Blue is for Nightmares, by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Thistle

blueStacey practices Wicca and has the ability to see the future through her dreams. Unfortunately she’s having nightmares about her best friend and roommate, Drea. Stacey doesn’t want to relive her past, when ignoring these types of dreams led to the death of a friend, so she goes about trying to change the future her dreams are showing her.

Loved this book!! It was spooky and fun and mysterious, with just a touch of psychic. It’s one of those books that’s almost like the old YA I read when I was in middle school, where you’re trying to figure out which of the friends is actually the evil crazy bad guy. The difference here is that 1) supernatural stuff is helpful and not evil, and 2) the characters aren’t all stereotypes. Both of those differences are wonderful, wonderful things.

Sometimes I wonder, though, why the crazy evil bad guy is always someone the characters know, and know well. Why can’t the crazy evil bad guy be some random pervert off the street, or some kid in the class they’ve never noticed before, or the janitor, or someone’s ex from their last school that they haven’t talked to in five years? It’s like that in TV crime shows too – always the killer/stalker/rapist/etc must be one of the characters introduced in that particular hour. It gets old, but *sigh* I know why they do it. And Blue is for Nightmares really does keep you guessing who the crazy evil bad guy is. It’s an excellent mystery and thriller, all around fun!

Posted in 2010, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Fragile Eternity, by Melissa Marr

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Thistle

fragileThis book, unlike the first two in the series, did not feel well written. Fragile Eternity is the third in the series and continues the story, back to focusing on Aislinn and Seth. There is very little plot, but lots and lots of angst angst angst. I felt like I was beating my head against the wall as I read. I almost gave up 150 pages in, but decided instead to put the book aside and read something else for awhile before I came back. I don’t see the POINT to this book, or for it being far longer than either of the first two books. One important thing happens, and all the rest is who-loves-who-should-we-be-dating-are-you-having-sex-with-her-or-him-blah-blah-blah.

It felt meandering ad nauseum and I just wanted to strangle every single character, which is unfortunate because the first two books were really, really good! And fairly angst-free. Fragile Eternity tested the very limits of my patience, though, and I’m now undecided if I will continue to read further in the series. I definitely won’t be BUYING more of the books. They’ll have to be library acquisitions if I read further.

Book 1: Wicked Lovely
Book 2: Ink Exchange

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Ink Exchange, by Melissa Marr

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Thistle

Marr, Melissa - Ink ExchangeThis is the second book in the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr. I will try not to give away any spoilers for the previous book in this review.

Ink Exchange continues where Wicked Lovely ended, only it primarily focuses on one of Aislinn’s friends, Leslie. Leslie is having a hard time at home and dealing with some very painful memories. She wants to change her life, symbolically, by getting her first tattoo. But this tattoo is more than it seems. It ties her to a world she has never known anything about.

This was a very difficult book for me to read. It was well written and executed, but it touched on a personal phobia of mine. The whole book is a metaphor for addiction and drug use, and often alludes to drugs in the plot, not just as a metaphor. Drug use in any written, visual, or spoken form make me very sick to my stomach (I blame the movie Trainspotting for this phobia). I was forewarned going in, so I was able to keep my nauseous stomach in check, but I know this won’t be a book I revisit simply because I don’t know that I could handle it a second time. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good book. I don’t know exactly what Marr was trying to accomplish with it, but I felt like it did two things, and did them well. First, it gave a very clear anti-drug message without being heavy handed or condescending. Second, it provided some understanding and sympathy for the addict and, to a smaller extent, the dealer. It shows that these people are people too, even if they’ve made the wrong choices.

Posted in 2010, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Puppet Master, by Joanne Owen

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Thistle

puppetmasterI hardly know how to describe this book. It takes place in late 1890s Prague. Milena is a little girl who lost both her parents three years earlier. Her father died; her mother disappeared. Milena now lives with her grandmother and has two aunts nearby. Milena longs for the days past when her father was running a marionette theatre, and desperately wants to go to the new marionette show that has come to town, despite it being run by a creepy puppet master and his two evil twin assistants. The book is steeped in Czech folklore, both true and deviated from legend, and could best be defined by the term “circus horror.” In tone, it has a feel similar to Coraline or Enchanted Night.

This was a very intriguing book. I got the new paperback version that just came out, and I love the way it’s set up. The pages are all swept up in dusty color along the edges and corners to make it feel sooty or old (like the sooty edges of the cover in the picture above). There are illustrations and photos all throughout. The chapters are split into five sections, called Acts to make it more theatre-like, and the characters are all given an introduction prior to the book starting as The Players (again, like a play). The creep-factor runs the gamut from marionettes that seem almost lifelike to poisoned absinthe to mirror mazes. This would be a perfect book for RIP, as well as a wonderful folklore edition to my Once Upon a Time Challenge. I had no idea it was folklore-based when I began!

I loved this book, but admit that it has some issues. Honestly I’m not sure how big of a printing Puppet Master got, but it feels as if the publisher didn’t pay as much attention to the book as they should have. My problems aren’t with the story itself, but the editing and printing. For example, there were copy-editing mistakes all over the text, just like an ARC would have. Periods missing. Quotes in the wrong places. Paragraphs that end with a comma instead of a full stop. And then there were some basic fact mistakes that ought to have been caught by any editor or copy-editor, like Milena’s grandmother calling her daughter-in-law’s sisters her own sisters-in-law, or the assertion that the two twins, a boy and a girl, were identical twins.

The story itself was wonderful, and the writing exquisite. There were some places in the high action where I got a little confused by who was where – again, something an editor should have been able to help improve. I feel like this was a wonderful little book that got shafted by the publisher, honestly. It could have been magnificent, and instead, it’s just great. Not that great is bad, great is certainly good. It’s a definite keeper book and I’d love for my kids to read it too! But I get frustrated that people will look at these little errors and think they’re the author’s fault, when really, 95% of them aren’t.

I hope this review doesn’t make it sounds like I didn’t enjoy the book. Because I did. I picked it up and read it all in a single day. I didn’t want to put it down. It’s gripping and slightly creepy and I think I’m going to read it again near Halloween! I love the way everything comes together and how all the folklore is woven in piece by piece. I love that Owen gives information at the end about the real folklore and provides a glossary and some information about Czech language and history. And for someone who has wanted to go to Prague forever, I’m aching to go even more now!

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Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green and David Levithan

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Thistle

200px-WillGraysonWill Grayson #1 (WG1) is a temperamental teenager from Chicago who tries to live life without caring about anything in order not to get hurt. His best friend – more of a friend by proximity than anything else – is Tiny Cooper: a very large, very gay football player who wants to put on a musical about love and acceptance.

Will Grayson #2 (WG2) is a moody, depressed, cynical teenager from the suburbs of Chicago. He’s poor, he’s on mood meds, and he doesn’t really like any of the “friends” he sits with at school. At night he has an online romance with a boy named Isaac that he’s never met.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson follows the lives of these two Will Graysons, first separately, then more intertwined after the two meet.

I am so, so happy Darren alerted me to the existence of this book, which I had no idea was coming out until maybe a month ago (bad me!). I am also so, so happy that my friend Brittany got me a signed copy of said book at the John-Green-David-Levithan tour event in Austin, even if I was so, so sad that I couldn’t go myself. The book was every bit as wonderful as I expected and as everyone has said. I loved it.

I could just keep squeeing, but I figure I ought to say something about WHY I love the book, beyond the fact that it’s John Green (whose videos crack me up) and David Levithan (whose books I’ve loved for a long time now).

First, unsurprisingly, WGWG was extremely well-written. I have no idea which author wrote which sections, but both were expertly done. What else would anyone expect?

Second, I loved the characters. I wasn’t sure at first about WG2 because he was all moody and rude, but by the end of his first section, I loved him. He actually reminds me a lot of the way I was as a teen. I just had to remember that mentality and open up to him.

Third, this book had me cracking up laughing every couple pages. It had my teary on other pages. A rollercoaster like that is difficult to pull off, but JG and DL did fantastic!

Fourth, Tiny Cooper. Best. Character. EVAH. Just saying. Normally I don’t like people who act like stereotypes, especially GLBT stereotypes because it’s, as one character says multiple times, “bad for the team.” But Tiny – he’s MORE than a stereotype. He’s himself, and I absolutely fell in love with him. Not sure I’d want to be his best friend, but I’d love to give him a big hug.

I did have a couple of issues with the book. Rare is the book that I don’t have issues with, right? But both are small.

First up: the pointless, gratuitous, disgustingly-described vomiting scene. Maybe it’s getting old to hear me harp on about this, but in all honesty it’s become almost a cliché of YA lit to have a vomiting scene. Every frickin’ book has one! I know I’m more sensitive than most people about this, but seriously, enough already!!! It’s the YA equivalent to the gratuitous, inappropriately-placed sex scenes thrown into most adult literary books in order to boost sales. A YA book can’t be a YA book anymore without a vomit scene. I’m bored as well as disgusted.

Second up: The ending was very abrupt. While the scene was powerful, it revolved around Tiny and his resolution. I didn’t feel like I got enough resolution for either Will Grayson. I would have liked two more chapters at the end to taper off into feeling closure. Maybe it’s just because I stayed up late to finish the book and I was tired by the end. That’s possible. But the end – not what happened, but when it happened – just came as a surprise for me.

Over all, I loved this book. I loved it even more when I dreamt about it all night, even when those dreams first combined with Germinal (which I’m still dreaming about weeks later) and all the characters went down into a coal mining pit, and then later combined with Passion Pit‘s “Sleepyhead,” so that “Sleepyhead” became the theme song to Tiny Dancer and got stuck in my head for days. Just some little tidbits to make this review more interesting. 😀

Note: Years later, all I have to do is see the cover of WGWG and “Sleepyhead” pops into my mind. Permanently associated. 😀

Posted in 2010, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Readathon: Fade, by Lisa McMann

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Thistle

fadeNote: I can’t talk about this book without spoiling the first in the series, Wake, so please skip this if you plan to read Wake. There will be no spoilers for Fade in this review.

Quick summary: Fade continues where Wake ends, with Janie and Caleb working as undercover agents while finishing up their senior year at school. Janie’s physical health is deteriorating as she delves more into dreams, and her relationship with Caleb starts to get rocky as well as they work on their newest case.

My thoughts: Much like with Wake, I’m in two minds here. Loved the plot. It was a very fun book, and very fast. Great for Readathon. But didn’t like the writing. This time it felt less like the bones of good writing that needed refining, and more like an imitation of the tone of the first book. The narration didn’t stick with Janie and instead periodically dropped into Caleb’s viewpoint. That was jarring. The rocky tension between Janie and Caleb was eye-rollingly silly. It felt contrived. I would have liked it better had they just been a regular couple without all the melodrama. In many ways, I liked Wake better – it certainly seems as if I’m complaining more here than I did on the other book. But in other ways, Fade was better. The case that they work on – that part was amazing. There weren’t so many twists, and the underlying themes were clearer. I liked that. So again I’m just half and half. I’ll probably read Gone at some point, but I’m in no hurry.

Posted in 2010, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Readathon: French Milk, by Lucy Knisley

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Thistle

frenchmilkQuick Summary: This is a memoir/diary/travelogue of the month Lucy Knisley and her mother spent in Paris. They rented an apartment and spent a month seeing the sights, eating French food, and generally getting to know themselves better. It’s also an early-20s coming of age story. Knisley is an artist and this is actually her journal – drawn and written – from when she was in Paris.

My thoughts: I absolutely adored this book! I thought I might, because Eva didn’t really like it and the two of us seem to have completely opposite tastes. While I was wary going in, the book really won me over. It was hard for me to think of the book as a real diary even though I knew logically that it was. As I read I kept thinking she’d captured the feel of living in France for a month so well, so realistically, and then I’d have to stop and think – Oh yeah, that’s because this is what she experienced! Having lived in France for 6 weeks myself when I was 20 (she was 21 going on 22), there were so many things I recognized and understood. Like when she drew strange things happening in the Metro station. Like all the descriptions of food (oh so yummy!). Like my favorite line from the book, which is my favorite because I had the exact same thought and wrote just about the exact same thing in my own journal from my stay in France:

I insisted we stop for a chocolat chaud at a little café. Gotta love a place that gives you sugar cubes with your hot chocolate.

Yes yes yes!!! I even kept the wrappers of the sugar cubes I got with my breakfast chocolat chaud in Aix, taped into my diary! I kept cracking up all through this book, both from recognizing things and because Knisley is really funny! But not just funny. Poignant, at times. Perfectly capturing the fear of becoming an adult, of transitioning from adolescence into independence. Fear of where you’re going in life. I could just hug this book! It was so good!

Posted in 2010, Adult, Visual | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Readathon: I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Thistle

giantsQuick summary: Barbara is a troubled kid who seems to live in a fantasy world where she is very powerful and kills giants. Really, she is fighting against a metaphorical giant at home…

My thoughts: I struggled with this one when I first started it. The panel-styling was difficult for me to understand, and the setting/time/scene seemed to change every few pages without any indication of change. One moment we’d be in Barbara’s house, the next with a group of people I’d never seen before on a different day altogether. I had a hard time following the plotline and I couldn’t relate to Barbara at all. I’ve never been the sort of person to transpose fantasy onto real life, so I couldn’t understand the places her imagination went. Jason asked me why I kept going if I wasn’t enjoying it. My answer: Ana praised this book so much! I had to know why! So I kept going, and by the end, I was not disappointed. I understood Barbara better and the parts where her secrets were revealed were touching and painful. While this isn’t my favorite GN ever, I can see why people love it. I’m glad to have read it.

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Readathon: Looking for Bapu, by Anjali Banerjee

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Thistle

looking-for-bapu-anjali-banerjee-paperback-cover-artQuick summary: Eight-year-old Anu is very close to his grandfather (Bapu) and doesn’t know how to cope when Bapu has a massive stroke and dies. He thinks if only he can do something – say the right words, perform the right actions – he might be able to bring his Bapu back to him.

My thoughts: At first I wasn’t sure about this one. I started reading it right after The Magician’s Elephant and it took me awhile to change my brain to accommodate the new sort of prose. Once I got into the story, though, I really loved the book. There was a scene near the end that made me cry, and I don’t cry easily at books. I get teary, but the tears usually don’t fall. They fell this time. The was so sweet and heartbreaking, but not too miserable to make it a depressing book. It had moments of humor and little places to rest all along it. And it had elephants!! Elephants are good! 😀

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Readathon: The Magician’s Elephant, by Kate DiCamillo

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Thistle

magicianQuick summary: A young boy seeks answers when a fortune teller comes to town. She tells him he must follow the elephant to find his sister. The boy thinks she can’t be right – there are no elephants in his town. And then a magician makes one appear…

My thoughts: I read The Tale of Despereaux in late 2008 and hated it. Absolutely loathed it. I felt bad for that, because it won so many awards and everyone else seemed to like it, but it just didn’t work for me. I’ve been scared to try any of DiCamillo’s other books, but Chris convinced me to try The Magician’s Elephant (helped along by the fact that I love elephants to pieces). I’m so glad I did because this was a marvelous book! Funny thing is, the writing is very similar to that in Despereaux, minus the annoying, condescending asides to the reader which bothered me so much. For some reason, it worked in this setting, when it didn’t in Despereaux (for me, anyway). DiCamillo threw all the pieces to the puzzle out and then gathered them together bit by bit. I loved every single character, and I loved how everything worked out. So yay for second chances! So far this 2nds challenge has been amazing!

Posted in 2010, Children's, Prose | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments