The Readventurer

The House of the Scorpion
Author: Nancy Farmer
Publication Date: 9/1/02
Publisher: Atheneum

Blurb: Matteo Alacrán was not born; he was harvested.
His DNA came from El Patrón, lord of a country called Opium--a strip of poppy fields lying between the United States and what was once called Mexico. Matt's first cell split and divided inside a petri dish. Then he was placed in the womb of a cow, where he continued the miraculous journey from embryo to fetus to baby. He is a boy now, but most consider him a monster--except for El Patrón. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself, because Matt is himself.

As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters, including El Patrón's power-hungry family, and he is surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards. Escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. But escape from the Alacrán Estate is no guarantee of freedom, because Matt is marked by his difference in ways he doesn't even suspect.

Review:

Flannery made me do it and I am pleased that she did. I have no idea why I've been avoiding The House of the Scorpion for so long. Just look at its accolades - National Book Award Winner, Printz Honoree, Newbery Honoree. It practically has my name written on it.

But, is The House of the Scorpion worth such an overwhelming acclaim though?

I'd say, its first 215 pages and the last 20 are (ebook edition).

The first two thirds of the book are riveting. This story is not just a clone story. (For some reason, the majority of stories about clones focus on exactly the same things.) Yes, it is horrifying in how it examines the (familiar) debate about a clone's humanity and soulless(ful)ness. Matt is a clone and is defined by people around him as livestock, a source of body parts, and not a human being. (How can he be human if he was grown in and harvested from a cow?) Nancy Farmer takes Matt's character on a journey of self-discovery and self-awareness that allows him to accept that he is not what he is told he is, that he is as much of a human being as any person around him. It is a compelling journey, even though its sentiment isn't particularly new to me - I've read Never Let Me Go and watched The Island.

But, thankfully, there is more to distinguish The House of the Scorpion from similar stories.

First, the novel is set in Mexico (well, a future version of it). This country's life is written richly and authentically and never feels like just an exotic backdrop. I am no expert on Mexican culture though, so I might have felt that in awe of it as portrayed in The House of the Scorpion because of the narrator of the audio, who infused Mexican flavor into the story most organically.

Second, this is a story of a drug lord and his enslaved family. El Patrón feels he is owed a few generations worth of life, and he will stop at nothing to get what he thinks he is entitled to. Cloning is a part of his plan for immortality. It's in Matt's relationship with his master and owner where the story shines the most. How would a clone feel about the person who is identical to him, the source of his life? Would he be able to hate him, essentially hating himself? If a clone's genetic make-up is similar to that of a ruthless criminal, does it mean that this clone is destined to follow the same path and become the same vicious person? Or is there a way to break away from the prototype? And how would a master feel about his own clone? Would it be possible for him to treat this younger version of himself as an organ bank, or there exists a connection that is closer than even that between a father and a child? These questions had my brain working, and this part of the book was 5-star material for me.

But then came the escape part, in the last third of the book, and I found myself struggling with it. I was bored, I didn't feel like those pages (3-months of Matt's life worth) connected well thematically with the overreaching story arc, I didn't think they were necessary, I didn't think that a whole set of new characters (including villains) needed to be introduced so late in the story, and I surely didn't think that anti-socialist rants needed to come into play. (How did they relate to Matt's journey?) I thought, those pages only occupied time with no real bearing on the rest of the novel. To me, those 80 pages could have been completely cut out.

Thankfully, the ending did save The House of the Scorpion. It happens so infrequently in books, but it did bring the story full circle to El Patrón, and it was satisfying. But that big chunk of the novel, unfortunately, made me much less willing to recommend it, even though during the first part of the book I kept thinking this novel would be a great fit for fans of Unwind. I might reread The House of the Scorpion in future, but I'll be sure to skip over a big part of it.

4/5 stars

Blackout (Newsflesh Trilogy, #3)
Author: Mira Grant
Publication Date: 5/22/12
Publisher: Orbit

Blurb: Rise up while you can. - Georgia Mason
The year was 2014. The year we cured cancer. The year we cured the common cold. And the year the dead started to walk. The year of the Rising.

The year was 2039. The world didn't end when the zombies came, it just got worse. Georgia and Shaun Mason set out on the biggest story of their generation. The uncovered the biggest conspiracy since the Rising and realized that to tell the truth, sacrifices have to be made.

Now, the year is 2041, and the investigation that began with the election of President Ryman is much bigger than anyone had assumed. With too much left to do and not much time left to do it in, the surviving staff of After the End Times must face mad scientists, zombie bears, rogue government agencies-and if there's one thing they know is true in post-zombie America, it's this:

Things can always get worse.

Blackout is the conclusion to the epic trilogy that began in the Hugo-nominated Feed and the sequel, Deadline.

Review:

I was over the top excited to read this final installment, but I admit that I was also nervous.  I loved Deadline, but I found myself balking a bit at what Alaric would call the “Mad Science.”  I have no flipping clue how to review this and remain spoiler free but I am going to try my hardest!

And I guess that means that I can’t even really summarize anything that’s happened in the previous two books.  Ummm… there were conspiracies and deaths (oh so many deaths!), high-stakes journalism and heroic bloggers, twists that we never saw coming, and a few zombies thrown in for good measure.  I laughed, I cried, I shook my fist in frustration. 

Here’s what I absolutely loved about this installment: I had so many doubts, but Mira Grant made me forget every single one.  I got so swept up in the first two thirds of this book.  For the first two thirds, I couldn’t care less just how out-there the science was, or how random the plot, or how convenient some of the scenarios.  Grant really knows how to keep the pace moving and her characters are each so unique and full of personality.  I loved the entire ensemble.

Still… something was missing in this book for me.  I just didn’t feel the emotional gut-wrench that I’d become accustomed to with the previous two books.  The first two books in this series made my cry real tears – not just a few little prickles but full on crying.  And, just to put things in perspective – this book has just as much death as the previous two.  But no tears.  Even in the climactic, endgame scene involving my favorite character – I just didn’t feel it. 

I think the forward momentum in this book really stalled out for the last third.  Things started to feel repetitive: run, fight, use witty banter as a coping mechanism, describe a posh hotel in intricate detail, run, fight, use witty banter as a coping mechanism, describe a posh hospital in intricate detail, run, fight, use witty banter as a coping mechanism, describe a posh laboratory in intricate detail... and so on.  And the reasoning behind all of this running felt shaky at best.  The witty banter, which I previously found funny, really started to wear on me by the end.  I just wanted someone to show an honest emotion!  Stop joking about it for like a second!  Then, feel free to resume.

However, all of these things were more like niggling doubts I had.  The major thing that prevented me from really loving this book was something very very spoilerific, so you’ll all have to excuse me if this gets really confusing.

Remember at the end of Feed?  When Mira Grant did one of the most courageous, bold things I’ve ever seen in fiction and just blew all of our hearts to smithereens?  I felt like I actually grieved.  But then, in this book… it really felt to me like all of that courage and bravery was just being undone.  It felt like a major cop-out on her part.  And I did love the scenes where she attempted to remind us all of that certain event, and that it had happened, and that it could never be changed.  BUT, for all of this verbal reminding, I never felt like she showed us that it hadn’t been magically undone.   If a hypothetical “development” walks, talks, and goes by the name of a duck, isn’t it essentially a duck?  And I really didn’t want it to be a duck, at least not all of the time.  I wanted it to have issues acting like a duck some of the time.  I wanted it to forget how to quack or waddle or swim.  I wanted its little duckie friends not to recognize it immediately.  Otherwise, it just feels so shallow.  It doesn’t feel real.  It feels like a magic fairy tale solution. 

Are you all confused yet? Time to wrap this up then.  In short, I still really liked this series. It’s fun; it’s fast-paced; it’s much better and more inventive than most. I had my issues with it but I think they’re more about personal preference. These books are well worth reading.


Perfect Musical Pairing
Temple of the Dog - Say Hello to Heaven

I have no idea why these books remind me of my favorite 90's grunge bands, but there it is. Of course, I used a Pearl Jam song for George and a Soundgarden song for Shaun so... the only natural thing to do for this book is Temple of the Dog.  *wink*

This song really isn't for either of them though.  This was written by the remaining members of Mother Love Bone, after their lead singer Andrew Wood died.  This is my song for the wall - for all the brilliant characters I mourned during the course of this series.  

3.5/5 Stars

Catie and Tatiana brought up the issue of YA cover whitewashing a couple of times in their recent reviews. Is it possible that whitewashing is actually a good thing, in terms of promoting diversity? Apparently it is, at least according to a recent Salon article 'Can you identify?' A study shows that white readers are more inclined to identify with minority (race, sexuality, ethnicity) characters if their "diversity" is concealed from the readers until later in a book. A disheartening, but interesting theory. However, Leila over at bookshelves of doom disagrees, using a racist Hunger Games tweets scandal as an example of how this theory doesn't work.

There were a couple of articles this week written by authors whose  novels are regularly mistaken for some other books due to title similarities.

In a very a funny post Ruta Sepetys, the author of a historical YA novel Between Shades of Gray, which is often mistaken for a famous title that doesn't require naming anymore, says that even the opening line of her book "They took me in my nightgown" to a wrong reader can have a completely different meaning, foreshadowing titillation instead of intended totalitarianism.

Over at Pub(lishing) Crawl Leigh Bardugo, whose debut Shadow And Bone is coming out this June, talks about how it feels to be the author of a book with a title that sounds almost exactly like a few other popular titles in the same genre.

If you are interested in the publishing process, the same Pub(lishing) Crawl had a great article this week about how projects are picked for publication (with gifs!). Apparently, it's a rather lengthy, time consuming and financially-motivated process.

At our alma mater Goodreads Patrick Rothfuss leaves a cute note to his overzealous fans who gave his yet unfinished novel 5 stars. We like that he chose not to fixate on his not-so-generous preemptive raters and start a petition to Goodreads to remove them, so unlike some other misguided writers who did this in the past.  Maybe Rothfuss read this article in Guardian about the importance of respect for one's fandom?

We wish Charlaine Harris had listened to her fandom though. This week she officially announced that the 13th book in her Sookie Stackhouse series titled Dead Ever After will be the last, and it will be "a total closure. I don’t go back to things once I’ve finished them. That’s kind of what I do. I don’t want to write Sookie after I get stale.” If you remember, we spoke about this series just the other week and we agreed that the series got stale years ago. So, too little too late?

And, to wrap things up, here is a post written by Anna at Literary Exploration on a topic near and dear to our hearts - Book Borrowing Etiquette. Don't we all just hate getting back our precious books in a battered and overall disrespected state? What can we do about it?

That's all for this week's Odds & Ends. Have a great weekend!

A Confusion of Princes
Author: Garth Nix
Publication Date: 5/15/12
Publisher: Harper Teen

Blurb:  You'd think being a Prince in a vast intergalactic empire would be about as good as it gets. Particularly when Princes are faster, smarter, and stronger than normal humans. Not to mention being mostly immortal.

But it isn't as great as it sounds. Princes need to be hard to kill - as Khemri learns the minute he becomes one - for they are always in danger. Their greatest threat? Other Princes. Every Prince wants to become Emperor, and the surest way to do so is to kill, dishonor, or sideline any potential competitor. There are rules, but as Khemri discovers, rules can be bent and even broken.

Soon Khemri is drawn into the hidden workings of the Empire and dispatched on a secret mission. In the ruins of space battle he meets a young woman called Raine, who challenges his view of the Empire, of Princes, and of himself.

But Khemri is a Prince, and even if he wanted to leave the Empire behind, there are forces that have very definite plans for his future. . .

Review:

A Confusion of Princes reminded me of a variety of "guy" space SF, both in book and movie form - Dune, Starship Troopers, Star Wars, Ender's Game, Star Trek. Let me clarify this statement a little further. Garth Nix's newest novel brought back the memories of the best parts of these books and movies, because I am certainly a fan of neither Orson Scott Card nor Robert A. Heinlein (or campiness, bigotry and misogyny).

What attracted me to all these stories and why reading A Confusion of Princes was such a positive experience for me, was, first and foremost, space travel and space military schools (these settings just never get old for some reason), then (mild) interplanetary politics and intrigue, and, finally, rich world-building (you know, the type where everything is described in long words and titles and you feel smarter just by learning what Mektek is or what the Aspect of the Emperor's Discerning Hand does).

A lot of male-written fantasy and SF is preoccupied with this idea of "the chosen one" and his journey to acquire power and his subsequent choice of how to use this power. A Confusion of Princes roughly follows the same plot trajectory, so in terms of plot I can't say Nix invents anything mind-blowing or original here. But like with Dune, for example, I found myself utterly fascinated by the world in which Nix set his novel. I just love the idea of the universe run by a mysterious and almost omnipresent Emperor who picks, chooses and grooms millions of Princes so that they are prepared to governs His Empire. Khemri is one of the Princes. He is removed from the lowly regular population, he is an enhanced being in possession of psychic powers, vast knowledge, physical prowess and an opportunity to be reincarnated over and over again. His primary occupation is to lead and to fight for power. Khemri's view on his destiny changes, however, when he is forced to get a taste of regular, unprivileged life... 

Even though I found this story very readable and interesting, I'd say that, structurally, I am not sure it is as good as it could have been. I don't know if Nix struggled with finishing this story, my guess is he did and he probably got stuck somewhere in the middle of the book, because that's where A Confusion of Princes sort of shifts gears, and the transition from Khemri-the Prince to Khem-gets-a-taste-of-normal-life is not very smooth or fully believable (while reading this novel I momentarily experienced a Blood Red Road deja vu, that book also changed course half-way). The second part is not developed enough, IMO, which includes not only Khem's too quick ideological transformation, but also the romance which has a very distinct whiff of insta... If anyone had asked me how to improve this novel, I'd have said - cut the princely experiences shorter and make ordinary experiences longer and more meaningful.

Still, like with Blood Red Road, I mostly was able to overlook this weakness and fully immerse myself in the book.

Now, to the most unpleasant part of my review.

Here is a series of A Confusion of Princes covers that I really, really like. Notice the progression, from UK to US, with the face of the hero becoming smaller and smaller, and even when it is large enough to see the features, it is still partially obscured?

May I present to you my freshly formed conspiracy theory?

Here it goes:

This is how Khemri speaks of his own appearance: "There were five female and three male Princes, and we all looked quite different. There was a lot of variation in skin, hair, and eye color, ranging from the darkest black, dark-haired, ebony eyes of Prince Aliadh to the orange-tinted skin and yellow eyes of Prince Fyrmis, who as was not unusual for some planets, had no hair at all. My own brown skin and black eyes were pretty much in the middle of the pack. My hair at that time was long and tied back in a queue, though later when I became more aware of Imperial fashions, which primarily consisted of the aping of old Earth customs, I had it shaved save for a strip in the middle, a hairstyle called a mohuck for reason that had not survived the march of history" (p. 65-66, ARC).

Maybe I am being a tad paranoid, but I am quite convinced that the face of the hero received this treatment (from bluish tint of the UK cover to virtually impossible to see on US cover) because of Khemri's natural coloring. I even think that tinting of faces to conceal their actual (non-white) color is the "in" way to go about whitewashing covers. Certainly, it won't be the first time when it happened. Native American Maya in Kelley Armstrong's YA novels has been sporting this disguise for a couple of years now. What I want to say, though, is that, it appears, YA authors are willing to make their characters diverse. It's the publishers who go above and beyond to hide this diversity.

What do you think, dear readers, am I being paranoid? Or am I onto something?

If you want to give a book event some ambiance, hold it in a church. Better yet, hold it in a chapel with a backlit cross and recessed lighting above it, so that when something shorts and the lights flicker over the cross and then smoke starts coming out, everyone will ponder if it is God wondering why it took a book event to get them to go to church. Or maybe that was just me.  This event made me so excited from the get-go. I walked in and was handed a raffle ticket for the paperback boxed set, which included an advance reader's copy of Bitterblue. While writing the series, Cashore's editor moved publishing houses so she's had two different publishers. For that reason, she noted, this might be the only boxed set that is ever offered of the series. Spoiler alert, I didn't win the boxed set. Second spoiler alert, I thought about jumping the winner in the parking lot. Instead, I bought a dollar ice cream sundae at Mickey D's and called it an evening well spent.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from Kristin Cashore in real life, but what I got was an enthusiastic, approachable, friendly author who more than carried the event with her personality. Most of the events I've gone to previously were for groups of authors and I was curious to see if I would take as many notes when it was primarily a reading and just one author. Well, when the author is so gosh-darn interesting and quotable, it turns out that answer is definitely yes.

Cashore said she was in a great mood that day for several reasons: a positive diagnosis for a family member, Obama's support of gay marriage, and finding out she was #2 on the New York Times bestseller list for the week. She'd decided, upon visiting Seattle, that she'd like to take a ferry ride since we have regular ferries running all over Elliott Bay and Puget Sound. While she was on the boat, she found out all this information so not only did that make it "the best ferry ride ever" but she was also contagiously happy that evening. 

Armed with a tabbed and margin-note-ridden copy of Bitterblue and one of her many notebooks, Cashore began talking about her writing process. She writes everything by hand and transfers her work in Word every so often. Since it is impossible to backup handwritten words with the same regularity as computer work, she keeps her notebooks in a fireproof, waterproof safe. Cashore showed the audience one of the seven notebooks she filled while writing Bitterblue, and when she walked down the aisle, we could see that almost half, if not more, of the writing was crossed out. She chuckled when she saw that she'd written, "This is rot and shards and contagion, but that's okay" along the top of one page. Evidently that is a quote from a book she enjoyed but she used it as a starting point to talk about the importance of failure for aspiring (and all) writers.

According to Cashore, the first draft is total crap. You know the heart of the story but you don't know how to get it into words. You just write it and rewrite it until you get it right, except even when you think you might've gotten there, you could be totally wrong. Bitterblue took twice as long as the previous two books for her to write and when she turned it in, her editor read the draft and said what is probably every author's nightmare sentence: "Would you consider starting from scratch?" Though it was an initial shock, Cashore agrees with her editor's statement and thinks the book is stronger for it. She used that first draft as a source and just lifted all the good stuff from it. Doing so allowed her to approach her revision with unbelievable freshness and when she was completed, her editor called the revision a miraculous feat. 

Here's Cashore doing two readings from Bitterblue. Sorry the audio quality is not the greatest. Pump up the volume! (I wish there was some reason to put pics of young Christian Slater in this post.) These two videos are a bit long and straightforward so if you're pressed for time, watch the other two later in the post, in which she answers audience questions.

I mean no disrespect to young adult fans in general, anyone who knows me knows what a huge, huge fan of the genre I am, but I have to say, fantasy and sci-fi young adult readers ask phenomenal questions. They are invested in the worlds, the characters, the author, and the inventions in ways that astound me. I was surprised several times over when audience members asked questions about how tyrannical characters from history influenced her writing of Leck and a question about a comment Cashore made in the acknowledgments of Bitterblue that elicited a wonderful response from the author. Apparently, she made a comment in the acknowledgments about Po's character and this was the first time she'd ever been asked about it. (If you click that link, it takes you to a discussion on Cashore's blog which was inspired by the audience member's question.) The reader just asked if she could elaborate a little bit on what the comment meant. I could tell that Cashore thought very hard about what exactly she wanted to say, and I think she explained herself thoughtfully and tactfully on the matter. (There will be a spoiler for Graceling, if anyone wants to skip on to the next paragraph.) When an author is writing a book, they won't notice everything in their own characters or plot that might offend people. By blinding Po at the end of Graceling but then having his grace be magical sight, it might be seen as implying that Po couldn't be a "complete person" without his use of sight. "Curing" a disability may be seen as rude or presumptuous. Cashore talked about the inevitable mistakes authors make and though she regrets making that choice for Po overall, it was never intentional and she is very mindful about not making a similar mistake for any future characters she writes. I actually drew hearts all around my notes from this section of the event because it was readily apparent how much Cashore took it to heart and I was glad she didn't try to evade the question even one bit.

The most exciting part of the night for me was when someone asked the inevitable "What's next?" question.  The answer, I was ecstatic to find out, is contemporary, realistic YA!  The draft is already completed so I, for one, cannot wait to read it when it comes out. What she will do in other arenas?  Here's Kristin talking about the book she's just finished a draft of and what else might be next for her:

She said she may eventually write another book set in the same world as the Graceling Realm books, perhaps one from Po's point of view, but one character she hopes never to visit again is Leck. Cashore said being inside Leck's mind was an awful experience. For a few weeks, she'd write something terrible for him, approach it with fresh eyes and realize it had to be even more horrific and rewrite. The entire process was taxing, but an author can get a sort of sick pleasure when writing evil characters.  

An audience member applauded Cashore for cleverly writing a young adult book with romantic elements but without that as the central theme. Story is the main force behind Cashore's books and she said she wouldn't feel as challenged if she were to write a book with romance driving the story along. She is averse to love triangles and finds them "so boring." As do I, Kristin Cashore, as do I. 

A few more fun facts:

• She queried Graceling along with a realistic middle-grade book, which is now, sadly, closeted.
• It took her one and a half years to write the first draft of Graceling, and six months to revise it.
• She doesn't remember the inspirations behind the characters in the series.
• She once worked as a waitress in a pub in Australia. She said she must've been hired for the novelty of having an American working there as she was a terrible waitress.
• When they were trying to think of a name for the overall series, one of her friends suggested "Kickass Women Who Kill Their Fathers." 

At the end of the evening, when it was time for the raffle for the boxed set, she walked over to the bag of tickets and looked at the audience before saying, in a perfect Effie Trinket voice, "May the odds be ever in your favor." Psht, as if you could even make me like you more, Kristin Cashore.   

Kill Me Softly
Author: Sarah Cross
Publication Date: 4/10/12
Publisher: EgmontUSA

Blurb:  Mirabelle's past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents' tragic deaths to her guardians' half-truths about why she can't return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined.

In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who's a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.

But fairy tales aren't pretty things, and they don't always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy tale curses of their own . . . brothers who share a dark secret. And she'll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and hidden thorns. 

Review:

I really wish that I had just set this one aside and left it to its fans.  At around 80%, I knew that it was absolutely not going to work for me.  But there were moments leading up to that point where I was very intrigued.  And 20% is so little to leave behind.  And there’s always that nagging voice in the back of my head going, “but what if the ending swoops in and saves it all?” 

The beginning of this book is so promising. Mira is an orphan, living with her godmothers in a small home with a ton of restrictions.  She’s not allowed to drive or touch sharp objects of any kind and above all she’s not allowed to go back to Beau Rivage, the mysterious town where she was born.  Her parents died in a horrible fire on her christening day, and her godmothers whisked her away.  As the book opens, they fight over whether to make her 16th birthday dress blue or pink.  Two guesses as to which fairy tale this is….

Mira doesn’t care about any of the restrictions, really, but she’s determined to get back to Beau Rivage.  She has to know what happened to her parents and she yearns to see her birthplace.  So, she spends months piecing together an elaborate and false online romance.  She writes increasingly personal emails to a fake internet boyfriend, from a place far away from Beau Rivage.  She leaves her godmothers a trail of breadcrumbs in the opposite direction and then makes a calculated run for her birthplace.  This is the only intelligent and independent action she takes in the entire book.

When she gets to Beau Rivage, she meets Blue and his brother Felix.  Blue is infuriating and impossible and immediately warns her away from his brother.  But Felix is hot and rich and he installs her into his suite, so of course that means she’s “in love” with him in a matter of hours.  Of course, Blue fascinates her too, with his blue hair and blue emo-soul.  He writes poetry for his band; he flusters her; he has a heart-shaped birthmark on the small of his back; he smells of “metal and industrial strength styling products.”  And of course, after a while she wants him too but she can’t have him, because he might KILL HER (by kissing her, but apparently flirty full-contact “tickle fights” are perfectly okay). No matter that his brother carries the same danger, because she loves his brother – his brother that she’s barely spent any time with.

Mira spends the rest of the novel either making wild assumptions based on little to no evidence, ignoring very obvious clues, or pining for a boy she barely knows while simultaneously angsting about poor maddening Blue and trodding all over the one love interest who is actually a kind person. She’s painfully, painfully naïve, spineless and incredibly easy to manipulate.  She’s that heroine who shouts, “I don’t need your help!!!” like a toddler while simultaneously falling off a cliff.   And her insistence on her own strength becomes even more ludicrous as the book progresses because she seriously doesn’t do a single thing for herself.  Her parents?  You know, the entire reason she came to Beau Rivage in the first place?  Well, she’s content to sit back and let Felix take care of that. Even when he finds brand new information, she does nothing to act on it.  Even at the very end, during the major climactic scene, she tells someone else to go after the love interest for her and just sits there, fretting as the clock runs down.

So yes, as you can probably tell, I had a very hard time with the heroine.  But further than that, this book is just slow.  To quote one of my favorite Disney princess sidekicks: “Nothing is…happening.” This book is like one giant infodump about Mira, the other fairy tale characters, and the rules they live by.  Mira goes to the casino, goes to the beach, goes to a book store, goes to a party.  Each outing involves some form of her sitting down and listening while another character teaches her about Beau Rivage.  The actual “story” here is a very simple, “I love you but can’t have you” tale.  And ultimately, it wasn’t enough for me.

Perfect Musical Pairing
Emily Osment – Once Upon A Dream 

My friend Crowinator wrote about “golden subjects” a few weeks ago: those themes that will partially guarantee that you enjoy a book even before you’ve read it. Fairy tale re-tellings are definitely a golden subject for me. I definitely had fun reading about Snow White, Beauty, the Beast, Prince Charming, and many others as teenagers. I also loved when this book occasionally took a turn for the darker side of things; for example, when Gretel is briefly shown working as a hired goon, because after murdering the witch she found that she enjoyed hurting people.  There's also a very interesting part where a Snow White manifestation is shown half-drugged because her Prince preferred her when she was dead.  This book had a major opportunity to go very dark at the end and I was sooooo hoping it would, but alas.  Much like this song, it’s just another fluffy romantic remake.


2/5 Stars

We're always on the lookout for great book recommendations and readers/bloggers who have wells of information and recommendations to give to others. One such person is Michelle from Chronicles of a Book Evangelist, and we are ecstatic to welcome her for an edition of "If You Like This, Maybe That," where we give book recommendations based on interest in certain movies, television shows, love of characters, songs, and just about anything else you can think of.  

Well I don't know about you guys, but my to-be-read list has just gotten a little longer. If you liked any or all of Michelle's recommendations, don't forget to visit her blog at Chronicles of a Book Evangelist. 

Here’s a beautiful tribute written by Michelle at Chronicles of a Book Evangelist.

And here’s a comic released last week by the New Yorker, which was an unused cover for the magazine.  It’s written and illustrated by Art Spiegalman, and is based on an interview he did with Maurice Sendak.  In particular, we love this quote from it:

“People say, ‘Oh, Mr. Sendak, I wish I were in touch with my childhood self, like you!’  As if it were all quaint and succulent, like Peter Pan.  Childhood is cannibals and psychotics vomiting in your mouth!  I say, ‘You are in touch, lady – you’re mean to your kids, you treat your husband like shit, you lie, you’re selfish….  That is your childhood self!  In reality, childhood is deep and rich.  It’s vital, mysterious, and profound.  I remember my own childhood vividly….  I knew terrible things….  But I knew I mustn’t let adults know I knew….  It would scare them.”

He really seemed to understand and respect childhood, even though he never wrote his books specifically for children.  He will be missed very much.

The quote above makes me (Catie) wonder what he would have thought of this blog post and discussion (in the comments) over at School Library Journal, about whether the Printz medal should be given based on “quality” alone or should take into account popularity and “appeal” to teens.  It makes me think about all of the categories that we place books into – are they really necessary?  Teen readers (and child readers) come in all flavors, just like adults.  Some teens love fluff and romance; some love fast-paced mystery; some love literary fiction.  “Appeal” is such a nebulous word and really has no meaning when applied to the population as a whole.  What’s appealing to one teen is horribly unappealing to another.  And further, I think that there’s an assumption made there that the popular books will not also be of high quality. 

Okay, yes.  That one is actually often true.  Although, check out this graph of the top-ten most read books in the past fifty years.  Sure, there’s Twilight and The Da Vinci Code on there, but there’s also The Lord of the Rings and Gone With the Wind and Harry Potter.  It’s not all bad!  Still, I find that whole debate very interesting.  What do you all think?  Should literary awards (like the Printz) be given based on quality alone or include factors like “appeal”?  (And here ends Catie’s personal interjection.)

Sarah from Clear Eyes, Full Shelves had an equally thought-provoking post this week about the future of reviewing and book recommendations, in response to an article in The Atlantic. 

And there was a really cool (and inspirational) post from The Intern, about the reality of book deals – it’s not all hype and huge advances (and that’s okay).

Stacia Kane also had AMAZING NEWS this week: there will be a Chess prequel in our future, called Finding Magic.  Its expected release date is June 4th (seriously…how many works can this woman release over a single summer?!!) and it will probably be 99 cents.  Can’t wait!

In more depressing world news, the United States’ acceptance of gay marriage rights got one state darker this week, but we loved this rant from Hank Green all about it.

And speaking of Hank Green, Cassi posted all about his project with Bernie Su, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. This prompted me to watch the first episode and now I’m completely hooked.  I’m just going to leave this youtube video here.  I dare you all to watch it and not marathon the rest.

Finally, here are two hilarious things for your Saturday:
a)      One of the most egregiously hilarious typos I’ve ever seen and
b)      Saturday Night Live clearly has its finger on the pulse of Twi-moms.

Happy Weekend!

Today I set out to attend my very first author event here in the D.C. area and I was extremely excited.  Of course, I was even more excited because I got to attend a talk given by one of my favorite living sci-fi authors, Paolo Bacigalupi.  Tatiana and I reviewed his latest young adult novel, The Drowned Cities and it was a favorite for both of us.

Of course, humming right along with all of this anticipation was a big ol’ boat-load of dread.  I am not really the most…charming…person alive.  In fact, most days I spend more time with fictional people than I do with real people.  And I think that’s best for everyone involved.  Not to mention…I think we all know that Flannery is the undisputed queen of covering book events.  I mean, videos?  Photos?  Quotes?  Funny anecdotes?  Near perfect recall?  Why oh why did she set the bar so very high?  But…I vowed to do my best.

The event wasn’t crowded, and seemed to be made up of a lot of really dedicated fans (one man had a stack of copies of The Windup Girl and admitted to buying it whenever he saw one anywhere).  I got to chat a little bit with some really nice sci-fi nerds and I was able to provide expertise, re: the correct pronunciation of China Miéville’s last name. 

Paolo Bacigalupi chose to stand (and walk around) while he spoke to us which made the talk a lot more relaxed and casual, not to mention exciting.  He’s a very animated speaker!  He introduced himself by making fun of the various ways that his last name is mispronounced and announcing that he was very nervous to be standing in front of us and giving a talk.  He admitted that he sometimes has panic attacks and needs to calm down by watching films and relaxing his mind.  This prompted one audience member to quip about his coffee cup, asking if he had coffee in there or if it was chamomile tea or even vodka.  (It was decaf!)  This also made yours truly extremely shy about taking photos or videos.  When a seemingly nice and intelligent person announces that he’s nervous, it just feels rude to stick a camera in his face.  But I did snap a few discreet pictures of horrible quality.

Next he spoke a lot about the pressure to follow up Ship Breaker, which was “more successful than [he] had any right to expect it to be.”  With the added stresses of deadlines, editors, and reader response – both positive and negative – he felt a lot of pressure to make the book a certain way or to try and tailor it to please everyone.  His first attempt at the sequel was a continuation of the story in Ship Breaker, and followed Nita, Nailer, and Pima.

[As a random aside, my roommate in college was named Nita, and I spent weeks and weeks learning to pronounce it the correct way – sort of like “Nee-tha” but with less emphasis on the “th.”  I was very impressed by Paolo Bacigalupi’s pronunciation: it was perfect!] 

Unfortunately, that first sequel attempt was “very bad” (in his words).  His editor apparently told him that it had “six major themes” and that he “hadn’t developed a single one.”  He described it as his written search for “a purpose” for the sequel - picking up, examining, and discarding each one unfinished.  (Still seems like a worthy exercise if it led him to The Drowned Cities!)  He ultimately decided to throw it out and start all over again, keeping only a single sentence about the drowned cities, which I think evolved into this scene: 

“Doctor Mahfouz used to say that living in the Drowned Cities made people crazy.  Like it came in with the tide.  When the water came up, so did the killing.”

Tool laughed at that.

“Nothing so mystical.  Human beings hunger for killing, that is all.  It only takes a few politicians to stoke division, or a few demagogues encouraging hatred to set your kind upon one another.  And then before you know it, you have a whole nation biting on its own tail, going round and round until there is nothing left but the snapping of teeth.”

He then related an experience that he had in Texas, while taking part in Armadillocon, during the ongoing horrible droughts that have been occurring there.  Ranchers were having to kill off their cattle and were losing crops due to lack of water.  Rick Perry was publicly praying for rain.  He said that he felt like he was living the future, and that we’d “given up on solving problems” and were instead “relying on superstitions.”  He then seemed to laugh with a bit of chagrin, saying that this world was already a “perfect dystopia” and that he had plenty of material for his writing.  His next adult book, titled The Water Knife will center around major droughts and the fight for water. 

Then we were treated to a reading from The Drowned Cities.  He is a great reader: he does voices, makes facial expressions, and seems to really enjoy his own work and his characters.  When reading a description of Mahlia’s missing hand and stump, he held his hand behind his back.  I’m not sure if that was intentional or not but it was really interesting!  I wish that I had a video to show you but I totally chickened out on taking one.  Luckily, someone else was *ahem* brave enough to take this video of him reading at another event (thanks internet!): 

After the reading there was a short Q&A.  The first question was, “how were you inspired to write Ship Breaker?”  He said that he was very depressed after finishing The Windup Girl and that he wanted to write something more upbeat – an adventure story.  His wife is a teacher, and she has a lot of students who are resistant to reading.  He wanted to write something for them – something like the stuff that he enjoyed as a child.

He also related a concept from Slovenian philosopher Slavaj Zizek – that as adults there are uncomfortable, distasteful things that we know about but don’t want to know about, so we set them in the background and pretend they aren’t happening (he mentioned, for example, the carbon footprint of his book tour).  With Ship Breaker, he said that he hoped to reach the people (children) who still had a chance to change this world and make a difference.  He also mentioned the inspirational nature of sci-fi: how certain concepts created by science fiction authors can inspire real world invention (he gave the example of Neil Stephenson’s metaverse and the real world Second Life).  He said that he was attempting some of that with the creation of the clipper ships in Ship Breaker - with their wind power, parasails, and hydrofoils.

But even with all of these topics (sustainability, inspiration, adventure), he said that he was surprised and pleased that Ship Breaker ended up being a family story – how we define our families, who we rely on, and who we have to cut out of our lives.

He spoke a bit about breaking free of ingrained writing and reading prejudices.  He was really excited to make Nita an Indian princess (he mentioned that his wife is Indian) but admitted that while writing her, he couldn’t help continuously picturing her as a blonde/blue-eyed stereotypical Disney princess, because of all the conditioning that his brain has received over the years.  He was eventually able to bring his mind around by writing repeated descriptions of her on the page.

Another funny thing he mentioned was that Kanya (from The Windup Girl) was originally a man!  And apparently, after he changed her character to a woman, he suddenly felt compelled to describe her physically more often than he had before.   He described having  to break through his own mental pattern and resist treating her differently than her male counterpart.

Then we got to stand in line and Paolo Bacigalupi was nice enough to sign alllll of our books (even the tower of Windup Girl!).  He was very nice to everyone there, and didn't even laugh in my face when I said that I thought his books were hopeful.  And look!  A halfway-decent picture!  Also, coincidentally, the only one I'm not responsible for....

Because I got to meet the lovely Sash from Sash & Em!  And she was sweet and funny and cute and she took the best picture of the night. Later, I really wanted a picture of the two of us, but we were in the parking lot and there was no one around (except this weird guy muttering random women's names behind us).  I admit that I totally chuckled on the way home, imagining this hypothetical scenario:

Imaginary Catie: Thanks for coming to talk to us today!  I really enjoyed it!
Imaginary Paolo Bacigalupi: Oh, sure.  Did you want...a picture? *gestures at camera*
IC:  Yeah, would you?
IPB:  Of course...maybe your friend there could...?
IC:  OH, actually what I meant was...would YOU take a picture...of US?
IPB: ...

~AND SCENE~

Sadly, we were left with the last refuge of the desperate photographer: the awkward self portrait, taken by your own weirdly stretched arm.  And that's how we got these beauties:

Today, we are also giving away one copy of The Drowned Cities!  This book is excellent, so please do yourselves all a favor and enter!  Contest begins today and ends on Friday, May 18th.  Best of luck! US only.

So many young adult novels these days come with this little fella attached: "(The blah blah Series, #1)."  It's so ubiquitous that it's almost a foregone conclusion now that any YA fantasy or paranormal will be part of a series.  (That being said - to the recent crop of standalones - we love you!)

But before we all became young adult junkies, we had a different sort of series.  More mature.  More intense.  More gory.  And sometimes, even more pointless and repetitive.

So here they are in all their beautiful/ugly glory: the adult series we love (and the ones we've lost).

When the topic of this post was suggested, I became quite excited - I thought, I read a lot of series, so picking my favorite adult ones would be a piece of cake. That is, until I opened my Goodreads account and looked at my shelves dedicated to series. Let's just say, in reality, the number of series that I liked in their entirety or am still following is only a tiny fraction of those that I abandoned after or during book one or at some later point in a series. The ability of authors to destroy their once great creations is staggering.

The easiest, albeit the most prolonged, parting with a formerly beloved series is definitely the one with the  Stookie Stackhouse books. (It took me 11 books to finally realize it's time to pull the plug.) If there is any author who knows how to ruin her series, it's Charlaine Harris. The moment she loses interest in one of her stories, you know it - the books become in-your-face awful. This happened both to her Harper Connelly and Lily Bard series (I have no idea why, but I enjoyed Aurora Teagarden series from start to finish, even though it was plagued by continuity errors and all kinds of signature Harris mess), and it happened to Sookie books as well. In her greedy dash to add more books to this series she no longer had any interest in and make more money, Harris has gradually demolished everything we used to love about Sookie and the gang. (The butchering of Eric will never be forgiven, that's for sure.)

There are some series that are still lingering on my shelves, but I pretty much don't have any emotional connection to them any more, and, truth be told,  I doubt I will actually complete them. Give me a few more months, and I will remove them from my shelves during one of my occasional TBR-clearing sessions.

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander and Lord John series are on their way out. These books are getting harder and harder for me to read. They've become too long and too plot-less. Unlike Harris, who gets sick of her characters, Gabaldon is too in love with hers and doesn't know when her stories become over-indulgent and when they need editing. Gabaldon seems to be her own biggest fan and, having her publishers eat out of her hands, she has every opportunity to continue writing 1000-pages long fanfiction based on her own characters and stories.

Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong is in a precarious position. There is only one book left in this series, and I will undoubtedly read it. While I haven't been in love with any book in this series since book #10, I haven't hated any of the books either. But this series has lost its steam, it's clear. I'm glad it's almost over.

Now, on to the series I still love and look forward to reading more of.  It is, sadly, a very short list.

First (and it feels blasphemous to call these books a series) I really hope to one day read a 3rd book in Margaret Atwood's cycle of dystopic novels called (by someone) MaddAddam Trilogy. After seeing this YouTube video, I am more hopeful that this book will be completed, because with Atwood you can never be 100% sure. She herself never knows if a book can be written until is is written in full.

Second, I am very interested in reading a follow-up to M.K. Hobson's The Native Star and The Hidden Goddess. Hobson is currently leading a Kickstarter campaign to finance the publication of the 3rd book in this gloriously named series Veneficas Americana. Fingers crossed, it succeeds. (UPDATE: Yes, it's a success!)

Downside Ghosts and Dublin Murder Squad are on this list as well. Catie will speak more eloquently about these two. For these authors I just hope that they will know when to stop while they are ahead and not follow the mistake of other series writers.

And the last, but not least, of my favorite series! I am sure you can guess, I've talked so much about it it's not even funny. FEVER!

This series is both finished and unfinished. I am apprehensive and excited about the new planned additions to the already completed story arc. This extension can be a huge failure or a lot of fun. At this point, I choose to be optimistic about it. This is the only attitude a Jericho Barrons addict like moi can afford.

I am a lover of series but I am also terrible at keeping up with them. I've probably started no less than thirty or forty different series at one time or another but the ones I am still keeping up with I can count on one hand. Er, maybe two. 

Jasper Fforde is like that new person you meet at a party who you are instant best friends with--I love these people. They like all the same things you like, they listen to the same music, they read all the same things and you end up talking to them for hours. That's what I love about Jasper Fforde. When I read one of his books, I feel like I am just jumping onto the same wavelength and enjoying the ride. I am keeping up with his Thursday Next series, about a literary detective who can read herself in and out of books, and his Shades of Grey series, about people who live in a world where social status is determined by how much of the color spectrum you can see. I really can't think of many authors I'd describe as wacky and/or zany, but Jasper Fforde is sure one of them. 

Like Tatiana and Catie, I also enjoy the Dublin Murder Squad books, though I've only read one and a half of them so far. (I know, no need to shun me.) Two other crime-related series that I've kept up with are the Gretchen Lowell/Archie Sheridan books by Chelsea Cain and the In Death series by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts). The Heartsick series is addicting but I wasn't the biggest fan of the last book and I'm really hoping it comes back  together when the next one comes out in August. Cain snagged me in book one when she had Lowell taking a hammer and nail to Archie's ribs on the first few pages. I'm about three books behind in the In Death series but considering the series is almost to thirty-five books, I think we can all agree that I'm keeping up with it. 

For quite a while, I was following several paranormal romance series.  I kept up with the Argeneau Vampires by Lynsay Sands and the Dark Ones series by Katie Macalister for years and I still get excited when I see them in stores or at the library, but they've both let me down several times in recent history so I've mostly given them up. I still hold out hope that Macalister will pick her Aisling Grey: Guardian series back up because I really enjoyed all four books in that series. As an attempt to fill that void, I grimaced through a few books in the offshoot  Silver Dragons series and then jumped off that ship. My cobloggers have already and will mention that we all mourn the loss of the Sookie series but I'd also like to throw another series into the pit of despair: the Undead books by MaryJanice Davidson. Contrary to the trend with many series where each subsequent book gets longer, pretty soon the Undead series will just be printed on leaflets.  In terms of reading them right when they are released, I think the only paranormal series I'm following devoutly is Chicagoland Vampires. That series is reaching it's awkward puberty years and I spend more time daydreaming about whose story in the Chicagoland universe might come next when that series comes to its end. I have lots of (unsolicited and unwanted) suggestions!

And lastly, the series I am dying to read and/or finish. Like I said earlier, I have a horrible tendency to just read one book in a series and put off the rest or to just flit around despite trusted reader/friend recommendations to light a fire under my butt and get going. Most of these series are already on my 110+ Books I Want To Read Next list, but they bear repeating here. These are the adult series I have read one book in and want to finish or no books in and want to complete: the Mary Russell series, Newsflesh, Grant County, Logan McRae, Sirantha Jax,  Veneficas Americana, Mistborn, and yes, I have yet to read the Song of Ice and Fire books.  I don't know what's preventing me from jumping back into some of these series. Really, that's the appeal of series in general. We've already done all the work in book one. Anything after that is like adding oil to a well-functioning machine.  But we all know that every machine has a usable life. (I just had a nightmare thinking about tax law class and our discussion about depreciation of assets.)  

For better or worse, I read a ton of series.  There’s something so appealing about being able to return to the same cast of characters over and over again.  It’s like revisiting old friends, or old lovers (hey, these are adult series after all).  When considering the adults series that I’ve had committed relationships with, they seem to naturally fall into these categories:

Dead to me:  These are the series that have jumped the shark so horrifically that I don’t think they’ll ever be redeemed.  Or maybe they were always bad and my taste has just evolved.  Either way, I won’t be touching these with a ten-foot pole.  Doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the snarky reviews for them though…          

The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris – I feel so justified in dropping this series after reading the recent reviews of Deadlocked.  It’s such a disappointment because I used to look forward to these whenever a new one was released. Unfortunately, I think the author lost her passion for the series and its characters long ago and instead of just ending it, she’s apparently decided to take everything we once loved and just burn it to the ground. 

The Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich – I’m pretty sure that these were always bad.  Still, when I first picked this series up at age 21, I thought it was pretty hilarious.  Then I realized that the author was actually just re-writing the exact same book over and over again. This realization took approximately eight years to form but at least I finally got there.  I guess I have matured somewhat in my adult years.  Hurrah!

It’s not you; it’s me:  These are the series that I feel like I may have outgrown.  It’s not that their overall quality has lessened (much); it’s just that I find I’m no longer interested in reading them.

The Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews – I read the newest one last year and it just wasn’t clicking with me.  I think this series is great – one of the best, even.  But honestly I’m not sure if I’ll continue with it.  Hopefully all of my amazing reviewer friends out there can convince me one way or the other!

The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon – Yes, these have gotten extremely long-winded and detailed but I actually think they’re still great.  I am just not feeling as connected to the characters as I once did.  I may or may not read the new one.  Again, it will be up to my trusted reviewer friends to sway me.

Don’t call me.  I’ll call you:  I love these series and I will definitely be continuing with them, but I just don’t have that insane urgency to pick up the next one.  These are like my rainy-day reads – there for a good time whenever I’m bored but otherwise placed on the back burner.  It’s a good thing that books can’t dump readers.

The Peter Grant Series by Ben Aaronovitch – I love Peter and I love his hilarious shenanigans as a magician/constable.  I am actually really looking forward to reading the third book, which I’ll be reviewing here in the next month or two.

The Sirantha Jax Series by Ann Aguirre – Sirantha Jax ranks among my all-time favorite kick-ass female heroines and I LOVE that this series is like a magical hybrid of urban fantasy, romance, and sci-fi.  It’s something different in a genre which can easily become stale.  

The Hollows Series by Kim Harrison - more than any other series, the cast of this one feel like my old friends.  This was the very first urban fantasy series I ever read and even though I was a bit disappointed in the last one, I'll definitely be coming back for more.

Whenever I see you out with someone else, I die a little inside:  whenever I see the new books in these series going out with reviewer friends of mine (you know who you are!) I become so overwhelmed with longing and jealousy that I have to take a deep breath and resist the urge to grabby grab grab grab.  Some of these I have ARCs for, which I am insanely excited about, but I’m trying to be a good reviewer and not read them until a month from their release dates and it is OH SO HARD.  These are the series that I am still very addicted to.

The Newsflesh Series by Mira Grant – The very kind people at Orbit sent me an ARC of this which arrived today and it has taken everything that I have not to drop everything in my life and dive in eyeballs first.  In fact, I’m actually rushing through this post right now so that I can get to reading it more quickly.

The Downside Ghosts Series by Stacia Kane – Why oh why does Chasing Magic not come out until the end of June?*  And how the hell have I managed to resist reading the ARC that’s currently mocking me from the front page of my kindle library?  I’ll tell you: I enlisted a sponsor.  This series is so addictive that I need help in resisting it.  Regina from Badass Book Reviews has kindly offered to keep me honest.  Until the end of May.  At which point you all won’t be hearing from me for approximately 6-8 hours.

*P.S. How hilarious is it that I'm complaining about this when Sacrificial Magic was released only a month ago?

The Dublin Murder Squad by Tana French – When I saw that the ARCs for this were restricted to booksellers and librarians, I wept a little.  (Okay, no, I didn’t.  But there was probably a melodramatic sigh of some kind.)  To say that I am highly anticipating the twisted mental journey that her latest Broken Harbour is sure to take me on would be a severe understatement.

How about all of you?  Have you had any major adult series disappointments? Are there any that you'd kill for the next installment of? Let's chat in the comments!