in my hands and sobbing. I couldn’t summon up actual tears, but there were so many emotions that the book envoked in me that I needed some kind of catharsis. Not a whole lot gets me to that point.

That said, I liked the hopeful way the book ended. We know, because the tapes did make it to Clay, that Hannah’s dead, but at least Clay is left hoping that maybe he can be there for someone else.

I do have to say that I kept wondering why it had to be Clay who got to narrate this book. One of my questions to Kailana was whether the book would have been as effective if we’d had one of the earlier narrators instead of Clay. I guess that’s the fandom participant in me speaking. At any rate, I did like Clay as a narrator, so the point is moot.

Final Thoughts: Go out. Read this book. Preferably on audio.

My Grade: A

Title: Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories
Author: Chris Crutcher
Genre: Young adult
Reason for Reading: It was a reread, and I’ve been on a YA binge lately.
Synopsis:

From Publishers Weekly
If the stereotype of the “bonehead jock” is ever to be defeated, it will be at Crutcher’s hands. In these six short stories, he and his athlete protagonists take on such weighty issues as racism, homophobia, sexism and the teenager’s essential task of coming to terms with his parents. At the same time the author makes the world of sports compelling enough to engage even the most sedentary readers. Three of the stories revolve around characters featured in Crutcher’s The Crazy Horse Electric Game , including the memorable eccentric known as Telephone Man. Also starring in his own story is Lionel Serbousek, the orphaned artist and swimmer of Stotan! In the book’s final tale, Louie Banks (from Running Loose ) is befriended by a young man with AIDS and must cope once again with the untimely death of a loved one. The stories’ locales–mostly small towns in Montana and Idaho–are vividly evoked, and make a satisfying change from the well-known big cities and bland suburbs where so many YA novels are set. Ages 12-up.

Other Takes:

• Big A Little a: she liked it, too.

Fun Fact: this was a frequently challenged book in 2008 thanks to “Telephone Man”, which features many racial slurs.

My Thoughts:
I’ve been on something of a young adult kick lately. I’m not sure why this is–maybe it’s a longing for the halcyon days of teenagerhood that never were. Or maybe it’s that, in young adult fiction, an author has to cut to the heart of whatever serious issue they’re dealing with and make it relatable. Not that this doesn’t happen in adult fiction, but for whatever reason, realistic YA works better for me than realistic adult stuff.

Added to that, this particular book is a reread. I hadn’t thought about Crutcher in years, until Renay reviewed another of his books. Her experiences with his books brought me back to my own teenagerhood, and so I’ve been reading more Crutcher, because he’s a quick read, and I find some comfort in the sensitivity and thoughtfulness of his writing. That being said, it’s kind of odd that I like this book as much as I do. The heroes of these short stories–most of whom have appeared in Chris Crutcher’s other books–are all athletes, with one major exception. I, on the other hand, am not only the wrong gender, but I’m as athletic as wet cardboard, but I love this book to pieces anyway.

Sports do play a huge role in the lives of Crutcher’s protagonists’, and they use sports to deal with various issues. But this isn’t a collection of sports stories. Rather, it’s a book about young men dealing with painful situations that arise in their lives. In “A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune”, (which was made into a movie that, I’m told, completely butchers the story, and which, incidentally, is my favorite of these stories), Angus is a fat kid whose parents are both gay and who is, seemingly randomly, elected Winter Ball king, and expected to dance with the girl of his dreams.

“The Pin 1″ deals with the issues that perennial smart alec Johnny has with his father, and I like it more now that I’ve actually read The Crazy Horse Electric Game, where Johnny basically was the comic relief sidekick, a character not always allowed the space to remain serious while staying in character in other books I’ve read.

“The Pin 2″ on the other hand, features Petey having to wrestle a girl, which isn’t something the geeky and awkward young man can deal with. What makes this struggle harder for Petey is that he manages to meet the girl and discovers that he likes her as a person.
“Telephone Man” involves a boy learning that maybe the things his father has always told him about black people are wrong. This one is my least favorite, and even after seeing more of this character in, again, The Crazy Horse Electric Game, I still didn’t much like being in his head, and felt pretty humiliated for him most of the time, even if the lesson he learned was a good one.

“Goin’ Fishin’” involves a boy learning to face the boy he blames for the death of his parents. This one didn’t work as well for me either, because quite honestly, I found Lionel’s rudeness entirely justified, and don’t think I could bring myself to forgive anyone if they’d done something like what Neil did to him. Then again, I’ve not read the book that features Lionel, so that’s another reason the story wasn’t as good. Of course, given I’d still rate it a strong B, that probably isn’t saying all that much.

“In the Time I Get”, the last story, involves a boy being befriended by a young man who is dying of AIDS. I don’t remember thinking much of this story when I read it as a teenager, but I understood it much better as an adult, and it works well, even though, again, I’ve not read Running Loose, the book on which it’s based.

This is definitely highly recommended for anyone interested in YA fiction, especially fiction that manages to come across as sympathetic without talking down to the intended audience. Knowledge of Crutcher’s other books isn’t necessary for enjoying these stories. This one’s a definite keeper.

Final Grade: A-

Title: Magic in the Blood (Allie Beckstrom, Book 2)

Author: Devon Monk

Genre: Urban fantasy

Reason for Reading: As with many other books, I began by validating the first book for Bookshare. Having enjoyed the first book, I laid claim to the second book when it was submitted for validation, too.

Synopsis:

Working as a Hound—tracing illegal spells back to their casters—has taken its toll on Allison Beckstrom. But even though magic has given her migraines and stolen her recent memory, Allie isn’t about to quit. Then the police’s magic enforcement division asks her to consult on a missing persons case. But what seems to be a straightforward job turns out to be anything but, as Allie finds herself drawn into the underworld of criminals, ghosts, and blood magic.

Other Opinions

Enchanted by Books

CA Reviews

My Thoughts:

If you haven’t read Magic to the Bone, the first book in this series, please proceed with caution. I don’t want to ruin anything for you.

I read the first book in this series, Magic to the Bone, because I was intrigued by the premise behind the use of magic. Magic exacts a price for every spell you cast; it may take its toll in the form of lost memories, a serious bout of the flu, or even a coma. In Magic to the Bone we learned that some spellcasters offload this cost on someone else. There are those who make their living by serving as the target of this magical price, but when the cost is too high, such as that exacted by death magic, an unwilling target may be found. Allie is a hound, investigating such criminal off-loading, and in Magic to the Bone, she investigates her father because his magical signature links him to just such a criminal act. I found the first book interesting, though I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the romance between Allie and Zayvion. Looking back, though, I suspect it was because Allie forgets Zayvion at the end of the first book, which made it all feel futile; yet this is exactly the danger that she brings upon herself whenever she casts magic.

This second foray into Allie Beckstrom’s world absorbed me from beginning to end. It felt as though the setting, the characters, the plot all grew up from one book to the next. The world felt more fully fleshed-out. We learned, for instance, that there’s a magical grid to supply power for electricity when the main grid goes down. Organizations such as the Magical Enforcement Response Corps, a branch of the police department, and the Authority, a somewhat shadowy organization that Allie’s father belonged to, have each taken it upon themselves to monitor the use of magic, and respond appropriately to magical threats. And Lon Trager, the kingpin of drugs and blood magic, has just been released from jail after serving only three years of a thirty-year sentence.

The characters we encounter are also much more fully realized. We begin to see how Allie copes with the price of being a magical practitioner. She must maintain a journal of the daily events in her life, because both large and small events can be swept clean from her memory by spellcasting. We witness the impact as she encounters friends she has forgotten, and as she struggles to rediscover the love she felt for Zayvion, a love she has no recollection of now. Watching Zayvion suffer with the knowledge that Allie can’t remember the love they shared and the experiences they underwent together, and how he responds to that loss, gives him a depth and sympathetic side that made him much more enjoyable for me this time around. We also meet several more hounds, and we learn that each of them has developed some form of addictive behavior to help them cope with the impacts of magic on their lives. Finally, we learn a bit more about Daniel Beckstrom, Allie’s father, and those revelations make him a much more complex and interesting character. His motives become more complicated, and it is decidedly uncertain what his intentions are toward his daughter.

One of the most interesting additions to the magical landscape are the “watercolor people.” These ghostly images haunt Allie whenever she attempts to cast spells, leeching her magical energy from her with a touch. I won’t tell you what we learned about them, but I found the discovery fascinating, a welcome addition to Ms. Monk’s already fairly original interpretation of magic.

I enjoyed the way the plot unfolded. Allie is run ragged by the press of events, affording us a real glimpse of how she practices her art, what a hound must know and do in order to survive in this dangerous world. And the final magical confrontation was well-choreographed and delightfully diabolical; it was well worth the journey.

The end of the tale makes it clear that there is more to come, and the creepy implications of it all left me eager for the next installment.

Final Thoughts:

I’m still struggling with the distinction between paranormal romance and urban fantasy. For me, this novel feels more like urban fantasy. Although romance was present, we were also gifted with a fair bit of world building and character development that made this book enjoyable on several levels. It was a bit bloodier than the first story, and if there was any failing in the plotting, it seems to me that Allie really didn’t address how she felt about some of the things she had to do in order to survive the threats she faced. Regardless, I have the sense that there is still time to address this and many other aspects of her character and the world, so I can be patient. I definitely recommend this series to anyone, whether you lean toward urban fantasy or paranormal romance. The next book, Magic in the Shadows, will be released on November 3, and I look forward to it.

Final Grade: A

Title: Anne of Green Gables
Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery
Genre: classic lit, young adult
Reason for Reading: It’s a children’s classic I hadn’t read. I’m not sure what made me pick it up. Possibly because the books I’d finished prior to this one had been kind of depressing.
Synopsis: Realizing that they’re getting up in years, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert decide they want to take in an orphan boy to help with chores on the farm. But a mistake is made, and what they find is Anne Shirley, a waif of a girl with a wild imagination, a penchant for constant chatter, and a unique way of looking at the world. Matthew is charmed in spite of himself, but Marilla takes a while to warm up to her. Eventually, of course, Anne stays with the Cuthberts and begins a series of adventures as she grows up on Prince Edward Island.
Other Opinions:

• Jessica

• Bookfool

My thoughts: So, apparently, I am one of the last people on the planet to have ever read this book. I don’t know why. I’d always meant to, and I’ve seen the movie, but it was only recently that I ended up picking up the book. And after I did, I was lost.

I have a soft spot for the kind of girls that showed up in literature of the time. If I’d read this book as a kid, I’m sure I’d have fallen hard for Anne the way I did Jo March, though they are quite different characters. There was just something about Anne’s cheerfulness, her vivid imagination, and her loneliness and struggle for love that resonated with me and made her charming, the way, say, characters like Heidi (from the children’s book of the same title by Johanna Spiry) don’t manage.

I think the best part about books like this is that they work just as well for adults as they do for kids. In fact, I caught some nuances that I’m sure would have gone over my head as a kid. I totally understood Marilla, for example, whereas I’m certain that if I’d read this book when I was growing up, I would have found her horribly mean and unfair.

All the characters, though, are nuanced, and what’s more, I felt they were relatable. I always worry about that when I read books written in a time so very different from my own, but people like Mrs. Rachel still exist, and the struggles that Anne goes through, figuring out who she is, trying to balance a dreamy disposition with the practicalities of life, loneliness and homesickness, they’re all things that young people still have to deal with, even in these days.

I’m not sure if I’m going to pick up the rest of the series. I like the place where the story ended, and that’s good enough for me, but since the books are in the public domain, if I do decide to keep reading, I can always do so for free, which is a nice incentive.

Final Thoughts: I’m really glad that I finally picked this book up. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Anne grow up, and now I want to visit Prince Edward Island for myself. My grade: An A-.

Title: Looking for Alaska
Author:John Green
Genre: contemporary YA fiction
Reason for Reading: I know for sure that both Renay and Nymeth have read and loved this book. I want to say that Kailana does, too, and I trust these women’s reading tastes.

Synopsis:

Before. Miles ‘Pudge’ Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave ‘the Great Perhaps’ even more (François Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . . After. Nothing is ever the same.

Other Takes:

• Nymeth

• Valentina
• An Adventure In Reading

My thoughts: Like everyone I have spoken to about this book, I loved it. I have a soft spot for boarding school stories, probably because boarding schools still hold a certain romantic mystique. But Harry Potter this is definitely not.

I loved the characters. From Pudge, whose thing is memorizing people’s last words and who is so very adorkable, to the Colonel, genius, prank mastermind and scholarship student, to Alaska herself, I had a very clear picture in my head of who each of these kids was. I loved their interactions with each other, and I loved the pranks they pulled. Alaska in particular reminded me of a girl I went to high school with, and I loved that particular pleasant memory getting dredged up. I especially liked that these kids felt like real teenagers. They’re all brilliant, but I never felt they were self-important, and I liked that the things they did, like smoke and binge drink, are treated almost casually. This isn’t an issue book the way some YA novels can be, and I was grateful for that.

The plot is fairly low-key, and largely centers on a pivotal event in the lives of Pudge and his friends which I can’t reveal because that would be spoilery. This event changes all of them, Pudge most of all, and I appreciated the sensitivity and realism Mr. Green brought to his characters.

Reading this book was a complete and unadulterated joy. I wanted to savor it, because I didn’t want to leave the Culver Creek kids, but at the same time, the pages fairly flew by, and I know I stayed up way too late because I was unable to put it down. There were places where I cried with laughter and places where I wanted to bawl with the characters.

Final Thoughts: this book is marvelous. I credit it for keeping me on the YA kick I’ve been experiencing lately. It is beautiful and poignant and sad and smart and authentic, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I don’t think I am expressing the epic awesome that is this book, and don’t think I should even try any harder, for fear that I will tread deep into the territory of unabashed fangirldom.

Final Grade: A

It’s another Wednesday, and it’s late at night, so naturally, it’s time for the TBR challenge post.

Title: A Free Man of Color: Benjamin January, Book 1
Author: Barbara Hambly
Genre: Historical mystery
Reason for Reading: I’m participating in the TBR challenge hosted by Avid Reader.. Originally, I was going to read Phillippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl , but I needed something shorter, so I picked this instead.
Synopsis:

A lush and haunting novel of a city steeped in decadent pleasures…and of a man, proud and defiant, caught in a web of murder and betrayal.

It is 1833. In the midst of Mardi Gras, Benjamin January, a Creole physician and music teacher, is playing piano at the Salle d’Orleans when the evenings festivities are interrupted–by murder.

Ravishing Angelique Crozat, a notorious octoroon who travels in the city’s finest company, has been strangled to death. With the authorities reluctant to become involved, Ben begins his own inquiry, which will take him through the seamy haunts of riverboatmen and into the huts of voodoo-worshipping slaves.

But soon the eyes of suspicion turn toward Ben–for, black as the slave who fathered him, this free man of color is still the perfect scapegoat….

My Thoughts: To my shame, I haven’t had time to pay particular attention lately to the discussions of race, white privilege, and cultural appropriation that have been cropping up in the blogosphere. Honestly, I doubt I’m going to start, because the discussion seems so widespread and there seems to be a lot of noise and not so much signal, but I have heard bits about the discussions from other bloggers who have more time than I. It seems appropriate, then, in light of all these discussions of racism and privilege, that I found this book when I did. It is a haunting story, as well as a damn good mystery. By turns it made me uncomfortable and angry and joyful, and I don’t think anyone can ask for anything else in a book.

I loved January. Ms. Hambly brought him so vividly to life through this book that I hurt for him when bad things happened to him, and I felt his longings, his griefs, his sadness. He’s a complicated man, with complicated relationships that weren’t so very easily resolved, and, though it wasn’t always fun to walk around in his shoes, I was glad to have made his fictional acquaintance. I also liked meeting his friends, from the consumptive fiddler Hannibal Sefton to his sisters Olympe and Dominique, to his snarky, dry-tongued mother to the white policeman drawn to the murder investigation. Not all of them are likeable all the time, but then, neither is anyone.

But what I really liked about this book, even more than the wonderful characters, was the sense of place. This is no wallpaper historical with a few details sprinkled here and there but with characters mostly seeming to play dress-up in 21st century costumes. Oh, no. Everything felt authentic. Life for a free black man in those days, quite frankly, sucked, and Ms. Hambly doesn’t shy away from exactly how much. I can’t imagine the research she must have done to pull this all off, to get all the nuances of this society so exact, but it seems she did.

The mystery was compelling. I liked that Ben isn’t a detective, and he’s compelled to investigate what happened in order to clear his own name. I know that’s not exactly a novel premise, but I liked the perspective of someone who stands to lose quite a lot if the people in power decide he’s guilty. I also didn’t peg the villain right away, even though I did puzzle over it quite a bit when I wasn’t reading, but the revelation, when it came, was seamless, and totally made sense.

One last thing I have to mention. I liked that Ms. Hambly not only talks about how much life sucked for people like Ben, but she also discusses quite a bit about the actual power women, both black and white, had in their society, which, of course, is not very much. It’s amazing to me how much women had to put up with in those days because they really didn’t have any other choice. There are even alusions to homosexuality in the book, which just added another fascinating touch.

My Thoughts: I didn’t expect to love this book so much. I really didn’t. The time period wasn’t one that particularly interested me, but having read it, I definitely want to read more from Ms. Hambly’s backlist, and I give this a strong recommendation.

Final Grade: A-

Continuing with the Burke love today…

Title: Strega
Author: Andrew Vachss
Genre: mystery
Reason for Reading: I am a huge fan of this series.
Synopsis:

Andrew Vachss’ implacable private eye has a new client, Strega. She wants Burke to find an obscene photograph–and that search will take him into the ocean that flows just beneath the city, an ocean whose currents are flesh and money, the anguish of children and the pleasure of twisted adults. It is a place that Burke can visit only at the risk of his sanity and his life. But between the power of Strega and his own sense of justice, there is no turning back. In Strega one of our most acclaimed crime writers gives us a thriller that might have been imagined by Dante. For this is a tour of hell with no stops left out, conducted by a novelist who writes with the authority of the damned.

My Thoughts: First of all, I am glad to know that in other genres besides romance, blurb writers are given to absurd hyperbole. While this book is every bit as dark as Flood , and it’s not an easy read by any means, the story makes it sound like some kind of exploitation story, which it’s not.

In this book, since I knew what to expect, I found Burke a much more likeable character, and was drawn into his story right away. Vachss gives us much more of a glimpse into Burke’s past, and I really liked learning more about the man behind the tough private investigator facade. I also really liked seeing more of the secondary characters from the first book, especially Max the Silent, who gets a relationship of his own. And there’s a woman in Burke’s life that I hope he has to continue to run into.

The plot is gripping, both intense and at times disturbing. As with Flood, Burke hesitates to intervene, but finds himself drawn to the case despite himself. The journey he takes in finding the picture brings him in contact with a wide variety of different people, and it’s interesting to watch the effect these people have on Burke. In fact, the climax is sort of anticlimactic, because Burke’s success is never in doubt.

What didn’t work for me was Burke’s relationship with Strega. Strega is a deeply disturbed and disturbing individual, and I found her hard to like. The sex scenes between herself and Burke were squick-making, and I really hope never to see her again.

Despite the romantic subplot, such as it was, I loved this book, and I look forward with sick fascination to the trips I take to visit Burke in his world.

Final Grade: A-

I originally wrote this review for The Good, the Bad, and the Unread. But I’m reposting it here because I have recently read the second book in the series, and I wasn’t planning to review it there.

Title: Flood
Author: Andrew Vachss
Genre: Mystery
Reason for Reading: An offhand comment my friend Primavera made in her LJ about how awesome she finds the Burke series. For the record, she is totally right.
Synopsis:

In Vachss’s acclaimed first novel, we are introduced to Burke, the avenging angel of abused children. Burke’s client is a woman named Flood, who has the face of an angel, the body of a high-priced stripper, and the skills of a professional executioner. She wants Burke to find a monster — so she can kill him with her bare hands. In this cauterizing thriller, Andrew Vachss’s renegade private eye teams up with a lethally gifted vigilante to follow a child’s murderer through the catacombs of New York, where every alley is a setup for a mugging and every tenement has something rotten in the basement. Fearfully knowing, buzzing with narrative tension, and written in prose as forceful as a hollow-point bullet, Flood is Burke at his deadliest — and Vachss at the peak of his form.

My Thoughts: I’m not sure that I would have ever picked up this book if I hadn’t seen a blog post about its author. I would provide a link, but blog posts run together in my head, and I don’t remember who it was. [At least, until Prima mentioned the series as a whole.] Anyway, Andrew Vachss is a serious bad-ass. The proceeds of his books, according to his wiki page go toward his law practice, where he defends children and youth. In real life, I am a social work major, and I figured if anyone was going to write compelling books about issues that are important to me, it would be someone like him. But when one of my good online friends confessed to being a Burke fangirl, I decided I had to see whether the badassery would translate into decent writing.

I suspect that a reader’s enjoyment of Burke will depend a lot on her politics and her squeamishness. Vachss has his opinions, and he doesn’t sugar-coat them, and not all of his opinions are easy to swallow. (Burke clearly dislikes social workers, for one thing, and he doesn’t seem to have a lot of love for middle-class white liberals, either.) And, good Lord, is this book violent.

There were a few places where I was reading with clenched teeth, just on the point of being squicked. But it all works for me. I didn’t feel any of the violence was gratuitous or inserted there just so that we could have a random violent scene. Burke’s world is a hard, cold place, and bad things happen, and it all serves its purpose.

Burke himself is a compelling character. He lives an underground life, hiding from normal everyday citizens because it’s easier that way. Stepping into Burke’s world leaves the reader, as it does Flood, the woman who finds Burke and asks him to find a man called the Cobra so she can kill him, either keeping up or being lost. I was able to keep up, though for the first bit of the book, I didn’t especially find Burke a likeable character. He was, however, compelling, and that goes a long way. I also found him to be an alpha male type I could certainly respect, even if I don’t always like him.

This isn’t a romance, and it’s not even so much a mystery as it is a look at some of the seedier places the world has to offer. But the characters aside from Burke, from the titular Flood to Max the Silent to Michelle, a transsexual prostitute, are all people I want to learn more about. I’m really glad I was pointed at this series, and if you like your mysteries with a bit of grit, this book definitely comes recommended.

My Thoughts afterwords: I’ve only read the first two Burke novels. I gave the booka B+ grade at TGTBTU, but it’s definitely a story that has stuck with me. So I’m going to have to revise my final grade to:
Final Grade: A-

Well, it’s Sunday, and even though this is so far off the mark from what I usually talk about over here, I figured that at least one of you might decide this book was interesting enough to check out.

Title: Rapture Ready: Adventures in the Paralel Universe of Christian Pop Culture
Author: Daniel Radosh
Genre: Nonfiction
Reason for Reading: One of my favorite blogs out there on the wild and wooly interwebs is Slacktivist. It’s a blog written by a liberal Evangelical with lots of interesting things to say himself about Christian culture, and when this book came up over there, I bought it, and, er, learned to strip DRM so I could read it.
Synopsis:

What does it mean when a band is judged by how hard they pray rather than how hard they rock? Would Jesus buy “Jesus junk” or wear “witness wear”? What do Christian skate parks, raves, and romance novels say about evangelicalism–and America? Daniel Radosh went searching for the answers and reached some surprising conclusions.Written with the perfect blend of amusement and respect, Rapture Ready! is an insightful, entertaining, and deeply weird journey through the often hidden world of Christian pop culture. This vast and influential subculture–a $7 billion industry and growing–can no longer be ignored by those who want to understand the social, spiritual, and political aspirations of evangelical Christians.In eighteen cities and towns throughout thirteen states–from the Bible Belt to the outskirts of Hollywood–Radosh encounters a fascinating cast of characters, including Bibleman, the Caped Christian; Rob Adonis, the founder and star of Ultimate Christian Wrestling; Ken Ham, the nation’s leading prophet of creationism; and Jay Bakker, the son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, and pastor of his own liberal, punk rock church. From Christian music festivals and theme parks to Passion plays and comedy nights, Radosh combines gonzo reporting with a keen eye for detail and just the right touch of wit. Rapture Ready! is a revealing survey of a parallel universe and a unique perspective on one of America’s most important social movements.

My Thoughts: First, a bit of background. I was raised by slacker Christians myself, the kind who professed to believe in God, Jesus, and everything else but who never actually went to church much beyond the occasional Christmas and Easter service, and the churches I do remember going to growing up were pretty liberal, as those things go. When I was a teenager, I went through a dramatic conversion to Paganism, and as an adult I’ve become a lot more skeptical, and now think the best thing to call myself is a Unitarian, although even there, I’m a slacker, since I don’t attend the local UU church, despite occasional feelings of guilt for not doing so. That all being said, I find religion fascinating, from a sociological perspective. I guess what I really want to know is how people relate to God, especially if it’s different from the way I do.

This book, then, was fascinating in that same way. Radosh is Jewish, and he came to this book feeling genuinely curious about what he’d find. What really impressed me was that he finds things to relate to about the people he meets. If he hadn’t, if this had been a “Oh, look at the nutty Christians!” type of book, I don’t think I would have enjoyed it quite so much, and I definitely wouldn’t have reviewed it here.

The heart and soul of this book, actually, is Radosh himself. His style is chatty and confiding, and yet incredibly honest. There were times I was laughing with him, and times I wanted to cry for him. When he gets angry, as he sometimes does, he explains why, and I never felt that he was actually attacking anyone.

The places he visits in this book are varied. From Christian bookstores to Christian music festivals, he seems to have been to everything, and getting a glimpse into this subculture that I wasn’t aware of was fascinating. I finished this book with a whole list of interesting things to read and listen to. I even went looking for youtube clips of Bibleman, because I could not believe, even after reading the chapter about him, that such a character exists. (Yes, he does. More seriously, though, while I don’t think Christian pop culture is exactly something I’m willing to immerse myself in, it’s nice to have had Radosh as a tour guide.

Final Thoughts: If you’re a fan of This American Life style journalism, which is very personal as well as very thoughtful, and you have an interest in this sort of thing, I highly recommend this book.

Final Grade: A.

In which Amanda Feral herself is way cooler than I’ll ever be, and yet I found her charming rather than annoying.

Title: Happy Hour of the Damned
Author: Mark Henry
Genre: Urban fantasy
Excerpt: here
Reason for Reading: Mostly a lot of hype, and I was curious about a zombie heroine.
Synopsis:

Seattle. One minute you’re drinking a vanilla breve, the next, some creepy old dude is breathing on you, turning you into a zombie. And that’s just for starters. Now, the recently deceased Amanda Feral is trying to make her way through Seattle’s undead scene with style (mortuary-grade makeup, six-inch stilettos, Balenciaga handbag on sale) while satisfying her craving for human flesh (Don’t judge. And no, not like chicken.) and decent vodkatinis.

Making her way through a dangerous world of cloud-doped bloodsuckers, reapers, horny and horned devils, werewolves, celebrities, and PR-obsessed shapeshifters–not to mention an extremely hot bartender named Ricardo–isn’t easy. And the minute one of Amanda’s undead friends disappears after texting the word, “help” (The undead–so dramatic!) she knows the afterlife is about to get really ugly.

Something sinister is at hand. Someone or something is hellbent on turning Seattle’s undead underworld into a place of true terror. And this time, Amanda may meet a fate a lot worse than death…

My Thoughts: I have a love/hate relationship with urban fantasy. That is, I feel like I should hate it, and yet, most of what I’ve read has been quite good. I think my prejudices about the genre stem from the backlash to Laurell K. Hamilton, and so I keep expecting to encounter books featuring heroines who save the world with their magic koochies and bitch constantly about how life is soooo freaking hard what with a harem of men. And, actually, most of what I’ve read hasn’t fit that trope at all.

This book really doesn’t, either. It’s got a first person heroine, and she’s beautiful, but for the most part, that’s where the similarities end. Because saving the world? Not part of Amanda Feral’s busy schedule. It would probably make her stop being so glamorous, and that would be awful.

This book isn’t for everyone. If you’re at all squeamish, or you find off-color humor offensive, you might not appreciate Amanda’s often blunt, often gory account. Actually, I’m kind of squeamish, and I don’t find off-color humor funny in real life, though, and I loved this book, so take my advice for whatever you can.

Amanda is just a lot of fun as a narrator. She’s shallow and self-absorbed, but the intimate feel of the prose made me warm up to her quickly. I felt like I was having a chat with this woman… er… zombie… and the chatty style was a big factor in my connecting with Amanda.

The secondary characters aren’t nearly so vibrant, but they’re fun in their own way. The reader comes to care about them because Amanda does. Some of them are pretty stereotypical (the eventual villain is kind of transparent), but some of them are just fun. (Gil, Amanda’s gay vampire best friend) is a great parody of the emo vampire trope.)

The plot takes a while to get going, and Amanda often pauses in the action to exchange random asides. But the story is full of surprising tension, once Henry gets around to the main point. And it’s all very original. (I liked how, for example, instead of having a harem, Amanda gets one lousy sex scene, and one relationship ends badly because she does what zombies do best.)

Final Verdict: This is an awesome start of a new series I will be following slavishly. A for this one as well. Pick it up if you haven’t already and enjoy. Especially enjoy the footnotes!

In which I discover another author I should be ashamed for not reading sooner. And I’m still not pasting book covers in with these reviews because (1) You are reading a site hosted by a blind person and thus (2) I can’t be bothered to figure out how to make them look nice.

Anyway, on we go.

Title: American Gods
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: urban fantasy
Publication Date: April 30, 2002
Publisher: Harper Torch
Excerpt: here
Reason for Reading: Gaiman’s one of those authors that people tell me I should read all the time. I finally did.
Synopsis:

The storm was coming … Shadow spent three years in prison, keeping his head down, doing his time. All he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and to stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. But days before his scheduled release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place. On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a grizzled man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A self-styled grifter and rogue, Wednesday offers Shadow a job. And Shadow, a man with nothing to lose accepts. But working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday’s schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild road trip and encounters, among others, the murderous Czernobog, the impish Mr. Nancy, and the beautiful Easter-all of whom seem to know more about Shadow than he himself does. Shadow will learn that the past does not die, that everyone, including his late wife, had secrets, and that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined. All around them a storm of epic proportions threatens to break. Soon Shadow and Wednesday will be swept up into a conflict as old as humanity itself. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought-and the prize is the very soul of America. As unsettling as it is exhilarating, American Gods is a dark and kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an America at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. Magnificently told, this work of literary magic will haunt the reader far beyond the final page.

My Thoughts: I knew once I started this book that it was going to be the glorious kind of story that sucks me in and doesn’t let go until it’s played itself out. I absolutely love the opening lines.

Shadow had done three years in prison. He was big enough and looked don’t-fuck-with-me enough that his biggest problem was killing time. So he kept himself in shape, and taught himself coin tricks, and thought a lot about how much he loved his wife.

How can you not read that and find it awesome? And it just gets better from there, as Shadow realizes, once he’s been released, that his wife Laura is dead. And that’s just the beginning. Soon, desperate and with nothing to lose, he hooks up with the grizzled, lecherous and utterly delightful Mr. Wednesday.

Nothing in this book quite goes the way I expected it to, and yet there is something marvelously epic in Shadow’s journey. He’s a compelling everyman character who grows into an extremely noble, even heroic man, all quite without realizing he’s done it.

The rest of the characters are well-written, too, and again, every time I figured Mr. Gaiman was going to do something in particular with any one of them, he surprised me by not taking the expected route. I came to care for a lot of the people Shadow met along the way, from the fascinating Mr. Wednesday to Czernabog to Shadow’s wife, Laura.

I won’t say much more about the plot, because I think it’s definitely something that needs to be experienced, but I will say that it all worked for me, and in the end, I realized I’d read one of those books that would stay with me for weeks to come.

Final Grade: An A- for something extremely original and captivating. I’ll definitely not be wasting any more time putting off reading Gaiman.

I was going to make this an actual TGTBTU book review, but have decided not to, mostly because (1) I’m lazy and (2) I just want to freak Lisabea out by writing up two blog posts in as many days. So, here, have a mini-review.

Title: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: humorous nonfiction
Grade: A
Reason for Reading: I’ve wanted to read this book forever. I love fantasy, and I was under the impression that this book would be funny. It was.

Synopsis:

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland is a comprehensive guide for those undertaking Tours of Fantasyland. This authoritative A-Z constitutes an essential source of information for all who dare to venture into these imaginative hinterlands, providing acute insights into such mysteries as how HORSES reproduce, the varying types of VIRGIN and the importance of CLOAKS to those embarking on the Tour. Features include:

A map.
Lively background on the denizens you will meet, including Barbarian Hordes, and Elves who claim they did not evolve like humans… Certainly there seems to be no Elvish ancestral ape.
Full details on catering arrangements: Beer always foams and is invariably delivered in tankards. The Management is not concerned with the taste of it. That is your funeral.
Useful hints on coping in Fantasyland: Armour is, in the opinion of the Management, cheating. Torture is obligatory at some stage in the Tour.
Whether you’re a first-time visitor or a committed Fantasyland traveller, The Tough Guide has everything you need to get the most from your Tour.

My Thoughts: I loved this book. The tongue-in-cheek humor really worked for me, and it’s obvious that Ms. Jones, a fantasy writer herself, is laughing with us as she writes about the various tropes employed in fantasyland. And she’s right. I’ve seen most of these in some form or other.

I’m glad I picked this up. I know I’ll be keeping it and referring back to it periodically as I read more fantasy books.

Title: Geek Love
Author: Katharine Dunn
Genre: contemporary fiction
Grade: A+
Reason for Reading: Honestly? I wanted something that wasn’t a romance, and I’d read this book before, so I decided to go with my random yen to reread it.

Synopsis from Wikipedia:

The novel is the story of a traveling circus run by Aloysius “Al” Binewski and his wife, “Crystal” Lil. When Al’s circus begins to fail, the couple devise an idea to breed their own freak show, using various drugs and radioactive material to alter the genes of their children. Who emerges are Arturo (“Arty”), a boy with flippers for hands and feet; Electra (“Elly”) and Iphigenia (“Iphy”) the Siamese Twins; Olympia (“Oly”) the hunchback albino dwarf; and Fortunato (“Chick”), the normal looking telekinetic baby of the family — as well as a number of still-borns kept preserved in jars in a special wing of the freak show. The story is told by Oly in the form of a novel written for her daughter Miranda.

My Thoughts: A word of warning: This is not a romance. There is no HEA. There are casual mentions of rape, incest, torture and murder within these pages. This is one of those novels that genre writers like to pick on when they talk about literary fiction. But I love it, precisely because of the fact that it’s a macabre, gruesome book.

The story centers around the Binewski family, who own a traveling carnival. Father Al and mother Lil have decided it is economical and profitable to breed their own freaks, and so they do. There is Arturo, the Aqua Boy, who has flippers for hands and feet. There are the twins, Electra and Iphigenia, Siamese twins, Olympia, the book’s narrator, who feels that as an albino hunchback dwarf her freakishness is rather prosaic, and then there’s Fortunato, who is perhaps the strangest out of all of them. The Binewskis on the surface seem to be a typical nuclear family–well, apart from the fact that they set out to breed freakish children–and then the reader is drawn beneath the surface and gradually the picture that is revealed turns out not to be very pretty.

It’s hard to describe exactly what it is about this book that works so well for me, but I think that, in essence, it’s the writing style. By turns it is lyrical and vulgar, and the combination is oddly compelling. Dunn has a deft hand at characterization, too, and describes her characters with an economy of words that nonetheless brings them to life. For example, she says of Arturo: “His favorite trick at the ages of three and four was to put his face close to the glass, bulging his eyes out at the audience, opening and closing his mouth like a river bass, and then to turn his back and paddle off, revealing the turd trailing from his muscular little buttocks. Al and Lil laughed about it later, but at the time it caused them great consternation as well as the nuisance of sterilizing the tank more often than usual. As the years passed, Arty donned trunks and became more sophisticated, but it’s been said, with some truth, that his attitude never really changed.” And my other favorite quote is in reference to the Chick: “The dumb little fuck was supposed to be so goddamn sensitive, how come he couldn’t figure it out? All he had to do to make me like him was need me. All he had to do to make Arty like him was drop dead.”

The plot here is like a trainwreck. It is told alternately during the present day and in flashbacks as Olympia remembers her life. We can tell right away that life has been neither easy nor kind to Oly, but the journey to the point where everything falls apart for her is still a compelling read. Most of the compellingness of the plot has to do with the sheer train-wreck potential that these characters are. Reading about them is like watching a freak show–you’re not quite sure what they’re going to do, but you’re fairly certain it won’t be ordinary or forgetable. This is also one of maybe three books ever that succeeded in making me cry. I count that as a positive, since it demonstrates that Ms. Dunn did an excellent job with characterization.

I’m still not entirely sure that I’ve articulated all the things I love about this book, but if you’re up for an odd, visceral read, this is definitely the book to try.

Title: Candles Burning
Author: Tabitha King and Michael McDowell
Genre: Horror
Grade: A-
Reason for Reading: I validated the book for Bookshare, and though I only really skimmed it on validation, I thought the story looked fascinating.

Synopsis:

An extraordinary southern saga begun by Michael McDowell and finished after his death by Tabitha King.

Known for his chilling Blackwater series, author Michael McDowell left behind the unfinished manuscript for Candles Burning upon his death in 1999. In the spirit of the ghost stories that Michael loved, Tabitha King has taken up where he left off, weaving a Southern gothic fabric of murder, guilt, innocence, corruption, and survival, in the voices of the living and the dead.

Calliope “Calley” Dakin is just seven when her beloved father is tortured, murdered, and dismembered by two women with no discernible motivation. In the aftermath, Calley and her mother find themselves caught up in inexplicable events that exile them to Pensacola Beach, where-in a house that’s a dead ringer for Calley’s late great-grandmother’s house-a woman awaits their presence. For Calley is no normal little girl.

My Thoughts: I don’t read horror all that often. Mostly because even when it’s good horror I really don’t think I’d enjoy a constant diet of books that scare me. That being said, the horror in this book is largely subtle. There are a few supernatural events, but nothing is scarier here than the horror of the things people will do to each other.

I adored Calley as a heroine. She starts out the book a typical bratty seven-year-old who is wise beyond her years. She hears and sees things that nobody else around her does. She was a fascinating little girl, and I loved her narrative voice and the wry way in which she told the story. I especially loved that she didn’t sugar-coat her life. She knows as well as the reader does that her mother is a selfish, vain, shallow woman who really doesn’t like her very much, but Calley loves her in spite of all that.

The plot unfolds slowly, but rather than bog the story down with its deliberate pacing, it kept me drawn in. This is not a book to read quickly, and in fact I have a feeling I will be rereading it again at some point, because I’m pretty sure there are a lot of nuances I missed the first time around. McDowell and King manage to convey a definite sense of atmosphere here. Obviously, the book takes place in a time and place before I was born, but I really felt like I understood the South of the 1950′s as I read, and it was a horrible, fascinating place.

If I have any quibbles, it’s that the answers, when they are all revealed, all happen in a rush, and there’s not really any big major confrontation. I think I would have preferred for the last bit of the book to have been drawn out just a little bit more so that I could digest what had actually happened.

Aside from that, though, this book very much deserves the A grade, and I recommend it highly for anyone who enjoys Southern gothic stories.