Roundup and Preview: Winged Reviews!

Next week Winged Reviews will be hosting the first stop of author Paula Weston's UK blog tour for the second book in the Rephaim Series: Haze!

I was so thrilled to be able to participate, this is my first time being part of a blog tour, and it couldn't have been on a better book series. Read my reviews of the two books, Shadows and Haze before the 14th!

While you're waiting, catch up on my previews reviews:
The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clark
The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

The Percy Jackson Series
The Lightning Thief
The Sea of Monsters
The Titan's Curse
The Battle of the Labyrinth
The Last Olympian

Enjoy, and tell me what you think!

Winged Reviews: The Last Olympian

My newest review is up at Winged Reviews, see why The Last Olympian is my favorite of the Camp Half Blood books!

Battle of the Labyrinth at Winged Reviews!

My latest review of the Percy Jackson series is up at Winged Reviews, just in time for the new movie this week! Read the review of Battle of the Labyrinth here, or check out Sea of Monsters before you see the movie!

The Body of Evidence Series by Christopher Golden #1-3

I ended up picking up Body Bags, the first book in this series, because I had insomnia and for some reason it was on my mom's bookshelf in the guest room at home. I knew Christopher Golden because of his work with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, and so it seemed worth a shot.

The series focuses on Jenna Blake, a college freshman who wanted to become a doctor but is squeamish around blood. Her dad convinces her to take on a job with the medical examiner and she finds her niche. She also, naturally, finds an excessive amount of conspiracies and danger. Because if she didn't, what would the books be about?

The first book was originally released in 1999, well before I started reading them. And while it doesn't seem the series was exactly finished, there are no new books being published in it. I was actually quite surprised that the books started before CSI began airing (it began in fall of 2000, over a year later) because it has a lot of the same ideas, and a lot of the same flaws. In fact, I could sum up this review simply by saying that if you like CSI and young adult books, you should probably give the series a shot.

But I'd feel like I need to warn you that if you have any problems with the logic or science of CSI, the you probably should stay away. I give the tv show a pass because I enjoy the characters and the acting is quite good, but I can't watch the spin-off series because I wasn't already invested before they started to go off the rails with their concept of reality. Body of Evidence suffers the same kind of problems. I know a little too much about forensics and police work to believe half of what happens, because even though Golden gets a lot right, he also is perfectly happy to jettison believability in favor of drama and plot.

Don't get me wrong, this is how a writer probably should be. But at the same time, the characters really weren't grabbing me enough to make me willing to suspend my disbelief that much. Jenna has the same exact crisis of conscience in every book, just with slightly different flavors. And don't get me started on the love interests, because the romance in this book is so bad that I wish it didn't exist. Seriously, we could have had a young adult series where the heroine doesn't really care about guys and might date sometimes if she meets somebody but it's not really a big part of the story. Instead, we just keep circling around her crush on a guy fifteen years older than her (is it fifteen? I've repressed the details because it got so boring and slightly gross).

Of the three books, Thief of Hearts is the best because Golden takes the most chances and goes probably as far as he can with the characters. It has the feel of a finale, rather than just being the second book in the series, and that actually makes Soul Survivor suffer greatly by comparison. The characters mostly slip back into where they were before, and they shouldn't. The events of Soul Survivor should have forever changed them, and the way that it haunts them feels inauthentic rather than deeply moving.

The other problem I have is that the author is constantly being FAR too detailed in his descriptions for my taste, almost always about inconsequential details. It feels like it's written only for people who live in Boston so they can say, "I know that place! I know where that is! I've heard of that store! I listen to that radio station!" To people outside of Boston, they're just extra nonsense words, and when they don't actually contribute to the plot (which is most of the time) then it just makes reading the book a little more difficult than it should be. But maybe I'm spoiled because in screenwriting, you don't even mention a character's hair color unless you have to. Describing more than the basics about a location is a huge no-no, and so I'm always going to like sparse over detail unless that detail actually means something.

In the end, this sounds like I hate the books completely, but I do have the fourth one and I plan to read it. I would say anybody who likes this kind of story should definitely check out Body Bags and Thief of Hearts, they're pretty strong (if you ignore the romantic tension). But if you find yourself struggling through Soul Survivor, I don't think I can say it's worth finishing unless you're the type of person who always finishes books. Maybe the fourth book will change my mind.

New at Winged Reviews: The Titan's Curse!

My latest review is up at Winged Reviews, check out what I thought of The Titan's Curse, by Rick Riordan!

Winged Reviews: The Sea of Monsters!

Be sure to check out my latest review on Winged Reviews, The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan!

At Winged Reviews: The Lightning Thief!

My first review is up at Winged Reviews, check out my views on The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan!

Winged Reviews!

Hello!

So, I'm thrilled to announce that I'm now working with my good friend Daphne as a full time reviewer at her website, Winged Reviews!

Winged Reviews is a blog focused on young adult fiction, which is one of my favorite genres. My first set of reviews is going to be of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. But you can read my intro post right now!

You might wonder what this means for this blog, and really the impact will be minimal. I've not been keeping to my schedule for the last few weeks because of a lot of stuff going on at home, but this month should mark a return to form:
Tuesdays: Opinion column
Wednesdays: Television review (either series or episodes, depending on what I'm watching at the time)
Thursdays: Movie review (classic films and new releases)

The only difference is I may not post a new book review every month like the previous schedule, I may direct you back to Winged Reviews for those or if I've read a book that doesn't fit there I might review it here. It'll be a bonus instead of a scheduled feature. That part I'm just going to play by ear until I find the right pattern.

But for now, you should be over at Winged Reviews checking it out!

Book Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series

I've really been meaning to read the Percy Jackson books for years. Two years ago, I actually ended up trying to pass some time in a hotel room while I was on a business trip and the first movie happened to be on. Now, I really didn't have any expectations for the movie, the reviews of it weren't that good and the people I knew who liked the books weren't particularly thrilled by it either. But there was nothing else on and I was rather bored and homesick, so I watched it and I actually thought it was quite pretty. It was enough to make me more certain I wanted to read the books anyway, but I still didn't get around to it.

Then they recently released the first trailers for the second film, The Sea of Monsters. And it reminded me that I wanted to read the books so I finally got it together to read them. Plus I really wanted something fun, simple, and quick. I expected to only read the first one but I ended up reading all five over one weekend.

I really enjoyed these books, even though it might have been easier to read them if I hadn't seen the first movie at all. Because it's a bit hard to remind yourself that Percy is only 12 in the first book, and not 16 like he is in the movie (I don't know what age he actually is, he looks 16). So some of his actions and behaviors are bit dumb unless you remember that he's 12.

The books take a very modern sensibility towards the mythology they include, and so don't except to get some sort of really good education on Greek myths. But it's understandable, in the story itself, how and why that is. Olympus changes as the world changes, that's part of the point, and the gods and monsters adapt to the world they live in. So I really liked the way things were done, because I enjoy the Greek myths but I feel like not a lot of people want to really take any liberties with them anymore.

But my favorite thing about these books was that all of the characters, both the good guys and the bad guys, had complex motivations. Except perhaps Kronos, even the villains were partially right about what was wrong with the world they reside in, it's just that their choices to deal with those motivations are wrong. And Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are often conflicted and confused, and sometimes they make the right choices for the wrong reasons or the wrong choices for the right reasons. In the end, the war is between two sides that both have very valid points to make and that's the kind of complexity that most young adult books don't bother with.

There are a few things that are very "middle school reader" about them, notably Percy's inability to deal with girls and how that's written into the story. But as much as I might roll my eyes at his obliviousness, he's never really maliciously stupid about anything, he's just young and written that way. Normally I'm the first to say that "he's just a 14-year-old boy" is no excuse for a character being stupid and being badly written, because a main character in any fiction shouldn't be held to the same standards as a real person, otherwise why bother reading about them? I don't forgive some of Harry Potter for this, and I hold Legend of Korra on a much lower level because of the way they handled it. But Percy never crossed over into being poorly written, just being a little bit complicated. I especially thought the way they handled the portion with Calypso was really well done.

I also liked that this was, in a sense, a series about how parents actually aren't always right. Sometimes parents are jerks, and sometimes they mean well but they still do stupid things that aren't good for their children. Sometimes they're just doing the best they can. I can see how some parents would be bothered by the idea, but I think it's good to teach kids that their parents don't always have all the answers, and they're not always right, and sometimes they're still thinking of things in the past instead of the future. But even thought family is complicated, it's family.

Overall, a very good series and I'm looking forward to the new series being finished so I can pick those up.

Bound by Donna Jo Napoli

Bound has been sitting on my bookshelf for years, and even though I could tell it would be a quick read and I found the cover very enticing, I just never picked it up until a few weeks ago The story is a retelling of Cinderella, based in China. When I was very young, the story of "Chinese Cinderella" whose fairy godmother was a fish was my favorite version of the fairy tale. I also very much love new versions of fairy tales, especially when those versions completely dispense with all but the most necessary trappings of the original. Bound does not disappoint on either level. It is a very short book, and I got through it completely in one sitting. I was completely immersed in Napoli's world from the beginning, and while I can't speak for it's historical accuracy, I did appreciate that it seemed thoroughly researched.

The main character, Xing Xing, is a girl who has been allowed much more freedom than other women of her culture. Her feet have not been bound, she has been taught to read and write calligraphy. But her sister, Wei Ping, is suffering through the foot binding tradition. As with traditional versions, Xing Xing's step mother (who is Wei Ping's mother) is a cruel woman, but the brilliance of Napoli's writing is that the stepmother is not purely evil. She is very complex for a character of this type in a young adult book.

The story is well written and quickly paced, and I very much enjoyed it. The only thing that I can say to it is that it is a book very firmly rooted in it's age group. I read young adult fiction often, it is probably one of my favorite genres in general. I find that most things labeled YA are done so only because they have a young protagonist, and that they still engage my mind at the same level as a book written for adults.

I don't mean it as an insult to say that Bound isn't that way, I think that probably works in it's favor for the age group it's intended for. I would encourage middle-school English teachers to pick it up and consider it for their classes. I think it is a very good book for teaching students some really great lessons, about history, culture, art, and storytelling. But for an adult reader, it can be a bit simplistic and it is a very light read.

Overall, I think if you have an interest in new ideas on old fairy tales, it's a must read just for it's storyline. But you only need to plan an afternoon to read it.

Chalice by Robin McKinley

Robin McKinley's name always catches my eye at the bookstore, but try as I might I've never really fallen in love with her the way so many of my friends have. I didn't enjoy Sunshine very much, and while I found Deerskin to be an enjoyable book, I can't say that it was one that I'll pick up again and again either.

Of course, it was her name that jumped out at me when I saw Chalice at the bookstore too, but it was the beautiful painting on the cover that convinced me it was worth at least reading the inside flap. This didn't seem to be yet another fairy tale retelling, but instead a new world with it's own magic and characters. That finally convinced me to give it a try.

The highest praise that I have for Chalice is that the book takes all the things that I disliked about Sunshine and does them perfectly. It is again a first person narrator, but Mirasol is likable and interesting. She has important things to say and new observations about her surroundings. She learns and changes as the story progresses, but still retains the things that make her a good person and an admirable heroine.

Another thing that Sunshine attempted but didn't quite manage was resisting exposition about the world the story takes place in. Rae spoke matter-of-factly about the things in her life that we would find different and strange, because she didn't find them different or strange. When you use a first person narrator who is supposedly telling their story to a contemporary audience, then they wouldn't explain things that might confuse us because to them it's normal. If I were writing my own life's story right now, I wouldn't stop to explain or describe what a blog is, or email. These things are part of our world and it's taken for granted that everybody knows what they are. If I grew up in a world where man-eating ferns were a way of life, I wouldn't stop to say, "Now, the ferns...they ate people." I would just say, "I almost got caught by a fern that night."

In Chalice, this particular literary style is done exactly as it should be. While we get most of the information about what a Chalice is and how the system works, we're never treated to a history lesson or a flat explanation. Mirasol talks about listening to the "earthlines" but we're never told what they are, who can hear them, or how they work. We find out what we need to do when the earthlines don't behave as they should, and cause a catastrophe.

We learn what a Chalice does because Mirasol is new to the job and afraid she isn't doing it correctly. But because Mirasol is our narrator, we really only learn about the role of the Chalice, and a little about The Master because they are directly linked. But there is an entire political structure, a Circle of people with titles and tasks, that we never really learn about because it doesn't concern Mirasol at the time. What does Talisman do? Or Weatherauger? On the one hand, I desperately want to know, but on the other, if the book had told me it would have rang false.

The story itself is compelling, and it moves at a very fast pace. It isn't told in a strictly linear fashion, because it is more of a memoir, so it jumps from one occasion to another depending on what Mirasol would be remembering or trying to explain. This means that we start with a bit of mystery, some intrigue, and some brilliantly planted moments that come back again and again as the story progresses.

The only qualm I might have had with the book is that is very much a love letter to honey and beekeeping, which I'm sure some people will greatly enjoy. Since I personally don't like the taste of honey, that didn't grab me the way it was probably meant to. But, I have to say, the descriptions of the honey itself are so vivid and enticing that it made me wish that I loved it as much as McKinley seems to. I think that's a testament to the writing.

Chalice is easily the best book by McKinley I've ever read, and one of the best books I've read in a very long time. I hope that she returns to the world, the politics, and the magic system that she's created here so that I can learn more about it, even if she doesn't return to this particular set of characters.

Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

I first noticed this book because the title caught my eye at the bookstore, and the jacket design reminds me of Gail Carson Levine.

The book is a bit reminiscent of Gail Carson Levine, but for an older audience. It's the perfect book to give girls who loved Ella Enchanted so that they can stretch their reading skills, though there is a bit of violence that some parents might be wary of.

Let me get this out of the way: I adored this book. I'm going to be buying it as soon as I have money again. I finished reading it and immediately went back and reread my favorite parts.

Princess Benevolence is one of the best fairy tale princesses of YA literature. She makes a point of saving herself as often as she can, though sometimes her version of saving herself only lands her in more trouble than before. She's lived an indulgent life, but never before realized just how cushy her life has been.

The best thing about Ben though, is that she starts out behaving in rather unlikeable ways. Because she is the narrator, you're able to see what she thinks of her previous behavior, so instead of deciding to dislike her based on her actions and behavior, you continue reading to see how and why she transforms. And because you see the reasons behind her behavior, you know that she is just trying to remain herself as her aunt tries to reshape her into a perfect princess, so you're willing to cut her slack.

But when she has an opportunity to hear the unvarnished truth about her behavior from an outside witness, Ben wakes up and starts to see what her actions are costing both herself and her country.

I'll not spoil any more of the story here, but Ben takes her future into her own hands admirably. There's a lesson here, though it's not shoved in your face. It's a book where a young girl finds that obstinately "being herself" at all costs isn't what being an adult is about, but facing responsibility with maturity and grace. She finds that when she opens her mind to new ideas, that her aunt's instructions actually aren't as horrible as she assumed and serve a good purpose.

The other point to note, is that Ben consistently remarks on her own weight. Actually, her obesity is a very important point to the story, because her aunt's anger at her over eating are what leads to Ben's imprisonment in the tower, where she encounters her magic for the first time. Ben's relationship with others is mirrored in her relationship with food, and in the end, though her trials cause her to lose weight, she is quick to point out that she will never be described as slim, and that no man she'd ever want to meet would be able to put his hands around her waist. She just simply gets more feminine curves.

On the one hand, part of me feels like the story skirts just this side of condemning larger girls. There's something about the fact that Ben doesn't even accept herself until after she loses weight. But on the other hand, the book does a good job describing her relationship with food, and has some rather astute observations about emotional eating. Somehow, it manages to describe her overeating without falling into all the typical disparaging cliches. I identified with her, and her struggle. And I admire Murdock's choice to keep Ben overweight even after her transformation. Though there's a short section about Ben convincing people not to be superficial that seems a little preachy, it's message is true.

This book is downright fantastic. There are some throw away references to classic fairy tales (a pea under a mattress, trading magic beans for a cow, a enchanted sleeping princess who must be woken with a kiss) they aren't the focus of the story. This isn't really a retelling of a story, it just is a more realistic take on that world, which I appreciated.

The Twilight Child by Sally Warner

The other book I picked up was one I just ran across on the shelf. I read the inside flap and decided to give it a shot. Twilight Child by Sally Warner is another story dealing with faeries and other mythical creatures like brounies and selkies. It was a book that delved into the history and mythology of Finland, which is not really a topic I would have come up with for a novel but it is a fantastic book.

The main character has the rare ability to see and speak to the mythical creatures she encounters, and because she crosses into many lands she meets several types. But they aren't the focus of the story, instead it is her journey from her homeland into Scotland, and the tale of how she lost her family and the land she loved.

Eleni is a good heroine for girls to look up to, though she can be a bit of a Pollyanna, looking for the best in everyone to a fault. The only fault I could find with the book is that it spends a lot of time with her voyage from Finland to Scotland, but then her time in Scotland seems to pass too quickly and with not enough detail. I wanted to know so much about all the people who help her there, but they don't get fleshed out nearly as much as I'd like. The book could have easily had an extra 100 pages to make these characters more alive and the plot wouldn't have had to change.

But I would still say that it is a good book for people who love fantasy novels to pick up, even if it is a bit off the beaten path.

The Ruby Key by Holly Lisle

I've decided to spend the summer at the library, because I honestly believe that the best cure for writer's block is reading. I also think my writing and my imagination have suffered lately because I haven't been reading as much lately.

For the first trip, I just browsed the YA section and picked up two books that looked promising. The first, The Ruby Key, is one I'd wanted to read for a while. The author, Holly Lisle, is a personal favorite of mine. I've had the pleasure of meeting her once, at a rousing Technicon a few years ago. I enjoy her work, and I think that The Ruby Key might be the best book of hers that I have ever read.

The world she creates is so beautiful, so layered, and so complete, that I felt at home there almost instantly. I admit, I don't actually enjoy stories about faeries all that often. I thought the series that contains Tithe (by Holly Black) was pretty enjoyable, but so many stories about the fae are about the courts and the politics. Court intrigue and politics don't really catch my attention most times.

But this novel didn't really have that problem. It had all the best things about faerie stories, and even some court intrigue, without any of the things that I normally find tiresome. I devoured it, refusing to go to bed until I'd finished it. When I got to the library the next day and a copy of the sequel, The Silver Door, wasn't readily available I got upset because I wanted to know so desperately what happened next.

I also want to add that I was very happy to find a story that had a cat who exhibited all the best and worst things about cats that I love. I'm very much a cat person, and the cat in this book was one that I'd love to sit and talk to. There were quite a few lines in the book that I think any cat person would love, so I would heavily recommend it to them.