I’m finally ready to move on from The Lunar Chronicles. I think this is the perfect follow up.
What I’m Reading Now: Manners and Mutiny by Gail Carriger
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Tag Archives: YA novels
Short Review: Slam by Nick Hornby
I started reading this a few years ago and then I stopped for some reason. I recently picked it back up. Its the story of a skateboard obsessed teen with a young mother is messes up and ends up a teen parent himself. In usual Hornby fashion the narrator has an obsession that shapes the narrative and pushes it forward. 16 year old Sam’s obsession with Tony Hawk provides a framework inside which Sam’s life comes together and then spins out of control. Tony Hawk’s memoir apparently has advice for every occasion in it, if Sam is to be believed.
This is an interesting exploration of teen pregnancy that had many likable characters. It was also a pretty quick read. It’s not Hornby’s best work but it was still pretty interesting.
Rereading Cress by Marissa Meyer
Now on to Cress. If you have been following along. You can read my thoughts about my second readings on Cinder and Scarlet there and there. Again *Spoilers*
- I think I mentioned this before but I love how our heroines have non-traditional jobs. Cinder is a mechanic, Scarlet is a pilot and farmer and Cress is a computer programmer and hacker. They may be based on fairy tales but doesn’t mean that have be damsels in distress. (though I do love Cress’ line about being a damsel in distress instead of a being a prisoner)
- I do love the friendship between Cinder and Throne. The bickering back and forth between the two is truly delightful. It really sets up for the big ending.
- Cress’ reaction to seeing sand, trees and animals for the first time is just plain adorable. I love the scenes where she is forced to describe their surroundings to Throne who has temporarily lost his eyesight. It’s really cute.
- In Cinder Jacin is described as having a pony tail but is never described with one again. Does he get his haircut?
- Also a lot of characters have blue eyes. Cress, Throne, Jacin and Dr. Erland. Okay that’s only 4 but that is half of them.
- When Jacin says he serves the Princess, did everyone just forget that Winter exits? That might have been a good idea to say, hey how did you know? I know there were a little unsure if they could trust him and for good reason but it probably might have been a good idea to let him in on the Princess Selene angle. Sure, he might have did what he did anyway but maybe not. Communication could have been a little better, that’s all I’m saying.
- Lunars can be real jerks. They manipulate and torture Scarlet and then put her on display in the menagerie. I do hope Cinder gets rid of the families when she takes over.
- I hope they make a movie or TV show because I want to see the scene at the end when Kai is looking for Cinder and sees Wolf sewing up his wound and looks up and says “Your Majesty”. Classic.
- Wolf. sigh
One more book to go. I probably won’t have as many thoughts about Winter since I did just recently finished it but that doesn’t mean I’m any less excited about it.
Review: Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
I did not expect to binge read Dream Thieves on Thanksgiving. But, I did and now I have to slow my roll down because the fourth book doesn’t come out until Spring. The Raven Cycle is about a group of teens who are looking for a medieval Welsh King rumored to be sleeping somewhere in America. If you wake him, he will grant you a wish.
From here there are spoilers for The Raven Boys.
This novel picks up where Raven Boys left off. Ronan can pull things from his dreams and make them real. Adam woke the ley line and is now its hands and eyes. Noah is still dead and Gansey is still Gansey. Blue is still a not-psychic in a family of psychics. Adam and Blue are kind of together, as together as you can be when your kiss can kill. There is a lot of pain in this novel. Adam doesn’t get why Blue keeps him at arm’s length. Blue can’t help that she’s falling for Gansey. Ronan is still broken from losing his father. None of them understand why Adam went off on his own and, as he grows into what the ley line needs him to be he feels isolated. Gansey is beat up over feeling like he’s losing Adam and he’s at a loss for what to do with Ronan at times. Oh, and Noah keeps reliving his death.
And, now some spoilers for this novel.
In addition to all the growing pains, we learn more about Blue’s family. Persephone has a connection to Adam, we find out. We also meet the Gray man who is there as a bounty hunter to collect whatever allows Ronan to steal things from dreams. I really enjoyed the subplot with the Gray man and Maura and I hope that he continues to be part of the next book. We also learn a little more about Gansey’s and Ronan’s families.
A lot of this novel really focused on Ronan, his ability and its connection to the ley line. I liked Ronan a lot as a character in the first book but he was a little one dimensional. He was Gansey body guard and enforcer. So it was interesting to get some Ronan point of view in this novel. He’s got a lot of anger and also a lot of questions surrounding his father’s life and death. Unraveling the mystery of Niall Lynch not only pushes the narrative forward but also gives Ronan some much needed character development.
We also get a lot of point of view from Adam. We learned about his family in the first novel and we got to see a lot of fall out related to that in this one. We also got to see why this quest and the ley line mean so much to him. Some of the scenes where we see Adam and Gansey together actually lead to some much needed character development for Gansey as well.
I enjoyed this book immensely. I needed to know what happened next. But, I have to say that Adam repeatedly broke my heart. That kid, man. He deserves better.
I am really looking forward to the next novel, Blue Lily, Lily Blue.
Rereading Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Now on to Scarlet. I do love this book too. I love the no nonsense of Scarlet. The almost innocence of Wolf. Captain Thorne cockiness. Cinder’s sarcasm. Kai’s sarcasm and Iko as a ship. Just like I did with my rereading of Cinder, he’s a few observations I may have missed or didn’t think much of the first time around or just things that I love about this story. *Spoilers*
- Seriously, is there a better character as Iko ever. Whether she is a regular android, a ship or an escort droid, she’s the best. I mean that. No way the team can accomplish anything if Iko wasn’t there. She’s very Data like (Star Trek reference!) in her quest to be be and feel more human. She’s a total optimist in the face of the immense odds and gets everyone going when they feel that can’t go on. She’s the best!
- When Kai starts to think that the Lunar’s are spying on him, why doesn’t he have his office swept then? Why wait? The worst thing that could happen is that there are no bugs and he was just paranoid but the best, he could have stopped their spying a little sooner. Of course, who knows what Levana’s reaction would have been then but she was probably going to attack anyway.
- Wolf not knowing what Tomatoes were and saying he was from Paris probably should have been a bigger red flag that he was not actually from Paris. I’m not all that familiar with French food beyond pastries but I’m sure he would have at least seen a tomato before.
- How much time did Dr. Erland spend on building new hand and foot for Cinder? Is that what he was doing when he was hiding from Levana instead of researching the antidote? Or did he have spare cyborg body parts at the ready and once he found her pulled out what he needed once he found her? And if Cinder hadn’t been arrested, when would he have given it to her?
- Anyone else want to talk about how creepy it was that Throne wanted to take an unconscious Emile hostage?
- How cute was Wolf when Scarlet suggested that she was his Alpha female? Love seeing men blush.
- Let’s give props to Michelle Benoit. She keeps the biggest secret the world has ever none for 11 years and still doesn’t give it up under severe torture. Sacrifices herself and her son to do so and still was able to do some serious trash talking before she dies.
I feel like there was more I wanted to say but I can’t remember. I really should write these things done. Next up, Cress.
Rereading Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Earlier this month, we posed the question, should you reread the previous books before reading the final book in the series or just dive in. Kate on the other hand has gone back to the beginning of The Raven Cycle. Of course, she still has five months until the final book The Raven King comes out. I decided to go ahead and read Winter, the final book in the Lunar Chronicles. Which was fantastic! I loved it so much that I decided to take my friend Valerie’s advice and read the last book and then go back to the beginning. So I did and there were some things that I didn’t noticed or didn’t think were important at the time that now that I’ve read the whole series seems silly. So let’s the observations begin. Obviously spoilers will follow.
- In almost every scene that has Sybil or Levana in it the narrative always points out that the blond guard behind them. This of course is Jacin. We don’t know that, in fact he is only named once in Cinder. It does bring up the question, if he’s just a guard then why spend so much time reminder the reader that he’s there. It should have been the first clue that he would play a bigger role.
- How nonchalant Dr. Erland was in hearing that droids were harvesting id chips from letumosis victims. We learn in Cress that he is responsible for the genetics behind the Luna’s Wolf army so he probably knows or at least on some idea as to why the androids would be taking the chips, more then what he said.
- Adri selling off Iko. She’s been sitting on a goldmine for years and didn’t know it. I guess that is partly her husband’s fault for not telling her about his work, you know just in case something happens like catch the plague. It also makes me wonder how involved she was in his work or in his life? She seems to be like someone who married for comfort then love. She is lucky that Cinder saved Iko.
- Why doesn’t anyone ask why Levana is so insistent on catching Cinder? If Levana is so sure that she is just a shell or just another Lunar then why would she threatened war over her? These are red flags people! did no one think, maybe we should look further into Cinder’s background, like how she got to earth in the first place.
Stay tuned for more observations for Scarlet.
Review: Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson and Robin Wasserman
For the last 10 months, Cassandra Clare, Robin Wasserman, Maureen Johnson and Sarah Rees Brennan have been treating us with Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy. A set of short stories that follows one of Clare’s heroes, Simon Lewis, as he tries to learn how to be a Shadowhunter. I wrote about it a little but after the first book, Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy, came out. This week marked the release of the tenth and final story in the series. For those who are not familiar with Simon or Clare’s Mortal Instruments series, let me catch you up. *Spoilers* When we first met Simon in City of Bones he was just a normal teenage boy in love with his best friend Clary. Throughout the series, he goes from normal boy to normal boy among supernaturals beings to becoming a supernatural being himself, a Vampire, saving the world and then returning to a normal teenage boy with no memory of the supernatural world or his friends. That is where we are now. Simon, has been once again become aware that vampire, werewolves, warlocks, fairies and Shadowhunters exist. After the wars of the two Mortal Instruments books are over, the Shadowhunters are depleted in numbers so they have reopened their academy and invited children of Shadowhunters as well as a few Mundanes to Ascend and join their ranks. That is what Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy is about. In 10 shorts stories, we follow Simon and his fellow students as they learn how to fight like a Shadowhunter and how to be like a Shadowhunter. Special appearances from other characters from the Mortal Instruments as well as Clare’s other series, The Infernal Devices and upcoming series’ The Dark Artifaces and The Last hours, we learn more about the history of the Shadowhunters but also clues into what to expect in her new series. It’s really just a good excuse to fill in a few gaps between the end of The Mortal Instruments and beginning of The Dark Artifaces. Also to give Clare’s readers something to read since the last book, City of Heavenly Fire came out last year and Lady Midnight doesn’t come out until Spring of next year. However, I don’t think you are going to hear much complaining from fans. They were fun, quick reads that give more insights to how the Clave, who govern Shadowhunters work, also gave us more time to hang out with one my favorite characters, Simon. As expected with a collection like this not all the stories were good. I felt some they didn’t know what to they put together a quick story with a couple of fan favorites and call it a day but others I felt were worth it. One story I liked a lot was Bitter of Tongue. In it, Simon is kidnapped by fairies and is saved by Mark Blackthorn, who has been stuck with faries since the last book. Mark, who is half Shadowhunter and half fairy and because of this and what happened in the last war, the Shadowhunters have left him there and banished his sister, Helen to exile. When Simon comes back he goes to Helen’s wedding. It’s a heartbreaking story as they are being punished for no other reason then an accident of both. Truly relevant to what is going on in the world. It also gives Simon more motivation to become a Shadowhunter and make a change from the inside. You can buy all 10 stories individually as ebooks or you can wait until next year where they will be combined together but for fans for Clare’s work it’s a must.
A Quick Series You Should Check Out: Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness
I don’t remember what panel at Book Riot Live where they talked about what books they wanted to see turned into a movie but The Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness was one of their suggestions. I full heartedly agree with this pick The Chaos Walking Trilogy is cinematically epic story that it would make for a visually stunning filmed. If done right of course. The Chaos Walking Trilogy is made up of The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men. Each is a tense, action packed novel that you will be thinking about long after you finish. Todd is shy of his birthday that will make him a man. He lives in Prentisstown, where everyone can hear each other’s thoughts, including the thoughts of his dog Manchee. It’s a stream of constant noise and no privacy. Everything for Todd is about the change when he meets Viola. He can’t hear her thoughts. Together they learn the terrifying secret of their world and together fight to change it. It goes on many twists and turns and at times you love and hate both of them but you never stop rooting for them. All I can say is that you really should read it.
Review: Winter by Marissa Meyer
*Beware of Spoilers*
This was everything that I wanted it to be. It was thrilling, romantic, action packed and yes it had some happy endings. It is a fairy tale after all. Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Winter, Kai, Wolf, Throne and Jacin go through quite a lot in this but I think even they would say it was worth it. As a whole this has been a very satisfying. I don’t think you can say one book was weaker then the other. They were all pretty solid. All the heroines were strong in their own way and can I give props to Marissa Meyer for giving them all jobs commonly associated with men. Cinder is a mechanic. Scarlet is a farmer and pilot and Cress is a computer programmer. Winter is the only one that follows the stereotypical fairy tale occupation of Princess but it doesn’t diminish her in any way. While they do have the help of their male love interests, the girls are not damsels in distress and in Winter they prove it. Continue reading
Discussion Posts: Re-reading series before the new installment comes out
This month has seen the announcement of the next book in the Raven Cycle series’ cover announced and the next book in the Cinder series released. Both of these things prompted much excitement here at SxLx because we’re into these series. Beth struggled with the decision to re-read the whole series before diving into Winter. I took the new cover art as a signal to re-read the Raven Cycle. In my case, the decision was easy because I haven’t finished Dream Thieves and at this point I’ve probably forgotten more than I remember. But, I know that not everyone feels this pull to revisit the older installments before getting to the new one. So, the comments section is open! What are your thoughts on re-reading a series before the new book comes out? Are you for it? Against it? Do you do it?
Are you a re-reader?
2 Women, So Many Books 