Sara's Library: Hollow City

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
Book two of the Peculiar Children series
Quirk Books 2014
B-

Summary from Goodreads: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children was the surprise best seller of 2011—an unprecedented mix of YA fantasy and vintage photography that enthralled readers and critics alike.

This second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine's island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises.

Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerizing) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages.

This installment picks up at the exact point where the previous one ended: the Peculiars and Miss Peregrine (trapped in bird form) row away from their island.  It doesn't take long before the Hollows are reintroduced and our heroes are on the run, not only searching for safety but for another ymbryne who may be able to reverse Miss Peregrine's avian state.  With only three days to find a solution or risk losing Miss Peregrine's humanity, this second volume keeps up a rollicking pace for its duration.

One of my chief complaints with the first book was that, Jacob aside, there was little character development.  The majority of the characters fit neatly into an archetype, usually influenced by their power, and were paper thin.  I'm sad to say that there's not much more attention paid to characterization this time around.  It's very much a plot-driven installment, so if you're not interested in mutant kids fighting monsters in the 1940's, this book is not for you.

That being said, it is an entertaining diversion, and I enjoyed the world building through the peculiar animals and the fairy tales.  The photographs didn't seem to enhance the story this time and felt shoehorned in, almost gimmicky.  I'm curious to see how Mr. Riggs uses the photographs in the next volume and hope it will be more like those in the first book.

Sara's Library: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Quirk Books 2011
B

Summary from Goodreads: "A horrific family tragedy sends Jacob, 16, to a remote island off Wales, to the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, where he finds unusual old photographs. The children, one his grandfather, were more than peculiar, perhaps dangerous, quarantined for good reason - and maybe still alive."

I had expected this novel, which includes a number of strange, antique photographs, to read more like one of Brian Selznick's hybrid novels.  However, rather than using the photographs to propel the story forward as the illustrations in Mr. Selznick's novels do, here the photos simply serve to enrich the prose descriptions of the peculiar children and to legitimize the narrative as "true."  While some of the photographs were delightfully creepy and really did add to the narrative, I'd like to see the next installment come closer to being a hybrid.  

The novel moves along at a fairly fast pace, dividing its time between the present and the WWII era past of the peculiar children, which is a continuous loop of the day the home is bombed.  With the pacing as it was, there was little time devoted to character development, which was the biggest disappointment of the book.  Most of the peculiars are archetypes (the brain, the brawn, the dreamgirl) and more seems to be made of their peculiar abilities than of their personalities or histories.  As such, I found it difficult to become invested in the characters themselves, even the protagonist Jacob, who is a more relaxed version of the average shounen anime hero.  

That being said, the idea of combining the plot  X-Men with that of Bleach was an interesting one, as I'm sure many of us have often wondered what it would be like if mutants fought against supernatural monsters.  This first volume is executed well, despite its thin characterization, which will hopefully be improved upon in the next volume.

Sara's Library: Carrie

Carrie by Stephen King
Doubleday 1974
B

Summary from Goodreads: "The story of misfit high-school girl, Carrie White, who gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers. Repressed by a domineering, ultra-religious mother and tormented by her peers at school, her efforts to fit in lead to a dramatic confrontation during the senior prom."

With the new film version coming out, I wanted to read Mr. King's first novel.  I have seen the 1976 film version directed by Brian De Palma countless times over the years, and while I was familiar with the story, the details are sufficiently different enough to make for an entertaining read.

Rather than being a waif as portrayed by Sissy Spacek, in the novel, Carrie is an overweight, acne-prone girl who would likely be tormented for those facts alone.  That she is the naive, painfully shy child of the local religious nut only exacerbates the teasing.  The teenage girls are depicted as relentlessly cruel; one dreads what might have befallen Carrie in today's viral YouTube culture.  

Only three characters are depicted with any sort of positivity: Sue, Miss Desjardin, and Tommy.  However, the two females both question their motivations, discovering that it is not altruism that drives them to help the unfortunate Carrie, leaving only Tommy as an unstained saintly martyr.

Throughout the narrative, articles from newspapers and academic papers about the prom night incident appear.  If someone avoided all pop cultural references to Carrie for the last thirty years, the end would still be somewhat anti-climatic with the heavy-handed foreshadowing present in these articles.  Honestly, I felt they came off as a bit pretentious and distanced the narrative too much from Carrie's perspective of events.  As an anti-bullying piece, it would have been strengthened had the focus been only Carrie, as the reader would have been able to feel her pain more keenly and thus better able to empathize with her.  

All in all, the story continues to resonate today.  I'm quite interested to see what the new Kimberly Pearce film does, considering the setting has been updated to the present and bullying has taken on an entirely new shape online.  

Sara's Library: Girl of Nightmares

I had an unexpected hospital stay, which has delayed a number of my posts.  I'm going to try to get at least two up a week until I'm caught up, but a friend just asked me to critique his manuscript, so I'm not sure how I'll be dividing my time just yet.
***

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
Sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood
Tor Teen 2012
A

Summary from Goodreads: "It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on. 

"His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

"Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

"Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor."

Review: Readers will remember that when I picked up Anna Dressed in Blood, I had rather low expectations but ended up enthralled with the characters and story.  I am happy to say that Girl of Nightmares is a worthy successor and conclusion.

As stated in the description, Cas is seeing Anna everywhere, but it's after a ghostly encounter that endangers both Thomas and Carmel that Cas decides that something must be done.  His intuition tells him that Anna is not properly at rest, and cryptic statements made by Thomas's uncle, Morfran, and Gideon, Cas's advisor, lead him to believe that Anna is in Hell.

While the adults in Cas's life warn him not to meddle with the afterlife and move on, Thomas and Carmel support his decision to investigate Anna's whereabouts and free her, if necessary.

Ms. Blake continues to write a likeable Buffy-esque gang of ghost hunters, who manage to deal with normal teen problems while juggling their eerie escapades.  With this installment taking place over summer vacation, we get less of Cas's interaction with the general student body and more of his growing friendship with the unlikely couple Thomas and Carmel.  As with the first book, Ms. Blake shows a penchant for writing sarcastic, disaffected teens.

New character Jestine, raised by a British cult, is a great foil to Cas, who never asked for the power and responsibility of the athame.  She also provides fresh perspective on the task at hand, as she is not affiliated with Cas and has motives of her own for crossing the threshold to Hell.  Her presence definitely raises the stakes.  The book wouldn't likely have been a flop without the Jestine subplot, but it's certainly greater for her presence.

The ending offers an unexpected resolution where Anna is concerned, but leaves room for further adventures with Cas and the gang should Ms. Blake choose to deliver them.

Sara's Library: Clockwork Angel

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
Book one of The Infernal Devices trilogy
Margaret K. McElderry Books 2011
C

During Victoria's reign, a teenage American from New York, Tessa Gray, travels to London at her older brother's request.  However, once she arrives, she is imprisoned by the evil Dark Sisters, who force Tessa to use her previously untrained shapeshifting abilities and speak of a marriage between Tessa and someone known only as the Magister.

Enter Will Herondale, a reckless bad boy in the employ of the London Institute, an organization dedicated to protecting our world from Downworlders (vampires, demons, and the like).  Rescuing Tessa from the sisters,   she is inducted into the world of the Shadowhunters, who agree to help her find her missing brother, in return for her cooperation in stopping a plot against the Institute.

There were a lot of problems with this book.  I'm really not sure where to begin.  The setting was meant to be Victorian London, but the characters felt far too contemporary to have been inhabitants of it.  Will was especially anachronistic, espousing the favored sarcasm and brooding of YA love interests today.  Despite being a womanizing gambler who spends far too much time in the seediest districts, we're led to believe that because he can recite poetry, he's a good match for our protagonist.  I am well and truly tired of these bad boy characters who, with the love of the female protagonist, change into something better.  It's unrealistic and, worse than than, such pairings lead impressionable young girls to think such relationships are ideal.  I'm glad that by the end of the book it seemed like Tessa might prefer Will's quiet friend, Jem, though I doubt she will wind up with him by the end of the trilogy.

The pacing was a mess.  There were a number of times where I simply wanted to stop reading because nothing of consequence was happening and the writing was not of the quality I am used to reading. There are large portions dedicated to mundane tasks, and given that the characters are wooden archetypes, it wasn't very interesting.  But Ms. Clare did write semi-decent battle scenes, and I wasn't positive of the identity of the Magister from the beginning, so it wasn't a total waste of time.

Each chapter begins with a random quote from a piece of literature, but said quotes rarely paralleled the events of the chapter, so I'm really not sure of their purpose.  Tessa is a bookworm, yes, but the quotes were far from necessary.

And it's perfectly clear that the Victorian setting and inclusion of automatons is simply to cash in on the popularity of steampunk.  I doubt Ms. Clare knows anything about the sub-culture, though, to be fair, few people writing steampunk novels do.

One positive: Although a steampunk rip-off of Twilight, Tessa does have a personality.  And her shapeshifting abilities make her far more capable than Bella ever was.  I might read the second installment to see if it improves any, as I did like Jem, but I'm not in any hurry to do so.

Sara's Library: Anna Dressed in Blood

First of all, apologies for the lack of updates.  While I had started this post almost two weeks ago, I found myself suddenly very busy with real life.  Between staffing a local convention and a couple of job interviews, I just haven't had time to work on the blog.  I'm hoping to catch up over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Tor Teen 2011

YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2012

A

There have been few books I can recall where my initial reaction to the premise and my final reaction are so completely disparate.  Going in, all I really knew about the plot was that the protagonist, Cas Lowood, went around the country (and Canada, apparently, given the novel's Ontario setting) slaying ghosts with his father's magic dagger (an athame).  It sounded like a lame attempt at writing a prose version of Bleach.  I have never been more wrong about a book.

Shortly after traveling to Thunder Bay, Ontario, in order to rid the town of the infamous Anna Dressed in Blood, events spiral out of Cas's control.  Not only does a prank played upon him by the school football team result in the death of one of the jocks at the hands of Anna, but Cas, so accustomed to the nomadic lifestyle that is part of his job, begins to develop attachments.  He befriends a psychic witch-boy and the most popular girl in school, both of whom insist upon tagging along during his midnight slayings, and eventually learns that he cannot complete his task without the aid of others.  Yet, more interestingly, he develops a strong bond with the ghost herself, Anna, whom he learns is a tragic, fragile creature trapped inside her place of death.

While Ms. Blake's work never shies away from the violence and gore that denote the work as horror, it is her juxtaposition of horror with sarcastic, referential humor that sets this work apart from others in the genre. Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will definitely see shades of the Scooby Gang here, which is all for the better.  Without the humor, this tale would likely have proven too grim for the average reader.

The characters, especially Cas and Anna, are well-thought out and complex for the book's relatively short length, and the brisk pacing ensures that readers never tire of the dark events that could easily have become mired in a lengthier work.  A new sequel, Girl of Nightmare, continues the story, which ends somewhat abruptly, and promises to give fans another thrill ride, if the reviews I've read are any indication.

"Chasing the summer I spent with you, I pass through the end of winter."

Forever
by Maggie Stiefvater

I previously reviewed The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy this spring and had been eagerly awaiting the final installment, which was slated for publication in July. As soon as I received proof of residency and was able to obtain my library card here, I put the book on reserve, with 42 people ahead of me. Last week, I received the e-mail stating it was on hold for me, and I picked it up on Thursday night, finding time to read it this weekend.

Was it worth the wait? Definitely. I have to admit, after reading Linger, I felt that Shiver would have been better served as a stand-alone novel. I didn't like the addition of new characters and the switch between POV each chapter, not to mention the mad science and the increasing implausibility of the entire scenario. While those things are still present in Forever (and the solution to the pack's problems feels like a total deus ex machina), Ms. Stiefvater's brilliant writing convinces even the most skeptical reader that certain actions are feasible.

Just as in Linger, the narrative is split four ways between Sam, Grace, Isabel, and Cole, who channels more of his mad scientist persona than his rock star one in this installment. While the trilogy predictably ends happily, there are some twists and turns along the way.

What I especially enjoyed with this installment was the writing of the wolves. It can be rather difficult to portray animal intelligence accurately, but I think Ms. Stiefvater hit the nail on the head.

While I stand by my earlier statement that the idea works best as a stand-alone, since the trilogy does exist, I wouldn't want its last installment to be any other way.

Grade: A-

*Note: The title of this post comes from the translated song lyrics of "Cloud 9", a song from the TV anime Wolf's Rain, which I highly recommend if you're looking for another wolf-related property, or simply a great show.

Unpolished Greenstone

Guardian of the Dead
by Karen Healey
Morris Debut finalist 2011

While attending boarding school (due to her parents' plans to travel around the world for a year), seventeen year-old Eleanor "Ellie" Spencer comes face to face with the myths of the Maori people. A black belt in tae kwon do, Ellie is asked by her best friend Kevin's friend, Iris, to teach some stage fighting to the cast of a student production of A Midsummer's Night Dream at a local university, which Iris is directing. When the girl playing Titania suddenly drops out of the production, Iris enlists the help of a bewitching specter of a woman, who takes more than a passing interest in Kevin.

Meanwhile, a series of grisly murders, collectively known as the Eyeslasher murders, have been perpetrated throughout the country, both on the north and south island. As Ellie begins to spend more time with mysterious day-student Mark Nolan, she realizes that the two seemingly disparate events may be related, and not only is her friend Kevin in danger, but the whole of New Zealand.

With so much of its plot steeped in Maori folklore, I was quite intrigued by the premise of Guardian of the Dead, as I was rather unfamiliar with Maori myth, but I was disappointed with the result. The first half of the book, which is about 180 pages, is well-written for a debut work. The tension between the characters builds as the chapters progress, and Reka, the mysterious woman, is rather unnerving. All of this, however, comes to little fruition as the second half unfolds, introducing a convoluted plot where the patupaiarehe (New Zealand's native fair-folk) attempt to gain immortality and reclaim their native land from the Western settlers.

My main complaint with the latter half is that the pace is so brisk that one has a difficult time keeping up with the myriad side characters that are introduced prior to the climactic battle for New Zealand. I would have preferred fewer characters that had been more developed. I also felt that a number of characters had a few enhancing details sprinkled on for flavour that neither added nor detracted from the story. Prof. Garibaldi, Ellie's classics teacher, is American (and, apparently, a magician), but it's never really explained why she's teaching in New Zealand. And Kevin's asexuality seems tacked on, a simple excuse for why he can't become Reka's consort.

Now, I will say that I liked Ellie. It's not every day that the protagonist is an overweight, comic-reading fan girl, so that was refreshing. She was the only character that was completely fleshed out, so I'm glad that she was likable.

All in all, Guardian of the Dead was an entertaining read, but there's not much else I can say about it. I'd be interested in seeing what else Ms. Healey produces, especially if she continues to polish her writing style, but I hope she waits until after finishing her dissertation, as her ideas deserve her full attention.

Grade: B-

Half-Year Sun

The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy
by Maggie Stiefvater
Consisting of: Shiver and Linger (Forever coming in July)

When Grace Brisbane was eleven, a pack of wolves dragged her from a tire swing in her backyard; however, one wolf protected her from the rest of the pack and she survived. Ever since that day, Grace has been obsessed with the wolves of Mercy Falls, especially the one who saved her. When her savior is shot after a local teen is supposedly killed by wolves, Grace finds him on her back porch...as a naked teenage boy.

Things move pretty quickly between Grace and Sam, much to the chagrin of Grace's often-absent parents, who claim that at age seventeen Grace cannot possibly be in love. Other more pressing troubles ensue when the sister of the supposedly dead teen discovers that the pack is more than what they seem, and Sam fights to retain his humanity.

In Stiefvater's werewolf lore, those who are bitten become wolves. However, rather than being dictated by the full moon, the shifting is dictated by temperature. Thus, the wolves are human during the summer months, although each year it takes a higher temperature for the wolves to turn. Eventually, they simply stop shifting completely, though no one knows why. Typically, most werewolves seem to get about a decade of shifting, but for some unbeknownst reason, this is Sam's last year as a human. And thus, he and Grace are desperate to find a cure.

The writing is simple, yet lyrical, often reading like the poetry Sam so much admires. The characters are fully developed, and with the narrative shifting between the two lovers chapter by chapter, we are able to fully understand the complexities and vulneratbilities of both, which is often missing in other teen romance fiction, where we are only presented with the girl's idealized vision of her lover.

That being said, I feel the premise would have been stronger had Ms. Stiefvater left the characters at the end of Shiver. While Linger is still a decent read, the added perspective of Grace's friend Isabel and newcomer bad boy Cole muddles the narrative. The story also takes an overly melodramatic shift, nearly transforming the story from an honest romance into a teen soap opera. I am definitely interested in seeing how the story resolves itself in Forever this summer, and I hope it's a return to form.

While my husband may mock me, deriding the series as "Twilight with werewolves", I am not ashamed to admit my enjoyment of this series. Turn on some old Promise Ring albums while you read this one.

Series Grade (Thus Far): A-

The Girl Who Cried Wolf

Liar
by Justine Larbalestier

Let me start by stating this is not the type of book I would normally enjoy. Written in colloquial speech (here an inner-city teen) and presented as a direct confession to the reader, the writing is far from the eloquent prose that I am accustomed to typically reading. However, the story is so well-constructed that I barely even noticed.

The premise is quite simple: Micah, our narrator/confessor, has been accused of murdering Zach, the most popular boy in school. At first, we are told that they were only classmates, but over time it is revealed that not only were they friends, but they also shared a secret love affair, though Micah consistently denies this when pressed by her parents, counselors, and Zach's girlfriend, Sarah. We, the readers, are the only ones meant to know the entire truth, which is given to us in snippets, as the narrative goes back and forth from before and after the murder.

Things are not entirely clear-cut, however, as we're told from the beginning that Micah is known for her lies. On her first day of high school, she claims to be a boy, and when it is discovered that she is a girl, she says instead that she is intersex. She also tells her classmates that her father is an arms dealer, among other things. Knowing her character, it becomes difficult for the reader to believe her story, especially as it becomes increasingly far-fetched. I won't say much about what is revealed later, though I will state that it involves the supernatural.

By the end of the book, I was entirely unsure what to believe. Was Micah simply spinning an elaborate lie? Or did all of this really happen, regardless of how fantastic it might seem? I believe this uncertainty is a testament to Larbalestier's ability to create a truly unreliable narrator, which she succeeded in so doing brilliantly, and it is for that reason alone that I must recommend this book.

Grade: A-