Booking It

Book Review: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

So good! Definite 4.5 / 5. Maybe even BOTM status? We’ll just have to see!

Thanks due to HarperTEEN and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC!

A twist on the popular YA paranormal subgenre, Every Other Day promises its readers a “strong female protagonist,” action, romance, and comedy - does it deliver?

Thanks are due to EgmontUSA and NetGalley for allowing me to pre-read this title.

Ugh. That’s all I can say. Oh, and this: at least it doesn’t have some girl’s face on the front.

Title: Every Other Day

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Page Count: 352 (Hardcover)

Publishing House: EgmontUSA

Publication Date: 27 December 2011

Teenaged protagonist Kali D’Angelo is half-Italian, half-Indian. She’s also half-human, half-zombie-slayer. And half-shy, half-kick-your-butt. As the title would suggest, she spends every other day as an ordinary human girl - and every other other day as some kind of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, blood-thirsty bounty hunter with an insatiable desire to decapitate paranormal creatures skulking in her neighbourhood. When pretty, popular schoolmate Bethany is marked for death by a parasitic paranormal creature called a “nibbler,” Kali has twenty-four hours to save her.

I’ve tried my best (and I think I’ve succeeded) in not spoiling the book, because a lot of the elements involved are supposed to come as a surprise. However, the basic gist of the book is that Kali spends one day as an average girl and wakes up the next morning with superpowers that last only until she wakes up the day following that. This is supposed to sound cool, I think, but it just sounded weird to me. I wasn’t so crazy about the premise, and I was worried about how Barnes would handle this and whether her explanation for the “superpowers” would be good enough.

The plot involves her attempting to discover who, or what, she actually is, while saving the life of this cheerleader named Bethany as well - all under a time limit. Now, the plot of the book was pretty tight. The pace was good, and the “time bomb” element helped to manage that. There were twists and turns and a lot of things I definitely wasn’t expecting to happen. I didn’t think she really pulled off the “every other day” thing - her explanation was flimsy and weak to me - but aside from that I really liked the fast-paced, action/adventure-driven plot. There was a little romance, but nothing that really bogged down the story. And I appreciated that.

My major problems with the book come in terms of the characters. At first, I loved Kali. She’s snarky, she’s clever, she’s a teenaged girl who kicks zombie butt. What more could you really want? I thought her voice was really unique.

Then I realized that it totally wasn’t.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love a snarky, clever teenaged butt-kicker as much as the next YA reader. And Kali was like that.

But so was everyone else. 

Her friend Skylar, characterized as naive, chirpy, annoying and adorable? Well - that’s what Kali tells us she’s like. In reality, she sounds exactly like Kali. 

Bethany, characterized as a spoiled, ditzy cheerleader? Again, that’s what Kali TELLS us she’s like. But she acts exactly the same as Kali.

I like spunk, okay? I like snark. But every line that came out of every character’s mouth sounded like it was coming from exactly the same person. They were all exactly the same, wrapped in differently coloured packages. Kali’s narration is telling us one thing, but the characters turn around and behave exactly the way Kali would and speak exactly the way Kali does. This is just poor characterization. Not everyone is snarky, clever, and kick-ass. While it’s fun to have characters like that, don’t tell me one thing and show me something else. People don’t all speak and behave the same in real life. I know there’s only one Jennifer Barnes writing this book, but the idea is to create the illusion that there’s more than one distinct personality at work here.

The writing, aside from this huge glitch, was something I really loved about this. Everything from the sarcasm, to the pacing, to the really direct, no-nonsense-no-frills-no-adjectives prose was really great and added a lot to the action movie sort of atmosphere. That’s one of the things I like about boy books - and while this isn’t a boy book (the paranormal subgenre stamp and female main character are probably enough to steer a lot of young boys away from this, sadly) it reads like one in spots. And I like that.

This was, all told, a solid read. The characterization bugged me a lot. But aside from that, this was a really fresh take on the done-to-death “paranormal” subgenre of YA fiction. It had dragons and explosions and car chases and snark, and I love these things. Solid read, especially if you love the paranormal but are tired of the “ZOMG a hot demon boy goes to my school” plotline.

Final Breakdown:

Premise & Originality: 0.5 Stars

Plot: 1 Star

Characters: 0 Stars

Writing: 1 Star

Enjoyability: 1 Star

Total: 3.5 / 5 Stars

This is an example of a book I’d never pick up on my own. It’s short, it’s about “real life” teen topics… And I liked it a lot more than I thought I would?

Thanks to Harcourt Children’s Books and NetGalley for allowing me to pre-read this title

Pretty colours… But sort of meh? This cover is also definitely going to turn off potential male readers (and yes, the book is geared to teen boys as well as girls, which makes that unfortunate).

Title: Wherever You Go

Author: Heather Davis

Publication Date: 14 November 2011

Publishing House: Harcourt Children’s Books

Heather Davis’ Wherever You Go is what I would call a “serious issues” novel. The kind of teen novel you might study in ninth or tenth grade English class, that’s supposed to teach you about grief and coping and life issues without coming off as preachy. And for that, it’s much more successful than a lot of the other novels of this type I’ve read.

Wherever You Go deals with three major characters: Holly, a teen girl who helps her struggling single mom deal with an eight-year-old sister and a grandfather whose Alzheimer’s is slowly growing worse and worse; Jason, a boy in her grade whose mother is going through a divorce; and Rob, Holly’s dead boyfriend. As if that weren’t complicated enough, Rob and Jason were best friends; Jason’s now interested in Holly; and Aldo, the crazy grandpa, is the only one who can see, hear, or communicate with Rob’s very pissed-off ghost.

When I first read the summary for this, I thought it sounded like a recipe for hilarity - touching and poignant, but funny at the same time. So be warned: this is not a funny book. There are a couple of jokes in it, but there are a couple of jokes in just about everything if you look hard enough. It’s very serious, and it’s handled in a serious way.

The plot of the novel was a bit slow-moving for my taste, and because of the split between three main characters who were quite loosely connected for the first portion of the book, it didn’t feel as though there was any true focal point. I was actually very surprised (but pleased!) when Davis narrowed her focus toward the end and settled on the development of one character. I won’t say who - cause that’ll spoil the surprise. However, I also had problems with the level of melodrama. I understand that it’s a tragedy, but it just seems like nobody can get a break. Everyone is going through everything - not a single character isn’t overburdened with an unrealistic amount of issues and baggage. People do have issues. Mi comprende. But I’m just saying that the level of melodrama reached at certain points was kind of distracting in it’s unrealistic scope. If the novel had focused on one or two “real life” issues as opposed to trying to cover almost all of them it would have been a lot stronger, especially because the book’s just a little over 300 pages. Pretty much the only thing that didn’t go down was teen pregnancy. But that was like the only thing.

Characters were a strong point of the book for me. I loved Grandpa Aldo, and I thought Rob’s ghost was portrayed in a really interesting way that made it a bit easier to swallow that one paranormal element in an otherwise realistic novel. Holly and Jason were likable, if a touch bland. There came a moment in the book, however - during the “big reveal” of the plot, if you will - where I felt Davis stepped way out of line on Holly’s characterization. Again, I won’t say exactly what because it’s a huge spoiler, but I just felt that when the author revealed to us the truth of an incident that happened a while previous, I felt that Holly’s actions in the situation really did not line up with the girl I thought she was. The problem was that this wasn’t treated as a big deal for her character - just as a matter of fact - and she continued to act in a way that was consistent to the Holly I knew. So it was very strange for there to have been that “WHOA! She did WHAT? That doesn’t sound like her at all!” moment. 

The real stand-out in this book was the writing. A lot of authors try to do alternating perspectives and FAIL completely - the characters sound exactly the same, there’s no point to changing from first-person (I’m looking at you, Magnolia League - I’m looking at YOU) or there are other blips that make it messy. I thought Heather Davis totally nailed it. Holly’s portions are written in first-person, Rob’s in the greatly-underused second-person, and Jason’s in third-person. While it was an adjustment at first, I eventually got into the flow of it - and there’s definitely a reason she chooses to use the perspectives she does. Overall, I thought this was a really neat tactic for differentiating the characters, and she never slipped up! 

So. This was an enjoyable book for me. Not my style by a long shot, but still enjoyable. I was surprised by how much I liked it, actually - while not a great book, it’s a solid read and that’s largely due to the really interesting writing style used. While there were character slip-ups and plot glitches, I managed to overlook those in favor of the book’s high points. Crusty old men = awesome.

Also - did I mention it’s a standalone? It gets a special shout-out JUST for that. I commend you, Ms. Davis. I truly do.

Final Breakdown:

Premise & Originality: 0.5 Stars

Plot: 0.5 Stars

Characters: 0.5 Stars

Writing: 1 Star

Enjoyability: 0.5 Stars

Total: 3 / 5 Stars

Sorry! Half of this post was accidentally published a little while ago - completely my error. Hopefully, I’ve fixed it this time… This is the complete review!

I’m a total evangelist for Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking books (seriously - go read them), so even though I felt weird about it I just sucked it up and read his newest novel, the middle-grade A Monster Calls. And oh, how glad I am that my book-snobbishness didn’t prevent me from partaking of this delightful, heartfelt fable!

/ weirdness

I owe my soul to Candlewick and NetGalley for allowing me to pre-read this title. Or, not my soul. But I sure owe them something.

Title: A Monster Calls

Author: Patrick Ness 

Publication Date: 27 September 2011

Publishing House: Candlewick Press

Page Count: 215 (Hardcover)

I like writing reviews of books I love. It makes blogging easy - all I have to do is sit at my computer and gush. I’ll try to keep this sensical, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to control the following outpouring of unabashed admiration. There’s something magical about this book - it is reminiscent of C. S. Lewis’ books, from that age of thoughtful and enchanting children’s literature.

The premise of the novel is a popular one in children’s and middle-grade literature - that of losing a loved one. Thirteen-year-old Conor has had to make some serious adjustments over the past couple of years - his father left to have a new family in America, and more recently, his beloved mother has been diagnosed with cancer. However, at seven minutes past midnight, a monstrous tree appears outside his window and proceeds to tell him three tales. And so begins Conor’s often dark, often emotional, often very funny journey towards acceptance and maturity.The simple, powerful plot is almost archaic in terms of structure - the tale is an homage to children’s literature, to fairy tales, and to story-telling itself - but for all of that it’s still very fresh and engaging. Reminiscent of a fable (it’s use of numbers, repetition, and recurring motifs being key in this), the novel’s tone and structure make the magical and supernatural elements of the tale feel very natural. (Haha - get it? Natural? The book’s about a talking tree, people). Despite the fact that the conclusion is to be expected, the tale was inventive and surprising.

However, the magic of Ness’ writing is his ability to generate empathy. (Well - his writing is magical too, but I’ll get to that). I loved Conor. I loved his grandmother, too - such a sharply delineated character. But, most of all, I loved the eponymous Monster. Such is the magic of this novel. A tree was my favorite character. 

Every single one, though, was easy to relate to - and to understand, even when their choices or motivations are different from what you, as a reader, might think. I thought Conor’s interactions with his estranged father - the childlike need to love and be loved at conflict with the maturity forced upon him - was especially telling.

The writing in this book is incredible (I had to think of a word other than “magical” to use - but “magical” definitely works, too). It’s a story that talks about story-telling, and I love that. But it’s definitely a good solid story even if you’re not interested in subtext.I felt it to be a commentary on the power of stories in our lives - the great power of stories to change people and to open their eyes to the world and themselves. 
Is it obvious that I love this book? I don’t even think I need to explain. I was a little weirded at first, because it’s a middle grade novel and, you know, I’m a teenager. But I ate it with a spoon. And the illustrations? (Yep, there’s pictures, folks). Wow. I died a little. So amazing! Atmospheric and absolutely perfect. Props to you, whoever illustrated this book. Okay - props? Seriously? That sounded so stupid. I should have said “I commend you”.

Final Breakdown

Premise & Originality: 0.5 Stars

Plot: 1 Star

Characters: 1 Star

Writing: 1 Star

Enjoyability: 1 Star

Total: 4.5 / 5 Stars

READ IT. GO. I RELEASE YOU.

An advanced copy of this title was generously provided by Candlewick via NetGalley!

Title: Circle 9

Author: Anne Heltzel

Publication Date: 13 September 2011

Publishing House: Candlewick Press

Page Count: 272 (Hardcover)

Anne Heltzel’s Circle Nine is difficult to classify - it centers around a romantic relationship, but isn’t a typical romance; it has elements of mystery, but doesn’t have the tight pace and consistent plot necessary to one; and while it makes allegorical references to the nine circles of hell from Dante’s Inferno, there are no real fantastical elements. It begins when a teenaged girl awakens outside of a burning house, with no clear idea of who she is or how she came to be there. The only person around who seems to know what exactly is going on is a boy of about her own age, named Sam. Sam takes her to a hidden “kingdom” in the forest, secluded from the outside world, and they live there comfortably until he falls inexplicably ill. The girl, Abby, then attempts to discover who she is and how she came to be there.

The blend of genres and ideas in this book seems intriguing at first. I’ll concede that. With a touch more atmosphere, the book could have been very dark, and I would have liked that. But Heltzel handles these elements in a way that, to me, felt rather graceless and messy.

This book kind of made me want to slam my head into a wall.

My problems begin at the plot. Meandering, poorly-paced and confusingly written, the book flips between lagging in an endless stream of unnecessary detail to jumping ahead far too quickly. Incidents that should be “mysterious” or ambiguous are actually painfully obvious. There was no sense of mystery - no sense of pace. There were many points in the story where I felt confused - but not in a good way.  The plot actually had a lot of potential, sadly squandered by inconsistent writing and unrelatable characters.

Speaking of characters, nothing turns me off a book like a passive protagonist. And that’s exactly the word for Abby. Passive. She does nothing. Things happen to her and she sits back and wonders why they’re happening, which is frankly very boring. I didn’t relate to her, didn’t feel anything for her, didn’t particularly care what happened to her. Closer to the end of the book she becomes somewhat more active, but by that point, I was so frustrated with the character that I didn’t even care.

You’d think, if you woke up without a memory, that the FIRST thing you would do would be to try to figure out who the heck you are, but she just takes some strange guy’s word for it and skips off into the forest. What are you doing! He could be a weirdo!! OH WAIT, HE IS A WEIRDO!

I couldn’t relate to Sam, either. He was more developed and interesting, but the story-telling was so vague there was no way to get a grip on his character. I felt the very few side characters to be unnecessary to the plot; overall, none of the characters in the book were engaging and I wasn’t interested in or by them.

The writing in this book was meant to be poetic and dreamy - and it was, at certain points. But it was also confusing, choppy, and vague; there was a definite sense of distance between me and the events and characters, and that made the book a bit hard to read.

In general, the book was confusing. I understood what was going on, sure, but I was still confused. There were a couple of interesting images and ideas - the whole ninth circle of hell thing being one of them - but they were never developed well enough that I was engaged. The feel of the book was off, the plot was predictable, and the characters were not relatable at all.

Totally not my style.

Final Breakdown

Premise & Originality: 0.5 Stars

Plot: 0 Stars

Characters: 0 Stars

Writing: 0.5 Stars

Enjoyability: 0 Stars

Total: 1 / 5 Stars

This ARC was generously provided by Lerner Publishing Group via the NetGalley website. Thanks, guys!

Title: Ultraviolet

Author: R. J. Anderson

Publication Date: 1 September 2011

Publishing House: Lerner Publishing Group (Carolrhoda Lab)

Page Count: 312

Seventeen-year-old Alison has recently been institutionalized in a mental hospital after professing to having murdered the most popular girl in her grade - only, she isn’t entirely certain what really happened. According to her memory, the girl “vaporized” when Alison touched her. 

Not sure if something crazy is happening around her or if she herself is actually going crazy, Alison has to figure out how to escape the mental institution and generally figure what the hell is up with her life. Oh - and sort out her attraction to Sebastian, a sexy neuro-psychologist.

Alison’s plight is involving - it hooked me in from the beginning. Sometimes an expose of the mental health care system and sometimes a thoughtful science fiction adventure, Ultraviolet isn’t like other young adult books out there today. It’s something more cerebral, reminiscent of Madeline L’Engle’s Time Quartet. And for that reason, it’s a breath of fresh air. I’m not certain how other teens are going to react to this - a lot of people just want their paranormal romance, nice and candy-coated, and are going to think this stuff is hella weird. 

To be fair, it took a definite turn for the weird in the last quarter, which was a bit disarming. I also felt the secondary characters and sub-plots could have been tied up a bit better. It definitely left me with questions. Despite that, though, it served as a complete story and while it leaves open room for sequels, it’s complete and fulfilling of itself (can I hear some love for stand-alone novels?). 

Alison was a strong, believable character, and Anderson manages to balance giving teenagers enough credit without giving them too much. She’s immature, in some ways - remarkably mature in others. One of the things that makes the book so fascinating is that Alison is a synesthete; she has a neurological condition called “synesthesia,” which, as the book says, means that her senses are “cross-wired.” Her perceptions of certain things trigger responses in her other senses. Colours have smells, letters have personalities, noises have a taste. Not only is this extremely cool to read about - who wouldn’t want to taste chocolate when they see something blue? - it was really well-handled. Something that impressed me with the plot was that Allison’s neuro-psychological phenomenae were used as actual plot points, as opposed to being “Oh, hey, that’s cool,” and then dropped immediately. 

Sebastian Faraday, the male protagonist of the book, is her love interest - but that’s not his primary function in the book. He’s integral to the plot, and a character in his own right, which I really like. Alison’s feelings for him maintained a presence in the book, but didn’t become overbearing or overshadow the plot (*points finger accusingly at other authors of speculative fiction*). He was portrayed as being “perfect,” however, and I found this a bit tiring. He was also a lot older than Alison - and her psychologist! - which made the developing relationship between them kind of uncomfortable. That was just my reaction, but to me, it seemed way strange. They also seemed to transition really fast from “Lie on this couch and tell me about your mental problems” to “I love you.” 

The cast of side characters is big, which I love in a book, and each of the prominent sides are memorable - especially Kirk (I thought he was hilarious, but he was also a well-developed character). Some of their stories (SANJAY) were not wrapped up as well as I would have liked, but hey. The main plot was. And that was cool. 

The writing style, though, was the high point of this book for me. Alison is an unreliable narrator - I mean, she’s in a mental institution! Her sense of things was ambiguous and sometimes faulty, which kept me involved and guessing, but she was simultaneously sympathetic. It was a great balance. 

Her synesthesia causes her to perceive things in a different way and make associations that we would never make, which gives the writing an amazingly unique texture. I loved hearing about how people’s names tasted, and how certain stimuli triggered sensory perceptions in her brain. The writing, too, was lovely, and had a great flow and an even (if, by today’s standards, slow) pace. Anderson’s artful use of allegory and symbolism creates a lot of layers in the narrative.

Aside from my analytical comments about characters and plot, I really did enjoy this book. It gives the reader enough credit, and perceiving things through Alison’s cross-wired senses made me wish that I could live as a synesthete for a day! I really liked the book. I’m not sure how modern YA readership will react to it, because current trends have leaned more towards outright and obvious explorations of simpler ideas, and many books for children published now lack this novel’s level of complexity. It’s not a light read, and I’m not sure how I’d feel about recommending it to a YA reader who’s a fang of the more popular YA sub-genera (pun intended). 

In all, I loved it for being so very different from the other young adult fiction floating around out there!

Final Breakdown

Premise & Originality: 1 Star

Plot: 0.5 Stars

Characters: 0.5 Stars

Writing: 1 Star

Enjoyability: 1 Star

Total: 4 / 5 Stars

Just because people in the blogging world tend to do this, I’ll let you guys know right off the bat that I received an ARC of this. The publisher didn’t send it to me because I’m cool or anything (in fact, HarperCollins keeps rejecting my requests to read their books on NetGalley - blogging fail :/); in fact, I won it off of this lovely little website called Goodreads. You may have heard of it.

Title: Dead Rules

Author: Randy Russell

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Date of Publication: June 13, 2011

Page Count: 384 (Hardcover)

Dead Rules by Randy Russell is a young adult paranormal romance(ish) novel. It falls more under the category of a “ghost story” than anything else. To sum it up really quick, the book deals with main character Jana Webster’s afterlife - she dies in an unfortunate bowling accident while on a date with her boyfriend Michael and a couple of their “friends” and wakes up in a place called Dead School, where, apparently, the souls of teenagers who died violent deaths go to… learn geometry and, you know, stuff.

It’s meant to be a dark comedy. That much is clear. And while there are comedic moments in the novel, as well as some witty writing and a couple of interesting anecdotes, it wasn’t as dark or as funny as I hoped it would be. You’d think, wouldn’t you, that a book that begins with a girl dying at a bowling alley would be satirically witty in a bizarre, macabre kind of way - and this was, sometimes. But not all of the time. It wasn’t a long book, but it lagged in some places, getting mired in a series of pointless incidents not necessary to the plot. I also like to have some more cohesion - the whole idea of Dead School, especially the all-important why, was vague and airy and not strong or cohesive enough to seem real. (Not that a school for ghosts should seem real, as such, but you know what I mean).

It has some good twists and turns, and some very clever bits of writing. I’ll concede that. It had a very consistent tone, which is a plus. The concept, too, was engaging and unique - I just felt the execution was a little off.

The main character of the novel, teenaged Jana Webster, is a strongly delineated character in terms of her backstory - a lot of details about her lonely childhood sort of filled her in and made her feel realistic. I mean, the girl’s first boyfriend was a Ken doll - that’s actually very funny, and at the same time very sad. But personally, I was unable to relate to her. The book was meant to be a satire - okay, fine. Cool with me. But it put her under a microscope, and that made it difficult to feel sorry for her or to relate to the story. I prefer to be engaged in a story and feel empathy for the characters than to laugh at them. I love a funny character, but they have to be more than just an entertaining nutso with some background to add depth. She was developed, but always held at a distance, and that made it a little uncomfortable.

As for the other characters, many were cardboard cutouts of the genre (Mars Dreamcote being the prime suspect here - he falls into that paranormal bad-boy genre cliche. Why does she even like him? I mean, he’s “attractive,” but is that really enough? He was a personality vacuum).

Certain others, like Wyatt and Arva, were sympathetic and interesting and developed, though. This should be a good thing, but it isn’t a good thing when some really minor characters are more sympathetic and interesting than the lead (in this case, Jana). I had this problem with Vampire Academy, too - I wasn’t invested in the right people, which makes it hard to focus on the main story.

So. Here we have a book with an interesting premise - girl wants her boyfriend to join her in the afterlife, and decides to take matters into her own hands. It could have been a really neat dark comedy. It has the virtue of being unique, in terms of concept and plot. But the execution is, in a word, messy; the characters are always held at arm’s length, which makes the reader feel alienated; the plot has it’s good bits, but is difficult to get involved in.

In brief - it wasn’t a bad book. It just wasn’t a particularly good one, either. There are a lot of books out there like that, at least for me - I admit that I tend to nit-pick, but it’s just my reading style.

Despite the fact that this review isn’t entirely positive I am extremely grateful to the author for sending me an advanced copy of the book. I certainly don’t mean any offense to any of the parties involved and I do realize the cost of an ARC. 

Grade: C +

Grade: B

Brief Synopsis: The Betrayal of Maggie Blair is a young adult historical fiction novel, probably best categorized as an adventure story. Our protag, the “Maggie Blair” of the title, and her grandmother are wrongfully accused of witchcraft by the peasant community on their small, Scottish island, and Maggie is forced to flee to the mainland in order to escape hanging. 

Writing Style & Plot: The novel is written in first-person (an extremely popular trend in YA lit at the moment, I’ve noticed) past-tense from the perspective of Maggie Blair, the protagonist. It’s written in a fairly simple, straightforward and easily accessible style - not artistic in any sense and lacking the use of literary devices and imagery, but easy to understand. I personally like descriptive prose, and the use of language in narrative, but considering the period setting and the low level of education Maggie would have achieved, it’s understandable that her narrative voice would be plain in that kind of way.

The plot itself is a fast-moving adventure story, engaging but not gripping or enthralling, that has an episodic feel - Maggie goes here. Then here. Then here. Then back here. As opposed to having one primary goal a la win the Hunger Games in The Hunger Games, she partakes in a series of “sub-quests” (excuse my nerdiness) and just some pointless rambling. On a readability level I found it interesting but not particularly unique. It seemed to lack cohesion as well, in some areas. I admit I enjoyed the fact that it’s a period piece and that it’s not a romance, by any stretch of the imagination, which I found very, very refreshing considering that that’s pretty much all we’ve been seeing in YA for the past while. The plot, then, I found to be consistent with the grade I gave - average, not a unique expository style, but functional and entertaining.

Characters: As far as characters go, Maggie was strongly characterized, which I liked. By strongly characterized I mean that she was a consistent character, and that she showed some development throughout the course of the story. I did find, however, that she wasn’t particularly self-sufficient or clever, and had to rely on other people to get her out of difficult spots. She was very motivated, though, which was nice to see. 

Tam, Granny, and the musketeer, some of the secondary characters, were fairly well-rounded - you got to see both the tough and tender sides to their personalities, particularly that of Tam. As for the other secondary characters, I found many of them to be lacking depth. Annie, (you might be able to call her the antagonist of the story, though this is a loose designation), is seemingly pointlessly evil. Her motivations are vague, quasi-developed and you never get a real sense that there’s more to her than… being the antagonist. I felt similarly about many of the characters Maggie interacts with. This may have been due to the brief periods spent with each and the lack of description of each, but the sense that some of the characters were stock added to the choppy feel of the narrative. 

Historical Content: The historical content was one of the strengths of this novel. Laird manages to evoke the 17th century Scotland of the setting without bogging the narrative down with excessive details. She gives us only as much as we really need to know, and the uneducated first-person narrator, Maggie, likely wouldn’t know much more than that in any case, so it was good to keep her in character! The book had the right “feel” if you know what I mean - it wasn’t as if there were blatant anachronisms or weird-sounding dialogue or other mess ups. Laird did her research. I’m glad she didn’t shove it down our throats though - the plot of Maggie Blair was kind of bogged down with incidents and episodic little chapters and random history lessons would only have exacerbated the narrative’s continuity problems. I found the historical details she did provide interesting and helpful though! 

Brief Sum-Up: I’m a historical fiction lover - there, I said it. A lot of the YA books coming out are totally centered around “love triangles” and people being “soulmates” and deal with mythical creatures (I don’t have to say the V word, do I?) and Maggie Blair was refreshingly NOT any of those things. It had it’s flaws - a choppy narrative, a low level of development for secondary characters - but was I thoroughly enjoyed reading it anyway. It’s just a tale of a girl on a journey - sometimes with a goal, sometimes not, trying to figure out what she wants in life. Not bogged down with teen angst of the romantic variety - a fact which I really appreciate. Laird has crafted an engaging, well-researched historical fiction story different from a lot of young adult lit out there at the moment - even with its flaws, I found it to be like a breath of fresh air.

Book Review: The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter comes out on April 19 2011. Thank you so so much to Harlequin Teen and NetGalley for allowing me to pre-read this book and for supplying the PDF of the ARC.

Rating: 3/5

Does this count as a rant? Maybe a little. I don’t hate this book. It just got me a little worked up, is all :b

I am beyond excited for this post - beyond excited! Over the weekend I received my very first galleys! I received PDF-format galleys or ARCs of 5 new Young Adult contemporary, paranormal, or fantasy releases coming up in 2011, as well as a PDF copy of one book published last year (the sequel’s coming out in April!)

I’ve made an IMM to be posted on YouTube sometime this week (I’ll link it in this blog, too). Unfortunately, as the galleys aren’t hard copies, I couldn’t show you the absolutely stunning covers! If you’re as much of a cover lover as I am, you know this is a total drag. Natural solution? Make a blog post.

Here are the covers and publisher’s blurbs, as well as the release dates, for the ARCs I talked about in my video! I’m very excited about the opportunity to receive these via NetGalley, and my sincere thanks go out to both NG and the publishers/authors of these books. Summaries were taken from the publishers’ official blurbs, via the GoodReads website.

On to the ARCs!

Mercy by Rebecca Lim

“Mercy doesn’t realise it yet, but as she journeys into the darkest places of the human soul, she discovers that she is one of the celestial host exiled with fallen angel, Lucifer. Now she must atone for taking his side. To find her own way back to heaven, Mercy must help a series of humans in crisis and keep the unwary from getting caught up in the games that angels play. Ultimately she must choose between her immortal companion, Lucifer, and a human boy who risks everything for her love.” 

Released October 19 2010 by HarperCollins

(Is it just me, or is this cover stunning? Also, the sequel, Exile, comes out April 28).

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This Girl is Different by J. J. Johnson

“This girl is different… That’s what Evie has always told herself—and it’s true. Home-schooled by her counter culture mom, she’s decided to see what high school is like for the first time—for her senior year. And what a year it is. 

As it turns out, it’s not just Evie who’s Different. Lots of people are. Many of her assumptions about others are turned on their heads as she makes friends with kids her own age for the first time, discovers what’s good and what’s bad about high school, and learns lessons about power and its abuse—both by the administration and by Evie herself.”

Releases April 1 from Peachtree Publishers

(Next up in my TBR pile, because of it’s looming release date! I’ll hopefully have a review of this up soon - however I’ll remind you guys I reserve the right not to review a book I don’t like. This one sounds interesting, though!)

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Sharks & Boys by Kristen Tracy

“When 15-year-old Enid Calhoun follows her boyfriend Wick to Maryland for a party, fearful that he might be intending to cheat on her, she finds herself sneaking on board a houseboat where Wick and his friends plan to have a wild night. But before the boys discover their stowaway, a hurricane strikes, and the teenagers are carried miles from the shore and shipwrecked. What follows is a harrowing, yet heartwarming, story of survival, as the teens battle hypothermia, dehydration, man-eating sharks—and along the way, confront their own deepest secrets, including their catalytic roles in the disaster.”

Releases July 5 from Hyperion

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Putting Makeup on Dead People by Jen Violi

“It’s been four years since Donna Parisi’s father passed away, but it might as well have been four days. Donna makes conversation and goes through the motion, but she hasn’t really gotten on with life. She’s not close with anyone, she doesn’t have a boyfriend and she’s going to college at the local university with a major that her mother picked. But one day Donna has an epiphany. She wants to work with dead people. She wants to help people say goodbye and she wants to learn to love a whole person—body and soul. She wants to live her life and be exceptional…at loving, at grieving and at embalming and cremating,too. Even as she makes the decision, things start to change. Donna makes friends with the charismatic new student, Liz. She notices the boy, Charlie, at her table and realizes that maybe he’s been noticing her, too. And she begins to forgive the rest of her family for living their lives while she’s been busy moping.

Jennifer Violi’s gentle, moving story of a girl who finds a life in the midst of death will appeal to any reader who’s felt stuck and found inspiration in an unexpected place.”

Releases July 26 from Hyperion

(I’m crazy about this cover! Beyond stoked).

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The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

“The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. But when an actual stranger—a boy who seems to fade like smoke—appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true. The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know—about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy. Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab’s debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won’t soon forget.”

Releases August 2 from Hyperion

(Another gorgeous cover!)

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The Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima

“Han Alister thought he had already lost everyone he loved. But when he finds his friend Rebecca Morley near death in the Spirit Mountains, Han knows that nothing matters more than saving her. The costs of his efforts are steep, but nothing can prepare him for what he soon discovers: the beautiful, mysterious girl he knew as Rebecca is none other than Raisaana’Marianna, heir to the Queendom of the Fells. Han is hurt and betrayed. He knows he has no future with a blueblood. And, as far as he’s concerned, the princess’s family killed his own mother and sister. But if Han is to fulfill his end of an old bargain, he must do everything in his power to see Raisa crowned queen. 

Meanwhile, some people will stop at nothing to prevent Raisa from ascending. With each attempt on her life, she wonders how long it will be before her enemies succeed. Her heart tells her that the thief-turned-wizard Han Alister can be trusted. She wants to believe it—he’s saved her life more than once. But with danger coming at her from every direction, Raisa can only rely on her wits and her iron-hard will to survive—and even that might not be enough. 

The Gray Wolf Throne is an epic tale of fierce loyalty, unbearable sacrifice, and the heartless hand of fate.”

Releases September 20 from Hyperion

(Gotta go check out the others in the series… haha :)

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The summaries above were taken from the GoodReads website. Thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for providing the PDF copies of these galleys!