Author Archives: Bethlylou

Review: Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

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nimonaSo It may surprise you or at least my friends who read this blog but this was the first graphic novel I’ve ever read.  Yeah, I know.  I talk a good game.  Kate and I watched the Saturday morning cartoons of X-Men and Spider-Man when were kids and, well, I pay attention.  I listened to my friends and customers when they talked about various superheroes.  I’ve pretty much seen all the movies.  I’ve read various articles and critiques.  I love Agent Carter.  So I’ve paid attention and have been able to piece together this and that, enough that when I talk about comic characters and movies, I’ve come off as I know what I’m talking about.  I’m a total fraud and I know it.  I’m trying to fix that.

Nimona isn’t your typical superhero story.  Actually she a villain’s sidekick.  One day she shows up at Lord Blackheart’s place telling him she is going to be his sidekick and help him take over the kingdom and finally defeat his nemesis, Sir Goldenloin and the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics.  Blackheart is resistant at first since there are rules but Nimona will not take no and once she shows him her shape-shifting abilities, he gives her a chance.  At first, she’s a little bit too enthusiastic and dives in head first but eventually she and Blackheart find the perfect working relationship.  After their first mission into the Institution, they come across the Institution’s questionable plans and it makes you ask who are the heroes and who are the villains.

There are many things I liked about this book.  One is Nimona.  She’s spunky, funny, loyal, brave, vulnerable, angry, lonely, friendly.  She’s all those things and more.  She clearly hasn’t had an easy upbringing.  Her ability has made her an outsider, a monster, but really she is just a little girl looking for somewhere to belong. Lord Blackheart is a smart, curious man who feels he has been wronged and then took up the role he thought he was expected to play.  He is really the first to see Nimona for who she really is.  The world is not black and white.  There is both good and bad and all of us.  I was really taken with the story.  The artwork was very nice.  I liked the medieval aesthetic with a modern twist.  Nimona is drawn as a sorta emo girl with pink and purple half shaven hair.  She’s round not thin.  She’s real.  I was really touched by the story.  It wasn’t just good versus evil or what does it mean to be good and evil but also finding our place in the world.  Hoping to be judged on who they actually are and not what they are perceived to be.  Isn’t that what we all ultimately want?  I truly loved this book and I can say my first foray into graphic novels has been a success.

Rereading Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

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red queenSince I have already done a review of this book, I’ll just give a few observations.

  1. You should never join a revolution when you are still in morning for dead brother.  You really shouldn’t make any life altering decisions really.  Mare is so blinded by her own rage and pain that she doesn’t see what is going.
  2. Which she would have if she had her wits about her.  She may not be book smart but she’s definitely street smart.  Her emotions got in the way and despite multiple people telling her not to trust the guy, including the guy she does anyway.
  3. I’m glad that I read Cruel Crown because I totally forgot about that one character dies and I glad we got a little bit more backstory on him, even if it was just a little bit.
  4. GIRL CAL IS IN LOVE WITH YOU THE WHOLE TIME!  HOW COULD YOU HAVE MISSED IT!!!
  5. I really dislike Elara and I hope she has a very painful death.
  6. Poor Lucas
  7. It should be an interesting dynamic between Cal and Kilorn.

Bring on Glass Sword.

Review: Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard

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cruel crownCruel Crown is the collection of two prequel novellas to Red Queen. The first novella is Queen Song where we get the backstory of Cal’s mother and what really happened to her.  The other is Steel Scars that follows Farley as she leads the Scarlet Guard into Norta.  They both were pretty good.  Giving more insight into world the books take place.  Since Red Queen is told from Mare’s point of view, things like how the silver hierarchy is set up and how the Scarlet Guard works isn’t give much detail because Mare doesn’t know these things in much detail. That’s what kind of great but these little novella’s.  I’ve written in the past about how it’s trendy for YA authors to write novellas or short stories that take place in between books or prequels.  Sometimes they are just filler but other times they serve the purpose of filling in wholes that didn’t have time to get to in the narratives.  They also usually focus on supporting or minor characters instead of the protagonists in attempt to flesh out the world a little bit but usually they are of little importance.  If readers don’t read them, it’s no big deal.  They will still be able to the novels without missing anything.

Of the two stories I liked Queen Song the best.  It follows Queen Corianne before she became queen.  She’s the only daughter of a once great house that is down on their luck.  She catches the eye of Prince Tiberius, Cal’s and Maven’s father.  It follows their courtship, their short marriage and her eventual death.  She’s a feisty and curious girl, who is interested in mechanics and how things work but in a world where her only role is to be married off her dreams will never happen.  When she meets Prince Tiberius things start to open up for her.  She finds an equally lonely person to commiserate and love but never really gets over the feeling of being weak and useless.  Among those helping her feel that way is rival Elara, who would become Tiberius’s second wife and Maven’s mother.  She’s a powerful mind reader but the extant of her power is not truly revealed until the end.  Over the course of the story Corianne falls deeper and deeper into paranoia and sadness.  She’s been accused of tricking the Prince into marrying her.  She suffers many miscarriages until Cal is born.  She believes that Elara is behind it and ultimately she is right but no way to prove it.  It’s really quite sad.  From the very beginning there is a sense of foreboding since we know from Red Queen that she is dead and is believed by suicide. I kept hoping that there would be some kind of happy ending but knowing there would not.

In Steel Scars we get to know more about Farley and her motivations for not only for the Scarlet Guard but also for Mare.  We know in Red Queen that the Scarlet Guard is a resistance movement against the silver leadership but I assumed only in Norta.  I guess I’m going to have to go back and read it again.  Farley is from the Lakelands and comes to Norta to start the Scarlet Guards operations there.  While there she meets Shade Barrow, Mare’s brother, who becomes a spy for them.  Mare believes Shade to be dead until the end when it’s revealed of his involvement but also that he is like Mare.  Red blood with Silver powers.  We really don’t get much else from the story then that and why Farley is keen to recruit Mare.  Also, i think we are seeing the budding relationship between Farley and Shade.  There might be other hints for Glass Sword, the next book in the series but we will have to wait and find out.

What I’m Rereading Now: Red Queen by Victoria Averyard

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red queen

I didn’t plan on read this again but it just happened to be sitting on my bedstand when I finished reading Cruel Crown. I needed to read something to keep me busy during Winter Storm Jonas.  It’ll be good to refresh my memory since Glass Sword comes out in two weeks.

Quick Review: Dark Tide by Jennifer Donnelly

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dark tideAs I read this book, I go back and forth being enthralled and “why am I reading this again?”  I’m interested enough in the story to keep reading to find out how it’s going to end but some of the cutesy words is well eye rolling.  I know that it takes place under the sea and they are mermaids but I find it annoying.  They call each other merls instead of girls but why don’t they call boys, moys or something like it?  It’s a small thing.  The other thing that bothers me is that there are six mermaids who must come together to stop the evil Orfeo but only Sera, Astrid and Becca seem to get the limelight.  Ling (who is on the cover) Neela and Ava are little more then afterthoughts.  I realized there are a lot of characters and not easy to give all them equal time but Marissa Meyer did a wonderful job of doing just that in the Lunar Chronicles so it is possible.  I want to know more about the other mermaids.  I was excited when I saw the cover and Ling on it.  The last time we saw the merl (god I hate that) she was captured by the big bad guy on her way to find her piece.  You would think that would be center stage but we don’t even get to Ling until 50-60 pages into the book.  The little we get from her is exciting as she tries to escape from Orfeo, find her piece and also escape from the work camp she is sent too.  At least she got a couple of chapters.  Ava got one and Neela none, which is weird since she was a big part of the last book.  Maybe that means we will get more of them in the final book coming out later this year but I have a feeling it’s going to be more of Sera and Astrid.  Not that I don’t like them but I want to know about the others.

Review: The Iron Warrior by Julie Kagawa

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the iron warrior*Spoilers*

I’m not sure if Julie Kagawa counts towards our Diverse Stacks, Diverse Lives challenge since I would have read her books anyway.  This is the last book in the The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten series.  I knew I was going to read it as soon as I finished the last book, The Iron Traitor  and I’m going to read Soldier, the next book in her Talon series.   So counting her as my Asian American author doesn’t really go in the spirit of the challenge since we are trying read new authors,  However, I think it’s good to point out the diversity that is already in my reading list.  Yes, this is a little self serving, pat myself on the back type of thing but while I do mostly read white women, I’ve never been exclusively been just that and honestly until this past year I’m not sure I’ve noticed.  I’ve been reading Julie’s work for a couple of years now and it make me think.  I’m not sure where I’m going with this but you should read her work is all.

So The Iron Warrior is the last book in the The Iron Fey series’.  The first series followed Meghan as she transitions from normal teenage girl to Fairy Queen of the Iron Fey.  In Fairy mythology, iron has always been one their weaknesses and the human world has become more and more technologically advance the Nevernever has started to get poisoned, except for some of the Fairy who have adapted and created a new kingdom of Iron.  Call of the Forgotten is the continuation of the series but follows Meghan’s brother, Ethan and son , Kerrian.  Now, it’s been about a decade since Meghan has left and in that time Ethan has grown cursed with the sight and is constantly harassed by the Fey.  Then one day he finds himself back in the Nevernever with a new girl, Kenzie and his nephew, Kerrian, who is roughly the same age thanks to the fact that time moves differently in Faery.  Yeah, it’s weird.  It’s even weirder since Ethan didn’t even know that Kerrian even existed.  You see, their was a prophecy that one day Kerrian would kill Ethan and either destroy the courts or unite them.  So obviously everyone wants to keep them apart.  It didn’t work because the prophecy is set in motion when Kerrian does in fact stabbed Ethan and temporarily lifting the veil between faery and the human realms.  Now Kerrian is the champion for the Forgotten Queen who looks to lift the veil permanently and only Ethan can stop him.

Ethan is the type of hero I like.  He’s sarcastic and I do love sarcasm.  He’s also a fighter.  Not always the swiftest on the up take but he’s loyal.  He knows the stacks are high and despite being given outs several times throughout the book he never backs down.  Kerrian I’m not really digging.  He’s quite stubborn to the point of destroying the Nevernever.  Everything starts with Kerrian unwillingness to let go of his love. Since the story is from Ethan’s point of view, we don’t get to know the inner working of Kerrian’s mind and because of that I found him a little unsympathetic.  We all have people we love that we don’t want to lose but losing your soul for them.  Killing your uncle and friend.  No one would want that.  If he was able to keep his emotion’s in check all of this could have been avoided but then again we wouldn’t have a story.  Kenzie is my favorite.  She’s a normal human.  She’s not fairy or half fairy or related to.  She just happened to be with Ethan when he goes back and because she is curious and looks for adventure sticks around.  She is also sick so wants to live life to fullest.  That being said she is the smartest of them all.  She adapts quickly to the Nevernever.  She may not be a fighter but it’s often her quick thinking that saves them .  I would love a book just about her.

All and all this was a great series with a satisfying ending.  It’s not the usual fairy story and full of action and adventure.  If you like fairy books or fantasy, you can’t go wrong with the Iron Fey.