I adored this audio adaptation of the book, but I was disappointed that they were unable to represent the visual text effects present in the physical I adored this audio adaptation of the book, but I was disappointed that they were unable to represent the visual text effects present in the physical book. If I hadn't read the book previously, I would have never understood what was happening when the characters started talking about bookworms that belched random punctuation . . .
Other than that, it was a great read and one that I will listen to again....more
I was lucky enough to listen to Neil Gaiman read the first chapter of this book at the Fantasy Matters conference in Minneapolis in November of 2007. I was lucky enough to listen to Neil Gaiman read the first chapter of this book at the Fantasy Matters conference in Minneapolis in November of 2007. Having heard that chapter, I had to buy the book as soon as it was published. I did. And I loved it....more
I really liked this book. Really, I did. The three stars I've given it are somewhat deceptive on that front. I enjoyed every minute that I spent readiI really liked this book. Really, I did. The three stars I've given it are somewhat deceptive on that front. I enjoyed every minute that I spent reading it.
The problem was that I had to finish it. And when I finish a book, I think about it.
(view spoiler)[ As I thought about what I'd read, I realized just how long the book was and just how little happened in that period. I still like Creagh's writing style. I enjoyed the way she incorporated Poe's poems and prose into her narrative. However, I was frustrated by the lack of forward momentum. Ideally, this could have been a good book at half the length. Yet, as I say that, I have to add that I was glad to spend so much time in Isobel's mind. The one benefit to Creagh's verbosity is that we can see how Isobel thinks about the world around her and how she struggles to function. Still, I would have liked to see more events--too much of the book was a holding pattern until the Baltimore trip. (hide spoiler)]
Ideally, I would have liked to give this 4.5 stars. If not for the reasons stated above, it would have been 4.5, easily....more
A long time ago, in the year 2000, I graduated with a Master of Arts in English. Despite the fact that there was no formal path for this at my universA long time ago, in the year 2000, I graduated with a Master of Arts in English. Despite the fact that there was no formal path for this at my university, I focused my studies on fairy tales--specifically, the literary fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen, and others. My interest in fairy tales coincided with a boom in scholarship about them. Jack Zipes, Maria Tatar, Ruth Bottigheimer, Donald Haase, and more were establishing that fairy tales were an appropriate area to study and that the tales were far more complicated than we remembered. They also examined the ways in which fairy tales have been reused, revised, and repurposed by modern artists. Zipes, in particular, studied the cultural work of Disney and didn't like what he saw.
After having devoted about three years of my life to studying fairy tales, I decided to pursue a more standard path of study and did my doctoral work on nineteenth-century British literature. However, since I can't stand to be too mainstream, I at least focused on the Gothic as a subgenre.
In the years since then, I've kept my eyes out for fairy tale retellings. I'm still fascinated by the short tales and the hold they exercise over our cultural imagination. I was delighted to find Sarah Cross's Kill Me Softly, and even more excited when I received an advance reader's copy of the book from Netgalley.
After reading this book, I set down my nook and simply said "yes." Finally, here, an author has explored fairy tales in a way that gets to the darkness at their root while still creating a new and interesting mythology of her own. Finally. Yes.
The book opens with a startlingly apt quotation from Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire. "I don't want realism. I want magic!" Blanche DuBois states, and that sentiment shapes this novel.
Mira has lived her entire life in the care of her godmothers. They're lovely, kind, and caring women, and they took in Mira as an infant after her parents died in a fire at her christening. Now that she's nearly sixteen, Mira is horrified to betray them, but she also feels that needs to do something that's been nagging at her for years. She needs to return to the town of her birth, Beau Rivage, and visit her parents' graves. Since this means running away from home, Mira is willing to do that. She's planned her escape well by creating a false trail leading to a make-believe online boyfriend. But she's never managed to plan what to do once she arrives in Beau Rivage, and that realization hits her shortly after her arrival in the city.
Mira finds herself alone in a casino cafe called Wish, and it's here that her plan starts going awry. She meets another teen, a young man with blue hair, who calls himself Blue. He tries to get her to leave the casino (which is called Dream), claiming to be the son of the owner. Blue wants her to leave before she can meet his brother . . . and he fails. Mira does meet his brother, Felix, and falls for him. Hard. Felix comps her a room at Dream, and he vows to help her find the graves.
Dismayed to find that she hasn't left, and horrified that she's met Felix, Blue attaches himself to Mira as well. The two brothers don't share their time with her; instead, she seems to drift between them a bit like a pinball. Quickly, Mira becomes aware that Blue's friends are odd. They share inside jokes that disturb Mira, and none of them are really happy. Viv has a wicked stepmother (sorry, normal stepmother, Freddie explains) and an obsessive gardener with a crush on her. The apple logo on her laptop is covered by tape. Small animals and birds cluster around Freddie, who is helpless to push them away. Still, Mira isn't freaked out too much until Viv's mirror tells the girl that she's gorgeous, which is something she clearly doesn't want to hear. They talk of curses, and stop when they realize Mira is listening.
As the cover copy makes clear, fairy tales are real in Beau Rivage. Mira is shocked to learn that, just like Blue and his friends, she too has a role to play. And fairy tales are not pleasant stories at all.
Cross is an elegant writer, and she deftly explores the menace and beauty that attracts readers to these tales. However, she's not content to let them rest with the "happy ever after" versions that we've come to know in the last 100 years of children's stories. Instead, she looks back to the tales when Cinderella's sisters cut off parts of their feet in order to fit into the slipper (and the prince didn't notice until birds told him that blood was spurting out of the shoe!). She's clearly read the darkly wonderful collection of tales by Angela Carter called The Bloody Chamber. The first line of one of the stories in that book, "The Tyger's Bride," is wonderfully evocative of the entire book's tone: "My father lost me to the beast at cards."
Thrust by her own stubbornness and desire into a world that both confuses and attracts her, Mira must learn to navigate the rules in order to survive. She must decide which brother to trust, which tales are true, and she must learn how to shape her own fate. Otherwise, she may just become a character in someone else's story, and she won't like how that one ends at all....more
I was greatly entertained by this short book. The debt to Criminal Minds is rather obvious, but it never gets too annoying. I'm not sure that I'll reaI was greatly entertained by this short book. The debt to Criminal Minds is rather obvious, but it never gets too annoying. I'm not sure that I'll read the entire series but I did enjoy it....more
I'm not a zombie fan. I don't go out of my way to watch zombie movies or read zombie books.
But I do enjoy a good zombie story (book or film), and thisI'm not a zombie fan. I don't go out of my way to watch zombie movies or read zombie books.
But I do enjoy a good zombie story (book or film), and this one was fantastic. The best zombie stuff that I've run into over the years hasn't been about the shuffling undead. Instead, it's about survival and what we're willing to do to see the next day.
Basically, it's the ultimate expression of naturalism, where the world is truly hostile and out to wipe you off the face of the planet. In that vein, wouldn't Jack London's "To Build a Fire" have been better with zombies?...more
This novel was utterly amazing and fantastic. Vaughn clearly knows superhero literature, and her fondness for the genre allows her to write in it withThis novel was utterly amazing and fantastic. Vaughn clearly knows superhero literature, and her fondness for the genre allows her to write in it with respect while analyzing the tensions at the heart of superhero mythology.
Celia West is the famous daughter of Commerce City's two most famous superheros--Captain Olympus and Spark, the founding members of the Olympiad. They were not the city's first superheros--a masked man called Hawk fought crime before they did. Hawk had no powers, and he retired just as the Captain and Spark became proficient at their calling. Celia has very little contact with her parents. She cut all ties with them when she was a teenager. They always placed the welfare of the city before their daughter, and while she could understand their priorities, she also found it difficult to bear. Villains always assumed that Celia was a priority in her parents' lives, and she was kidnapped several times (six and counting . . .) in an attempt to control her parents. It never worked.
Part of the distance between Celia and her parents stems from the fact that she's normal. She has no powers and no common ground to share with them. This distance--as well as her relative fragility--makes it difficult for them to relate to one another.
This is the situation as After the Golden Age opens. Celia is working as a forensic accountant in a firm that consults for the DA. After her most recent kidnapping attempt, the DA asks specifically for her to be assigned to what may be the case of the century--a tax fraud prosecution of the Destructor, a notorious villain and her parents' arch nemesis. As Celia digs into the case, her complicated history resurfaces in such a way to cast doubt on her reliability. Celia cannot bear the thought of being judged for her prior acts, and she digs deeper into the Destructor case to prove her worth. She's also concerned because several new gangs are attempting to take control of Commerce City. It's clear that there's a mastermind behind the recent attacks, but it's not clear just who that might be. The Destructor is locked away, and someone new seems to have stepped up to fill the vacuum.
Alternately funny and shocking and heart-rending, After the Golden Age questions one city's reliance on its heroes as saviors. Moving between Celia's past and present, the novel explores the complicated relationship between our childhood and our adulthood as the parents we both love and despise shape us to become like them.
Vaughn is not a stylist. Her prose is clean and serviceable, establishing the points she's making with a minimum of description or purple prose. All the same, her quiet observations of characters make this novel the powerful story that it is. When I first heard about this book, I knew that I wanted to read it. Once it was available, I bought it almost immediately and read it almost all the way through in one day. This is a fast-paced story, one that gets you to care about characters and the City where they live.
I believe I said this about Carrie Vaughn's other standalone novel, Discord's Apple, and I'll repeat myself here. I do not want Vaughn to write a sequel to this book. After the Golden Age is a fantastic story from beginning to end, and I don't want to see that perfection weakened in a series. ...more
I enjoyed this far more than I expected I would. Caine's world building in this series is top notch, full of complications and surprises. I look forw I enjoyed this far more than I expected I would. Caine's world building in this series is top notch, full of complications and surprises. I look forward to reading more about Bryn. ...more
I have a love/hate relationship with literary fiction. When it's done well, I often love it, but when it's done poorly it seems to reach too hard to bI have a love/hate relationship with literary fiction. When it's done well, I often love it, but when it's done poorly it seems to reach too hard to be "great," and I despise it.
I loved this book.
As the cover copy tells readers, this is the story of Rose, a child with a gift that's also a curse. When she eats food, she can taste the emotions of the cook that prepares it. At nine, she's unprepared to learn how lost her mother is and how desperately she yearns for love and fulfillment.
Rose's parents are good people, in most ways. Her dad is a lawyer, and he's pretty good at it. He's nothing special, works at a mid-level firm so that he wouldn't have to defend large corporations against the little guy. But he's a good guy. Her mom aches for something. She's empty inside and is constantly seeking guidance and fulfillment from outside. Rose's brother is older, in junior high, and he's a genius, but he's also completely isolated from everyone else, except his friend George.
When Rose's talent develops, George believes her. He and Joseph take her to a local bakery where she tastes the emotions of the cooks. But he can't support her--when he finds himself divided between Joseph and Rose, he chooses Joseph.
Far from being a gift, Rose's extra sense becomes a curse. She can't bear to eat her mother's cooking. In fact, most food is unbearable, unless it's so processed that no humans are involved in cooking it. She lives through the vending machine at her school.
The novel follows Rose through a few pivotal years in her life--when she's nine, 12, 17, and 22. Each year is marked by major upheaval, and Rose tries her best to navigate her way through it all.
This book is by no means perfect, but it is enchanting. It's a haunting exploration of magical realism, and it asks quite a bit of us as readers. We're asked to sympathize with Rose, and ultimately her family as a whole, and that can be a large burden. Rose's problem is so unique--and, in my mind, rather terrifying--that it overwhelms her young mind and her life. Far from being mere sustenance, food becomes the center of Rose's life, and it's only as she tries to rewrite her relationship to it that she can try to manage this gift/curse....more
I have this book as a printed edition; it's even signed by the author. It's a lovely, amazing story, and lMy review is specifically for the audiobook.
I have this book as a printed edition; it's even signed by the author. It's a lovely, amazing story, and like so many of Maguire's novels, not anything I would have expected.
Lost is the story of Winnifred Rudge, a children's novelist working a novel for adult readers. Something is clearly wrong with her; the novel opens with her attending an information meeting about international adoption--and she gets kicked out when the staff recognize her name and occupation. The next day, she leaves for London, where she plans to research her novel about Wendy Pritzke, a woman obsessed with Jack the Ripper. On arrival, Winnie learns that her host, her cousin John Connister, is strangely absent. He's having renovations done on his apartment, and the workers don't even know where he's gone.
Winnie is concerned--especially when all of John's friends refuse to answer her questions. The situation in the apartment is odd; the workers have removed part of the pantry wall, and now they can hear strange noises behind the wall . . .
The first half of the novel is a slow buildup of tension involving the wall and the noises. Winnie makes friends easily, but she constantly drives them away from her as well. She's somehow separated from her life, and she constantly asks herself "how would Wendy Pritzke respond to this?" While that may be a legitimate technique for an author, Winnie takes it too far. She has no connection to real world any longer. It's only as we read more scraps of her novel about Wendy Pritzke that things begin to come clear.
As with many Maguire novels, the supernatural bleeds slowly into the real world, requiring no suspension of disbelief as we gradually accept the individual events and growing sense of unease.
Jenny Sterlin does an excellent job reading the book. I'm not a huge fan of audiobooks, so I can't really compare her performance to that of other readers. I do think that this novel requires additional patience and attention than that given to most audiobooks. Before I listened to this book, I had read my printed copy. I knew the outcome, and I knew the format of the book. It contains a number of visual cues to explain just what you're reading, such as writing the Wendy Pritzke manuscript in another font (looks like Courier New). In the audiobook, the narrator changes her voice when reading the manuscript, but the change is subtle. Both the manuscript and novel are written in third person omniscient, and it can occasionally prove confusing as the book rapidly--and without transition--moves between the characters.
Sterlin did an excellent job with this book, but I have to say that I wouldn't necessarily recommend this audiobook to a novice listener unless he or she were familiar with the novel....more
I can't believe that I forgot to add Evernight into GoodReads when I first read it. My only defense is that I was still relatively new to the site andI can't believe that I forgot to add Evernight into GoodReads when I first read it. My only defense is that I was still relatively new to the site and not yet accustomed to writing reviews of the books I'd read.
For me, Evernight was one of the greatest results of the Twilight craze. I've been a fan of vampire fiction for years--Annette Curtis Klause'sThe Silver Kiss put me rather firmly on that path back in high school. When Twilight became so popular and so many YA vampire/supernatural novels hit the market, I was overjoyed. I'm not a Twilight fan, but I do approve of the influence that series has had on publishing. I don't want to say that this novel would not have been published without Twilight, but Stephanie Meyer's books did open doors that might otherwise have been only cracked.
So far, this review has said very little about the novel, and that's deliberate. Evernight is a delicious, slow moving novel full of surprises and fun. Telling too much about this book is dangerous, though, because I'd hate to spoil the surprises that the plot holds. As a veteran of vampire novels, I was caught off guard by Ms Gray's imaginative concepts, and I'd hate to destroy that for a new reader.
The plot is seemingly simple: Bianca is a new student at Evernight Academy. She doesn't fit in very well with her classmates; they're all much cooler and more sophisticated than she is. There are a few others that don't fit in all that well, either. Among them is a young man named Lucas . . .
This is an incredibly good book, one that doesn't flinch from portraying the reality of teen's lives and mixing it with a good dose of fantasy.
I did fThis is an incredibly good book, one that doesn't flinch from portraying the reality of teen's lives and mixing it with a good dose of fantasy.
I did find Jordan annoying several times, but that was part of the point of the book.
I'll try to come back later and write a longer (and hopefully better) review, but I'll settle right now for saying that this was good story told by a solid storyteller....more
This is a very ambitious book, attempting to deal with issues of prejudice, violence, consumerism, and corporate***Note: There is a remainder mark.***
This is a very ambitious book, attempting to deal with issues of prejudice, violence, consumerism, and corporate manipulation. That said, something in it just doesn't work for me. The chapters alternate between three different viewpoint characters, and none of them interest me all that much.
I put this book aside some weeks ago because more pressing matters came up in my life. Since then, I haven't had any desire to return to it and finish those last 50 pages. Therefore, I won't bother to give it a star rating. It's a good book, there's no doubt about that, but it simply wasn't enough to maintain my interest....more
I'm ashamed to admit this, but I was a rather unhappy kid. A little too smart, more than a little socially awkward, and obsessed with books. I found NI'm ashamed to admit this, but I was a rather unhappy kid. A little too smart, more than a little socially awkward, and obsessed with books. I found Narnia too religious, so my obsession of choice was David Eddings' The Belgariad. I imagined what it would be like if it were real, and more importantly, if I could go there. Would I be an Alorn and one of the good guys? A Tol Nedran obsessed with money? Or, worse, a Murgo? I even wrote a few sketches based around that sort of idea. (Although this was before the internet, before fan fiction was easily accessible, and so I didn't try to write myself into Eddings' world. I created my own pale shadow of it as my own world.)
When I read the cover copy for this book, a grin flashed across my face. Someone had finally written it--the nerd's true fantasy. My store had an ARC, and I grabbed it immediately. And I'm thrilled that I did.
While this book does have that plot line that so many fantasy nerds have pondered (I don't think I'm alone in this!), this book is different. It's actually good.
Good might not sound like high praise, but it is. Instead of simply being some kind of wish-fulfillment fantasy, this book asks what we are looking for in our fantasies. What do we want from these worlds we imagine? Why do they appeal to us? How do you find meaning in your life when there's nothing useful to do with it?...more
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