Tag Archives: bethylou reads

Review: The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

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Magisterium: The Iron Trial is basically Holly Black and Cassandra Clare’s Harry Potter.  It might be unfair to say so but let’s face facts.  It’s about a boy, Callum or Call as he likes to be called. Who gets into a mysteries school, the Magisterium, for young Mages.  He becomes friends with Aaron and Tamara that will help him on this journey.  Oh and there is a mask wearing villian that is out to destory death.  Sort of sound familiar? Similiarities in literature is nothing new and may not be surprising considering that Cassandra Clare wrote Harry Potter fanfiction before she started writing about Shadowhunters but for everything that is the same they are enough differences to make it worth reading.  There is going to be a lot of spoilers after the cut. Continue reading →

Review: All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

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Featured imageThis is a beautiful book.It really is.  I guess that should be surprised since it has got nothing but good reviews all over the place. It was all *THE* book of the holiday season, as my bookstore I worked at kept running out of it.  Despite all of this, I really didn’t have much of an interest in reading it. It doesn’t fall into my normal fantasy/teen genres but it was the pick of my friend Katy’s book club so I read, I did.  I’m glad I did because it’s beautiful.

It’s about Marie-Laure, a blind French girl and Werner, a German orphan.  That first sounded a little cheesy at first, especially when since the narratives goes back in forth with their childhoods before World War Two and the lives during the war but it isn’t cheesy.  Their stories are intertwined as we watch them grow and at time mirroring each others experiences. In between their stories is the Heart of Flames, a diamond that is housed in the Natural History Museum in France, where Marie-Laure works. The diamond has a curse, the owner will liver forever but their love ones will end in tragedy.  As the Germans take over Paris, the museum intrusts the diamond with her father for safe keeping.  Soon a German Major Sargent, who’s job is to find treasures the the Third Reich becomes obsessed with the Diamond and tries to track it down.

I’ll try my best to spoil but there may be some spoilers behind the cut. Continue reading →

What I’m Reading Now: All The Light You Can Not See by Anthony Doerr

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Our friend Katy started an online book club and this is the first selection.  I know this book got great reviews but I’m not sure I would have picked up on my own. So far so good. That’s what’s so great about book clubs, is they often challenge you to read books that you normally never think of.  (Also gives you an excuse to hang out with friends and get drunk.) Anyway, back to Marie-Laure and Werner.

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Series You Should Check Out: Shades of London by Maureen Johnson

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Maureen Johnson is very active on social media.  If you don’t follow her on twitter, I recommend you do because she’s kinda hilarious.  Anyway, because of her internet celebrity, her books are not exactly unknown but for whatever reason, she’s not a big seller as some of her author friends like Cassandra Clare and John Green.  I’ll admit that I haven’t read her other books.  Yes, they are in my stacks and I will get to them but I do adore this series.  The Name of the Star, and the Madness Underneath are the first two books.  The Shadow Cabinet is being released in the US today.  The fourth book doesn’t have a title yet.  I haven’t had a chance to read The Shadow Cabinet yet because I thought I would wait until the actually release date.  Also I couldn’t get a hold of an ARC.  That’s ok, it has given my time to reread the first two.

The Shades of London is about Rory, a girl from Louisiana who’s parents have decided to do a work sabbatical in England so she decides to go to school at Wexford College in London.  She arrives in just as London is swept under Ripper Fever.  A copycat killer has taken to recreating the Jack the Rippers murders in the East End, which just happens to be the same place that Wexford is located.  Through a series of events, Rory gets swept into the Jack the Ripper investigation.  She soon discovers that the world is far more complicated than she ever thought.  That ghosts exist and only a few can see them and she is one of them.

What I love about this series is the humor in it.  I find Rory to be hilarious.  It’s a sort of a dry sense of humor that I appreciate.  Despite the fact that they are in a middle of a pretty gruesome murder investigation, Miss Johnson keeps things light.  The supporting characters are great.  Jazza, Rory’s roommate, is sweet but I think also keeps the story in reality.  Boo, Callum and Stephen, the other Shades of London may hunt down Ghosts but keep the good sense of humor about it.  I also like the mystery side of the story.  Who is the Jack the Ripper wannabe?  Is he alive or dead?  Rory may not be a detective and may be new to this whole seeing ghosts thing but she’s smart and pretty quick on the uptake.  She may need rescue from time to time but she’s also not weak either.

So far the series has tackled what is death, person-hood and dealing with PTSD.  The last one is important issue to tackle.  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not new to YA literature.  Katniss Everdeen and Tris Prior have both suffered PTSD but they never really dealt with it.  In the Madness Underneath, Rory has troubles dealing with the events of the Name of the Stars.  Without going into what, I will say that Rory does seek therapy.  First her parents have her in counseling and then she seeks other counseling.  To say more will spoil the book so I will leave it at that but at least Rory is getting treatment for PTSD which is more then Katniss or Tris ever did.

So go read the Shades of London and fall in love with Rory and Stephen and Jazza and Boo.  I think you all will like it.

Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

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Featured imageI wanted to like this book more then I did.  It’s not that I didn’t like it but I found it hard to get into it and stay into it.  I’m not sure if it was the writing style or the characters or the pacing.  I just never truly connected with it fully.  Maybe I have hit my threshold on Hunger Gamesish type dystopian.

Red Rising is about Darrow, who is a miner on Mars.  He and his family are Reds.  The lowest of the color castes.  Their job is to mine precious elements to prepare the surface of Mars for colonization. They were told they were colonist but really they are slaves.  Mars was colonized for centuries and the ruling color castes, Golds, have been living it up on the surface, while Reds toil away below.  All this is revealed to Darrow after his wife, Eo, is executed and Darrow joins the Army of Ares to take down the Golds and the Society from the inside.

Maybe for me it’s more of a question of pacing then anything else.  Eo, is executed so early in the book, that I was never able to get to know her or Darrow or their relationship.  Obviously they were in love.  I got that much and apparently Eo was someone that everyone loved.  True, it’s sad when anyone is killed at such a young age.  Especially over something that is a simple as a song but it was a blink and you miss her and she’s gone.  Oh, ok.  Then Darrow is whisked away by the Army of Ares, told the truth about how the Society really is and joins the rebellion.  I guess I never felt I had time to know who Darrow was before all this happened.  I didn’t get to know where he came from before he was set out on his revenge.  I think this is also a problem of the author because to compare to the Hunger Games, the reaping happens very early on in the book and Katniss and Peeta are on the train to the capital by the third chapter but by then the connection for me was already made.  I was invested.

After a lengthy process of changing Darrow from a Red to a Gold, which includes surgeries, we finally get to the Institute that turns Golds into the leaders and rulers of the Society.  The Institute is nothing but a Hunger Games style of live action game of Risk. The students are set up into different houses where they try to invade, conquer and slave the other students.  Again with the pacing. At times, it was exciting and I hated that I was at my stop on the train and had to stop reading to get off but then momentum would end and I was like “can we get on with it”  The ending itself was also a little meh.  I guess it does set up nicely for the sequel, Golden Son, which is out now.

It was ok.   I’ll probably will read the sequel eventually but not right away.  I think this was Pierce Brown’s first book, so hopefully the next one will be better.  I like the concept, I do.  The execution just wasn’t quite up the the task.