And apparently somehow May is already over, which means that the month's reviews have been archived and cross-linked on the main Brightdreamer Books site.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Friday, May 26, 2023
The Thickety (J. A. White)
The Thickety: A Path Begins
The Thickety series, Book 1
J. A. White
Tantor Audio
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Horror
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Kara Westfall was five years old when she learned how cruel her village of De'Noran could be - the night that she and her mother were both accused of witchcraft. Her mother did not survive, but Kara did... only to live as a pariah, same as her broken-hearted father and sickly kid brother Taff. The village is dedicated to the Path, the teachings of the savior who, two thousand years ago, sacrificed himself fighting a plague of witches and monsters who nearly destroyed the world. Now the rest of the world has apparently moved on, forgetting that magic was ever real, but those on the island of De'Noran know better: they live right next to the cursed wood of the Thickety, and can see with their own eyes the evil weeds and dark beasts that it spawns. To them, the Westfall family is still tainted by association, even after years have passed and neither Kara nor Taff have shown any signs of magic. Kara refuses to believe her mother was actually a witch. Witches are evil things, after all, and she knows her mother loved her, and no evil thing could possibly love.
Then the strange bird with the single eye draws her into the Thickety, to a buried book that whispers of great powers. A grimoire - possibly the very one that belonged to her late, doomed mother.
As Kara finds strange powers wakening within her, she begins to see her village in a new light. But magic is as much a curse as it is a gift, and if Kara isn't careful she could destroy everything and everyone she loves.
REVIEW: I read and enjoyed J. A. White's chilling standalone tale Nightbooks, so I figured I'd give this story a try. Like Nightbooks, it skews toward the dark side; while generally nongraphic, it doesn't shy away from danger or death, or the gray areas of morality that separate good from evil and right from wrong. After her innocence was shattered at a young age, watching her mother killed by her friends and neighbors (while her father stood by, apparently one of the very "witnesses" who turned her in to the town leader), she learned just how unfair and cruel the world could be, even as she strives to stay on the cultlike Path of the Puritan-like religion the islanders practice. No matter what she does, though, she and her brother are treated like monsters, shunned and bullied, while her father drifts in a state of deep depression that makes him more child than man. Kara can't help resenting his behavior, even as she struggles to keep him and her brother fed on an increasingly lifeless farm against increasingly insurmountable odds. For all that she can't bring herself to truly hate her tormentors, there's only so far a girl can be pushed, and she's just about at her limit when the odd little bird shows up to tempt her across the forbidden boundary into the Thickety.
Like everyone else in the village, she fears the Thickety, and has ample evidence from her own eyes of just why it's to be feared: the weeds and saplings at the forest's edge regrow almost overnight, and at least half the plants are toxic in some way. But there are also healing herbs to be found in the fringes, as Kara's mother taught her. This duality of nature is echoed throughout the book, from the neighbors who can be kindly (at least to each other) and cruel, the father who loves her yet inexplicably betrayed her mother, even to the magic that Kara discovers when she's led to the buried grimoire. There is, she discovers, great potential for good in it, chances to right wrongs and heal wounds and even explore the wonders of her world in a new and interesting way... but there's also a terrifying temptation with the power it offers, and a price to be paid. And even if Kara can manage to avoid the temptation, others in the village may not; she is not the only one in De'Noran consumed with resentment and frustration over the hypocrisy of the people and the Path. Through it all, she strives to protect her often-sickly brother Taff, born the very night the villagers killed their mother, even as she fears her very presence endangers him more than any illness. It's for his sake as much as her own that she pushes herself farther than she thinks she could go, endures things she did not believe she could endure - and wades into deeper, darker, and murkier magic than she knows is wise.
From the first few pages, where a young Kara is snatched from her bed by neighbors and forced to stand trial before the village, the plot moves at a decent clip, showing its darkness early on and only skewing darker as the tale unfolds. The villagers may be ignorant of much about magic and witches, but they aren't entirely wrong to fear the potential of magic or the power within the Thickety - truths driven home when Kara finds she's not the only one with the talent, building to a climax pitting her against everything she was raised to fear (and then some)... and an epilogue that reveals a final twist of the knife, setting up the next installment of the series and the next stage in her personal journey. It made for interesting, if occasionally chilling and brutal (especially given the middle-grade age range) listening. I wavered a bit on the rating, but wound up giving an extra half-star for not pulling its punches.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Griffin's Castle (Jenny Nimmo) - My Review
Uprooted (Naomi Novik) - My Review
Nightbooks (J. A. White) - My Review
The Thickety series, Book 1
J. A. White
Tantor Audio
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Horror
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Kara Westfall was five years old when she learned how cruel her village of De'Noran could be - the night that she and her mother were both accused of witchcraft. Her mother did not survive, but Kara did... only to live as a pariah, same as her broken-hearted father and sickly kid brother Taff. The village is dedicated to the Path, the teachings of the savior who, two thousand years ago, sacrificed himself fighting a plague of witches and monsters who nearly destroyed the world. Now the rest of the world has apparently moved on, forgetting that magic was ever real, but those on the island of De'Noran know better: they live right next to the cursed wood of the Thickety, and can see with their own eyes the evil weeds and dark beasts that it spawns. To them, the Westfall family is still tainted by association, even after years have passed and neither Kara nor Taff have shown any signs of magic. Kara refuses to believe her mother was actually a witch. Witches are evil things, after all, and she knows her mother loved her, and no evil thing could possibly love.
Then the strange bird with the single eye draws her into the Thickety, to a buried book that whispers of great powers. A grimoire - possibly the very one that belonged to her late, doomed mother.
As Kara finds strange powers wakening within her, she begins to see her village in a new light. But magic is as much a curse as it is a gift, and if Kara isn't careful she could destroy everything and everyone she loves.
REVIEW: I read and enjoyed J. A. White's chilling standalone tale Nightbooks, so I figured I'd give this story a try. Like Nightbooks, it skews toward the dark side; while generally nongraphic, it doesn't shy away from danger or death, or the gray areas of morality that separate good from evil and right from wrong. After her innocence was shattered at a young age, watching her mother killed by her friends and neighbors (while her father stood by, apparently one of the very "witnesses" who turned her in to the town leader), she learned just how unfair and cruel the world could be, even as she strives to stay on the cultlike Path of the Puritan-like religion the islanders practice. No matter what she does, though, she and her brother are treated like monsters, shunned and bullied, while her father drifts in a state of deep depression that makes him more child than man. Kara can't help resenting his behavior, even as she struggles to keep him and her brother fed on an increasingly lifeless farm against increasingly insurmountable odds. For all that she can't bring herself to truly hate her tormentors, there's only so far a girl can be pushed, and she's just about at her limit when the odd little bird shows up to tempt her across the forbidden boundary into the Thickety.
Like everyone else in the village, she fears the Thickety, and has ample evidence from her own eyes of just why it's to be feared: the weeds and saplings at the forest's edge regrow almost overnight, and at least half the plants are toxic in some way. But there are also healing herbs to be found in the fringes, as Kara's mother taught her. This duality of nature is echoed throughout the book, from the neighbors who can be kindly (at least to each other) and cruel, the father who loves her yet inexplicably betrayed her mother, even to the magic that Kara discovers when she's led to the buried grimoire. There is, she discovers, great potential for good in it, chances to right wrongs and heal wounds and even explore the wonders of her world in a new and interesting way... but there's also a terrifying temptation with the power it offers, and a price to be paid. And even if Kara can manage to avoid the temptation, others in the village may not; she is not the only one in De'Noran consumed with resentment and frustration over the hypocrisy of the people and the Path. Through it all, she strives to protect her often-sickly brother Taff, born the very night the villagers killed their mother, even as she fears her very presence endangers him more than any illness. It's for his sake as much as her own that she pushes herself farther than she thinks she could go, endures things she did not believe she could endure - and wades into deeper, darker, and murkier magic than she knows is wise.
From the first few pages, where a young Kara is snatched from her bed by neighbors and forced to stand trial before the village, the plot moves at a decent clip, showing its darkness early on and only skewing darker as the tale unfolds. The villagers may be ignorant of much about magic and witches, but they aren't entirely wrong to fear the potential of magic or the power within the Thickety - truths driven home when Kara finds she's not the only one with the talent, building to a climax pitting her against everything she was raised to fear (and then some)... and an epilogue that reveals a final twist of the knife, setting up the next installment of the series and the next stage in her personal journey. It made for interesting, if occasionally chilling and brutal (especially given the middle-grade age range) listening. I wavered a bit on the rating, but wound up giving an extra half-star for not pulling its punches.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Griffin's Castle (Jenny Nimmo) - My Review
Uprooted (Naomi Novik) - My Review
Nightbooks (J. A. White) - My Review
Thursday, May 25, 2023
Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves (Meg Long)
Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves
Meg Long
Wednesday Books
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Sena has lived all her seventeen years on the icy, storm-wracked world of Tundar - and spent the last five desperately trying to leave. It was bad enough when her mothers were alive; one of them was a proper Corporate Assembly citizen like most in the planet's only true city, the Ket, but the other was a "scavver", one of the feared and frowned-upon people whose ancestors defied corporate rule and fled to live in the wilderness. But they're dead now, killed in the annual race to the world's rich exocarbon deposits, which are only reachable during the planet's brief winter, and - thanks to technology-destroying ion storms - only by the low-tech means of sleds drawn by vonenwolves, genetic hybrids of Old Earth wolves and local doglike vonen predators. With her mothers died everything Sena ever loved. It's also why, even though the only real money to be had on Tundar is in the annual exocarbon races, she refuses to race herself, instead turning to thievery to try to secure money for passage off Tundar to... well, she doesn't even know, but anywhere has to be better than here.
She should've known it would all go wrong...
After a botched theft turns ugly, she flees - and winds up in the clutches of Kalba, the biggest syndicate boss of the Ket. He knows who she is, and who her mothers were... and how good they were with the vonenwolves, a skill he's certain she inherited. In exchange for her freedom, Sena has to patch up one of the man's prize fighting wolves. After her parents died, she wanted nothing to do with the animals, but now she has no choice. Against her will, she is drawn back into the world of the wolves and the races, the world that killed her family. This time, though, she won't be able to run and hide. She'll have to fight back - not just for herself, but for the she-wolf who becomes the closest thing to family she's had in five years.
REVIEW: Another audiobook found via Libby's "Random" sort function, Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves takes the raw Arctic thrills and dangers of dogsledding and transports it to an alien world of larger-than-life predators, inhospitable terrain, cruel corporate greed, and clever, half-feral wolf hybrids. The combination works surprisingly well.
Like many similar protagonists, Sena is a girl scarred by personal tragedy after already being hardened by a life of prejudice on a dystopian colony world governed by offworlder greed: those who don't risk their lives on the frequently-deadly race to the exocarbon fields stay back in dens like those run by Kalba and place bets on who will survive (which leads to significant violence and even sabotage on a race that's already deadly enough thanks to unforgiving terrain and Tundar's local predators, not to mention rumored attacks by the scavvers who famously despise the races and all the corporate avarice and folly they represent). It's to the author's credit that Sena comes across as credibly jaded, not just sulky and whiny (as some such characters do), even before her fateful encounter with the wounded wolf Iska... a wolf who shares the name of her late vonenwolf trainer mother (not a coincidence: the human Iska used to train wolves for Kalba). From the moment girl and wolf first see each other, it's clear there's a deeper bond, a spark of fate at work, though of course Sena resists, too full of unresolved grief and anger to allow herself to trust again... and, of course, the circumstances of their meeting, and her being forced to care for the animal, aren't exactly auspicious. Iska doesn't exactly leap at the chance to bond with a human, either, after a life of cages and pit fighting. But not everyone in the Ket is a monster, nor are all the racers greedy or foolish; a chance encounter with an offworld professor who hopes to study Tundar's unusual exocarbon becomes a lifeline when she needs it most, for all that she doesn't even know what to make of the strange man and his peculiar crew when they meet. It's hardly a spoiler that, despite her protests, she ends up drawn into the race itself, and that along the way she learns a lot more about herself, her wolf, and the fates of her mothers, but there are several unexpected twists and turns along the way, with tension and stakes building nicely and Sena (and the others) not above making some mistakes and missteps in their believably uneven growth along the way. This is not a story where victory or survival are at all assured for anyone, let alone easily won.
There are a few points that wobble a bit. Mostly, I found Kalba to be a bit one-dimensional as a baddie, popping up - sometimes in the literal middle of nowhere - just when things couldn't seem to get any worse for Sena. Other side characters could also use rounding out a bit, or felt dropped by the wayside in the rush of the race. The ending also feels like the setup for a sequel that doesn't seem to exist (yet). But the heart of the story, the hard-won bond between a girl and her genetically hybridized wolf-dog amid the exhilarating dangers of the icy wilderness, is a solid one.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Flash Gold (Lindsay Buroker) - My Review
The Call of the Wild and White Fang (Jack London) - My Review
I Am Still Alive (Kate Alice Marshall) - My Review
Meg Long
Wednesday Books
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Sena has lived all her seventeen years on the icy, storm-wracked world of Tundar - and spent the last five desperately trying to leave. It was bad enough when her mothers were alive; one of them was a proper Corporate Assembly citizen like most in the planet's only true city, the Ket, but the other was a "scavver", one of the feared and frowned-upon people whose ancestors defied corporate rule and fled to live in the wilderness. But they're dead now, killed in the annual race to the world's rich exocarbon deposits, which are only reachable during the planet's brief winter, and - thanks to technology-destroying ion storms - only by the low-tech means of sleds drawn by vonenwolves, genetic hybrids of Old Earth wolves and local doglike vonen predators. With her mothers died everything Sena ever loved. It's also why, even though the only real money to be had on Tundar is in the annual exocarbon races, she refuses to race herself, instead turning to thievery to try to secure money for passage off Tundar to... well, she doesn't even know, but anywhere has to be better than here.
She should've known it would all go wrong...
After a botched theft turns ugly, she flees - and winds up in the clutches of Kalba, the biggest syndicate boss of the Ket. He knows who she is, and who her mothers were... and how good they were with the vonenwolves, a skill he's certain she inherited. In exchange for her freedom, Sena has to patch up one of the man's prize fighting wolves. After her parents died, she wanted nothing to do with the animals, but now she has no choice. Against her will, she is drawn back into the world of the wolves and the races, the world that killed her family. This time, though, she won't be able to run and hide. She'll have to fight back - not just for herself, but for the she-wolf who becomes the closest thing to family she's had in five years.
REVIEW: Another audiobook found via Libby's "Random" sort function, Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves takes the raw Arctic thrills and dangers of dogsledding and transports it to an alien world of larger-than-life predators, inhospitable terrain, cruel corporate greed, and clever, half-feral wolf hybrids. The combination works surprisingly well.
Like many similar protagonists, Sena is a girl scarred by personal tragedy after already being hardened by a life of prejudice on a dystopian colony world governed by offworlder greed: those who don't risk their lives on the frequently-deadly race to the exocarbon fields stay back in dens like those run by Kalba and place bets on who will survive (which leads to significant violence and even sabotage on a race that's already deadly enough thanks to unforgiving terrain and Tundar's local predators, not to mention rumored attacks by the scavvers who famously despise the races and all the corporate avarice and folly they represent). It's to the author's credit that Sena comes across as credibly jaded, not just sulky and whiny (as some such characters do), even before her fateful encounter with the wounded wolf Iska... a wolf who shares the name of her late vonenwolf trainer mother (not a coincidence: the human Iska used to train wolves for Kalba). From the moment girl and wolf first see each other, it's clear there's a deeper bond, a spark of fate at work, though of course Sena resists, too full of unresolved grief and anger to allow herself to trust again... and, of course, the circumstances of their meeting, and her being forced to care for the animal, aren't exactly auspicious. Iska doesn't exactly leap at the chance to bond with a human, either, after a life of cages and pit fighting. But not everyone in the Ket is a monster, nor are all the racers greedy or foolish; a chance encounter with an offworld professor who hopes to study Tundar's unusual exocarbon becomes a lifeline when she needs it most, for all that she doesn't even know what to make of the strange man and his peculiar crew when they meet. It's hardly a spoiler that, despite her protests, she ends up drawn into the race itself, and that along the way she learns a lot more about herself, her wolf, and the fates of her mothers, but there are several unexpected twists and turns along the way, with tension and stakes building nicely and Sena (and the others) not above making some mistakes and missteps in their believably uneven growth along the way. This is not a story where victory or survival are at all assured for anyone, let alone easily won.
There are a few points that wobble a bit. Mostly, I found Kalba to be a bit one-dimensional as a baddie, popping up - sometimes in the literal middle of nowhere - just when things couldn't seem to get any worse for Sena. Other side characters could also use rounding out a bit, or felt dropped by the wayside in the rush of the race. The ending also feels like the setup for a sequel that doesn't seem to exist (yet). But the heart of the story, the hard-won bond between a girl and her genetically hybridized wolf-dog amid the exhilarating dangers of the icy wilderness, is a solid one.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Flash Gold (Lindsay Buroker) - My Review
The Call of the Wild and White Fang (Jack London) - My Review
I Am Still Alive (Kate Alice Marshall) - My Review
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Cities (Monica L. Smith)
Cities: The First 6,000 Years
Monica L. Smith
Viking
Nonfiction, Cultures/Geography/History
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Few things exemplify modern life quite like a city, but even the newest, brightest, most advanced city can trace the roots of nearly everything that keeps it running back to the very beginning, to the first (known) cities in the Middle East, in Asia, in Central and South America even. Archaeologist Monica L. Smith takes a look at what prompts humans to develop urban lifestyles, so very different from our long evolutionary history of hunting and gathering and even agricultural village existence, and how many innovations and technologies go into making them survive and thrive, sometimes outlasting the cultures that founded them.
REVIEW: I was looking for something different for the day's audiobook selection at work, so I hit the Random function on Libby and scrolled until something looked vaguely interesting. I've played a few city builder games in my time, and many of my favorite books involve cities past, present, future, and imagined, so I decided to give this one a try.
As promised, it's a nice introduction to the subject, outlining what defines a city, how similar they often are even across vast geographic and cultural (and temporal) distances, and why it's highly unlikely (save massive population and/or climate collapse) that we'll ever abandon the idea altogether; they seem to take on lives of their own, once founded, and even when cities are abandoned the survivors tend to be absorbed by other cities. She views cities as an inevitable outgrowth of our species's inherent tendencies toward innovation and cooperative ventures, and the massive efforts that we're apparently willing to undertake to keep them running seem to argue in favor of their benefits outweighing their costs. Smith doesn't just draw from the "usual suspects" of Middle Eastern and European examples, citing cities around the globe that all ultimately have quite a lot in common, enough that distant explorers could, with minimal trial and error, generally navigate city life and recognize the basics of organization no matter where they traveled. Of course, there are some drawbacks to cities and city life, but Smith focuses more on the benefits, and the innovations that go into overcoming the drawbacks (while acknowledging that some, such as inequalities in opportunity and quality of life, seem to be persistent bugs). She even praises "conspicuous consumption", particularly in the middle class, as part of what makes cities so great. (I'm not entirely sure that an argument that boils roughly down to "we've always had conspicuous consumption and massive waste so we shouldn't be worried about continuing the trend" is a completely convincing argument in its favor, especially as we're staring down increasing scarcity and the unprecedented disruptions of catastrophic climate change that are no longer just over the horizon but standing right outside the metaphoric city gates, but I'm not the archaeologist...)
It's a book aimed at us undereducated lay readers, so it's not an in-depth examination (which would take far, far more than one book to tackle anyway), but it's still an intriguing look at a feature of civilization that many of us take for granted, and how far back "modern" city features like fast food and night life and middle management bureaucracies can be traced in the archaeological record.
On a closing note, one downside: it does fire up the ol' itch to replay my classic city builder games... I was so, so close to reaching the rank of pharaoh in Pharaoh/Cleopatra, and I was just about getting the hang of Children of the Nile...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Abandoned Places (Lesley and Roy Adkins) - My Review
Unbound (Richard L. Currier) - My Review
The Lost City of the Monkey God (Douglas Preston) - My Review
Monica L. Smith
Viking
Nonfiction, Cultures/Geography/History
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Few things exemplify modern life quite like a city, but even the newest, brightest, most advanced city can trace the roots of nearly everything that keeps it running back to the very beginning, to the first (known) cities in the Middle East, in Asia, in Central and South America even. Archaeologist Monica L. Smith takes a look at what prompts humans to develop urban lifestyles, so very different from our long evolutionary history of hunting and gathering and even agricultural village existence, and how many innovations and technologies go into making them survive and thrive, sometimes outlasting the cultures that founded them.
REVIEW: I was looking for something different for the day's audiobook selection at work, so I hit the Random function on Libby and scrolled until something looked vaguely interesting. I've played a few city builder games in my time, and many of my favorite books involve cities past, present, future, and imagined, so I decided to give this one a try.
As promised, it's a nice introduction to the subject, outlining what defines a city, how similar they often are even across vast geographic and cultural (and temporal) distances, and why it's highly unlikely (save massive population and/or climate collapse) that we'll ever abandon the idea altogether; they seem to take on lives of their own, once founded, and even when cities are abandoned the survivors tend to be absorbed by other cities. She views cities as an inevitable outgrowth of our species's inherent tendencies toward innovation and cooperative ventures, and the massive efforts that we're apparently willing to undertake to keep them running seem to argue in favor of their benefits outweighing their costs. Smith doesn't just draw from the "usual suspects" of Middle Eastern and European examples, citing cities around the globe that all ultimately have quite a lot in common, enough that distant explorers could, with minimal trial and error, generally navigate city life and recognize the basics of organization no matter where they traveled. Of course, there are some drawbacks to cities and city life, but Smith focuses more on the benefits, and the innovations that go into overcoming the drawbacks (while acknowledging that some, such as inequalities in opportunity and quality of life, seem to be persistent bugs). She even praises "conspicuous consumption", particularly in the middle class, as part of what makes cities so great. (I'm not entirely sure that an argument that boils roughly down to "we've always had conspicuous consumption and massive waste so we shouldn't be worried about continuing the trend" is a completely convincing argument in its favor, especially as we're staring down increasing scarcity and the unprecedented disruptions of catastrophic climate change that are no longer just over the horizon but standing right outside the metaphoric city gates, but I'm not the archaeologist...)
It's a book aimed at us undereducated lay readers, so it's not an in-depth examination (which would take far, far more than one book to tackle anyway), but it's still an intriguing look at a feature of civilization that many of us take for granted, and how far back "modern" city features like fast food and night life and middle management bureaucracies can be traced in the archaeological record.
On a closing note, one downside: it does fire up the ol' itch to replay my classic city builder games... I was so, so close to reaching the rank of pharaoh in Pharaoh/Cleopatra, and I was just about getting the hang of Children of the Nile...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Abandoned Places (Lesley and Roy Adkins) - My Review
Unbound (Richard L. Currier) - My Review
The Lost City of the Monkey God (Douglas Preston) - My Review
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
An Ember in the Ashes (Sabaa Tahir)
An Ember in the Ashes
The Ember in the Ashes series, Book 1
Sabaa Tahir
Razorbill
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Generations ago, the warrior Martials invaded the kingdom of the Scholars, grinding the people under their heels and breaking their spirits, even forbidding them from learning to read. Some still fight back, but it's been years since the Resistance was anything but a minor nuisance... not since the days of Laia's parents, who were betrayed and murdered. Laia and her older brother Darin live with their grandparents, but while Laia is afraid all the time, her brother Darin keeps taking risks - risks that, one terrible night, bring the Martial soldiers and a terrible Mask enforcer to their door. Now her grandparents are dead, Darin is imprisoned, and Laia is on the run, cursing herself a coward for not staying to fight. In desperation, she turns to the Resistance, but they demand a steep price for their help: posing as a slave, she must infiltrate Blackcliff Academy, the terrible fortress where Masks are trained to be heartless, faceless elite soldiers. It's an assignment that has seen innumerable rebels tortured and killed, but it's Laia's only chance to free her brother.
Elias was born a bastard son of one of the oldest Martial families, but grew up among the nomadic desert Tribes, blissfully unaware of his noble blood... until one of the uncanny, feared Augurs arrived to whisk him away. For years, he's endured training at Blackcliff, his chief tormentor none other than the mother who once left him in the wilderness to die. But it's almost over; as soon as he graduates, in just a few days, he plans to escape back to the deserts that were once his sanctuary, disappearing among the Tribes again. At least, that was the plan, until the Augurs arrive at the academy again with a chilling announcement: the line of the old Emperor is failing, and thus the Trials for a successor are to commence immediately. Worse, Elias himself is named one of the four Aspirants. Elias is already sick to his soul over what he's done just to survive training as a Mask; the thought of being Emperor over a nation as utterly cruel and broken as this one is more than he can stand.
One a slave, the other a soldier... Laia and Elias might hold the keys to each other's freedom - if dark forces from the Empire's past don't rise up and crush them, and everything they love, first...
REVIEW: I've heard little but great things about this series, so I figured I'd give it a shot. The story starts moving almost from the first page, filling in a dark, cruel world of militant conquerors, ineffective rebels, and two characters trapped by circumstances far beyond their control. Laia has lived in fear ever since her parents were killed; she has no love for the Empire and wants to be more like her mother, once known as the Lioness of the Resistance, but every time she gets a chance to act she freezes or flees even as she curses herself for being a coward. Elias hates everything about his existence, from the blood that ties him to the sadistic Commandant of Blackcliff to the silver mask that he refuses to let bond to his skin (as it is supposed to, part of being an elite Mask enforcer) to the horrible things he's being trained to do and will be expected to keep doing for the rest of his life. Neither see a way out of their respective traps, and every act they take only gets them into worse situations: Laia's desperate plea for help from the Resistance, playing on her parents' reputation, only lands her in the terrible clutches of the Commandant, who takes perverse pleasure in mutilating her slaves, while Elias's plans to flee are disrupted by an Augur's slender promise that only by enduring the Trials can he ever truly find freedom from the Empire's clutches. Naturally, from the moment the two meet, sparks fly - and everything around them keeps getting exponentially worse and more dangerous, building to an explosive ending that sets up the next stage of the series.
That's all well and good, and enjoyable, but there are some pitfalls along the way that cost it in the ratings. Laia's too often a victim, and too often refuses to even notice or think about things that are so obvious I felt like shaking her to get her to stop whining about how cowardly and useless she's being. Mostly she's just too naive for too long, which gets her into lots of trouble where she's reduced to damsel-in-distress/object status. Elias, too, could be irritatingly obtuse. The characters surrounding both too often feel flat, with only vague hints given to any sort of depth or existence beyond their relevance to the main characters. This was especially true of the villains; I was almost surprised there wasn't a puppy pit in Blackcliff where they went to kick puppies just to further grind in how despicable and gratuitously cruel they were. The part that really started annoying me, though, the one that nearly drug the rating down another half-mark, was when both Elias and Laia (and a few other characters, too, but mostly them) decide to turn into lovesick hormonal twits at the worst possible times, mooning about uselessly when their lives are quite literally and quite immediately in danger. I get that they're teenagers underneath it all, and sometimes the heart (or other organs) can be nigh impossible to ignore, but still, one might think that sheer survival might be a matter of concern, after the earlier parts of the book drove home the life-and-death stakes.
The ending redeemed things somewhat, and I might pursue the series through another book. And, as mentioned, there's quite a bit I did enjoy about this story. I just wish it had eased up some on the hormonal detours in the later bits, when the characters (and the reader) least needed the distraction...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Red Rising (Pierce Brown) - My Review
Graceling (Kristen Cashore) - My Review
Rebel of the Sands (Alwyn Hamilton) - My Review
The Ember in the Ashes series, Book 1
Sabaa Tahir
Razorbill
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Generations ago, the warrior Martials invaded the kingdom of the Scholars, grinding the people under their heels and breaking their spirits, even forbidding them from learning to read. Some still fight back, but it's been years since the Resistance was anything but a minor nuisance... not since the days of Laia's parents, who were betrayed and murdered. Laia and her older brother Darin live with their grandparents, but while Laia is afraid all the time, her brother Darin keeps taking risks - risks that, one terrible night, bring the Martial soldiers and a terrible Mask enforcer to their door. Now her grandparents are dead, Darin is imprisoned, and Laia is on the run, cursing herself a coward for not staying to fight. In desperation, she turns to the Resistance, but they demand a steep price for their help: posing as a slave, she must infiltrate Blackcliff Academy, the terrible fortress where Masks are trained to be heartless, faceless elite soldiers. It's an assignment that has seen innumerable rebels tortured and killed, but it's Laia's only chance to free her brother.
Elias was born a bastard son of one of the oldest Martial families, but grew up among the nomadic desert Tribes, blissfully unaware of his noble blood... until one of the uncanny, feared Augurs arrived to whisk him away. For years, he's endured training at Blackcliff, his chief tormentor none other than the mother who once left him in the wilderness to die. But it's almost over; as soon as he graduates, in just a few days, he plans to escape back to the deserts that were once his sanctuary, disappearing among the Tribes again. At least, that was the plan, until the Augurs arrive at the academy again with a chilling announcement: the line of the old Emperor is failing, and thus the Trials for a successor are to commence immediately. Worse, Elias himself is named one of the four Aspirants. Elias is already sick to his soul over what he's done just to survive training as a Mask; the thought of being Emperor over a nation as utterly cruel and broken as this one is more than he can stand.
One a slave, the other a soldier... Laia and Elias might hold the keys to each other's freedom - if dark forces from the Empire's past don't rise up and crush them, and everything they love, first...
REVIEW: I've heard little but great things about this series, so I figured I'd give it a shot. The story starts moving almost from the first page, filling in a dark, cruel world of militant conquerors, ineffective rebels, and two characters trapped by circumstances far beyond their control. Laia has lived in fear ever since her parents were killed; she has no love for the Empire and wants to be more like her mother, once known as the Lioness of the Resistance, but every time she gets a chance to act she freezes or flees even as she curses herself for being a coward. Elias hates everything about his existence, from the blood that ties him to the sadistic Commandant of Blackcliff to the silver mask that he refuses to let bond to his skin (as it is supposed to, part of being an elite Mask enforcer) to the horrible things he's being trained to do and will be expected to keep doing for the rest of his life. Neither see a way out of their respective traps, and every act they take only gets them into worse situations: Laia's desperate plea for help from the Resistance, playing on her parents' reputation, only lands her in the terrible clutches of the Commandant, who takes perverse pleasure in mutilating her slaves, while Elias's plans to flee are disrupted by an Augur's slender promise that only by enduring the Trials can he ever truly find freedom from the Empire's clutches. Naturally, from the moment the two meet, sparks fly - and everything around them keeps getting exponentially worse and more dangerous, building to an explosive ending that sets up the next stage of the series.
That's all well and good, and enjoyable, but there are some pitfalls along the way that cost it in the ratings. Laia's too often a victim, and too often refuses to even notice or think about things that are so obvious I felt like shaking her to get her to stop whining about how cowardly and useless she's being. Mostly she's just too naive for too long, which gets her into lots of trouble where she's reduced to damsel-in-distress/object status. Elias, too, could be irritatingly obtuse. The characters surrounding both too often feel flat, with only vague hints given to any sort of depth or existence beyond their relevance to the main characters. This was especially true of the villains; I was almost surprised there wasn't a puppy pit in Blackcliff where they went to kick puppies just to further grind in how despicable and gratuitously cruel they were. The part that really started annoying me, though, the one that nearly drug the rating down another half-mark, was when both Elias and Laia (and a few other characters, too, but mostly them) decide to turn into lovesick hormonal twits at the worst possible times, mooning about uselessly when their lives are quite literally and quite immediately in danger. I get that they're teenagers underneath it all, and sometimes the heart (or other organs) can be nigh impossible to ignore, but still, one might think that sheer survival might be a matter of concern, after the earlier parts of the book drove home the life-and-death stakes.
The ending redeemed things somewhat, and I might pursue the series through another book. And, as mentioned, there's quite a bit I did enjoy about this story. I just wish it had eased up some on the hormonal detours in the later bits, when the characters (and the reader) least needed the distraction...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Red Rising (Pierce Brown) - My Review
Graceling (Kristen Cashore) - My Review
Rebel of the Sands (Alwyn Hamilton) - My Review
Friday, May 12, 2023
Monster (Walter Dean Myers)
Monster
Walter Dean Myers
Amistad
Fiction, YA Crime/Suspense
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Sixteen-year-old Steve knows just how he'd film his life if it were a movie. He tries to keep thinking of it that way, as a movie, because the reality - sitting in prison, on trial for felony murder, facing the very real possibility of life in jail or even the death penalty - is just too much to bear. The law says everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but even his own defense attorney seems to have doubts, and half the jury probably took one look at the Black kid at the defense table and made up their minds on the spot. As the trial unfolds, testimony and flashbacks fill in the story of how Steve found himself here, with his fate resting on the competence of a lawyer and the judgement of twelve strangers and a system that has sent so many other young Black men away.
REVIEW: As one might expect from the title alone, let alone the description, this is a harrowing and often bleak tale of a young future gone awry - not just in a single fateful moment, but in the many steps leading up to that moment, for all that Steve himself never touched a gun or pulled a trigger. Using the ongoing film script format to show his current life moving between the courtroom and prison and the past that led up to the incident in question, he may not be an entirely reliable narrator in a story where there are few absolute villains or heroes. Society itself has failed on some level, for this to be happening at all, but society itself is not on trial: Steve and a co-defendant are, for the robbery that turned into a murder. What emerges is a stark picture of the dehumanizing nature of the incarceration system, and the slender, imperfect promise of the justice system that decides guilt and punishment with a less than impartial hand. Guilty or not, Steve will never be the same boy he was before, indelibly marked by his experiences. Once in a while, the interrogations, and particularly the summations, in the trial room felt a little long, but overall it's a powerful and unflinching look at a part of modern society many would prefer not to examine.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Under an Outlaw Moon (Dietrich Kalteis) - My Review
Long Way Down (Jason Reynolds) - My Review
The Hate U Give (Angie Thomas) - My Review
Walter Dean Myers
Amistad
Fiction, YA Crime/Suspense
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Sixteen-year-old Steve knows just how he'd film his life if it were a movie. He tries to keep thinking of it that way, as a movie, because the reality - sitting in prison, on trial for felony murder, facing the very real possibility of life in jail or even the death penalty - is just too much to bear. The law says everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but even his own defense attorney seems to have doubts, and half the jury probably took one look at the Black kid at the defense table and made up their minds on the spot. As the trial unfolds, testimony and flashbacks fill in the story of how Steve found himself here, with his fate resting on the competence of a lawyer and the judgement of twelve strangers and a system that has sent so many other young Black men away.
REVIEW: As one might expect from the title alone, let alone the description, this is a harrowing and often bleak tale of a young future gone awry - not just in a single fateful moment, but in the many steps leading up to that moment, for all that Steve himself never touched a gun or pulled a trigger. Using the ongoing film script format to show his current life moving between the courtroom and prison and the past that led up to the incident in question, he may not be an entirely reliable narrator in a story where there are few absolute villains or heroes. Society itself has failed on some level, for this to be happening at all, but society itself is not on trial: Steve and a co-defendant are, for the robbery that turned into a murder. What emerges is a stark picture of the dehumanizing nature of the incarceration system, and the slender, imperfect promise of the justice system that decides guilt and punishment with a less than impartial hand. Guilty or not, Steve will never be the same boy he was before, indelibly marked by his experiences. Once in a while, the interrogations, and particularly the summations, in the trial room felt a little long, but overall it's a powerful and unflinching look at a part of modern society many would prefer not to examine.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Under an Outlaw Moon (Dietrich Kalteis) - My Review
Long Way Down (Jason Reynolds) - My Review
The Hate U Give (Angie Thomas) - My Review
Thursday, May 11, 2023
Story Thieves (James Riley)
Story Thieves
The Story Thieves series, Book 1
James Riley
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Humor
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: The real world is boring. That's why Owen prefers books, tales of magic and adventure that let him live other lives and imagine what it must be like to be a hero himself. His favorite, of course, is the popular Kiel Gnomenfoot fantasy series. The final book is due out soon, and he just can't wait to see how it all ends - especially after that terrible cliffhanger at the end of the sixth book, where the wise mentor Magister was killed by his arch-enemy Dr. Verity. If only he could step into Gnomenfoot's world, help the now-mentorless apprentice save the day... but it's just a book, and he's just a boy, and nothing interesting or adventurous, let alone heroic, ever happens to him.
Then he sees his odd classmate Bethany step out of a library book.
Bethany lets him in on a secret: she's half-fictional, giving her the ability to step into any printed page. Her father was actually from a storybook, but he disappeared when she was young, and though her mother has forbidden her, Bethany's been searching the fictional worlds for him ever since. She swears Owen to silence, and insists they never speak, of this or anything else, ever again.
But Owen's not about to let this chance go. Now he can finally live his fantasy of being in a story... and maybe changing it, so the Magister doesn't have to die (and he can be a hero, one that millions of people will read about). Though Bethany warns him of the dangers of interacting with fictional characters, or changing stories in any way, Owen is determined... until everything goes wrong, endangering not only Kiel Gnomenfoot's world, but Owen's Earth as well.
REVIEW: Story Thieves is far from the first book to explore the idea of worlds within books, how real a story can seem when it comes alive in our minds, how it feels like we actually get to know the places and the people. I think most of us have wanted to disappear into an imaginary world at some point (just as most of us may have fantasized about being heroes or heroines, or simply being friends with the cool characters we read about). Yet there's more to this book than simple wish fulfillment.
Owen, as average a boy as one can imagine, becomes singularly obsessed with the idea of entering his favorite fantasy world from the moment he realizes it's possible - not just to see all the awesome stuff, but to get everything he feels deprived of in reality: adventure, excitement, recognition, even a cool best friend like Kiel Gnomenfoot. He seems just a trifle old to cling to some of his ideas as long and as hard as he does; one might think a boy who has read as much as he has understands that sometimes characters need to go through dark times and low points to earn their victories. But daydreams can be powerful stuff, and it takes some truly hard knocks to shake loose their grip even after he messes up. Bethany, meanwhile, has a somewhat ambivalent relationship with books, understandable given that her father came from them and seems to have abandoned her and the real world to return to them; he willed himself out of a story to meet her mother, or so she's heard all her life, so why can't he will himself back to visit his daughter? Still, she searches everywhere for him, through every story, and in doing so has become exceptionally cautious lest she change anything or be noticed, by characters or readers. When Owen completely ignores her rules, she has to learn to start taking some risks herself - especially when his screw-up leaves a dangerous wizard on Earth, one who is very upset about the idea that not only might he not truly exist, but that some mysterious "writer" has organizing his many tragedies merely to entertain others. Thus begins the adventure, which becomes two adventures running in parallel: as Owen must try to fix his mistakes in Kiel's world, Bethany's on Earth trying to stop a man wielding impossible powers.
A strong vein of humor runs throughout, with numerous self-aware moments and winks and nods to plot tropes, yet underneath that runs real emotion and some unexpected depth. By the end, everyone has changed to some degree - even fictional characters (and writers). This is a story that avoids the simple or obvious and generally reaches a few branches beyond the low-hanging fruit, in a way that ultimately earned it a half-mark above a Good rating.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Inkheart (Cornelia Funke) - My Review
The Book of Story Beginnings (Kristin Kladstrup) - My Review
The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes (Wade Albert White) - My Review
The Story Thieves series, Book 1
James Riley
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Humor
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: The real world is boring. That's why Owen prefers books, tales of magic and adventure that let him live other lives and imagine what it must be like to be a hero himself. His favorite, of course, is the popular Kiel Gnomenfoot fantasy series. The final book is due out soon, and he just can't wait to see how it all ends - especially after that terrible cliffhanger at the end of the sixth book, where the wise mentor Magister was killed by his arch-enemy Dr. Verity. If only he could step into Gnomenfoot's world, help the now-mentorless apprentice save the day... but it's just a book, and he's just a boy, and nothing interesting or adventurous, let alone heroic, ever happens to him.
Then he sees his odd classmate Bethany step out of a library book.
Bethany lets him in on a secret: she's half-fictional, giving her the ability to step into any printed page. Her father was actually from a storybook, but he disappeared when she was young, and though her mother has forbidden her, Bethany's been searching the fictional worlds for him ever since. She swears Owen to silence, and insists they never speak, of this or anything else, ever again.
But Owen's not about to let this chance go. Now he can finally live his fantasy of being in a story... and maybe changing it, so the Magister doesn't have to die (and he can be a hero, one that millions of people will read about). Though Bethany warns him of the dangers of interacting with fictional characters, or changing stories in any way, Owen is determined... until everything goes wrong, endangering not only Kiel Gnomenfoot's world, but Owen's Earth as well.
REVIEW: Story Thieves is far from the first book to explore the idea of worlds within books, how real a story can seem when it comes alive in our minds, how it feels like we actually get to know the places and the people. I think most of us have wanted to disappear into an imaginary world at some point (just as most of us may have fantasized about being heroes or heroines, or simply being friends with the cool characters we read about). Yet there's more to this book than simple wish fulfillment.
Owen, as average a boy as one can imagine, becomes singularly obsessed with the idea of entering his favorite fantasy world from the moment he realizes it's possible - not just to see all the awesome stuff, but to get everything he feels deprived of in reality: adventure, excitement, recognition, even a cool best friend like Kiel Gnomenfoot. He seems just a trifle old to cling to some of his ideas as long and as hard as he does; one might think a boy who has read as much as he has understands that sometimes characters need to go through dark times and low points to earn their victories. But daydreams can be powerful stuff, and it takes some truly hard knocks to shake loose their grip even after he messes up. Bethany, meanwhile, has a somewhat ambivalent relationship with books, understandable given that her father came from them and seems to have abandoned her and the real world to return to them; he willed himself out of a story to meet her mother, or so she's heard all her life, so why can't he will himself back to visit his daughter? Still, she searches everywhere for him, through every story, and in doing so has become exceptionally cautious lest she change anything or be noticed, by characters or readers. When Owen completely ignores her rules, she has to learn to start taking some risks herself - especially when his screw-up leaves a dangerous wizard on Earth, one who is very upset about the idea that not only might he not truly exist, but that some mysterious "writer" has organizing his many tragedies merely to entertain others. Thus begins the adventure, which becomes two adventures running in parallel: as Owen must try to fix his mistakes in Kiel's world, Bethany's on Earth trying to stop a man wielding impossible powers.
A strong vein of humor runs throughout, with numerous self-aware moments and winks and nods to plot tropes, yet underneath that runs real emotion and some unexpected depth. By the end, everyone has changed to some degree - even fictional characters (and writers). This is a story that avoids the simple or obvious and generally reaches a few branches beyond the low-hanging fruit, in a way that ultimately earned it a half-mark above a Good rating.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Inkheart (Cornelia Funke) - My Review
The Book of Story Beginnings (Kristin Kladstrup) - My Review
The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes (Wade Albert White) - My Review
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
At the Mountains of Madness (Howard Phillips Lovecraft)
At the Mountains of Madness
Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Naxos Audiobooks
Fiction, Horror/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In the wake of Shackleton's awe-inspiring expedition to the southernmost continent, other explorers rushed to make their own marks and explore perhaps the most remote region on Earth. Among these was a relatively minor group funded by a small New England university, hoping their new drilling tools would extract valuable mineral and fossil samples to answer the many questions about ancient life on our planet.
They never expected to find the wonders - and terrors - that haunt the survivors to this day...
REVIEW: H. P. Lovecraft can be a polarizing figure, but his works have left an indelible impression, one whose echoes resonate even now. I figured it was high time I gave his works a try in the original, for all that I'm somewhat ambivalent about "Lovecraftian"-inspired stories I've read.
In many ways, the story definitely reflects its era, particularly in the style and the framing device: it is narrated by an expedition member/survivor, Dyer, as he recounts the harrowing events - events he censored in his initial reports, for reasons that become clear in the telling - in an effort to dissuade further exploration into the Antarctic interior... exploration efforts incited by discoveries he and his team made and reported before they understood just what they had stumbled upon. Even this secondhand account is itself filtered as he sits in a base camp receiving and relating reports from another expedition member who makes the initial discoveries that at first amaze, then puzzle, then doom one branch of the team. There's also quite a lot of dithering and repetition; I think the story would've been been at least a third shorter had Dyer cut out his innumerable hesitations and hemming and hawing and vague foreshadowing and actually spat out what was going on. That said, Lovecraft does successfully convey a growing sense of both awe and dread, as the expedition makes discoveries that repeatedly rewrite history and prehistory... and show just how little humans actually grasp our place in the universe, how unknowable the truly alien can be, how utterly minute we stand against horrors so great that their echoes resonate through our cultures even though the entities that inspired them existed long before our species evolved. There is a true sense of wonder evoked at times, if wonder that slowly twists into something darker and more chilling than the Antarctic mountain winds. The end result is a memorable, if inevitably dated, story, and if I grew somewhat irritated by how it felt it was padding itself out at times, it certainly earns its place as a classic, for all that I don't expect I'll read (or listen to) more of Lovecraft's works.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Who Goes There? (John W. Campbell Jr.) - My Review
Fragile Things (Neil Gaiman) - My Review
The Ballad of Black Tom (Victor LaValle) - My Review
Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Naxos Audiobooks
Fiction, Horror/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In the wake of Shackleton's awe-inspiring expedition to the southernmost continent, other explorers rushed to make their own marks and explore perhaps the most remote region on Earth. Among these was a relatively minor group funded by a small New England university, hoping their new drilling tools would extract valuable mineral and fossil samples to answer the many questions about ancient life on our planet.
They never expected to find the wonders - and terrors - that haunt the survivors to this day...
REVIEW: H. P. Lovecraft can be a polarizing figure, but his works have left an indelible impression, one whose echoes resonate even now. I figured it was high time I gave his works a try in the original, for all that I'm somewhat ambivalent about "Lovecraftian"-inspired stories I've read.
In many ways, the story definitely reflects its era, particularly in the style and the framing device: it is narrated by an expedition member/survivor, Dyer, as he recounts the harrowing events - events he censored in his initial reports, for reasons that become clear in the telling - in an effort to dissuade further exploration into the Antarctic interior... exploration efforts incited by discoveries he and his team made and reported before they understood just what they had stumbled upon. Even this secondhand account is itself filtered as he sits in a base camp receiving and relating reports from another expedition member who makes the initial discoveries that at first amaze, then puzzle, then doom one branch of the team. There's also quite a lot of dithering and repetition; I think the story would've been been at least a third shorter had Dyer cut out his innumerable hesitations and hemming and hawing and vague foreshadowing and actually spat out what was going on. That said, Lovecraft does successfully convey a growing sense of both awe and dread, as the expedition makes discoveries that repeatedly rewrite history and prehistory... and show just how little humans actually grasp our place in the universe, how unknowable the truly alien can be, how utterly minute we stand against horrors so great that their echoes resonate through our cultures even though the entities that inspired them existed long before our species evolved. There is a true sense of wonder evoked at times, if wonder that slowly twists into something darker and more chilling than the Antarctic mountain winds. The end result is a memorable, if inevitably dated, story, and if I grew somewhat irritated by how it felt it was padding itself out at times, it certainly earns its place as a classic, for all that I don't expect I'll read (or listen to) more of Lovecraft's works.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Who Goes There? (John W. Campbell Jr.) - My Review
Fragile Things (Neil Gaiman) - My Review
The Ballad of Black Tom (Victor LaValle) - My Review
On My Honor (Marion Dane Bauer)
On My Honor
Marion Dane Bauer
Clarion Books
Fiction, MG Suspense
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Joel and Tony have been best friends since they were too little to remember, though sometimes Joel wonders why. Joel's a responsible kid, honest almost to a fault, with his own paper route even, while wild Tony never met a rule he didn't bend or outright break, or a dare he didn't take. His latest scheme - climbing a dangerous bluff in the park - is so outrageous that Joel's finally considering putting his foot down... but, of course, somehow Tony smiles and charms his way through, and Joel finds himself talked into it.
They never get to the park.
Along the way, Tony gets another one of his wild ideas: to stop and cool off in the waters of Vermilion Creek. Joel's dad tells him the water's filthy, plus it's dangerous; there's no way to tell in the cloudy river where the dropoffs or hidden rocks are. But, naturally, Tony doesn't care, and if Joel can't stop him, well, he might as well join him.
It was all great fun - until Tony disappeared...
REVIEW: This isn't a bad story, for what it is. Joel and Tony have the kind of relationship that may not make sense from a distance but is all too recognizable: despite their different personalities, or perhaps because of them, they're almost inseparable. Tony's wildness appeals to straight-laced Joel, and without Joel to coerce into things and tag along Tony wouldn't have nearly as much fun taking risks and pushing boundaries. Even from the start, there's a sense of foreboding about their day, as Joel struggles and fails to find the courage to say no, for once, to another Tony stunt that he's sure will end up with one or both of them in the hospital... or the cemetery. He'd much rather go swimming in the city pool than climb dangerous cliffs - which is part of why Joel finds himself, despite his misgivings and the warnings of his parents, following Tony into the murky red waters of Vermilion Creek. Joel's a strong swimmer, after all, so swimming doesn't seem nearly as dangerous as rock climbing... until a dare turns unexpectedly deadly, and Joel realizes he's all alone in the river. From that moment, Joel begins to spiral, starting out in denial, then determination to find help - someone else to make it so this bad thing that happened didn't happen - then to rationalization and panic. Joel's initial reluctance to face the truth moves from simple silence to outright lies (to himself and to others). Tension builds as evasions compound, his own twisted feelings threatening to turn into outright psychosis - but by then, coming clean may almost be worse, at least in Joel's increasingly-unbalanced mind. By the end, he's a different boy than he was at the start, having undergone one of the most trying rites of passage a young person can endure.
The tale stumbles now and again when Joel's decisions don't always ring true, even given his age and situation; more than once, I felt manipulated. The wrap-up feels a trifle abrupt, too, for all that it's surprisingly, starkly honest about the aftermath of the kind of tragedy he's experienced. The whole thing seems compressed, squeezed into a shortened time frame. All in all, though, it generally does what it sets out to do, and doesn't sugarcoat Joel's experiences (or his not-always-honorable impulses when faced with the unimaginable).
You Might Also Enjoy:
Wolf Rider (Avi) - My Review
The Canyon's Edge (Dusti Bowling) - My Review
Killing Mr. Griffin (Lois Duncan) - My Review
Marion Dane Bauer
Clarion Books
Fiction, MG Suspense
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Joel and Tony have been best friends since they were too little to remember, though sometimes Joel wonders why. Joel's a responsible kid, honest almost to a fault, with his own paper route even, while wild Tony never met a rule he didn't bend or outright break, or a dare he didn't take. His latest scheme - climbing a dangerous bluff in the park - is so outrageous that Joel's finally considering putting his foot down... but, of course, somehow Tony smiles and charms his way through, and Joel finds himself talked into it.
They never get to the park.
Along the way, Tony gets another one of his wild ideas: to stop and cool off in the waters of Vermilion Creek. Joel's dad tells him the water's filthy, plus it's dangerous; there's no way to tell in the cloudy river where the dropoffs or hidden rocks are. But, naturally, Tony doesn't care, and if Joel can't stop him, well, he might as well join him.
It was all great fun - until Tony disappeared...
REVIEW: This isn't a bad story, for what it is. Joel and Tony have the kind of relationship that may not make sense from a distance but is all too recognizable: despite their different personalities, or perhaps because of them, they're almost inseparable. Tony's wildness appeals to straight-laced Joel, and without Joel to coerce into things and tag along Tony wouldn't have nearly as much fun taking risks and pushing boundaries. Even from the start, there's a sense of foreboding about their day, as Joel struggles and fails to find the courage to say no, for once, to another Tony stunt that he's sure will end up with one or both of them in the hospital... or the cemetery. He'd much rather go swimming in the city pool than climb dangerous cliffs - which is part of why Joel finds himself, despite his misgivings and the warnings of his parents, following Tony into the murky red waters of Vermilion Creek. Joel's a strong swimmer, after all, so swimming doesn't seem nearly as dangerous as rock climbing... until a dare turns unexpectedly deadly, and Joel realizes he's all alone in the river. From that moment, Joel begins to spiral, starting out in denial, then determination to find help - someone else to make it so this bad thing that happened didn't happen - then to rationalization and panic. Joel's initial reluctance to face the truth moves from simple silence to outright lies (to himself and to others). Tension builds as evasions compound, his own twisted feelings threatening to turn into outright psychosis - but by then, coming clean may almost be worse, at least in Joel's increasingly-unbalanced mind. By the end, he's a different boy than he was at the start, having undergone one of the most trying rites of passage a young person can endure.
The tale stumbles now and again when Joel's decisions don't always ring true, even given his age and situation; more than once, I felt manipulated. The wrap-up feels a trifle abrupt, too, for all that it's surprisingly, starkly honest about the aftermath of the kind of tragedy he's experienced. The whole thing seems compressed, squeezed into a shortened time frame. All in all, though, it generally does what it sets out to do, and doesn't sugarcoat Joel's experiences (or his not-always-honorable impulses when faced with the unimaginable).
You Might Also Enjoy:
Wolf Rider (Avi) - My Review
The Canyon's Edge (Dusti Bowling) - My Review
Killing Mr. Griffin (Lois Duncan) - My Review
Friday, May 5, 2023
It Came in the Mail (Ben Clanton)
It Came in the Mail
Ben Clanton
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, CH Fantasy/Humor/Picture Book
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Young Liam loves the mail... but, often as he checks the mailbox (which is very, very often), there's never anything for him. When he decides to write his own letter, he finally gets his very own mail... more than he knows what to do with!
REVIEW: It's been a while since I managed to read a picture book at work, but today I managed it. It's a fun little story about a boy learning that you can indeed have too much of a good thing... but not one of those where he has to go back to having absolutely nothing to show for his efforts. The art is fun, with numerous visual gags and puns adding to the overall whimsy. I enjoyed it, at least, and not just because the first thing the kindly mailbox sends Liam is a dragon (though of course that's a bonus).
You Might Also Enjoy:
Me and My Dragon (David Biedrzycki) - My Review
The Day the Crayons Quit (Drew Daywalt) - My Review
You Don't Want a Unicorn! (Ame Dyckman) - My Review
Ben Clanton
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, CH Fantasy/Humor/Picture Book
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Young Liam loves the mail... but, often as he checks the mailbox (which is very, very often), there's never anything for him. When he decides to write his own letter, he finally gets his very own mail... more than he knows what to do with!
REVIEW: It's been a while since I managed to read a picture book at work, but today I managed it. It's a fun little story about a boy learning that you can indeed have too much of a good thing... but not one of those where he has to go back to having absolutely nothing to show for his efforts. The art is fun, with numerous visual gags and puns adding to the overall whimsy. I enjoyed it, at least, and not just because the first thing the kindly mailbox sends Liam is a dragon (though of course that's a bonus).
You Might Also Enjoy:
Me and My Dragon (David Biedrzycki) - My Review
The Day the Crayons Quit (Drew Daywalt) - My Review
You Don't Want a Unicorn! (Ame Dyckman) - My Review
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Beyond the Bright Sea (Lauren Wolk)
Beyond the Bright Sea
Lauren Wolk
Dutton Books
Fiction, MG Historical Fiction
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Twelve-year-old Crow has lived all her life among the Elizabeth Islands off the coast of Massachusetts, but she came from the sea. The taciturn painter Osh found her, barely a few hours old, in a swamped dinghy that washed up outside his ramshackle cottage home. Though he and their nearest neighbor, Miss Maggie, love her dearly, the other islanders keep their distance. She wonders if perhaps because she looks different, her skin darker than theirs and hair curly, maybe even the birthmark on her cheek like a little feather, but that's not it... at least, not entirely. Too many suspect that she came from Penikese, where the state sent victims of the dreaded disease leprosy; though the hospital is gone, the patients dead or shipped off, and the island is now a bird sanctuary, the fear lingers. Crow herself never cared where she came from. As far as she's concerned, Osh is her father and Cuttyhunk Island her home. But then she sees the fire on the empty island across the waters, and some restless, nameless yearning wakens in her, a yearning to know who she is and why she was abandoned... and if there's anyone out there still looking for her. Though Osh warns her that sometimes it's best not to dig too deep, Crow can't help asking questions and searching - inadvertently endangering herself and the ones she loves most.
REVIEW: There's plenty that Beyond the Bright Sea does right. It establishes a strong sense of time and place in 1920's Massachusetts, the slow and timeless life on a small Atlantic island that's so close to the bustling cities of the mainland but might as well be on another world... where few things were as feared as the different and the potentially diseased. Despite how the other islanders keep their distance, Crow couldn't be a happier child, helping her adopted father mix his paints and reap the bounties of the tides and the ocean, or learning informally from Miss Maggie (and not from the local school, which won't take her, or the library, which didn't want books she'd handled returned to their shelves out of fear she may be a carrier). Still, she's growing up and can't help but start to ask questions - questions that Osh initially tries to turn aside, as his own past is one full of traumas and loss and he's learned not to go prodding or poking, yet when he realizes she will persist with or without him he does offer his reluctant help. Crow's search leads to long-buried secrets and possible pirate treasure, as well as the tragedy of the "leper colonies". It is a long, slow, and winding search, like trudging through the soft sand above the tideline on the beach, not helped when the audiobook narrator insisted on dropping her voice and half-mumbling Osh's dialog (putting her voice right in the range of the ambient noise I work around and thus rendering a good chunk of his speech essentially inaudible to me). The story takes a while to get moving, and never quite picks up the pace, even in the active moments. There are some false starts, and a villain who pops up and never really becomes more than a cardboard caricature, then an ending that lingers a bit too long and, skirting spoilers, feels unfinished, or like a pulled punch. Still, the characters are interesting for what they are, and Cuttyhunk Island is nicely described, as is the lingering human tragedy at the heart of Crow's story.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Pirate's Passage (William Gilkerson) - My Review
The Quill Pen (Michelle Isenhoff) - My Review
Root Magic (Eden Royce) - My Review
Lauren Wolk
Dutton Books
Fiction, MG Historical Fiction
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Twelve-year-old Crow has lived all her life among the Elizabeth Islands off the coast of Massachusetts, but she came from the sea. The taciturn painter Osh found her, barely a few hours old, in a swamped dinghy that washed up outside his ramshackle cottage home. Though he and their nearest neighbor, Miss Maggie, love her dearly, the other islanders keep their distance. She wonders if perhaps because she looks different, her skin darker than theirs and hair curly, maybe even the birthmark on her cheek like a little feather, but that's not it... at least, not entirely. Too many suspect that she came from Penikese, where the state sent victims of the dreaded disease leprosy; though the hospital is gone, the patients dead or shipped off, and the island is now a bird sanctuary, the fear lingers. Crow herself never cared where she came from. As far as she's concerned, Osh is her father and Cuttyhunk Island her home. But then she sees the fire on the empty island across the waters, and some restless, nameless yearning wakens in her, a yearning to know who she is and why she was abandoned... and if there's anyone out there still looking for her. Though Osh warns her that sometimes it's best not to dig too deep, Crow can't help asking questions and searching - inadvertently endangering herself and the ones she loves most.
REVIEW: There's plenty that Beyond the Bright Sea does right. It establishes a strong sense of time and place in 1920's Massachusetts, the slow and timeless life on a small Atlantic island that's so close to the bustling cities of the mainland but might as well be on another world... where few things were as feared as the different and the potentially diseased. Despite how the other islanders keep their distance, Crow couldn't be a happier child, helping her adopted father mix his paints and reap the bounties of the tides and the ocean, or learning informally from Miss Maggie (and not from the local school, which won't take her, or the library, which didn't want books she'd handled returned to their shelves out of fear she may be a carrier). Still, she's growing up and can't help but start to ask questions - questions that Osh initially tries to turn aside, as his own past is one full of traumas and loss and he's learned not to go prodding or poking, yet when he realizes she will persist with or without him he does offer his reluctant help. Crow's search leads to long-buried secrets and possible pirate treasure, as well as the tragedy of the "leper colonies". It is a long, slow, and winding search, like trudging through the soft sand above the tideline on the beach, not helped when the audiobook narrator insisted on dropping her voice and half-mumbling Osh's dialog (putting her voice right in the range of the ambient noise I work around and thus rendering a good chunk of his speech essentially inaudible to me). The story takes a while to get moving, and never quite picks up the pace, even in the active moments. There are some false starts, and a villain who pops up and never really becomes more than a cardboard caricature, then an ending that lingers a bit too long and, skirting spoilers, feels unfinished, or like a pulled punch. Still, the characters are interesting for what they are, and Cuttyhunk Island is nicely described, as is the lingering human tragedy at the heart of Crow's story.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Pirate's Passage (William Gilkerson) - My Review
The Quill Pen (Michelle Isenhoff) - My Review
Root Magic (Eden Royce) - My Review
Tuesday, May 2, 2023
The United States of Cryptids (J. W. Ocker)
The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters
J. W. Ocker
Quirk
Nonfiction, Cryptozoology/Travel
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Chupacabras, the Jersey Devil, Mothman... America is riddled with famous cryptids. There's at least one local "Bigfoot" in nearly every state. But for every Champy, there are dozens of less well-known water monsters. For every Area 51 and little grey men, there are numerous otherworldly and impossible encounters remembered only by the small towns where they purported to happen. On a coast-to-coast tour, the author touches on numerous cryptids, famous and obscure, terrifying to cutesy, mysterious to admitted hoaxes - and proudly celebrated to nearly forgotten.
REVIEW: If you're looking for in-depth explorations of cryptozoology or the folklore of monster stories, this is not the book for you. If, on the other hand, you're looking for a lightweight, humorous romp through the weird and wondrous map of America's strange beasts and small-town tourist attractions, The United States of Cryptids is right up your alley, or rather right up your out-of-the-way stretch of country road where locals keep glimpsing something strange.
Ocker starts out on his journey with a love of the strange, sometimes goofy and sometimes creepy critters that have leapt, flown, crawled, swum, or slithered from local folklore. His premise, like that of many cryptid aficionados, is that the story is always real, whether or not the monster exists. It's the story that draws people in, that's shared in local bars or hair salons, that brings a burst of media attention in a flurry of real or spurious sightings or investigations, and that sometimes eventually gets embraced by towns looking to boost their economy with festivals or tourist traps. Indeed, more than one entry here is the result of a town, or even just one individual, deciding to create a tourist draw. Ocker breezes - almost literally - through a number of these stories, making up for in range of entries what is lost on any semblance of depth (or pictures, or even maps). Granted, some of these are just too minor to have much more to say about them than "a few people saw what may have been a monster here umpteen years ago", without even a rough description, but I still sometimes hoped for a little more to sink my imagination's teeth into. Sometimes the humor feels a bit flippant/irritating, too. And I'm not quite sure that the admitted tricks or products of local chambers of commerce should've been in the same category as the cryptids/attractions that grew out of local strange happenings or legends; there's a different feel to the town that decided to make mermaid statues or put gnome figurines around for no reason other than to drum up business, compared to the one where people claim to have glimpsed "something" and it was later embellished and embraced with murals and a festival. But Ocker gets marks for the sheer variety of entries, many of which are so obscure I've never seen them listed elsewhere (the ones too bizarre and thinly documented for even the cryptozoology community to bother investigating).
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Encyclopedia of Monsters (Daniel Cohen) - My Review
Cryptozoology A - Z (Loren Coleman and Jerome Clarke) - My Review
How to Survive a Sharknado and Other Unnatural Disasters (Andrew Shaffer) - My Review
J. W. Ocker
Quirk
Nonfiction, Cryptozoology/Travel
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Chupacabras, the Jersey Devil, Mothman... America is riddled with famous cryptids. There's at least one local "Bigfoot" in nearly every state. But for every Champy, there are dozens of less well-known water monsters. For every Area 51 and little grey men, there are numerous otherworldly and impossible encounters remembered only by the small towns where they purported to happen. On a coast-to-coast tour, the author touches on numerous cryptids, famous and obscure, terrifying to cutesy, mysterious to admitted hoaxes - and proudly celebrated to nearly forgotten.
REVIEW: If you're looking for in-depth explorations of cryptozoology or the folklore of monster stories, this is not the book for you. If, on the other hand, you're looking for a lightweight, humorous romp through the weird and wondrous map of America's strange beasts and small-town tourist attractions, The United States of Cryptids is right up your alley, or rather right up your out-of-the-way stretch of country road where locals keep glimpsing something strange.
Ocker starts out on his journey with a love of the strange, sometimes goofy and sometimes creepy critters that have leapt, flown, crawled, swum, or slithered from local folklore. His premise, like that of many cryptid aficionados, is that the story is always real, whether or not the monster exists. It's the story that draws people in, that's shared in local bars or hair salons, that brings a burst of media attention in a flurry of real or spurious sightings or investigations, and that sometimes eventually gets embraced by towns looking to boost their economy with festivals or tourist traps. Indeed, more than one entry here is the result of a town, or even just one individual, deciding to create a tourist draw. Ocker breezes - almost literally - through a number of these stories, making up for in range of entries what is lost on any semblance of depth (or pictures, or even maps). Granted, some of these are just too minor to have much more to say about them than "a few people saw what may have been a monster here umpteen years ago", without even a rough description, but I still sometimes hoped for a little more to sink my imagination's teeth into. Sometimes the humor feels a bit flippant/irritating, too. And I'm not quite sure that the admitted tricks or products of local chambers of commerce should've been in the same category as the cryptids/attractions that grew out of local strange happenings or legends; there's a different feel to the town that decided to make mermaid statues or put gnome figurines around for no reason other than to drum up business, compared to the one where people claim to have glimpsed "something" and it was later embellished and embraced with murals and a festival. But Ocker gets marks for the sheer variety of entries, many of which are so obscure I've never seen them listed elsewhere (the ones too bizarre and thinly documented for even the cryptozoology community to bother investigating).
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Encyclopedia of Monsters (Daniel Cohen) - My Review
Cryptozoology A - Z (Loren Coleman and Jerome Clarke) - My Review
How to Survive a Sharknado and Other Unnatural Disasters (Andrew Shaffer) - My Review
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