A Mini-Review: Legend by Marie Lu

In a time where dystopic novels seem to be running rampant it is hard to imagine picking up yet another futuristic post-apocalyptic novel, but trust me when I say Legend is worth it. Set in North America, a rather dark future awaits—one where a totalitarian government rules with an unyielding grip, plague decimates the poor, and children’s futures are limited based on test results. It is here we meet Day and June, two teens--one an infamous criminal, the other the government’s prize pupil. Legend follows these two unlikely allies as they traverse through webs of deceit and dangerous assignments in an attempt to survive a world that will do anything to destroy those who knows it's secrets. This is fast paced, full of adventure, and just downright fun to read. Perfect for fans of The Hunger Games, both teen and adult.

Released on Tuesday, November 29th Legend by Marie Lu, is available at your local independent book stores and well worth the read. Optioned as a trilogy, readers will become instant fans, eager to get their hands on the next books.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

How Have We Missed This Author

I get a lot of books sent my way. So many that it seems I can never quite trim down the stack and because of this, I sometimes miss really great reads. Example of my book chaos: I had an advanced copy of Hunger Games sitting on my shelf for a couple of years before realizing it. Crazy right? So, while I do read as many new authors/books as quickly as possible, I often will place them at the bottom of the pile when some of my favorites come in, and so I sometimes am slow to pick up on what a treasure I might have on my desk. This past summer I found one of these treasures and boy am I hooked.

I am usually, ok, always, the recipient of anything that appears to be remotely paranormal or dystopic. While those genres are most definitely not my only fortes, I do thoroughly enjoy them. That being said, I have to wade through a lot of mediocre and sometimes downright awful stuff in order to get to the gems. So it was nothing new when a couple of books from EgmontUSA (division of Random House) were thrown my way. The books were Raised by Wolves and it’s sequel Trial by Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Normally, these books would sit on or around my desk for months before I would pick them up, but I was in a mood, let’s call it a “werewolf mood” so I dove in. What I was expecting—mediocre paranormal fiction that would give me a quick and easy escape from reality for a couple of hours. What I got—a remarkably original take on the werewolf theme, highly interesting characters, and an unshakeable urge to pick up the sequel right away. Here was a story, not of a girl falling in love with a werewolf (been there, done that), not of a girl becoming a wolf (ditto), but of a girl rescued and raised by a pack of werewolves, developing the same skills, and eventually breaking off to become a leader in her own right—all while remaining human. I’m simplifying it here, but suffice it to say that there was plenty of action and emotion, an engrossing read for fans of the genre. I was actually a bit irritated when I came to the end of Trial by Fire because I couldn’t find out any information when the next book would be coming out. So, I passed on the books to my sister (also a big reader and fan of the genre) and moved on to pick something else from my pile, pretty much forgetting about to two great books I had just read.

Flash forward a couple of months. Every Other Day (release date 12/11) was a book that had been relegated to another pile (this one in my trunk) and then picked up by said sister and passed around to our mother to glowing reviews, finally made it back into my hands for my own reading pleasure. I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was Jennifer Lynn Barnes who wrote the book they had been raving about.

 Every Other Day follows sixteen-year-old Kali who is human one day and something other the next. What is Kali? It’s a question that consumes readers as they devour the story. I’ve never seen a character quite like this before in paranormal fiction. She is unique and the plot is engaging. I couldn’t have been more pleased to have dug this one out of the pile.

 I will put this caveat out for adult readers; the book does not dig deep into character complexity. It skims the surface, where I as a reader would have liked to get a little more information, but, as it’s marketed to teens of the Twilight-type fan base, this should not be a major roadblock to reader enjoyment. It didn’t derail my entertainment—just left a yearning for something a little more, and I guess that’s not such a bad thing. Isn’t that what authors strive for, leave the audience wanting more?

 So, while I highly doubt that I’ll be thinning out my pile anytime soon, it is reassuring to know the possibility that hidden treasures like these three books by Jennifer Lynn Barnes are within its’ depths waiting to be found and enjoyed.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

What is "The Future of Us" ?

I’ve read a few nostalgic books in the past several months. When I say nostalgic here, I mean that these books either occur sometime in the past of my own timeline (i.e. 80’s or 90’s) or frequently reference pop culture from that period. Most notable of these is the brilliantly entertaining novel Ready Player One, which I reviewed (most favorably) this past summer. So, when I grabbed my advanced copy of Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler’s highly anticipated young adult novel The Future of Us, I was ready to take a trip down memory lane and enjoy a novel with a rather cool premise. Now, having finished it, I’m stuck here at my computer trying to figure out if this book is a hit or a miss for teens. So, before I get to my pondering I should give a little synopsis.

It’s 1996. Sixteen-year-old Emma has just received her first desktop computer when her neighbor and good friend Josh stops by with an America Online free install disk. The two upload the program, create an email account for Emma, and a small blue box appears in the middle of the screen asking for a repeat Emma’s login information, a webpage pops up, filled with pictures and text, its logo says it’s called Facebook, and the year on the page is now.

Needless to say, Josh and Emma are looking at their future. They spend the rest of the book trying to understand the actions that led to the lives they see on their pages, and in Emma’s case trying to change, and change, and change the life she doesn’t think she wants. I’ll start of with saying that this is a seriously cool premise. I too got America Online in ’96, and at 15, if I saw my current Facebook page who knows what I would change or I how would feel about the path my life has taken in the 15 years between. That was the part of this plot that had me picking up this book in the first place (that and the fact that Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why was both brilliant and devastating). Here’s the past that I had trouble with; the plot devises, to me became a way for the authors to drop in frequent, and often unnecessary references to fads and culture that took me out of the story. Instead of focusing on the action I found myself saying “Oh, yeah, Oasis’ Wonderwall, I remember the first time I heard that” or “we used to rollerblade or skateboard everywhere, I remember when [insert skater friend’s name here] used the wax for my surfboard to wax the curb in front of my house so he could grind on it” or “I remember my Discman, it was so awesome, I could even hook it up to my car with this cool cassette adaptor”.  You see, the authors know that these things were part of the 90’s teenage life, but instead of incorporating them briefly and seamlessly into the text, it felt forced—like they said to each other, “Hey, remember this? We gotta drop that in.” It’s as though they are forcing their own nostalgia on their young prospective readers. Oddly enough, I checked their ages, and if Wikipedia is correct they are 36 and 38 respectively, which takes them just out of reach of the teens they have created. So, it’s not even really their own teenage nostalgia, they would have been in their 20’s in 1996. Please don’t think this means that authors need to create characters in their own age-span, that is ridiculous, and we, quite frankly would be missing out on a bevy of amazing novels if that were the case. What I’m trying to say, is that the pop culture references are so forced, it makes it seem like the authors can’t help, but reminisce on what it was like to be a teen in 1996, so to find out that they are beyond the age range was a little confusing to me.  

Here’s another issue I had. The nostalgia seems to call to people my age, but the writing, and the character building is a bit weak, skimming the surface, where it could easily go deeper, but also it’s very specifically aimed at today’s teens. It is not a crossover, the writing and characters are not compelling enough for adult readers, the content clearly young adult, but the nuts and bolts of the writing—primarily the constant presence of pop culture appears to be aimed at the 30 somethings. It’s like they wrote the book for us and then took out the meat, and packaged it for teens. The thing is, teens love the meat. They like complex stories and characters just as much as adults do, and I’m trying to figure out if they can read this book, which can’t quite decide who it’s audience is, and enjoy it, without a lot of eye rolling.  

So my question is—can teens enjoy this book? Maybe. The meddling with your future aspect of the novel is appealing and interesting, so perhaps that is what will catch their eyes and minds. Perhaps I’m biased because I couldn’t get past my own nostalgia of the era, so it became a roadblock in my enjoyment of the text. Am I blind to the entertainment because of this? I think that is very well possible. Yet I can’t help thinking that the lack of depth to the characters, the mere brushes with real deep emotion and conflict is something that presents an actual problem with the text, and is a bit of an insult to young adult readers who have grown accustomed to more complexity in their reading.

In short, am I wrong in my assessment? What I would really like is for a teen to read The Future of Us and give me feedback. I want to know if the nostalgia really is an overused prop that does nothing to propel the story excepting of course, the dawn of the internet age and America Online. I would be remiss if I did not mention that this element is truly essential to the story and does capture the nuances of the old dial-up platform very well.

Here’s my call to action—if you are a teen and you read this book, please send my your own review or just a few thoughts. I really want to know how you view this book. Am I just the wrong age to enjoy it for what it is? Comment back with your thoughts, for once, I actually want to hear what everyone else is thinking.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Dearly, Departed: Not Your Average Zombie Steam Punk Romance

Don’t let the cover throw you, this isn’t your average paranormal read, nor is it the epic love saga that the back cover leads you to believe. Instead, Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel, is a complex, multi-narrative, futuristic steam punk, war epic, with a dash of romance. Taking place in a future world that is an interesting mesh of Victorian manners, modern conventions, and futuristic technology, this new novel follows the stories of Bram—a young soldier with an unfortunate affliction (he’s a zombie), Nora—a young woman of surprising depth, Dr. Dearly—a underground leader and savior, Pamela Roe—Nora’s best friend, and Bram’s shady Captain, as they fight their way through a war outside of all human comprehension. Is this a zombie book? Well, yes, but it’s also different from any zombie series I have ever read or seen (and I’ve seen a lot), in that these undead are walking, talking, thinking, human beings banded together to keep those other zombies, the unthinking flesh eating hordes, away from the rest of humanity. Also, since the story is told by multiple narrators of varying ages, sex, social standings, and beliefs it avoids falling into the schmaltzy meanderings found in similar young adult books of the genre.

I blazed through this one. It was new and invigorating, something that I’m not finding too much of in the current selection of books. I enjoyed the fact that it was a tale about survival, and while there is an eventual romance, it didn’t take precedence over the plot, allowing character development and a much better image of the world in which these characters reside. Suitable for both guys and girls, thanks mostly in part to the male POV chapters, and slight gore content (very slight), and also multiple ages, author Lia Habel will have a much larger audience to appeal to. I eagerly anticipate the next installment (entitled Dearly, Beloved) in this wholly original new series.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Ashes Ashes We All Fall Down

In Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick, 17-year-old Alex, suffering from both the loss of her parents and the ever encroaching presence of an inoperable “monster” of a brain tumor, is thrown inexplicably into a war beyond the imagination. Power is out, people are dropping dead, the monster in her head feels like it exploded, and teens are turning into crazed cannibals. Is it the zombie apocalypse? No, but it might seem like it at first glance.

Bick takes a highly unoriginal topic and manages to make it fresh and compelling. Alex, an experienced backpacker is on the outskirts of civilization (the Michigan Mountains to be exact) when EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) bombs are set off throughout the world. Teamed up with an 8-year-old girl and young soldier fresh out of Afghanistan, Alex must navigate and learn to understand the changed world. Bick uses her past as a former Air Force Major to pepper the narrative with brilliant survival tips, weapons knowledge, and very believable plot elements. At times I even found myself wondering what I own that could survive an EMP. This is the cleverness of Bick’s story, she takes something very possible and turns it into a gut wrenching saga that involves, of all things, zombie-like teenagers eating their way through the handful of people, mostly elderly, who survived the attack. Instead of an all out bloody zombie battle, we only see them about four times, but with each successive sight they seem to be growing smarter, planning, and working together. This first book, in what is to be a trilogy, is more about what has happened and how people are going to try and survive, as opposed to a “World War Z”. It’s subtle and smooth, transitioning ever so carefully toward the set-up that is to come in the last pages. I do have to warn of a cliffhanger ending that is preceded by a very “Village-esque” scenario seen all to often in films and books like The Passage, or The Forest of Hands andTeeth, but the prior 300 pages are so real, and move so swiftly, that it’s difficult to be annoyed by Bick falling into the clichéd pit of post-apocalyptic thrillers.

 
So, final verdict: Ashes, great premise, infuriating ending (let’s get that next book rolling out soon please), and all around good read for both teens and adults.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

The Night Circus

Shop Indie Bookstores
 There has been much talk around my office on the proper way to describe Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus.Morgenstern herself has commented on her blog about the misrepresentations regarding her novel (someone, please tell the WSJ that it’s NOT Harry Potter). With reviewers glomming onto this stellar debut like booksellers to free books, I questioned my own attempts to discuss it in writing. Yet, despite the fact that I know I just cannot do it justice, I have found that I must make some effort to mention this novel, if only to get its title into the minds of my readers, so that they too can be transported by this magical tale.

I use the word magical, not because, as was mentioned previously, this novel is full of people performing magical tasks, although manipulation and illusion are a basis to the plot, but because the storytelling itself is magical in that it utterly bewitches the reader. It is easy to become enchanted by the characters and their stories, but easier so, to become enchanted by the writing itself. It’s quite simply compelling. Unfurling itself layer by layer, a labyrinth of a tale that one must wander through, much like the characters must wander through the circus discovering new tents and delights with every turn—never fully capable of exploring every crook and cranny no matter how many times they visit.

I hesitate to describe the plot, I can’t do it justice, I can only say that at this base of this novel are a man and women, bound together in a competition. The circus, Le Cirque des Rêves, is the venue. The rules are unclear, the outcome unknown, but their actions will set the course for the impossible to happen. The circus is not just a location or thing; it is a full-blown character, wholly fleshed, a living breathing intricate part of this novel. All things are possible in the world of Le Cirque des Rêves and thus, for the reader of the The Night Circus, the possibilities of this novel and the places it can transport are limitless. The human characters are just as gripping, their stories intricately entwined with the circus and the battle in which they have been caught. These people live and breath for the reader, their actions mysterious, yet oddly familiar by the novel’s close. Morgenstern creates them so that in the end the possibilities for their futures are infinite.

I can say no more, I don’t have the skill, not for such a complex, yet dream-like feat of imagination. I can only praise an author who has made me want to revel in the depths of her pages, visiting them again and again, never tiring of the familiar or ceasing to be amazed by newly revealed treasures. This is a novel whose secrets and hidden depths will never run out. I leave readers then with this quote from the novel; it far better explains the spellbinding qualities and enormity of The Night Circus, as Friedrick Thiessen, describes the captivating allure of Le Cirque des Rêves.

“I find I think of myself not as a writer so much as someone who provides a gateway, a tangential route for readers to reach the circus. To visit the circus again, if only in their minds, when they are unable to attend it physically. I relay it through printed words on crumpled newsprint, words that they can read again and again, returning to the circus whenever they wish, regardless if time of day or physical location. Transporting them at will. 
“When put that way, it sounds rather like magic, doesn’t it?”

            (The Night Circus, Part V, Divination)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Get Ready for "Ready Player One"

Hold on to your seats cyber geeks and eighties freaks this is your book! Set in the year 2044, in a world where people are literally plugged into a virtual reality world, called OASIS, and rarely physically leave their homes, Ready Player One is a fascinating mesh of cyberpunk, adventure, and pop-culture. Think Surrogates, meets The Matrix, meets Willy Wonka, meets the works of Neil Stephenson, meets every geeky 80’s movie ever made, and you might just come close to the brilliance of Ernest Cline’s debut novel.

 Like the characters, readers quickly become enmeshed in the inner-workings of OASIS, a VR world that allows you to shrug away physical human contact in favor of virtual meetings, chat rooms, and ceaseless adventure gamer-style. At times it even becomes difficult for the readers to remember that these characters are not physically present in their OASIS lives, so clearly are their personalities placed into their Avatars. In fact, when we do have glimpses of the real world, they are so jarring, so bleak and empty, that it is easy to see why the world has opted for the ultimate escape. We cheer for underdog hero Wade Watts, whose cyber know-how and ridiculous knowledge of pop-culture helps to transform him into a figure of mythic proportions. Yet, we also recognize (as does Wade, eventually) that in the end, people are more than their virtual avatars, and life must also be lived, in the real world, in order for us to emotionally survive.

This is a fantastic read for science fiction and cyberpunk fans yearning for a novel to take them places they’ve never gone before (or if you’re a product of the eighties, places you haven’t been in quite a long time). Read it, live it, love it…and hope that we never have our own OASIS, trust me, no one wants to be that plugged-in to anything.

ps: The ARC cover was so much better than the final!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.