Review: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

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Featured imageWhen I Rainbow Rowell announced that her next book would be Carry On the entire internet let out a huge SQUEEEE!! For those who may not be familiar with her work (which really you should) in her 2013 novel, Fangirl, she introduced us to Simon Snow, a Harry Potteresque “chosen one” and his nemesis/roommate Baz.  In Fangirl, Simon and Baz are characters in a beloved fantasy series that Cath was writing a fan-fiction for.  We got a few snippets of Simon and Baz through Cath’s writing, in which she took the characters from enemies to lovers.  Cath spends Fangirl trying onto finish her fan-fiction before the author of Simon Snow series, Gemma T. Leslie publishes the final book.  Carry On is the final book of the Simon Snow series but it’s not Cath’s story or Gemma T. Leslie’s story it’s Rainbow’s story.  I guess that’s sort of meta.  Rainbow isn’t really writing her own fan-fiction.  How can an author write a fan-fiction of her own work? I guess this is more canon then anything else since she is the original creator.  Cath and Gemma, don’t actually exist. I would say it’s in it’s own unique category.  The other thing that makes this different from Rainbow’s other book is that it’s a full fledged fantasy novel.  Her other books have all been contemporary novels though Landline does have the fantastical element of having a magical phone that allows Georgie to talk to her husband Neal from the past.  So this is new territory for her but she passes with flying colors.  In a way, Carry On is much a love letter to the fantasy novels of her life.  Obviously, Harry Potter is a huge influence but so is Chronicles of Narnia and a little Twilight among others.  She’s able to give little winks and even a little commentary on other franchises while still remaining it’s own thing.

Simon Snow is the most powerful mage of all time.  He is the Chosen one.  The one who is has come when the world of the Mages need them the most.  The Insidious Humdrum is draining the world of magic and only Simon can stop him.  Unfortunately, Simon can’t control his own magic and is beyond obsessed with his roommate Baz, who is a vampire!  When Simon comes back to school for his final year, Baz is not there and is missing for weeks.  Simon tries everything to track him down and figure out what evil plan Baz is concocting now.  Unfortunately his best friend Penelope and his girlfriend Agatha are not really all that interested.  Now when I say he is obsessed with Baz, he really is.  He spends the first part of the book doing nothing but thinking about him.  Describing him in such a detailed manner that only someone who pays attention or cares for notices.  He may not see his attraction to Baz but as readers we can see it.  When Baz finally returns we learn that he also in love with Simon but at least he knows it.  It excites him but also scares him because he knows that they can never be together. Most likely they will end up killing each other since they are on opposite sides of the war and yeah, he’s a vampire.  He’s cruel and mean to Simon because he loves him and tries to push him away.

When in Baz’s dead mother appears to Simon and tells him to search for Nicodemus and avenge her death, he and Baz team up to find out what really happened the night she died and Baz was turned.  They soon realize that they have more in common but they truly feel for each other.  It’s a gradual process but when it happens it’s breathtaking.  There was nothing strange or unusual about Simon and Baz falling in love except that they are two boys.  You could changed the gender of one of them and it would still work as a love story.  I think that’s important.  We’ve talked before on how important representation is important in books, especially in kids and teen literature.  Here we get two boys falling in love. One knows he’s gay and the other still figuring out his own sexuality but it’s still beautiful.  It’s wonderful to have this positive relationship out there.  Not just for LGBTQ teens but for straight ones too.  Love is love.

Now let’s talk about the girls.  Penelope is Simon’s best friend.  She’s smart and no nonsense.  She knows who she is and not afraid to stand up for herself.  She’s also Indian descent.  She is always there to help Simon and helps him out of some really scary situations.  She also willing to roll with anything that Simon does or feels.  She doesn’t trust Baz at first but sees that Simon is set on helping him so she goes all in.  Agatha is a little more complicated.  She is Simon’s estranged girlfriend. She loves Simon but not in love with him.  She’s struggling with the expectations of what others expect from her and what she wants.  She has friends outside the Mages world.  She knows there is more to life outside her closed circle.  She’s also tired of being just the girlfriend who Simon has to come and rescue.  She doesn’t really know what she wants but she knows it’s not that.

I truly enjoyed this book and I do hope that Rainbow writes more fantasy but I don’t care what she writes because I will read and love it anyway

This Month in Reality: It’s Just a F*cking Date

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I picked this up in a bogo audible sale. It’s not my usual fare but Greg and Amiira seem to be doing well together and other people seem to enjoy their books so I figured, why not?

My feelings about this book are ambivalent but not because I didn’t enjoy it. Greg and Amiira are funny, smart and endearing. I think they gave me some great advice. But, some of their advice was off-putting because it meant accepting things about the world that I think need to be changed. So, my ambivalence is less about my feelings toward the book and more about my feelings towards society as a whole.

But, let’s talk about what I liked first. One of the premises of this book was that you set the bar for how people treat you. So, you have to be conscious of what you put out into the world. Potential partners not giving you a second look? Then you need to think about what you’re giving them to look at. They really hit the whole “get a life to have a life” idea hard. And, I really like that (and do that anyway). It makes sense to me to have a life I love and to invest time in making a life a love. And, if it means that I seem cool and mysterious because I’m a complete person who is not willing to drop everything to be with someone then, great. Total win. I liked the advice sections that focused on building you up. And, I liked the advice sections about how to date multiple people and to be explicit about your commitments when you are wanting to make them (and not expecting them in return).

But, all of the advice about deferring to men and letting them chase you and letting them take the lead in a conversation, blech. It’s probably something I need to hear and I probably should listen to it. (Although, that being said, ladles and jelly spoons, “So, that thing you do seems cool, tell me about it” is an imperative, not a interrogative. It’s easier to answer a question than give a speech about cool shit I do. So maybe instead of saying, “tell me about it” or “what’s that about?” say, “How did you get into that?” Just a suggestion.) I’m fine with waiting after a first date and letting the dude take the next move. (I mean, I do have a life and I expect you to have one, too. So, if you text me immediately or call the next day I might wonder about you.) I didn’t take good notes on this one so I feel like I should have better examples but suffice to say that most of my problems weren’t with the book but are with society.

So, that’s it for this one. It was pretty cool, even if society still has weird gender relations.

Review: Dark Guardian by Christine Feehan

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The Carpathians are an immortal race that live off blood, like vampires.  Except, they’re not the undead.  They have souls.  The males lose all emotion and the ability to see color until they find their life mates who restore these to them.  They’re bonded forever.  
I should have stopped reading this book at the prologue and when I heard this explanation and thought, “NOPE!”  
I get that I might not be the audience for mainstream romance.  And, I get that media lets us explore situations and relationships that my interest us, intrigue us, turn us on, or whatever but that we don’t and shouldn’t do in real life.  I get that novels, not just romance novels, are an escape.  I get all of that.  
But, I can’t even think of an appropriate list of swear words to describe how terrible this novel was.  Seriously.  It was so bad that I can’t even swear at it.  
But, I can tell you what I didn’t like about it and why.

Massive Spoilers Ahead!

First, of course, was this idea that men (well, Carpathian men) are emotionless monsters that women have to save.  Nope.  Feelings are a human thing.  We all have amygdalas and emotional centers in our brains and anything that continues to perpetuate the stereotype that women are the ones that feel and men aren’t harms women, harms men, harms us all.  Second, after introducing our immortal badass vampire hunting Carpathian dudebro we’re introduced to Jaxon the heroine by looking into her life at ages 5, 10, 15, adulthood.  Jax was raised on a military base by her Mother (who wasn’t super maternal) and her father, a Navy Seal, and his Seal buddies were very involved in her life.  Until her Dad died and her Mom married his Seal buddy who then turned into an abusive pyscho and the descriptions were awful.  Psycho Step Dad then stalks our fair Jax and torments her by hurting people she loves.  Oh, but before we get there we are treated to these flashbacks where young Jax tells adults that her Step Dad is abusive and no one believes her.  I thought there was mandatory reporting of these sorts of things?  Like, if a kid tells her teacher that her Dad hits her Mom that the teacher had to tell the school and get Child Welfare involved?  Anyway, Jax grows up into an emotionally stunted police officer who has to keep everyone at arms length because Psycho Step Dad might be watching.  (At least that was a fun twist:  for once the psycho step parent wasn’t the mother.)  Then, her Carpathian dudebro inserts himself into her life, removes her from her friends and chosen family, disregards her concerns, commands her to stay in the house in the name of her safety (and gets violently upset when she disregards his commands and asserts her own autonomy), and initiates the life mate binding process without her consent and then completes it without ever explaining anything to her.  Being stalked by a Navy Seal is terrible.  Being swept up by an immortal who needs you to maintain his emotional life for him is also terrible.  
And, folks, I didn’t even get to the end.  I got the completion of the binding ritual and she started freaking out and Carpathian dudebro started mansplaining how they were meant for each other and she just needs to roll with the (irreversible) changes and I was like:
  

So, the only good choice with this book is to just not pick it up.  0/10.  Do not recommend.

I checked this book out from the Buffalo and Erie County Public Libraries.

Review: Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

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Featured image**May Contain Spoilers**

Okay, this isn’t really a review.  More of an appreciation post.  An appreciation for Rick Riordan and his books.  There are many things I love about his writings.  I love his characters, especially since many of them are quite sarcastic and sassy.  I love how he writes characters with diverse backgrounds.  I love the imagination of them.  Taking stories that we are familiar with and some we are not and updating them or making them new but also staying true to the myths. I can tell that he has done his research on these myths and stories, whether they were well known or obscure.  I think the most impressive thing is connecting these old stories with todays world and not making them seem outdated.  He’s had some mix results.  The Kane Chronicles is based on Egyptian mythology.  I know next to nothing about Egyptian Mythology and if I were to guess most of his readers didn’t know much too.  For that reason, this series was a little harder to get through.  The first book, The Red Pyramid, spent almost more time trying to explain who the major Gods and Goddess of Egypt were and how they are relate to each other.  That the story sorta came second but as the trilogy progressed it got better.   The humor of his books.  Again, I love the sassiness of his characters.  He gets my humor.

But really, it’s his diverse characters are what I love the most of his books.  With the exception of The Kane Chronicles, his other series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus and now Magnus Chase and Gods of Asgard take from Western Europe.  I think we all have an idea what they would or should look like.  White.  Yes, Percy, Jason, Annabeth and Chase are all white.  Piper is native American.  Leo is latino. Hazel is Black. Frank is Chinese Canadian. Sadie and Carter are biracial.  Sam is Muslim.  It’s not just racial diversity either.  In House of Hades, Nico is outed as gay.  That tsurprised me.  Not because I didn’t see it coming or that I was upset but because this is a children’s book after all and I was afraid of how it would be received.  Even more surprisingly, it seems it was received pretty well or with little to no controversary.  At least not that I read about.  And that is awesome!  We have mention before on this blog about the movement to have more diverse books and characters in Kids and Teens books and why this is important.  Mr. Riordan could have played it save.  He could have all his characters be white and say well they are demigods based on Greek and Roman and Norse myths who were also white but he didn’t.  These Empires and traders may have started in Europe but they didn’t stay there.  Rome stretched into African and Asia and the Vikings also traveled as far south as the Middle East and west as North America.  And these books take place (mostly) in the US.  The idea behind these books is the Gods follows power.  So whatever country that is the Superpower in the world, that’s where they set up shop.  (At least true for the Greek and Roman Gods) So it would make sense that the Gods and Goddess would interact and mate with people from all backgrounds as we in the US are from all different backgrounds.  So the demigods needed to reflect that.  The Gods didn’t really have a type.  I mean, Posiden is also the father to Pegasus after all.  Loki has a horse, a wolf and a snake as his children.  So what would they care if their current human paramour is Black, White or Asian? All of his characters are strong and brave.  For his readers, they can find at least one demigod or magician to relate to and say I can be as strong and brave as.  That’s important and shouldn’t be overlooked.  So for that I love his books.

As for Sword of Summer, fans of his other books are going to love it.  I’m not as familiar with Norse Mythology as I am with Greek but I know enough to know the major players.  Magnus is in the mold of Percy as he is definitely a smart ass and I love it.  He is also the cousin to Annabeth.  The poor Chase family.  You have one brother who had a child with a Greek Goddess and one sister who had a child with a Norse God.  Both of kids were runaways.  The Chase family knows drama.  One can only hope that after all this they Chases’ have an easier time. Anyway, Magnus is joined by Sam, a Valkiyre and daughter of Loki. Blitz the Dwarf and Hearth the Elf.  Another thing that the Chase cousins have in common is they both have been to the afterlife, though Magnus actually died.  Magnus and friends must find the Sword of Summer, aka Jack and delay Raganok from happening.  No pressure.  Like his other books, our Heroes have to go through many trials, have run in with other Gods and Goddesses and other demigods and deal with a short window to complete their mission.  You would think that it would get predictable but it doesn’t.  I think a new set of Gods helps.  Riordan also is not afraid to kill off characters either so don’t get used to some of them.  I’m liking this series and I can’t wait to read more.

Real or Not Real

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“Real or Not Real” may not be as romantic as “I know” but to me it’s pretty darn close. (It’s also possibly my next tattoo)   There was something about the way that Peeta and Katniss say it to each, particularly at the end of the book just filled me with such bittersweet glee.  (it’s a little hard to feel another other then bittersweet)  I was always a Katniss/Peeta shipper, I’m just going to put that out there.  The final Hunger Games movie comes out later this month and with it comes that line.  Thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we are given a sneak peek at Peeta and Katniss saying it for the first time and I’m not disappointed.

What do you think is the most romantic line from pop culture?