2014 book 68

Chelsea Cain's One Kick
So Cain seems to be taking a break from the Gretchen-'n'-Archie mysteries for this new book (which seems like the start to a series) involving a ring of pedophiles. I mean, in case that didn't clue you in, this book is super dark and might as well be called "Trigger Warning." Anyway, our protagonist is a young woman who calls herself Kick, famous for being rescued several years after being kidnapped. Now a mysterious man (who is the least believable character I've ever read) is trying to recruit her to help solve a new string of kidnappings. Which . . . sort of makes sense? Because she knows how pedophile kidnappers think? Kick is a pretty okay character, but this whole thing is very . . . sensational. And COMPLETELY bonkers. Just completely, completely bonkers. If you want to read a totally crazy and kind of pulpy thriller/mystery like this, it's pretty great. But it's not /good/. Warning: bad things happen to animals. And children, obviously. B.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in August.

2014 book 67

Rachel Neumeier's Land of Burning Sands
I appreciate that Neumeier takes this second volume in a whole new direction, focusing on a couple of the denizens of the land of the invading army from the first book--primarily a talented slave and an adorably absent-minded academic type woman. I liked what she was saying about freedom and kindness here. Then the slave encounters the cold mage from the previous book--and again, it's nice to get his point of view, when he was basically just a magical villain in the first book--but it gets so repetitive after that! I swear the slave and the mage have the EXACT SAME conversation like eight times. So boring, especially when one is petulant and one is kind of snide. At least the academic is off dealing with interesting political things--and running into one of the characters from the first book. Eventually all the characters come together for a pretty great ending (I also like how the little bit of romance kind of simmers below the surface till then, too). B/B+.

2014 book 66

Rachel Neumeier's Lord of the Changing Winds
I guess I figured now that I'm all into books with dragons, I should expand my scope to other mythical creatures (please send unicorn-related recs my way). In this first book in the Griffin Mage Trilogy, a timid young girl (from a land of people who have affinity with animals!) is swept up into a displaced community of griffins, where she discovers a special gift. The other main character is a young man who's bros with the local king and also ends up having dealings with the griffins. Then there is  . . . a battle! I mean, not that much /happens/ in this book, per se, besides a battle, but it turns out griffins are pretty cool, and I really liked both main characters, so will definitely be investigating the other books in this series. A-/B+.

2014 book 65

Jean Zimmerman's Savage Girl
I had some mixed feelings about this book. It starts off in media res, in the 1870s, with a young man being discovered at a crime scene, determined to take the blame, although he's not sure he actually did it. Then it flashes back to his family on a trip out west for rich people reasons, where they discover the so-called Savage Girl being displayed. His father determines to bring her back out east and turn her into a debutante, for some nature vs nurture reason (this is never really gone into) (neither is the feral child thing). Various men who express an interest in her are found dead along the way. Is he the killer? Is she? I liked how ambiguous this was, until the neatly resolves ending, which was pretty annoying. Zimmerman does toss in some nice references to historical figures of the day, though (Henry James and the Woodhull sisters were of specific interest to this reader). I've been reading this off and on for like a week--the narrative voice is pretty compelling, but the story bogs down a little in the middle, and I was really not into the end. But I can see why other readers would like it. B.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

2014 book 64

Kate Hattemar's The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy
YES! It's another YA book about the evils of reality tv, my new favorite sub-genre! In this one, a reality tv show is being filmed at an arts school, and our protagonist gets involved with his best friend's plot to bring the show down--with poetry!--which heads in an unexpected direction. I loved all the lit nerdery here, despite really not being into Ezra Pound (Ezra Pound's Cantos come into play constantly). There is also a super awesome gerbil. Now, the plot doesn't hold up really well if you examine it too closely (much like a reality tv show!), and the protagonist being primarily motivated by his crush on a girl he's never spoken to is kind of cringeworthy (he /is/ called out on this later in the book). The romantic stuff is fairly predictable. But it's VERY enjoyable and compulsively readable, just the same. B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2014 book 63

Judy Greer's I Don't Know What You Know Me From: Confessions of a Co-Star
I wanted to read this book b/c I know Judy Greer from LOTS of things, and love her. The subtitle is VERY misleading though--it's not really about any of her specific Hollywood jobs or co-stars (though obviously that does come up)--it's more of a general memoir. Each chapter is its own essay, which makes it feel a little disjointed--I think a straight memoir might have flowed a little better. The sections on her childhood/parents are strong, though, and I liked the glimpses of her career (I definitely wish there was more dishing on Hollywood, and a little less on, like, emails from her friends). I don't want to dis Judy Greer--she is awesome--and this book is perfectly fine (and very funny at times--like the "fan profiling" stuff, and her Oscars story). It's just not quite what I was expecting based on the title. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2014 book 62

Julia Glass' And The Dark Sacred Night
Glass' latest novel focuses on a man at loose ends, whose wife inspires him to go searching for the father he never knew, and knows nothing about, starting with a trip to his former stepfather. Eventually this brings him into contact with a bunch of characters from Glass' stellar first novel, Three Junes. Glass excels at portraying complicated family relationships and the small moments of life and death--and this book is no exception. I really love her writing--it's really evocative. Her descriptions of, like, food at a picnic! Just lovely. I had some quibbles about an event near the end, but loved the way this wrapped up. She is really a great writer. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on April 1st.

2014 book 61

Jane Nickerson's The Mirk and Midnight Hour
I'm gonna say this right off--I have major problems with a book set in Mississippi during the Civil War where the only slaves we see considering themselves to be "friends" with their masters. How am I supposed to take anything else that happens seriously when that is so disgusting and historically inaccurate? I get that Nickerson wants her protagonist to be sympathetic, but this is not the way to do it. (Having the protagonist be too stupid/naive to notice several failed murder plots against a relative doesn't help, either.) Anyway, about halfway through this basically turns into a Civil War version of Summer of My German Soldier, only without the pathos of that book, and with a predictable romance instead. (Apparently this is supposed to be a retelling of Tam Lin, but I'm not familiar enough with that story to have picked up on it.) (It's also a companion to Strands of Bronze and Gold, which I liked more.) There's also a whole thing with hoodoo that I'm more than a little uncomfortable with, especially once it gets rapey. Ugh. I just can't get behind a book that presents all its slaves as content, if only they had a paycheck. It's gross, and irresponsible to write a book that way. Slavery was BAD, you can't have a story that's like, look at all these nice and happy slaves who love their masters! Plus the end is completely ridiculous. C.

2014 book 60

Leslye Walton's The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Sooooo this is the story of a girl born with wings, who then goes back and narrates her family story, starting with her grandmother. Lots of ill-fated romance, family drama, baking, and a little bit of magic ensue. And ghosts! I will say that it's told with a much lighter touch than I'm making it sound--I liked the narrative voice here a lot. Walton's writing, on the whole, is really clever and graceful. The story reminded me of books by Aimee Bender and Karen Russell--reality, just a little bit off-kilter, which I mean in the best possible way (I love books like that!). I wholeheartedly loved this book until the character Nathaniel Sorrows came into the picture, and from there a sense of dread crept in, leading to events that I found . . . troubling. But things wrap up nice and neatly, and I think this will in general be a crowd-pleaser. A-/B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on March 25th.

2014 book 59

A.S. King's Ask the Passengers
Such a delight to reread this for FYA book club! I don't have too much more to say about it, but it definitely holds up to a reread. King's books are all so great.

2014 book 58

Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor
So when the emperor of an elf kingdom (empire?) and his three oldest sons are all killed in an accident, his youngest son--a half-goblin who's been raised basically in exile--suddenly finds himself in the seat of power. His struggles to learn to rule are amazingly compelling, and Addison's world-building is REALLY strong and feels realistically populated (though I definitely got some characters confused a couple of times due to similar names, plus sometimes they're referred to by first names or last names). There's also some very interesting stuff going on here with racial/cultural distinctions, which I appreciated. I did wish there was at least one prominent primary or secondary woman character--it's clearly a patriarchal society, and women's problems are discussed by all the men, but still--though by the end, a few look poised to be more visible in later volumes (and all of those are REALLY delightful!). Anyway, I don't want to give any spoilers or hints, but this was really excellent and I definitely look forward to seeing what Addison does next with this world. (Addison is apparently also author Sarah Monette, whose works I'm not familiar with, but figured I'd mention it anyway.) A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on April 1st.

2014 book 57

Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation
I hadn't heard of this before seeing it mentioned in the Tournament of Books commentary the other day, but I'm so glad I did--it's excellent. It's sort of the portrait of a marriage, of a family, of being a writer--sort of stream of consciousness style. Well, I don't know, trying to describe it would just have me talking in circles, but it's really beautiful prose. A short but powerful novel, the kind of thing I'd like to see more of. A/A-.

2014 book 56

Mur Lafferty's Ghost Train to New Orleans
The second book in Lafferty's Shambling Guides series (after The Shambling Guide to New York City) is a pretty fun followup (though I do wish the editor/proofreader would allow contractions and cut down on exclamation points a little bit. Some of the dialogue feels unnatural. And I DEFINITELY wish Lafferty hadn't chosen to have the spirit of New Orleans and its denizens talk in dialect). I do really like the world-building here--Zoe's talents are explored in greater detail, and there are some great new characters (particularly a Norse healing goddess and a 1940s-era ghost). There's kind of a lot going on, plot-wise--mysterious dudes on trains, ghosts, murderous coworkers, half-zombie boyfriends, demon dogs, golems, genocide, etc--but it all comes together in the end. These books have a great sense of humor and a ton of geek references, which obviously makes everything better, too. B/B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

2014 book 55

Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird
I really liked Oyeyemi's first novel, but haven't really loved her other books (her recent Mr Fox got a ton of acclaim, but I just couldn't get into it). This one, however, totally worked for me. It's vaguely a reworking of the Snow White story--but don't think it's the usual fantasy book, because Oyeyemi doesn't work that way. Instead, it starts with teenager Boy Novak, who runs away from her abusive father in the 1950s and ends up in small-town Massachusetts, where she meets a man named Arturo--and his daughter Snow. Just when you think it's going to go one way, it turns into a really interesting meditation on race relations--and family life--in America. I hesitate to call this "accessible," because Oyeyemi's work is always slightly off the beaten path, but it's certainly the work of hers I find the most /readable/. Very engaging. A-/B+.

2014 book 54

Marie Brennan's A Tropic of Serpents
Boy, all the series books I've been eagerly awaiting have been mildly disappointing this week, including this one. The second in Brennan's Memoirs of Lady Trent (after A Natural History of Dragons) is kind of on the boring side, and also is kind of racist. I don't think that BRENNAN is racist, at least not on purpose, but her overly complicated and confusing world-building presents a historically-accurate racism--except that it's a made-up world! But, I mean, they're CLEARLY in Africa--UGH, this world-building where everything is just like our world but with made-up names and religion and dragons really is annoying this time around. Brennen spends way too much time explaining various cultures--which, actually, fits with the conceit of this novel, but isn't really engaging. (For the record, I do like the narrative voice, I just wish it was talking about something else.) The illustrations don't really help with my accusations of racism, either. Anyway, plot: the main character from the last one travels to Africa with two other people and she eventually sees some dragons and then quickly averts a war. That is honestly all that happens. I like the whole "killing dragons is bad" philosophy, but wow, this was underwhelming after the last one. I want to see more dealing with society stuff, or if not that, more dealing with actual dragons! I mean, get one as a pet or something, at least. B/B-.

2014 book 53

C.S.Harris' Why Kings Confess
I was soooo excited for the new Sebastian St Cyr mystery--and, I mean, it was fine. It was just one of those stories where the mystery-solver just goes around talking to the same people over and over until someone finally confesses--not super compelling. I still love all the characters here (HERO!! So pregnant and still getting the crucial information!) and it is kind of interesting to have Marie-Therese (daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette) as a character, with the rumors that her brother may have been spirited away from the French Revolution as a key plot point. It's just a little all over the place. B/B+.

2014 book 52

Seanan McGuire's Half-Off Ragnarok
The third book in McGuire's Incryptids series--about a family who protects mythological creatures from people, and vice versa--changes things up a little by focusing on a new character--Verity's brother Alex. I've been hoping McGuire would expand the world to include more of the family, so appreciated knowing more about Alex and their grandparents, but this one wasn't as strong for me. The main plot--something is petrifying people and Alex has to figure out what it is--was kind of weak, and it was pretty easy to figure out who the bad guy was. I did like the new characters in this one, particularly Charmi (a snake-girl) and Dee (a gorgon), but was not really feeling Alex's girlfriend and their relationship. I mean, this was entertaining, just not as awesome as I'd hoped it would be. B/B+.

2014 book 51

Ellen Feldman's The Unwitting
The protagonist of this book is a journalist who receives a call about her husband on the day of JFK's assassination--and then the book flashes back to their courtship in the late 40s and their years of writing and activism in the 50s. The foreshadowing is a bit heavy-handed, and the big reveal won't resonate as much with readers in this day and age (or at least, it didn't with me), but the story and the protagonist's struggles are still really compelling. The late introduction of a secret journal is also a bit much, but works well with the way Feldman wraps the story up. Generally a satisfying and interesting read, and an engaging look at a period that isn't often covered in novels. B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on May 6th.

2014 book 50

Marcus Sedgwick's Midwinterblood
I had never even heard of this book when it won the Printz award last month--though I would vociferously argue that it's not YA at all, or at least very far from the usual YA mold (maybe things are just different in New Zealand?). It involves an island with a mysterious flower that may or may not make people immortal, and features seven sections, starting in the semi-near future and going back in time, that more or less tell a complete story. One that involves magic, vampires, painters, archaeologists, and maybe reincarnation. It's pretty weird, but pretty good? Yeah, weird but good. A-/B+.

2014 book 49

Frances Brody's A Medal for Murder
The second in Brody's Kate Shackleton series finds Kate being hired to find a pawnshop robber--only then she gets caught up in the case of a missing girl--and then a murder! I had a few complaints about this--like the last one, the flashbacks give away too much information to the reader, the romance angle is pretty underbaked, Kate's apparent moral ambiguity is kind of problematic, and so on. Still, it's an entertaining read, even if I did guess the killer early on. The very end is weird, but I liked the rest of it well enough. B.

2014 book 48

Cinda Williams Chima's The Crimson Crown
This is a strong finale to the Seven Realms series--lots of action, romance, magic, and a few surprises. I don't have much to say about it, except that I basically read it in one sitting. A good read with excellent pacing and interesting characters, for sure. I do wish some of them had been more fleshed out (the villains, especially), but the primary characters are strong. A-/B+.

2014 book 47

Cinda Williams Chima's The Gray Wolf Throne
The third book in Chima's Seven Realms series has a lot going on--(some) secrets are revealed, people are torn about love, war may or may not be coming, thrones are claimed, people are killed, etc. It's all pretty solid and I have no major complaints. I do admit to wishing things would come to a head already, but hey, there's only one volume left! B+.

2014 book 46

Cinda Williams Chima's The Exiled Queen
The second book in the Seven Realms series starts off a bit slow--at the end of the first one (spoilers!), a whole bunch of the characters are headed to joint magic-warrior school, which I was super excited about! But the first, like, third of this book deal with the arduous journey to get there--and man, am I sick of reading about arduous journeys to get places in fantasy books. Can't someone in a fantasy world invent a magic airplane or car or something? Teleportation? ANYTHING but long journeys on horseback filled with treacherous kidnappings that quickly get resolved. Sigh.  Things do pick up once everyone is in school--and running into friends, enemies, and love interests. The main guy character is kind of dumb and slow to pick up on a dangerous plot point, but the princess is pretty interesting (despite being kidnapped like three times). She's kind of dumb too, though. I guess there wouldn't be as much of a plot if they weren't so stupid and making dumb mistakes? Surely there is a way to tell an interesting story about a prudent character, especially when there's so many villains to encounter at local taverns! I mean, don't get me wrong, I liked this and will read the next one. My complaints are not necessarily about this book in particular, but about YA fantasy in general. B+.

2014 book 45

Cinda Williams Chima's The Demon King
Yay, it's another epic fantasy YA series that I hadn't discovered! This one has two main characters--Han, formerly the leader of a street gang but now trying to go straight, though there's clearly more to him than meets the eye, and Raisa, the usual princess chafing against her princessy role (while the character is a familiar archetype, Chima does breathe a lot of life into Raisa). There's also a whole lot with politics, nefarious wizards, various friends and love interests, etc, and some solid world-building. It's a strong start to a series, and a few moments were almost TOO intense to get through. It ends at an interesting place, too. Looking forward to see where it goes from there.  A-/B+.

2014 book 44

Kasie West's Split Second
The sequel (and conclusion) to Pivot Point is perfectly adequate--since Addie isn't playing out scenarios here, West breaks things up by having the POV alternate between Addie and her best friend Laila. This does a pretty good job of keeping tension/momentum going, though I admit I got a little confused whenever the POV changed in the middle of one of their conversations (chapter breaks make it clear, it was just a bit disconcerting for some reason). Anyway, talking about the plot would spoil the first one, so I'll jsut say that the romances here are fine--I didn't hate them, rare for a YA book!--and the action is also . . . fine. Weirdly, things are kind of more important/bigger than in the first one, but for some reason things felt a lot less intense. Still an enjoyable read, and a perfectly good followup to the first one. B/B+.

2014 book 43

J. Kathleen Cheney's The Golden City
So this is kind of a historical-fantasy-mystery mashup, and I LOVE IT. Cheney's worldbuilding--Portugal in 1705, but with magic and magical creatures--is really, really engaging. Our protagonist is a siren, living in the city as a young lady's companion and spying for her people, when she and her lady are attacked and she is soon investigating some pretty messed-up murders. Meanwhile, a local half-selkie gentleman is consulting with the police on the same set of murders, so it's inevitable that their paths will collide. And Cheney totally had me rooting for them to JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY, GOD. Adorable ol' sea-people. I liked this a lot, and can't wait for the sequel (out in July!). A/A-.

2014 book 42

Frances Brody's Dying in the Wool
This is the first in the Kate Shackleton mystery series, yet another involving an intrepid lady detective in the post-WWI years. In this one, Kate is asked by an old VAD (lady army volunteer division) friend to track down her father, who's been missing for several years. On the whole, this was engaging enough--I liked the stuff about Kate being haunted by her own husband, missing in the war--though I thought it was weakened by various other POVs from suspects, all taking place when the guy went missing. It just reveals a little too much to the reader and I thought it was unnecessary, especially since things play out in a way that the information is revealed anyway. And the ending is very improbably action-packed. Kate is an interesting character, though, and I liked the way things concluded. I'd probably read another in this series. B.

2014 book 41

Julia Dahl's Invisible City
This was a really, really solid debut from a crime reporter--maybe because it's about a freelance reporter. :) Dahl definitely nails the details of the newspaper life. Anyway, our protagonist is 23-year-old Rebekah, who's investigating the murder of a Hasidic woman from the tight-knit community in Borough Park--the very community where the mother who abandoned her was born and raised. Dahl is a little bit over-explainy about the Hasidic lifestyle to someone who's familiar with it, but I imagine that's necessary for the readers who aren't. I really liked the tensions she raises of the technically-Jewish but clueless Rebekah examining/dealing with Hasidic Jews and thought that was very well-done too. And all that aside, the mystery is well crafted, the story moves quickly, and there are a lot of interesting things going on in general. It looks like Dahl is working on a sequel, and it's one I'll definitely be reading. A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in May.

2014 book 40

Seth Fishman's The Well's End
This book starts off really strong, with a girl based on Baby Jessica (you know, the little girl that got stuck in that well) now a teenager at an elite boarding school. "Great," I thought to myself, "Another cool contemporary YA book about the perils of fame. I dig this subgenre!" (Clearly, I had not remembered the book's description.) Anyway, then suddenly the school alarms sound and they are under quarantine! There is a disease that causes rapid aging and death! Baby Mia's dad tells her to come find him at his mysterious office where he does mysterious things!

OK, now I need to take a paragraph for a digression of sorts. Sometimes I think that YA authors feel like they HAVE to include a romance for their book to be successful, even if the story doesn't really warrant one. I have to think that's the case here, because I have never read a less organic romance plotline in my life. Like, the girl meets the new boy at school, a day later they're on the run with some other teens, but keep like pausing in their escape to make out. Like, mid-run. Now, maybe I have just taken against this character because his name is Brayden, but he has no personality and no character traits other than "interested in main girl character" and "very willing to hit dudes with baseball bats." I mean, at one point he's like "Do. You. Trust. Me?" which is a direct quote that indicates the level of discourse between these two (not that they even once have a regular conversation throughout the whole book) (both of which also illustrate the level of the writing).

The backstory, when it is revealed, is actually pretty interesting. And the very end is intriguing. But everything else about this did not really work for me. C.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be available on February 25th.

2014 book 39

Laura Lippman's After I'm Gone
Lippman's latest is more-or-less a standalone from her long-running Tess Monaghan series (though a few of those characters have a cameo that makes me pretty excited to see where Lippman takes them next). We start with a man in the 1970s fleeing the country--and the feds--leaving his wife, daughters, and girlfriend behind. And in the present, a cold case consultant is looking into the 1986 murder of aforementioned girlfriend. But, interestingly to me, the murder is not really the heart of the story--rather, it's the story of the family he left behind. I really liked the way Lippman flashes back and forth through fifty years of family history--and particularly, Jewish family history. She totally nails the details of bat mitzvahs, weddings, and other gatherings. I mean, NAILS it. The murder itself was a good story too--I was actually surprised by the conclusion--but was really drawn into the lives of these women, especially the sisters. Another very solid work from Lippman, and I definitely look forward to see what she'll do next. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

2014 book 38

Jaclyn Moriarty's The Ghosts of Ashbury High
I was unable to track down an e-book version of the third book in the Ashbury/Brookfield series, so went ahead and read the fourth. I really don't think this one would make any sense without having read The Year of Secret Assignments first, since it picks up on the three girls' lives a couple of years later, as a pair of mysterious scholarship students come to school. This one took a lot longer for me to get into--I feel like Moriarty deals out Riley and Amelia's story too slowly, and all of the stuff with Toby's history assignment is a bit tedious at first (though I loved how everything came together at the end!). Also, the kids writing the stories they write for huge exams makes very little sense to me (aside from Toby). What the heck were they being graded on? They did not deserve passing grades. The earlier books, with the letter and diaries, worked better for me. Still, I did really like how thing wrapped up. B/B+.

2014 book 37

Jaclyn Moriarty's Feeling Sorry for Celia
First of all, I just want to thank Open Library for existing and having an e-book copy of this, unlike every other place in America. Thanks to them, I was able to go back and read the first of the Ashbury/Brookfield books, which has at its center two minor characters from the other one I read. And it was also completely delightful! It makes me sad that there are all these GREAT Australian YA authors who aren't very well-known here (and I would recommend Moriarty to fans of, say, Melina Marchetta's contemporary YA books). What other completely charming books am I missing out on??? Anyway, this one also has the pen pal project as the major plot point, only here our correspondents are two girls, so the focus is very much more on friendship than on romance (though obviously boys come up a fair bit, as they would in any straight teenage girl correspondence. And honestly, friendship was kind of the core of the other one, too). I could have done without the imaginary letters from various Societies of Teenagers or whatever, but UGH I love these. A/A-.

2014 book 36

Jaclyn Moriarty's The Year of Secret Assignments
I was raving about Corner of White at lady nerd book group the other day, and a fellow lady nerd suggested I check out this other series by Moriarty, that's all told in letters and diaries and notes (to great effect). Only two are available for Kindle in the US, though! Luckily, each of the four focuses on a different group of kids (who seem to be background players in the others), so they can be read in any order. This one is about three best friends from a private school who are forced to participate in a pen-pal program with the local school for problem kids (or so they seem to perceive it). Three girls writing to three boys, what could go wrong! Anyway, it's all really funny and sad and sweet and I loved it. A/A-.

2014 book 35

Chang-Rae Lee's On Such a Full Sea
Considering that I am, in general, a fan of literary authors playing with works generally considered "genre," this literary dystopia should have been right up my alley. But it didn't really work that well for me. The first-person-plural narration is fine, but the narrative voice itself isn't particularly interesting. I liked that the story was being told kind of like an urban legend (I guess?) but I didn't like how stilted it felt. And protagonist Fan (who flees dystopian B-Mor [yes, it's Baltimore, complete with row houses] in search of her missing boyfriend) isn't very proactive--she rarely makes any decisions, just sort of goes along with everyone else she encounters. The plot happens to her, but she doesn't do much to affect it, and it just gets a little ridiculous/overly coincidental at a certain point. It's not interesting to read about a character supposedly on a quest who is actually just sort of floating along (with a couple of notable exceptions). I actually did like the way this ended, but was left with a fleeting sort of sense of "why?" about the whole story. I'm still not sure what the author was trying to accomplish here. B.

2014 book 34

Sally Green's Half Bad
So it looks like this is the start of a YA trilogy that may be the new hotness--it inspired a major bidding war, has already been sold in over 30 countries, has been optioned for a movie, etc. And it's definitely a good read with some pretty compelling world-building. Things start off with teenager Nathan in a cage and things are looking pretty grim--then we flash back to his childhood and find out that he's growing up in an England where some people are secretly magic (a la Harry Potter, only way more hardcore), and while his mother was a White Witch, his father is like the most evil of evil Black Witches. But it's not like the White Witches are all that great, either. Anyway, fascinating stuff here, especially the family relationships--I was beyond uninterested in the romance with a White Witch whose only characteristic is "pretty," and the end is kind of all over the place, but I did really like this and look forward to the next chapter. A-/B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in March.

2014 book 33

Heather Demetrios' Something Real
I have to say, I am kind of digging this recent YA trend of thoughtful books about kids on reality shows (see also: Reality Boy and You Look Different in Real Life). In this one, teenage Chloe grew up (as in, from the moment of her birth) on a tv show about her large family (think Jon and Kate Plus 8, only most of the kids are multicultural adoptees). Four years ago, she had a breakdown, their parents divorced, and the show was cancelled--but now it's coming back. Now, a few things here are a little bit too on the nose--the class unit on 1984--or a little bit slight--the perfect boyfriend (who I actually thought was going to turn out to be a creep, because he's so grossly perfect), the lack of characterization of most of the siblings. And I wish we'd gotten a little bit deeper into the "bitchy/slutty" sister. That said, I really enjoyed this and found it entirely captivating. Chloe is a well-drawn, vivid character and Demetrios makes the whole insane situation feel real. The end is a little cheesy, but it IS a YA book. B+.

2014 book 32

Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love
Sometimes you just want to read a hilarious mostly-autobiographical novel about horrible upper-class British people. And obviously no one does that better than Nancy Mitford. I once saw an edition with this with a preface by her sister, Jessica, straight up saying which Mitford was which character. And it was wonderfully mean, too! No one is more charming and vile than the Mitfords. Anyway, life and love and eccentric relatives abound here, and it is just as silly and satisfying and slightly sad as I remembered. B+.

2014 book 31

Jaclyn Moriarty's The Cracks in the Kingdom
The second book in the Colors of Madeleine series is just as wonderful and unexpected as the first one. I hesitate to say more for fear of spoiling the first one (which I very highly recommend), so I'll just say that there's plenty more of Elliot and Madeleine trying to figure out the crack between their worlds (so much science! Physics! Metaphysics! It's delightful), more examination of both of their lives, more intrigue, etc. We also see more of the royal family, and it's all just fascinating. This manages to be one of those second volumes of a trilogy that moves the plot forward but is also moving on its own--which is, frankly, rare. AH GOD when does the last book come out, I cannot wait! A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on March 25th.

2014 book 30

Jaclyn Moriarty's A Corner of White: The Colors of Madeleine, Book I
Guys, lately I am kind of meh on YA fantasy trilogies--there are so many, and they're all so similar. But THIS one. This one. Like, wow. It's really good and really kind of sweet and funny, and also feels really DIFFERENT. It's basically about Madeleine, who, with her mother, has run away from her former life to live in Cambridge, and Elliot, who lives in a fantasy place called Cello, who is searching for his missing father. And then they find a crack between worlds and start writing letters. It's all really compelling and great and the story winds up in a place I didn't expect, and I can't wait to read the next one. A/A-.

2014 book 29

David Connerley Nahm's Ancient Oceans of Central Kentucky
OK, so, full disclosure: David is a friend of mine, and is honestly one of my favorite people, so even though he asked me to be objective, this is still basically a rave review (I'm not the only one who likes it! It was included in Library Journal's galley guide for ALA Midwinter, so I hope all my librarian friends grabbed a copy). The protagonist is Leah, who runs a nonprofit aimed at helping low-income women and children, and who is haunted by the disappearance of her younger brother years before. It's really the narrative voice that's center stage here--telling not just Leah's story (jumping back and forth in time), but that of the women she works with, the kids she grew up with, her family, and honestly, that of the whole town. I think the best word to describe the writing here is EVOCATIVE. David (sorry, I really can't do the professional "author-last-name" reference for someone I know) really nails the atmosphere here. It's very atmospheric! (The interstitial illustrations of seashells or like those magnified pictures of grains of sand or fossils or whatever they are really add to this, and help highlight the unique nature of the story.) I thought this was VERY well-done. And I think I'm being objective when I say that. A/A-.


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The author mailed me a galley to review! This book will be released in August.

2014 book 28

Rosemary Kirstein's The Steerswoman
I read an essay of Jo Walton's raving about this book, so figured I'd give it a try now that it's available for Kindle. And I was not disappointed. It's about Rowan, the titular Steerswoman--they function as sort of mobile librarians/information sources, and have to answer any question they're asked, and everyone has to answer their question too. Anyway, she keeps finding these weird jewels, and wants to figure out where they're coming from--which sets a bunch of angry wizards on her, determined to stop her quest for information with their magic. Except . . . their magic is like electricity, and other things that are apparently to a modern reader. At any rate, this book has great pacing and a strong story, and I really liked the characters (besides Rowan, there is a warrior woman named Bel and a teenager named William who's picked up some of the wizard's tricks). Definitely looking forward to the rest of this series coming to Kindle. A/A-.

2014 book 27

Jennifer Vanderbes' The Secret of Raven Point
It's 1941, and when a chem nerd's beloved older brother enlists and then is reported missing, she fudges her age and goes off to be a nurse on the front lines in Italy, hoping to find out what happened to him. But this isn't a mystery, and it's not the dramatic thriller that the title might suggest. Instead, it's a really lovely and vivid story of a young nurse at wartime, the camaraderie and the horrors--and especially the horror of the army wanting to execute a man who tried to kill himself. Their efforts to rehabilitate and rescue him are a large part of the story--and are very well-done. I also really liked the way this resolved--Vanderbes really captures the realities of war and its aftermath. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday

2014 book 26

Adina Rishe Gewirtz's Zebra Forest
So it's like 1980, and a girl who's been following the Iran Hostage Crisis ends up a hostage herself when the father she believed to be dead escapes from prison. Pretty solid story about family--I thought the relationship between the protagonist and her brother was especially well-done--and a pretty solid read in general. I mean, it's a middle grade book. But a very readable one. B+.

2014 book 25

Diana Gabaldon's An Echo in the Bone
Gabaldon has really interesting stuff going on with Brianna and with Claire/Jamie here, so of course decides to devote a chunk of the book to William, fighting with the British during the Revolutionary War. It's hard to make war interesting when the reader knows the character is on the losing side, and William has not been enough of a presence in earlier books to make spending time with him feel like anything but a chore, especially because he's always getting lost and otherwise being an idiot. He gets a little better in the second half, but then Jamie and Claire and Young Ian get sucked into war activities too, and it's so blah. I don't know how she makes war SO boring! The pace does pick up toward the end, when several plot points I was sure would be cliffhangers were abruptly resolved. There's a fair amount of stupidity in this one--I mean, if you were writing in a secret notebook all of your time travel secrets, wouldn't you put it somewhere safe, and not keep accidentally giving it to nefarious people? Whatever. WHATEVER. Now I have to wait until June to read the next one and find out how all these morons survive. B.

2014 book 24

Diana Gabaldon's A Breath of Snow and Ashes
Well, here we are, dealing with the American Revolution, or whatever. All that was overshadowed by YET MORE RAPE, good lord, Gabaldon, why. WHY. There are so many other interesting things going on with your women--Claire being a doctor and feared as a witch, Brianna being an engineer (better shovels! matches! syringes! pipes and kilns!) and being overly outspoken and disliked, plus various time travel and interpersonal dramas. And murders. And yet they keep getting raped and/or kidnapped. Basically all of the main characters (including the men!) have been raped now and are emotionally traumatized and it's become very unpleasant. And it seems especially weird in a book, where, like, a girl straight-up marries a set of identical twins and Gabaldon is clearly gung-ho on this sex-positive threesome. You know, I have finally realized that this series is a historical SOAP OPERA and that's why it's so engaging and, at the same time, so terrible. At least no one tried to stone anyone on the Young and the Restless to death, though! Damn. B.

2014 book 23

Diana Gabaldon's The Fiery Cross
The fifth Outlander book was made for North Carolina history nerds--there's a huge chunk involving the Regulators (the namesake of my local bookstore), though frankly Gabaldon makes the actual history party pretty uneventful and boring. There's also a scene, hilarious to modern NC residents like myself, wherein characters debate the merits of vinegar- vs tomato-based barbeque. It sounds just like every conversation I have ever heard about barbeque in modern times! Otherwise, it's same-ol', same-ol' here--it seems like nothing has major consequences, and that includes a hanging and a snakebite. Plus several attempted murders. But it feels like I read a thousand page book where nothing really happened. And yet I still like this series! The racism is also less awful this time around, though that's probably because there's little interaction with minorities in this one. I dunno. B/B+?

2014 book 22

Sarah Addison Allen's Lost Lake
I have generally enjoyed all of Sarah Addison Allen's works, though they come a little too close to the border of cheesy/predictable/women's fiction for my own tastes--but they've always been tempered with a little bit of magic and a lot of likable characters, so even when the story beats were obvious, the books were satisfying. This one, about a recently widowed woman who takes her daughter to see her great-aunt at her lakeside resort, only the great-aunt is about to sell, well . . .  it didn't work for me as well. And, full disclosure, my review here is tempered by the author's note at the end revealing that this was written after Allen was diagnosed with breast cancer. So I don't want to be mean. I'll just say that . . . yeah, it didn't work for me. Especially the various reveals/wrap-ups at the end. Some of the characters are really great, and the town feels really fleshed out--there just wasn't quite enough going on or enough at stake. It ultimately just wasn't as charming as some of her earlier books, all of which I still wholeheartedly recommend. B/B-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

2014 book 21

Erin Bow's Plain Kate
I had to reread this for FYA book club this month--not that it was a hardship, since I remembered loving it and only loved it slightly less this time around. Hard to go wrong with orphans and witches and Roamers and one extremely awesome cat. (Seriously, Taggle is SUCH a good character. He overrides any complains I'd have about the story [particularly its pacing].)

2014 book 20

Diana Gabaldon's Drums of Autumn
These books are so dang long that by the time I get to the end of one, I can't remember if what happened in the beginning was in this book or the one before. Well, definitely Claire and Jamie settle in North Carolina in this one, so there's a lot more racism as they interact with various slaves and Native Americans. (And when I say racism, I don't just mean the characters, who are historically accurately racist, but Gabaldon's descriptions, written in the 1990s. She is really pushing the "noble savage" thing here. It's gross.) Plus, the rapiness is back! I thought now that Claire was in her 40s, we'd be ok, but now there's a nubile young daughter time traveling as well, and she flat out gets raped (spoilers). Plus all the men are, like, "brutes"--which I think Gabaldon means to be romantic, but really just has me wanting to call the modern day cops for domestic violence. I really wonder about her life sometimes. The sad thing is, I still enjoy reading this books (despite their length--each could easily be like 300 pages shorter) and want to know what ridiculous things will happen next to these ridiculous characters. But I really can't recommend them in good faith. B.

2014 book 19

Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikrey
I devoured this book. I just ate it up. It is basically a love letter to book-lovers everywhere. I can think of few authors as versatile as Zevin (who has written, among other things, a YA trilogy set in a near future where chocolate is illegal) and I really love what she's done here, in the story of a recently widowed bookseller, a publishing sales rep, and an abandoned toddler, and how books bring them--and other characters--together. Does it veer mildly into cheesy/overly-neat territory? Yes, but it is no less delightful for that, and I think most people don't mind that anyway. I just adored this, and it made me want to give up my informal ban on short stories. Really a GREAT book for fellow word nerds. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2014 book 18

Diana Wynne Jones' Black Maria
After that last book, I wanted to read something lighter and also wanted to read Diana Wynne Jones--but I think I've read all her GOOD books and am down to the dregs. This one involves a trip to visit an aunt in a mysterious and sinister town. It was weirdly sexist, for Jones, and the protagonist isn't really very proactive. There are some good cats but otherwise I was really not into this one. B/B-.

2014 book 17

E. Lockhart's We Were Liars
The publisher is making a Big Deal out of people with advance copies not revealing any of the plot of Lockhart's latest book--I'm not really sure why, as it's not THAT crazy. But hey, publicity.  Apparently I CAN reveal that it involves a rich family who summers on a private island. There are also a lot of Diana Wynne Jones references. I didn't really love this, though it did make me cry in an airport. It's kind of upsetting. Good writing, I just wasn't really as into it as I expected and wanted to be. B/B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in May.

2014 book 16

Diana Gabaldon's Voyager
Well, the third Outlander book has slightly less rapiness, but WAY more racism. A Chinese character and several Jewish characters are introduced, and the stereotypes are just awful, particularly with the Chinese character. And then they go to Jamaica and encounter slaves, since it's the late 1700s, and that's just as bad. I don't know why--these were written in the 1990s! Gabaldon should really know better. And it's a bummer, because this one is otherwise a lot more readable than the last one. The first third involves a lot of historical research (my favorite!), and then Claire decides to abandon her 19 year old daughter and her career as a doctor to go back in time, because of her GREAT LOVE, which seems a little silly, but whatever, then there are pirates and things, and lots of action. But oy, SO MUCH racism. Really, really bad racism. B.

2014 book 15

M.R. Carey's The Girl With All The Gifts
M.R. Carey is actually Mike Carey, author of many comic books (including Unwritten, one of my very favorites). I'm not sure why he's using initials here--to separate his fiction from his comics?--but whatever, I only wanted to read this in the first place because he wrote it! It's about a mysterious girl, Melanie, in a mysterious school in a mysterious place isolated from the world outside--because it's full of Hungries. Yes, I accidentally read a zombie book. No, that's not a spoiler, the hungries are mentioned pretty early on. Anyway, the deal with Melanie is explained in good time, because the story is told not only from her POV, but from her favorite teacher's and various other characters. And then things take a drastic turn and things get really crazy. But, I mean, it's a zombie book, and I really feel like it should be marketed that way if Carey really wants a wider audience. I do like the vague and mysterious nature of the official book description though. B+, because zombies give me nightmares and also this book is crazy.

2014 book 14

Julie Murphy's Side Effects May Vary
I feel like the description of this book--which made me want to read it--implies a different sort of story than what is actually here. It's about a Cancer Girl, and her longtime best friend, a guy who's been in love with her for years--and what happens when she goes into remission. The description implies that she has a whole list of crazy/mean/vengeful things she does (with his help) when she thinks she's dying, and then has to deal with the consequences, but really she only does, like, two things. It's really about her relationship with her friend (and her unwillingness to have an honest conversation with him, because she's a stupid teenager). It's really well-written, though, even though Harvey is kind of too perfect to be true, and I liked the end a lot. Perfect for fans of complicated characters and complicated romances. B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher.  This book will be released in March.

2014 book 13

Natalie Whipple's House of Ivy and Sorrow
This was a pretty solid YA fantasy about a teenage girl in Iowa who's secretly a witch, living with her witch grandmother, when the Curse that killed her mother seems to be looking for her as well--along with some mysterious, and possibly evil, men. There's some really interesting world-building here, and I really liked the protagonist's relationships with her best friends and her new boyfriend (there are some love triangle elements that I found tiresome, ie a boyfriend jealous of some other guy, but I liked that she was committed to her boyfriend). Things are a little draggy in the middle, but I liked the end a lot--the way things wrapped up made me interested in reading a sequel, if one is coming. B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2014 book 12

Diana Gabaldon's Dragonfly in Amber
The sequel to Outlander is a lot less awesome than its predecessor. It starts off strong, in 1968, and the beginning is so startling after the way the last one ended that I checked three times to make sure I hadn't skipped a book. But then we flash back to where we left off, with Jamie and Claire doing whatever it is they're doing. Mainly they're in France here, doing really boring political things, and then in Scotland, half-heartedly participating in a war. Seriously, this book was soooo long and sooo boring. And I say this as a history major! It seems like it could have been interesting, but it just isn't. Also, this one has even MORE rapiness than the last one did. It's very . . . unpleasant. I also feel like Claire and Jamie's relationship is supposed to read as passionate, but some of their arguments are very cringe-worthy. I'll probably check out the third one, but this one was like 400 pages too long. B.

2014 book 11

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander
When I mentioned my love of time-travel books a couple months ago, someone (I think it was Elizabeth) suggested I check this one out. Plus, it's about to be a tv show! I think I was expecting it to be silly and/or cheesy, but it's actually surprisingly GREAT. It's about a woman who served as an army nurse in WWII, and now that the war is over, she and her husband have reunited and gone on a trip to Scotland, to get to know each other again, and so he can research his genealogy. Then she goes to sightsee at a mini-Stonehenge-thing and gets SUCKED BACK IN TIME to 1743! Good thing she knows all about that period of history from her history-nerd husband! Aaaand there's totally a hot Scottish guy! (All I knew about this plot going in was that she falls for some guy in the past, and I was worried for a minute that it'd turn out to be her husband's ancestor--scandalous!!--but he turns out to be a real dillhole.) Now, this book is not perfect. There's too much of the rough sex/stuff = romanticized manliness (it /was/written in 1991) (but like, at one point he straight up BEATS her, which is somehow good here?). Various dudes try to rape the protagonist like four or five different times (I LOST COUNT, that's how many times dudes try to rape her!). When someone is eventually raped, though, the psychological effects are handled pretty well. But really, this book was good! The writing is a lot better than it needs to be. In fact, I am about to BUY the second one because the library e-book has too many holds and I can't wait to see what happens next. A-.

2014 book 10

Cara Hoffman's Be Safe I Love You
Hoffman's second novel (after So Much Pretty) centers on a young woman who's just returned from the war in Iraq, and is clearly deeply troubled about something that happened there (and being in the war in general). She's determined to take her beloved younger brother up to Canada, where she'll meet up with an army buddy and start a new life. But meanwhile, she's dodging calls from an army psychologist and assaulting her on-again/off-again boyfriend. Honestly, the plot isn't really the main thing here--it's much more of a study of a young soldier back from war, and the relationship she has with her brother, and the people who live in a small army town. I was not entirely sold on the ending, but really, really enjoyed reading this. Really strong writing and very compelling. A-.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2014 book 9

Kate Atkinson's Life After Life
I've been wanting to reread this for a while now--the details had gotten all hazy, which means it's time--and then just yesterday it won the Costa Award, so now seemed like as good a time as any. I was worried it wouldn't be as great as the first time I read it, even if I didn't remember everything, but really, there's never any need to worry when it comes to Atkinson. This one manages to delight me, terrify me, and have me sitting with bated breath all in equal measure. It's also a very well-done war novel. I just really love Ursula's growing awareness and resolve and how much this story is about family. So great. Definitely my favorite book of last year.

2014 book 8

Carrie Vaughn's Dreams of the Golden Age
The long-awaited (at least by me) sequel to After the Golden Age centers on Celia's teenage daughter, Anna, who's been hiding her powers from her parents and secretly assembling a team of superheroes among her classmates. They're teenagers, so some ridiculous ego-driven power struggles arise--I think I like reading about superheroes more when they're a little bit older and less stupid. Despite that, the characters are all really likable, and it's nice to see what Celia and her cohort have been up to. The big bad villain's motivations don't make a ton of sense, but I really enjoyed the way this wrapped up, and would definitely read more books set in this universe. A-/B+.

2014 book 7

Leila Sales' This Song Will Save Your Life
I have actively been avoiding reading this book, despite positive reviews, because I absolutely HATE the title. It's like that one scene in that Garden State movie. Terrible. No. But then I realized that Sales was the author of Past Imperfect, which I looooved. So, okay. It's about teenage outcast Elise, who everyone has hated since they were all kids because she . . . wore an ugly sweater? I don't know. Also, she listens to THE CURE and thinks pop music is terrible, so obviously she just can't fit in at school no matter how hard she tries! Actually, the beginning of this book is completely depressing, even though I sound flippant about it--I just hate books about teenagers who JUST CAN'T FIT IN because they like music that is "uncool" even though the Cure sold millions of albums and had videos on MTV, ok, everyone likes the freaking Cure. I've seen college a capella groups do songs by the Cure. Listening to the Cure and the Smiths does not make you special. And surely there is one popular song she can secretly find catchy, no? Musical taste is not a good marker of weirdness nowadays--don't they have hipsters at her high school? My high school had hipsters, but then again, it WAS the 90s. Sales does nail Elise's feelings of loneliness, though. Anyway, then she discovers an underground dance party and her life is TRANSFORMED. Teenagers dancing to Blur! What a world.

And as a former longtime college radio DJ, I can tell you that Sales' DJing info is accurate! But, like, everything else was kind of annoying. I kind of resented the implication that Elise's problems were due to her being precocious, when she never makes any effort to actually be friends with the people she hangs out with. She's never like, "hey, want to see a movie?"  I started wondering if Elise was on the autism spectrum at a certain point, because she was so bad at interacting with people and reading social cues. Things get better like 2/3 of the way through, but the inevitable triumphant ending feels pretty pat.

This book was fine. It probably doesn't merit such sarcasm on my part, but man, YA tropes involving music are like grrrrrr to me. Whatever. B/B-.

2014 book 6

Jennifer Nielsen's The Shadow Throne
The final book in Nielsen's Ascendance Trilogy (after The False Prince and The Runaway King) hits all the right notes and has plenty of great gotcha moments, but the whole thing is yet another war story. I'm kind of tired of fantasy war stories, because you know that--especially in a middle grade novel--the good guys will overcome all odds and win, and no beloved characters will die. So then it's just like reading about a chess game--there are no stakes, just moves and countermoves. And I find chess boring. To be fair, the characters here are all great and this is still a fun read, just like the first two. I'd definitely recommend this to middle grade kids (with the caveat that there should be more badass women in it). I'm just sick of war stories. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.

2014 book 5

Erika Johansen's Queen of the Tearling
When a book gets a ton of buzz--which this has been doing for months now, when it and its sequels were sold for seven figures and then optioned into a movie set to star Emma Watson--it can be hard for it to live up to the hype. Let me say: it surpasses the hype. Johansen's writing is amazingly accomplished and assured, especially for a first novel (apparently she's a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop), and her characters are really powerful and compelling. I can't comment on whether this is a "female Game of Thrones," as other people have said, never having read those books, but it is a strong epic fantasy with a lot going on told from several different perspectives. (It definitely has less rape than those books apparently do, though there is some offscreen implied rape.) It actually reminds me a bit of Rae Carson's Girl of Fire and Thorns books, at least in terms of a young woman learning and growing and coming into her power--though it is really heads and tails above those (and I loved those books!), and isn't YA. Interestingly, while the setting reads like a typical medieval fantasy, it's quickly revealed that it actually takes place in the FUTURE, adding an interesting nuance to everything.

And I haven't even started talking about the plot or the characters! Our protagonist, the slightly unfortunately named Kelsea, is a nineteen-year-old heir to a throne, raised in hiding with little knowledge of her kingdom's recent history or her mother's death (though she is otherwise well-educated). Now it's time to claim her crown--only just about everyone is determined to stop that from happening, by lethal means. Meanwhile, the next kingdom over has been ruled by the Red Queen for over a hundred years, and she's pretty gung-ho on colonizing everyone else. Tons of action, political machinations, and character growth follow. There is also a hot and mysterious thief. (But, interestingly, no romance, really.) Kelsea is also a book nerd, so there are lots of literary references that caused me plenty of delight. I really loved this and can't wait to see where the series goes. I can't think of an epic fantasy book that has pleased me more. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in July.

2014 book 4

Charles Finch's A Stranger in Mayfair
The fourth Charles Lenox mystery (and I really wish Finch had given his protagonist a different first name, because I am perpetually getting the two confused) has Lenox getting tangled up in a case involving another acquaintance's murdered servant, as well as dealing with being a newly elected member of Parliament. It is a little annoying that it takes him 35 chapters (literally, that is not an exaggeration) to figure out something that's obvious from the first chapter to anyone who's ever read a mystery before, and the killer's identity is pretty obvious too. On the other hand, Lenox is married now, and everything with that is GREAT. I always enjoy seeing actual healthy marriages in my books.The mystery itself is pretty blah though, and I'm not really sure what the point of the Parliament stuff is, no matter how interesting it might be to a history nerd such as myself. B.

2014 book 3

Maria V. Snyder's Taste of Darkness
Sometimes I just don't have the time or inclination to reread the previous books in a series before the new one comes out, and that was a major problem here, because I didn't really remember all the various bad guys, their political machinations, etc, and this book does a TERRIBLE job of bringing a reader up to speed. I know it can be annoying if you've just read all the other books to be reminded of info you already know, but I needed a lot more than was given here. And the writing feels a lot clumsier than in the earlier books. I never really got into this, especially since it's just all war, war, war, journey, journey, journey all the time and the plot is all over the place and it's even more disgusting than the previous volumes. I'm also kind of over Avry and her special magicalness and her connection to the main bad guy--she's much more interesting as a straightforward healer than whatever it is she's doing most of the time here. On the other hand, I do like how the main romantic relationship is presented. It's not enough to make up for an anti-climactic ending and my general lack of interest in the goings-on, though. Too bad, this series had such a strong start. B-.

2014 book 2

Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Goes to War
This 8th Kitty Norville book has Kitty investigating a convenience store chain that may have weird supernatural stuff going on, as well as trying to rehabilitate some werewolf soldiers just back from Afghanistan. I do wish this series had less rapiness--there's some gross language in this one. Anyway, another fine entry in the series, more of the same, etc etc. B.

2014 book 1

Rachel Joyce's Perfect
Joyce's latest--after the great Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry--has two parallel storylines. The first involves two school friends, Byron and James, and what happens when Byron and his mother are involved in an accident. The second involves a grownup Jim and his complicated life. The first storyline has a lot of interesting things going on, particularly with Byron's parents' marriage and his mother's class issues--but at a certain point, Byron and his mother are both so naive that it becomes frustrating to read, waiting for the other shoe to drop on their idiocy. And then things kind of go haywire and everything is a little too much over the top melodramatic. The second storyline is less messy, but more tender and sad somehow. Joyce does a good job of showing how the two tie together, but definitely the modern side of the story is a lot stronger. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.

2013 book 336

Carrie Vaughn's Kitty's House of Horrors
The seventh Kitty Norville book finds Kitty agreeing to appear on a supernatural version of what is basically The Surreal Life (you remember that mid-2000s VH1 show with like Janice Dickinson and Omarosa and Peter Brady living in a house together, right?), featuring several characters we've met before and some interesting new ones. But things quickly start to seem more sinister than even a celebrity reality show should be. Vaughn really goes kind of no-holds-barred here, but again, all the action takes place in less than a week. I wish she'd slow things down a little (though we do get to know the characters pretty well, regardless--it just seems silly for every book to be one quick dramatic thing). B+.

2013 book 335

Louise Penny's How the Light Gets In
This really, really feels like a finale to the Inspector Gamache series, and if so, I actually admire how everything progressed. This manages to fold in all of the police corruption stuff from the past few books with a new murder tangentially tied to the people of Three Pines, who are here used much more sparingly and effectively (though of course Clara's art genius had to be mentioned at least once). I honestly have no major complaints about this one--it builds to a very intense moment, and if the final chapter is a little bit overly nice, well, enough people got shot for it to balance out. I really wonder what Penny will do next. A-.

2013 book 334

Louise Penny's The Beautiful Mystery
The eighth Inspector Gamache mystery GREATLY benefits from time away from Three Pines and all its murder-magnet denizens--instead, we find Gamache and Beauvoir trying to solve the murder of a monk at a secluded monastery famous for its Gregorian chants. As with the previous book, Penny takes one artistic metaphor and beats it into her readers (here, TS Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral) but the story is still pretty strong. The mystery almost takes a backseat to Gamache and Beauvoir's relationship. There's also more involving the growing animosity between Gamache and his corrupt bosses, but I'm a little bit meh on that whole plotline. But now I'm off to read the most recent one b/c I have to know what's up w/ Beauvoir! B+.

2013 book 333

Louise Penny's A Trick of the Light
You all must be wondering why I keep reading these when they annoy me so much. But it's because they'd be SO GOOD if there weren't so many murders in a tiny town and/or involving Clara Morrow! To be fair, this one does slyly reference that a few times. And Clara's burgeoning art world success--and her crumbling marriage--is just as interesting as the murder itself (of a supermean art critic, a childhood friend of Clara's). Not to mention everything with Inspector Beauvoir and his crush on the chief's daughter. Dramarama. Penny did lean waaaaaay too heavily on the whole "chiaroscuro" as a metaphor for the dead person thing--it was silly at a certain point. But, dangit, I really have to know what's gonna happen next w/ Beauvoir and Gamache. B/B+.

2013 book 332

Claire Cameron's The Bear
The two words I would use to describe this book are HARROWING and INTENSE. And boy, did it solidify my resolve to NEVER go camping. It centers on a bear attack (apparently inspired by a true story, EEK) and the two children who escape and must try to survive in the woods until they can be rescued. Only, like, they're five and two. I will say that I had some mixed feelings about the narrative being from the five year old's POV, because narrating things in a child's voice is hard to get right, and I'm not entirely sure Cameron manages. But it's all completely riveting and terrifying, and the children do feel really . . . real. (Cameron does nail sibling dynamics at that age.) And I really loved the epilogue--it definitely made me well up a little. But I am still never going camping. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.

2013 book 331

Alex Bledsoe's The Hum and the Shiver
I liked that Eddie LaCrosse book pretty well when I read it recently, so decided to check out another series of Bledsoe's, one with a woman main character--at least, according to the book description on Amazon. Actually, there are three POV characters, and the other two are men (one of whom is a hot young minister who has an immediate sexual connection w/ the woman POV character, and I was just like . . . yeah, a guy wrote this). And I was thoroughly uninterested in the reporter trying to get a story on the girl, at least until about 200 pages in. Bledsoe's tale is well-plotted, and the world-building is really interesting, but I just found some things kind of tone-deaf (describing an Asian character as having "slanted eyes" is racist, right?). I mean, having the minister sexually objectifying women on one page and then judging them for sexual activity on the next . . . maybe it's accurate, but I found it off-putting, especially when he's the love interest and supposed to be a super good guy. This book was fine, but reminded me why I usually read books written by women instead. (Insert ironic Tumblr tag "misandry" here.) B.

2013 book 330

Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted
I first read this book in the days before this blog existed, and have somehow never revisited it, even though reworked fairy tales = one of my favorite subcategories of the YA fantasy genre. I'll say that this holds up pretty well--it's really cute (a Cinderella story about a girl cursed with obedience) and the writing is pretty lively, but it's all fairly inconsequential. B/B+.

2013 book 329

Diana Wynne Jones' The Islands of Chaldea
This is the book Diana Wynne Jones was working on when she died a couple years ago (which I am still sad about), completed by her sister Ursula. I didn't spend much time trying to play spot-the-differences, because honestly, it's a really good story and feels like a classic Diana Wynne Jones kind of book. It centers on Aileen, a Wise Woman in training (sort of), going off on a quest with her Wise Woman aunt to try and break down a barrier dividing the titular islands, and fulfill a prophecy. And Aileen is GREAT. She's a teeeensy bit boy-crazy, but is much more involved in trying to figure out her powers and keep the quest going. It's a good combination. Things are mildly predictable, but satisfying nonetheless. I mean, it's a middle grade book. At any rate, it's a solid final volume for the author and a nice tribute by her sister. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2013 book 328

Jeremy Jackson's Life at These Speeds
I think it's a mark of this book's excellent writing that it affects me so profoundly when I have never had any interest in running, and in fact have always regarded it as a horrible chore--though I was friends with many runners in high school and recognize the atmosphere here. But Jackson's first novel--about a teenager whose track team (including all his friends and his girlfriend) is killed in a car accident, and he's the only survivor, and a year later he's a track superstar, but only has vague memories of his deceased classmates--is extremely moving and very sad, but also beautiful. One of my very favorite books.

2013 book 327

Natalie Standiford's The Boy on the Bridge
I have really enjoyed some of Standiford's other books, but have been putting off reading this one because the cover made it look like a cheesy YA romance. But then I thought, hey, it's STANDIFORD! Surely a book she's writing about a college student studying abroad in Russia in the early 80s who meets a Russian guy and falls for him will be more complicated and interesting than the usual YA romance stuff. But . . . man, it is hard to read a book about someone so dumb. Laura has been warned that Russians will try and convince her to marry them to get US citizenship, but no, her love is obviously different! The whole time I was just like, come ON. And I really didn't like what Standiford did with the ending. I think she actually WAS just writing a typical YA romance--so disappointing. And I feel like even if that was a genre I was into, I'd be disappointed with this--there's so little character development, and ALL the main character does is think about her Russian dude. It's just not compelling at all--at least, not to someone who is ostensibly a grownup. B-.

2013 book 326

Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Raises Hell
I feel like this series would be a lot stronger if Vaughn gave things more room to breathe--every book feels like it encompasses about a week (or weekend) in the life of Kitty, and so it all seems a little inconsequential (even when there's a fire demon thing afoot, like in this one). Plus, it's the sort of in-between spaces that are more interesting--I'd like to see Kitty interact with her pack when they're not having some sort of deathly crisis. There's a reference here to a couple of wolves leaving, but nothing more is said. And we only know the names of three of the wolves, when it seems like the pack should be more vital. On the other hand, Vaughn introduces some interesting new characters in this one and it seems like they'll be recurring, so at least the world is getting expanded a little. B.

2013 book 325

Carrie Vaughn's Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand
In the fifth Kitty Norville book, Kitty ends up in Vegas--to elope, to do a live tv version of her radio show, and to get involved in various local supernatural things (including a were-tiger act). There's also a gun convention at her hotel full of werewolf hunters! This one is pretty silly and over-the-top, but whatever, I mean, it's a book about a werewolf. B.

Favorite Books of 2013!

I doubt I'm going to read any more super awesome books in the next week, so here, without further ado, are my 15 favorite books of 2013:

--Kate Atkinson, Life After Life
--Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam
--Jennifer Castle's You Look Different in Real Life
--Lyndsay Faye's Seven for a Secret
--Jennifer Haigh's News From Heaven: The Bakerton Stories 
--Eve Harris' The Marrying of Chani Kaufman
--Kent Haruf's Benediction
--Dara Horn's A Guide for the Perplexed
--Mary Robinette Kowal's Without a Summer
--Ryan North's To Be or Not to Be
--Rutu Modan's The Property 
--Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being 
--Victoria Schwab's Vicious 
--Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni
--Brenna Yovanoff's Paper Valentine 

2013 book 324

Carrie Vaughn's Kitty and the Silver Bullet
In a previous Kitty Norville book, Kitty was exiled from the Denver area for werewolf reasons--but now her mom is sick and so she heads back to town, finding herself in the middle of a supernatural battle for control of the city. I am still not really into the italicized sections of Kitty's thoughts when she's in wolf-form, but otherwise find this series to be very enjoyable, if not as deep as some of Vaughn's other works. But I guess I'm not really looking for deep when I'm reading a series about a werewolf with a late-night radio show. B+.

2013 book 323

Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Takes a Holiday
The third Kitty Norville book finds Kitty holed up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, hiding from everything that happened in the last book, and in theory writing a memoir. Then she starts getting messages that someone wants her to leave town, there's a mysterious werewolf with red eyes, and the hot bounty hunter (and his lawyer cousin) are coming for a visit. Lots of drama and lots of action, things move along quickly, and Kitty is pretty likable. I really like this world and look forward to seeing more of it. B/B+.

2013 book 322

Daisy Whitney's When You Were Here
This book (one of two Whitney put out in 2013, I think) made a few best of the year lists, and I remembered liking her book The Mockingbirds, so I figured I'd check it out. And it's really moving--about a boy, just graduated from high school, whose mother has recently died of cancer. And he decides to go to Tokyo for the summer, where she spent some of her last days. There's also a whole thing with an ex-girlfriend he's still in love with, though romance isn't really the focus here--it's more about friendship, and family, and all kinds of love. The description might make it seem like a weepy kind of book, and I did tear up a little, but not for the reasons I was expecting. Really engaging, if mildly unrealistic. A-.

2013 book 321

Louise Penny's Bury Your Dead
I have been enjoying this series less and less as it goes on, and this one didn't really change that. At least this one doesn't have a new dead body in Three Pines; instead, Gamache is investigating a murder (and dealing with separatist politics and Quebecois history) in Quebec while recovering from an incident that is revealed slowly (and painfully), while Beauvoir is back in Three Pines looking into the murder from the last book. And since that case did seem sort of shoddy--Clara points out something here that the police should have looked into much more--I guess it's warranted, even though I am WAY OVER this one small town and all its murders. And I didn't like the resolution of that one any more than I did in the last book. There is a lot going on emotionally and some interesting stuff with PTSD--really, everything except the Three Pines stuff is pretty solid. On an unrelated note, I also wish this had had one more pass with a proofreader, because there are a lot of small typos and missing commas. B.

2013 book 320

Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan
I've been meaning to read this since it won the Newbery, except that I've also been avoiding reading it since it won the Newbery, because I cannot handle books about sad animals. And there are some very sad animals in this book. The titular Ivan is a gorilla who lives in a cage at a ramshackle old mall, along with an elderly elephant and a stray dog who likes to hang out in his cage. Ivan is an artist, thanks to the janitor's daughter, who supplies him with paper and crayons, which adds an interesting perspective to the mix. The narrative voice is really strong, too. Anyway, I basically cried through the entire second half of this. A/A-.

2013 book 319

Maryrose Wood's The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place Book IV: The Interrupted Tale
This series is starting to frustrate the heck out of me, because it keeps doling out more and more clues to the reader, and Penny just can't figure everything out! I mean, it's hilarious and charming in every way (though I do prefer Jon Klassen's illustrations from the first three books to the new illustrator for this one) but having to wait till the next one comes out is pure torture. TORTURE. A-.

2013 book 318

Carrie Vaughn's After The Golden Age
After the Golden Age is one of my favorite novels-about-superheroes, and so I was super super super excited when I found out there's a sequel coming out in January! And I had to reread this one to prepare, obviously. Anyway, it's about the fairly bitter adult daughter of the city's two most powerful--and famous--superheroes. Lacking any powers of her own, she's working as an accountant, where she's assigned to work on the trial of a major supervillain . . . who once kidnapped her. And soon a rash of crimes are spreading through the city, and the major's cute cop son wants to date her. Everything about this book is awesome and I cannot wait to read the sequel.

2013 book 317

Kate Atkinson's Started Early, Took My Dog
The fourth Jackson Brodie book is not as /great/ as the third, but is still an excellent story! But I am too tired to talk about it this time.

2013 book 316

Alex Bledsoe's He Drank, and Saw the Spider
I've never read any of the Eddie LaCrosse books before, but this excerpt made me want to--if there's one thing I love, it's gruff guys trying to deal with babies! And actually, this worked fine as a stand-alone--Eddie explains enough of his backstory for his character to make sense, and the plot doesn't really rely on prior knowledge, since it involves aforementioned mysterious baby (grown into a pretty teenager), her lovelife, her quest to find out who she is, various sheepfarmers and festival-goers and kings, etc. The story moves along at a good pace and is entertaining the whole way through, although the ending is pretty bonkers. I might even check out some of the earlier books in this series, since this one was so enjoyable. B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in January.

2013 book 315

Kate Atkinson's When Will There Be Good News
Rereading this and One Good Turn made me notice again how unflattering Atkinson is about her writer characters--in that one, Martin Canning is kind of namby-pamby, and here, Howard Mason is a total selfish jerk. I know nothing about Atkinson (except that I've read all of her books--though her early ones predate this blog and I should really revisit them) but she always seems so cool and kind to me. I just like the slyness of this, I guess. It's not really relevant. This book is perfect in just about every way. Reggie and Dr Hunter and the baby and Jackson and Louise 4-eva.

2013 book 314

Garth Nix's Newt's Emerald
Basically, if anyone writes a Regency-era story with MAGIC, I am there, and even more so when the author is Garth Nix. The magical world here is similar to that of Mary Robinette Kowal's books, though not explored in as much detail. It doesn't really matter, though, because this book has tons of cross-dressing adventures, costume balls, pirates, evil sorcerers, etc. It's super cute! I mean, it's extremely predictable, as these sorts of books tend to be, but it's also extremely charming. A-/B+.

2013 book 313

Charles Finch's The Fleet Street Murders
The third Charles Lenox mystery deals with a pair of prominent journalists who are murdered on the same night, five minutes apart. It also deals with Charles running for Parliament, which is interesting for a history nerd like myself, but derails the mystery part of the story quite a bit. And frankly, the mystery isn't really that interesting or compelling--and Charles was too over-the-top right about everything, in a way. I do like all the characters and find the setting interesting, but this one was a little bit dull. B.

2013 book 312

Louise Penny's The Brutal Telling
I just don't understand how the same six people in the same tiny town keep getting caught up in all these murders! Is Penny that enamored of her Three Pines characters that she can't have a mystery that doesn't involve them? It makes no sense, especially when she'd still have all of her police characters (and their families) to draw from. I keep wondering if the latest one will have a twist where like the Morrows and their friends were secretly the killers all along, and framed everyone else! And Peter Morrow has become such a jerkwad that honestly it wouldn't surprise me in the least. The thing is, this book is still /good/. OK, I thought the solution/motive to the murder was less than good, but the writing is solid, it's all pretty riveting, and I loved all of the stuff about art. If I'd read this on its own, and not part of this series, it would have been great! But you can't judge a series book that way. Like . . . enough already with Three Pines. B.

2013 book 311

Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn
I don't know why I'm rereading the Jackson Brodie books when I've been enjoying several other series (Charles Finch, Louise Penny). OK, yes I do know, it's because I love Jackson Brodie. This is my least favorite by a long shot--it's a very slow starter, and sad-sack Martin is just not as interesting as the characters from the first one. Luckily there's also the wonderful Gloria and the introduction of detective Louise to balance things out. I also like how sort of funny all the coincidences are--Atkinson really has a deft touch.

2013 book 310

Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch
I enjoyed Tartt's previous two books, but wouldn't call myself a die-hard fan or anything, and I wasn't in a rush to pick up this almost-800-page books, despite its appearance on most best-of-the-year lists. And it took me a couple of chapters to get into it--because, frankly, the plot is completely preposterous. But it was just so RIVETING! And an amazingly quick read for such a long book. Then, a little more than halfway through, it kind of turned into a novel about weak-willed rich New York assholes. Do people like that exist outside of novels? Frankly, I wish they wouldn't exist in novels either, because they're VERY tiresome.  And the protagonist . . . at first, he's impossibly sympathetic, but as he makes one horrible decision after another, you just want to shake him and scream, "GET YOUR LIFE TOGETHER, MAN!" Tartt does love her complicated and ineffectual protagonists! Despite the stellar writing, I honestly wasn't sure how Tartt was going to conclude this in a satisfying way--but she manages somehow. It is really annoying for a really long stretch, though. B+/A-.

2013 book 309

Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch
This is the first book in an internationally bestselling series making its way to America for the first time--it looks like the whole series will be released in the next few months, which on the one hand, YAY for not having to wait long to find out what happens next, and on the other--well, the translation is a bit awkward at times. (Also, I didn't realize this was first written in 1998, and couldn't figure out why the main character kept listening to a Discman, but now am mostly amused by that.)

Anyway, this is the story of Anton, a young guy who works for the Night Watch--an organization of various supernaturally gifted people dedicated to maintaining balance in the world between light and dark (the Night Watch are the Light ones, who keep an eye on their dark counterparts of the Day Watch). The worldbuilding here is fascinating, even though the plot is kind of all over the place--there's a young boy with strong powers, and a pretty doctor with a curse, and a talking owl, and some fairly convoluted machinations. The last third is also a lot weaker than the first two. But I really liked seeing a strongly Russian fantasy world, and loved all the concepts and most of the characters (more Tiger Cub and Yulia, please!). I'll definitely be reading the next one. B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on December 31st.

2013 book 308

Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay
Ahhhh this book still makes me cry! I like how Collins allows a little bit of hope into her otherwise extremely grim finale. And we finally get to know a few more of the side characters, particularly Prim, who is SMART.  Also, Gale is a terrorist several times over, stop being on Team Gale. I honestly can't wait to see Jena Malone in this movie. She's amazing as Johanna (side note for book nerds: apparently she's also playing Carson McCullers in a biographical movie!). Anyway. I still think this is a fitting end to the series, and don't really know what disappointed readers expected after reading the first two.

2013 book 307

Suzanne Collins' Catching Fire
What I really admire about Collins with this series is how she is willing to really up the ante--and insanity--with every volume. The end of this book still makes my heart jump into my throat--and that's knowing everything that comes after! Really masterful plotting, I have to say, though obviously very heavy-handed. Still, it's rare to read a book about someone with PTSD--especially a YA book--and I was very relieved that the movie didn't shy away from showing Katniss' trauma. Though I /do/ wish they'd included a little training montage of Peeta and Katniss! And don't even get me started on Gale.

2013 book 306

Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games
I made a concerted effort not to reread these before the Catching Fire movie came out, but seeing it (twice) made me want to! I'd forgotten how the narrative voice is kind of choppy and awkward--at least until the story gets completely insane and sucks you in. I wonder how this works as an audiobook--maybe the first-person narration is better that way? Anyway. I love this book, despite its flaws.