Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging December 6, 2007

Rennison, Louise (2000). Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging. NY: Harper Collins, 247 pages.

Georgia Nicolson’s dad is moving to New Zealand, her cat is a feral predator, and the produce boy is trying to steal away her best friend. But these things are nothing next to the possibility of winning over a sex god.

This book is sort of a junior high version of Bridget Jones’s Diary, complete with witty diary entries, zanny mishaps, and romantic comedy. On the other hand, this book completely fails at making you like the heroine. Or the titular cat. Or the sex god, who, considering his age, just comes off as a little creepy. Mind you, when I was 14, I wanted to date older guys too… but 19? Really? Georgia herself is almost pathologically self-centered, and is by turns cruel and callous towards her friends and family. It’s a match made in…

Still, it was decent (and very funny) light reading.

Booktalk Hook: Bridget Jones in High School!

If you want more: Try the Gossip Girls series… at least the characters will be a little more likable.

Red Glass November 24, 2007

Resau, Laura (2007). Red Glass. NY : Delacorte Press. 275 pages.

Sixteen year old Sophie is afraid of pretty much everything – born prematurely, she suffers from allergies, and from a sense that her body will never be quite strong enough. So it is a surprise to everyone, herself included, when she agrees to travel to Mexico with her frivolous and immature aunt, her aunt’s boyfriend, and his intimidating (read: attractive and cool) son. It’s probably the least safe thing Sophie could even think of doing – but what’s at stake is her principito, the young Mexican boy that her family adopted when his parents died trying to enter the country.

The summary on the back of this book really confused me (too much information, too little space for processing it) – I couldn’t get a sense of what the book was actually about at all, or what it was going to be like to read it, so it sat on my shelf for a while before I picked it up again. So the only reason I can’t say that this book exceeded my expectations was that I had none, starting out.

The book is charmingly written in a sort of dream-inducing prose that is nevertheless easy to read and crisply precise. If that sounds like a completely contradictory description, I apologize. Simple put, the book is well written. More importantly, for me, was the fact that the characters were all fabulously flawed and vulnerable and real and interesting. Sophie has that exact issue that I’ve seen in my mother, and one of my close friends – the guilt of being a sickly child in a family that can ill afford the time, or money for her care. And as a part of Sophie’s character, this guilt is really well depicted here, as she battles to face and overcome her various weaknesses, psychological and physical. The author also does a really wonderful job painting Sophie’s simultaneous fascination and fear of Angel, the teenage boy who is part of her traveling party. If you ever have been, or are, a girl who doesn’t quite know what to do with the knowledge of a boy’s unique and special power to wound heart, body, or mind, you’ll sympathize… and cheer, because Sophie figures out how to move past it, and risk everything. Well, I cheered – not out loud, mind you, I was in public at the time. And Angel himself is an awesome and likable hero – he’s intelligent and handsome, and hides his heart in a box and his soul behind his sunglasses.

Booktalk Hook: Have you ever been forced to go to a place that you fear more than anything?

If you liked this book: You might like other novels with a strong Latin American flavor, and excellent prose, like those by Isabel Allende.

Tithe November 24, 2007

Black, Holly (2002). Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. NY : Simon and Schuster. 331 pages.

Kaye redefines weird – she doesn’t go to school, she doesn’t quite look like everyone else, and – oh yeah – she gets visits from faeries that no one else can see. Or at least she did, before she moved to Philly with her mom. But when an unexpected attack sends both Kaye and her mother back to the Jersey shore, she gets pulled into the world of faerie – a world, it turns out, that she belongs to more than she’d ever guessed.

Usually I can steamroll right through books, but I had to put this one down more than a few times, for various reasons – none of them were bad reasons – they were just… well, here they are:

1. omg, yaoi fanboy, what?!

Corny. One of the more important side characters, Corny (short for Cornelius), is ethically challenged, a genius, and gay. He’s also an avid reader of shonen ai manga (translation: homoerotic japanese comic books, generally written by and for women). Well, he calls it shonen ai, but as Kaye helpfully describes some of the scenes in said manga, I’m actually guessing it’s yaoi, which is basically the same thing, plus more porn.

Let me be clear: I did not need to put the book down because I have a problem with people who are queer, intelligent, or fans of pornography.  Rather, I had a problem with the way the book used these aspects of his character to portray him as a person who has no regard for the lives of other people, or would be receptive to getting raped and brutalized.  It’s a valid and consistent character portrait, but it’s also an extremely offensive way to portray a specific group of people, in that it implies that one’s taste in porn could predispose a person to want to be raped.  Or that being smart means you want to gun down your classmates.

I’m relatively sure that the author didn’t intend her character to be offensive, but in my case, I was a little taken aback.

2. tortured hero? srsly, pls…

Roiben. Roiben is a faerie knight of the Seely Court (the relatively good and nice group of faeries), who is traded to the Unseely Court by his queen. In the Unseely Court, he is forced to carry out his new queen’s horrible orders, and is thus traumatized into becoming a brooding, dark anti-hero. And Kaye falls for him like I fall for chocolate donuts. I’m not saying I don’t sympathize – back in the day, I myself liked a platinum blond tortured hero or two. And Roibin is far from the worst incarnation of this little archetype, but… really…

3. Jersey shore, land of hidden magic?! XD

This time, I put the book down because I had to pause and savor my smug glee that yes, someone else sees the dirty, glittery, and wildly natural Jersey shore the same way I do. And, for once, the faeries (angels, demons, winged monkeys, etc…) don’t live in Central Park, NY, but a place I actually know and care about – and let me tell you, it is the perfect setting for this book. It sets the mood, reflects Kaye’s character, and foreshadows the nature of the faerie courts. Just – wow, I had so much love for the setting.

Alright. Now, putting all that aside, I really did enjoy this book. This is one of the better things to come from the faery/fairy stories that are becoming popular recently, and there was a lot of sensitivity and depth in all the characters. And after all, I may have put the book down more than once, but I always, always picked it up again.

Booktalk Hook: Did you ever think that you just couldn’t possibly be related to these people who are pretending to be your parents?

If you like this book: You’ll probably want to read the sequels, Valiant and Ironside. Or you might want to try testing out the shallow end of the pool of manga that this book is referencing, both in the text, and thematically – titles like Seimaden, Angel Sanctuary, or Alichino.

Flora Segunda November 19, 2007

Wilce, Ysabeau (2007). Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog ,the Tygers of Wrath series. Orlando : Harcourt. 431 pages.

After you get past the title, I’m not sure a summary is really needed for this book. But here it is: Flora Segunda is on the cusp of her 14th birthday, an age that means she’ll officially be an adult, and have to go off to the barracks to be trained as a warrior, like the rest of her noble family. But as much as Flora doesn’t really enjoy trying to do all the housework in her family’s castle, Crackpot Hall, or taking care of her insane father, she wants to become a warrior even less. Things start to look up, however, when she discovers her family’s banished butler, Valefor, who agrees to give her a helping hand… for a price, anyway.

With a basic – and somewhat predictable – fantasy plot, there are three things that make this book stand out. One, the characters. Two, the language/slang usage.

Flora herself isn’t a particularly ground breaking character. In fact, if you’ve ever read a novel that had a spunky heroine with red hair (bonus points if said hair is curly), you’ve met Flora. Mind you, she’s one of the better, and less romanticized versions of this stock fantasy archetype, but… there’s nothing really new here. However, the supporting characters are truly mold breaking. Flora’s mother is the general of her country’s army, and is portrayed with a lot of nuanced sensitivity as she busts through gender stereotypes as a dictatorial and remote father figure. Meanwhile, Flora’s father is crazy. Taken captive as a prisoner of war, and forced to watch his oldest daughter (the original Flora) be killed, he spends all of his time alternately pining and throwing fits. At least for the first half of the book, anyway. As it turns out, he’s one of the most dynamic characters in the book. Flora’s “glass-gazing sidekick,” Udo, is also wonderfully alternative, being at once both manly and metro. Wilce has created a world in which gender as we know it doesn’t really exist, and Udo, obsessed with haberdashery, is one of the best ways she drives that point home. Finally, there’s Valefor, who is fabulously whiny, petulant, charming, and self-centered.

While I liked the characters pretty much whole-heartedly, I’m a little more reserved about the “slang” that they used. For the most part, it came off as silly, and while a lot of the book is intentionally silly (Crackpot Hall?) – I think the language was the part that came off as a little condescending, in that “I’ll make new, family friendly curse-words for my characters to use,” way that – just always sort of bugs me a little. Like, frak, do you really think kids aren’t going to know what you’re frelling saying? I understand the motive – but I don’t have to like the execution, especially if it’s really wince-worthy. On the other hand, the slang was definitely original, including colorful phrases like, “pigface psychopomp.” And some of the subtler touches, like the use of “ayah” or “ayah so” for yes/ok, did a really good job of creating a sense of exoticism, without being hard to interpret or overly cute.

The world was also fairly interestingly constructed, as though someone took Aztec, Roman, and Celtic cultures and put them in a blender with demonology myths. I’m assuming there is more to come in the series, so I’m looking forward to seeing a little bit more of it.

If you liked this book: Why not look up some information on the Lesser Key of Solomon, an old and famous grimoire that provide the mythological basis for the characters of Valefor and Paimon? Of course, me, I recognized the names from playing Shadow Hearts: Covenant…

Dairy Queen November 19, 2007

Murdock, Catherine Gilbert (2006). Dairy Queen. Boston : Houghton Mifflin. 275 pages.

15 year old D.J. might as well be a cow – she does what everyone expects her to, and she does it without complaining – or talking at all, really. But once she starts fighting back against her bovine destiny, she’s going to change everyone around her, from her silent brother, to her stern father (and his brownies), to the starting quarterback of the rival football team.

This book covers everything you could possibly expect a novel to cover. The short summary I wrote above? Just the barest minimum of surface skimming. This book has sports (namely football – why do I keep reading books about football? where are the books on tennis, a sport I at least know something about!), and romance, and family drama, and growing up. The basics, really. All done with a really simple and beautiful first person narration that feels really honest and moving. Just reading the book, I became very attached to D.J., which is something I don’t always get from books and value all the more because of it.

The family drama aspect was realistic and understated – no one here is really wrong, or horrible and abusive. D.J.’s mom is busy. Her younger brother won’t talk – there’s nothing wrong with him, he just doesn’t like talking. Her two older brothers won’t come home. And her dad, recently injured in an accident, is learning how to be a house-husband, when maybe what he really needs to learn is how to talk to his children. And D.J.? She’s trying to balance running the farm almost on her own with the rest of her life.

And if that’s not enough, there’s also Brian, the quarter back of a rival team who comes to work on the farm. At first full of friction, Brian and D.J.’s relationship grows into a mutually beneficial partnership, and then into a friendship, but D.J. doesn’t kid herself that Brian is even remotely in her league. Brian and D.J. have a lot of chemistry that reads very well – think about what would happen if Elizabeth Bennett decided to train Mr. Darcy in football. Yeah, it’s pretty fabulous.

Booktalk Hook: Are you a cow?

If you like this book: You’ll probably enjoy Hana Yori Dango (live action – I take no responsibility if you watch the anime or read the manga). It’s less realistic in terms of family drama, and… ok, actually just not very realistic at all, but it has a romance plot with a similar flavor, and it is just as insanely entertaining.  Or if this book has given you a love of all things dairy, try indulging it further with Harvest Moon, an adorable farming sim video game series.

Prom Dates from Hell November 19, 2007

Clement-Moore, Rosemary (2007). Prom Dates from Hell. NY : Delacorte Press. 308 pages.

High-school senior Maggie Quinn isn’t a big fan of the prom. She’s also not a big fan of the Jocks and Jessicas, the clique that rules her school. But when someone puts a curse on the Jocks and Jessicas – not to mention possibly Maggie herself – she has no choice but to try and stop it, even if it means buying a dress, snagging a hot date, and going to the big dance.

Maggie’s witty narration made a fairly decent follow-up to my little Wodehouse binge (see previous entry), which in and of itself was a pretty big hurdle to leap. Happily, the wittiness added to the book and Maggie’s character, rather than detracting – while Maggie wasn’t the most dynamic character ever to grace the pages of a YA novel, she was definitely appealing as an intelligent and subtly vulnerable heroine.

Despite the fact that Maggie claims idolize Nancy Drew, the book itself is an unabashed Buffy tribute, featuring not only a sarcastic heroine with super powers, but also a smart Willow-esque friend, and a suspiciously helpful (and hot) older guy who is, probably, the secret love child of Angel and Giles. Happily, there is still room for an original story with some surprises. I especially liked the nature of the curse and some of the forms it took, from hilarious to near tragic.

The book went by fairly quickly despite its reasonably substantial length – like most horror books, it was really fast-paced. However, unlike other horror books, Prom really isn’t very scary (trust me, I’m a giant wuss, so I’d know) and is really more of a mystery than a thriller, despite the supernatural elements.

If you read this book, keep an eye out for the sequel, Hell Week, that’s coming out in 2008.

Booktalk Hook: What would it take to get you to the place you’d least like to go?

If you like this book: Clearly you should just watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Oh, you’ve done that already? Of course you have. Well, why not check out Bleach, the popular supernatural/horror manga series? Like Prom, it’s low on gore and scariness, and high on suspense and humor.

The Unseen: It Begins November 17, 2007

Cusick, Richie Tankersley (2005). It Begins, the Unseen series. NY : Speak. 296 pages.

After finding a dying girl in a graveyard, Lucy has been plagued by psychic powers she doesn’t understand. Then there’s the problem of finding out whoever murdered the girl – or who kissed Lucy behind the fair tents?

As it turns out, this author wrote what I think must be the first Buffy novel waaaaay back in 1992, before the TV series. However, for someone who has been writing trashy horror novels for over 15 years, Cusick hasn’t really added much to her writing arsenal. Not that this book doesn’t please – it’s thrilling, suspenseful, and sexy. On the other hand, Lucy is an irritating wet blanket who spends the entire book practically regurgitating Evanescence lyrics and indulging in some truly emo whining about How Sad Her Life Is. Once I got started, I couldn’t put the book down, but once I finished? I really didn’t want anything more to do with Lucy.

Also, who goes out onto the terrace in their see-through pink nightie in the rain because they think that maybe they saw a murderer outside? WHO DOES THAT?!! People who deserve to get stalked for three more books, that’s who. Too bad I won’t be reading them…

Booktalk Hook: If books were food, this book would be a Mars bar, deliciously goopy interior, and absolutely no nutritional value. Yum.

If you like this book: Check out fanfiction.net, and read some Buffy or Yami no Matsuei fanfic.

The Warrior Heir November 15, 2007

Chima, Cinda Williams (2006). The Warrior Heir. NY: Hyperion Books for Children, 426 pages.

Jack is an ordinary teenager living an ordinary life in ordinary Ohio. Until he forgets to take his necessary-for-living medicine and realizes that, not only does he not immediately die, he’s actually become much better at soccer – and a few other things. Because Jack’s “medicine” was actually a drug intended to suppress Jack’s latent super powers and hide him from a secret society of people who want to use him as a pawn in an old and violent political game.

This book was excellent – the only thing I didn’t like was Jack. Actually, I didn’t hate him either, he’s just a sort of “everyman” character that it was hard for me to get behind (seriously, his name is “Jack” – you can’t get more everyman than that). He has a fabulous array of conflicts that work really well to enhance the suspense of the novel, but… I just couldn’t connect with him. The other characters, however, won me over immediately, from his overly charismatic aunt to his befuddled friends.

The book is also well plotted – strong action scenes work side-by-side with a complicated weave of emotional and political conflict. The history of the secret society is worked in deftly, so that you don’t feel like you’re getting smacked in the face with EXPOSITION the way you do in some fantasy novels. However, that could be because the magical society doesn’t really feature much in the book except to create narrative tension. Jack doesn’t even really experience it until the very end, and the only part he really interacts with is the Tournament o’ Death. So while the author does an excellent job of making the presence of the society felt, it doesn’t really exist other than peripherally in the narrative. And, unlike the magical otherworld that exists in many novels, this otherworld has seemingly no redeeming features. The citizens are focused on a bloodthirsty struggle for political domination, and very little else. Hopefully this will be expanded on in the sequel, The Wizard Heir.

Narratively, the book worked very well, expect for a slight lull in the middle where Jack is training. While there are some interesting character conflicts that are building at this point, it isn’t clear how important they are until the end of the novel. However, once the ending begins, the book really hits its stride. All the plot threads come together, and there are some very suspenseful moments – and a LOT of surprises. The conclusion was unexpected and perfect. I won’t give too much away, but it included a poignant and well foreshadowed deus ex machina.

If you liked this book: Why not try out the Percy Jackson series, starting with The Lightning Thief? I hesitate to call it a Harry Potter knock-off, but it really is – however, this series has it’s own merits, especially in the way it looks at those with disabilities.

Bound October 27, 2007

Napoli, Donna Jo (2004). Bound. NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 186 pages.

Xing-Xing is the young heroine of this retelling of the old Chinese folktale that Cinderella, more familiar to Wester readers, was based on. In this version of the story she is treated as a servant by her stepmother and half-sister, but continues to live her life by demonstrating the three virtues of painting, poetry, and calligraphy.

This novel is a beautiful and intriguing retelling of an old, old story, fleshed out with historical and atmospheric details of ancient China. The plot meanders its way to a rather sudden conclusion, but the book is really more concerned with the characters – and with social issues that have possibly more current than historical importance.

The title, Bound, is taken from the practice of foot binding, wherein Chinese women would bind their feet, inhibiting their growth (and use) in order to make them smaller and more attractive. Not dissimilar to our current practice of wearing high heels. While Xing-Xing has naturally small feet, her half-sister needs to have hers bound in order to attract a husband, and the painful and sometimes overly gory process is described in full. This foot binding is reflective of the metaphorical bondage of Chinese women in the time period, and Xing-Xing has to face existing within a social system that she cannot tolerate, which makes for an interesting internal conflict. Unfortunately, the resolution of the conflict happens about two pages from the end, and the reader really needs a basic understanding of Chinese history to fully appreciate it (this is hinted at in the author’s afterword, but is not actually explained).

Also, in what I’m assuming is an homage to the Grimm’s version of Cinderella (mutilation in the name of beauty!), the story treads a little heavily past the boundaries of cultural sensitivity in its reverse-exoticism regarding the foot binding. A large portion of the book is devoted to making this practice seem alien and barbaric, which can be (or rather, I’ve been informed, is) offensive to people of Asian, particularly Chinese, extraction. The overbearing obsession with foot binding also somewhat weakens the plot, as after all, the heroine does not experience it directly.

Booktalk Hook: Do you like the darker, grittier, Grimm’s version of fairy tales? Bound is a no-holds barred retelling of a Chinese folktale that is bound (haha!) to please.

If you liked this book: Why not play Kingdom Heart’s II, and help Mulan, another plucky Chinese girl-power hero, save the day? This game is the best thing Disney’s had its name on in a long time.

Dragon’s Keep October 27, 2007

Carey, Janet Lee (2007). Dragon’s Keep. Orlando, FL: Harcourt. 302 pages.

Rosalind will be the 21st Queen of Wilde Island, prophesied by Merlin to restore honor to the Pendragon family and to end an unspecified war. But Rosalind’s mother is more concerned about the prophecy than her daughter is, and she’s definitely more worried about Rosalind’s ring finger – which just happens to be a dragon’s talon.

I had some problems with this book – while the conflict is certainly interesting, it refuses to map out on paper. By my count, there are four characters that could be counted as antagonists: Demetra (the creepy witch), Rosalind’s desperate mother, Faul (the irate and anti-human dragon) , and Magnus (the creepy wizard). And Rosalind, when she comes into conflict with these antagonists, loses every time. Or, rather, her triumph generally comes through her allies, characters connected with her and acting on her behalf. This makes, you can imagine, for a less than compelling heroine.

The tone of the book is light on the fun, and heavy on the angst. Rosalind is, according to the other characters, a charming girl, however she spends most of the narrative arguing, or sulking. And she’s gets progressively more depressed as the novel continues, and (of course) can’t eat and wastes away (and then is forced onto a dragon-style Atkins Diet) until she loses all of her “womanly curves” (oh no!) I like fantasy, but there’s a difference between “fantasy” and “completely divorced from real life” When I get depressed? I eat too much chocolate, and get more “womanly curves” than I can handle – and I bet the majority of readers are more like me than not. Basically, Rosalind fails at being a sympathetic or likable protagonist. Her relationship with her mother is compelling, deep, and interesting, but the novel really doesn’t finish exploring it, and rather neglects her relationships with the other characters as a consequence. Her relationship to the baby dragons she raises (the key relationship, plotwise, of the novel) is severely underdeveloped. No affection is shown on either side, though the author plots the novel as though it exists. Likewise her love for whatsisname.

On the other hand, the plot is very interesting, if a trifle predictable – there’s a wonderful combination of fairy tale, history, and mystery that made it hard for me to put the book down, despite my lack of affection for Rosalind.

Booktalk Hook: Of course most parents want their children to be perfect, whether or not their kids can take the pressure of their expectations. But Rosalind’s mother takes “pushy mom” to a whole new level.

If you liked this book: You might want to try Patricia C. Wrede’s fabulously fun Enchanted Forest Chronicles, starting with Dealing with Dragons, the story of another princess who learns the joys of working for a dragon employer.