I think I’m going to have to go back and read the first book, The Taking before The Replaced comes out because I totally forgot so many things.
What I’m Reading Now: The Replaced by Kimberly Derting
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Tag Archives: bethylou reads
Review: All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
This 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
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
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.
What I’m Rereading now: The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson
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Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown
I 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.
What I’m Reading Now: Fairest by Marissa Meyer
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Tennis, Anyone? The Academy Series by Monica Seles
For those who know me, I love the sport of tennis. I actually love sports. I think they are one of the real dramas in life. They are unpredictable and entertaining. They happen live so no edits or rewrites. Almost nothing can unite a group of people, city, state or country the way sports can. So yeah, I love sports but I really love tennis. So two years ago, when tennis legend Monica Seles decided to write a teen novel, I was so on it. So in honor of the Australian Open currently being played, here’s the skinny on The Academy Series.
I once described the first book in the The Academy Series, Game On, to friends as Gossip Girl meets Bollettieri’s. For those not in the know, Bollettieri’s is a tennis academy in Florida that has produced such great champions as Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Maria Sharapova and Seles herself. In Game On we are introduced to Maya, a tennis player who dreams of playing professionally. She has earned an scholarship into the prestigious Academy that will hopefully set her on her way to tennis glory. There are two ways into the Academy, scholarships or just being filthy rich and buying your way in. At the Academy Maya meets many different people. There’s Cleo, her roommate, who hopes to make it in Golf to support her family in China. Nicole, already a tennis star, who is threatened by Maya. Renee, a swimmer, who’s rich family has sort of dumped her there even though she doesn’t really have much athletic ability and Travis and Jake, sons the of Academy owner. Travis, the golden son being groomed for Football glory and Jake, the bad boy living in his brother’s shadow. I think you get the picture.
Now, these are not the greatest books but I don’t think anyone who picked them up were looking for them to be. They are fun beach reads with not a lot of substance but a whole lot of drama. It turns out that Maya has more to worry about than just her tennis. She also has to contend with possible endorsement deals, internet gossip, jealous rivals and boys’ fickle affection. Life at the Academy is a lot harder than Maya thought it would be. The best thing about Game on and it’s sequel, Love Match is the friendship between Maya, Cleo and Renee. Renee is clearly in the Haves and Maya and Cleo, the Haves-not but they make it work. You don’t always get books with good female friendships. (You don’t really get it in movies or TV for that matter either.) Girls are often rivals for grades, boys, beauty, etc. I really dug the friendship of these girls. They are vastly different. Cleo is a free spirit and a lesbian. Renee is super rich and beautiful and Maya is your average American girl from Buffalo. They are constantly supporting each other and pushing each other forward. They sometimes get jealous of each other but they do always find ways back to each other. Oh and they talk to each other. What a concept! What I don’t really like about the series is the lack of tennis. Maya is determined to make it as a player. It’s her dream but tennis often falls to the back burner as soon as she has an opportunity to pose for an ad campaign or audition for a movie or Travis or Jake start to show interest in her. It’s not until one of those things falls apart that she recommits herself to tennis. Promising to focus on tennis from then on or until, you know, the next thing pops up. Not exactly the best message for young girls.
So basically, if you are looking for a book about girls and sports, this really isn’t it. It definitely has it’s problems but I do think fans of Gossip Girl and the like will like it. At the moment, it’s only the two books. Seles definitely left things open for a third book but I haven’t been able to find any news of a third book coming out. I have to admit that does disappoint me because there are some story lines that would like to see how they unfold but those are the breaks.
Bonus: For more on The Academy, here’s Brian Phillips of Grantland.com’s hilarious review of the series.
Review: The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon
On Tuesday, the second book in the Bone Season series, The Mime Order comes out. If you have read the other posts you know that Kate and I loved the first book, The Bone Season and a certain character, Warden. So we both were anxiously waiting the sequel. I already had a chance to read The Mime Order. There are a few perks of being a bookseller. Having the opportunity to read books before they are officially released is just one of them. The problem with reading books before the release is that when I’m done, I can’t talk about them because no one else had read them. I know, I know. I’m probably not getting much sympathy out there so I’ll stop complaining. I am very happy that it will finally get to be released so Kate and our cousin Sarah, who suggested The Bone Season to us can finally read about it so we can discuss it. Finally!
So without giving too much away, The Mime Order is a worthy sequel. It opens up, exactly where The Bone Season ends. Paige and the other voyants have escaped Schoel 1. . Knowing what she now knows on who really runs Scion, she can’t just go back to living her life like nothing happened, can she? That’s exactly what Jaxon wants her to do. Soon after she comes back there is a big shake up in the Syndicate and Paige sees this as an opportunity to push for change against Rephaim.
Admittedly, it starts off slow. I feel like as a reader you just have to expect that from a sequel. Paige’s indecision on what to do next and how to motivate the Syndicate against the Rephaim sort of bogs down the pacing but once she formulates a plan and yes Warden finally returns, the book really starts to pick up. A lot and I mean a lot happens in this book and the ending that made me scream for it not to end there! I can not wait for the next book.
Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
Holly Black is no stranger to Fairies. This is her third foray into the world of the fair folk. She first co-authored the Spiderwick Chronicles with Tony DiTerlizzi and then went solo on Modern Faerie Tales, Tithe, Valiant and Ironside. She knows her fairy mythology. The Darkest Part of the Forest is a return to her fairy roots, so to speak.
Sister and Brother Hazel and Ben live in a strange town of Fairfold, where humans and fairy live side by side. They have sort of agreement where the fairies leave the townspeople alone but can do what they want to the tourists. Nice, right? In the center of the wood, lays a glass casket that has an attractive horned fairy inside, sleeping. Never waking. Both Hazel and Ben are in love with him and one day are going to wake him and save the town.
Hazel knows to fear the fey. They may seem harmless but they are not. She and Ben used to hunt faeries. Ben has a gift for music, blessed and cursed by a fairy when he was a baby. Ben would lull the faires with his music and Hazel would strike them down. The Bard and the Knight. All went well until Ben couldn’t control his gift and got scared. Hazel makes a bargain with the Alderking, who rules the fairies in the forest. If Ben gets a scholarship to a music school in Philadelphia, she’ll give seven years of her life to them. Ben did but things didn’t turn out as planned, as often it does with fairy bargains. Back in Fairfold, Hazel throws herself at boys to distract her from troubles, while Ben desperately tries to escape Fairfold and be normal. Everything changes when the mysterious horned fairy boy is freed from the casket and awakes. Hazel and Ben must finally face all of their secrets and fears and do what they did as kings. Hunt down fairies and save the town.
I liked this book but it wasn’t my favorite. I don’t know how to explain it but it seems to not have the spark of her other books. Or maybe since I loved her last book, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown that I just expected more. The characters are all likable. The most likeable is Jack, the changeling boy who is also Ben’s best friend and Hazel’s long time crush. I liked how that Ben is gay but it doesn’t define him. It’s not a obstacle he has to overcome or come to terms with, it’s just a fact and accepted. Or the fact that Jack is a changeling. People just seem to accept him as is, until things start to fall apart of course.
So really the story isn’t about fairies at all but about finding yourself and being honest with yourself and others. In like most novels, the conflicts could have all been avoided if they didn’t keep secrets from themselves but I guess that wouldn’t be much of a story. All and all, it was a good but not great.
2 Women, So Many Books 