Tuesday 21 August 2012

Bitterblue (Graceling Realm, #3)Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

OK, so if I was to have given this book a rating halfway through, it would not have been 4 stars as it was a real muddle. As far I could see there was no real plot, beyond the fact that Bitterblue was trying to unravel and uncover the secrets left behind from King Leck's (her father) reign.

Which is fine, I do love a bit of mystery and secret unravelling, but the things Bitterblue was investigating seemed to have no real correlation. Nothing seemed to connect or fit together which made me wonder why Bitterblue was investigating them to begin with. They were just plain random and there seemed to be no real starting point for where Bitterblue could begin her investigations and she ended up just going round in circles. Plus there was the fact that everyone seemed slightly unhinged. Which was a triumph if the author was trying to give the impression of a castle full of people not quite all there and poor Bitterblue stuck in the middle. It worked. but it made for a rather confusing narrative. Paragraphs would jump from one subject to another, conversations too would make little sense, though at times it seemed that the characters knew what they were talking about even if I didn't. It made the whole experience confusing and very hard to follow. But again, if we were supposed to be experiencing events as Bitterblue, then the author got it spot on, because I knew exactly how she felt. I had no frickin' idea what was going on, most of the time.

But then about halfway, there was a breakthrough, a wonderful and deeply satisfying breakthrough. Mysteries began to come together and resolve themselves. Plots that you thought bore no relation to anything, suddenly found themselves making sense, and linked in perfectly with other elements of the plot. The conversations still puzzled me every now an then, lots of instances when Bitterblue would be thinking one thing, but then say something in a completely different vein. There was much head scratching as I tried to figure it out. There was also a strange insult involving whether or not someone's child would be born with ears...yeah, that still makes no sense to me at all.

If the author had intended to confuse the crap out of us, so we could empathise with Bitterblue and the madness left in her fathers wake, to then reveal all in that wonderfully gratifying way, then, my hats of to you Kristen Cashore, you executed it perfectly!!! I shared so my of Bitterblue's confusion, then her pain and sadness when certain truths came to light.

Bitterblue herself was a character of depth and emotion. Of all Kristen's heroines, she is my favourite, with the right mix of characteristics and traits to make her believably human, her wish to believe in the people she surrounded herself with but also the ability to do the right thing, no matter how hard, was incredibly endearing. The poor girl goes through a lot, but never in that self pitying way. She struggles through, and we the reader, along with her. She has guts and gumption by the bucket load, but thus is perfectly offset with a vulnerability and a need for her life to be filled with the people she loves, yet still be able to let them go when she has to. Her drive to do something with her life and to right the wrongs done by her father truly make her a wonderful, delightful and inspiring character to read.

By the end of the book, I was well and truly hooked. When the threads came together they created something quite marvellous. This is, in my opinion, Kristen Cashore's best. I loved Fire, thought Graceling was OK, but Bitterblue was something else all together. I just hope that whatever she gives us next, whether another in this series (yes please XD) or something new, I hope she does it soon!!!

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Monday 13 August 2012

Innocent Darkness (The Aether Chronicles, #1)Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

*headdesk* Why oh why do I do this to myself? I knew about halfway through that this was going to be one of those books that I was going to regret reading, but did I stop reading? Nope! That's because I still have this ridiculous need to reach the end of a book in the vain hopes that the story will get better, the characters will be less annoying, that it will stop being so gosh darned feeble and tedious. BUT THEY NEVER DO!!!

To be fair this book started out ok. It was never going to be amazing, or knock my socks off, but it held a certain amount of promise. I was intrigued by the Steampunk/faerie mix, two genres I enjoy and hoped would work well together. And they did for a while. Then all the other stuff started getting in the way.

The plot was nothing special. Headstrong girl unwilling to conform to social standards gets in trouble. She gets sent to an institution full of stereotypes, from the mean girls out to get anyone they see as a threat to the evil teachers deluded into thinking their way is what's best for everyone when in fact they're just plain psychotic. There was even a pervy doctor for crying out loud. This cast of completely unoriginal characters then do their up most to quash all of the things that make the girl 'special'.

Then we have the faery element. A sacrifice of a girl possessing a 'special' quality so that they can lavish her with wonders and trinkets, make her feel like a princess then kill her to restore the balance of the world. Guess who the lucky girl is. The rest of the book is spent twatting about not actually telling a story. Rather it turns into the Kevighn-Noli-Steven show, the plot taking the back seat to the inevitable love-triangle. Oh goody.

That being said, the plot might not have been too bad, if it hadn't kept being so over the top and forced. The author just seemed to be trying too hard to shock, rather than taking the time to build an atmosphere or explore a situation.

And the characters!!! Utterly generic. The main character had promise, but by the end she had turned into one of the simpering ninnies she was trying so desperately to avoid. The last third of the book she spends hurt, upset or crying. Most of the time all three. What happened to the strong girl who liked to fix machines and didn't want to end up a mindless drone? Enter the love interests. As soon as the males vying for her affections had been identified, it all went tits up. There was endless prattling on about out which one was better, which one should she choose, which one was the least dickish. Even when she made her choice, 100% and completely decided which one she wanted, she still faffed about, even though she declared that she had made up her mind. A. Nnoy. ING. I don't give a rats ass who, just PICK ONE GODDAMMIT!!!! The worst part is it's a split narrative, meaning we have to hear from the boys point of view, which included hearing about how amazing she is, how much they want her, how much they want to protect her, blah, blah, blah.

By the end of the book the girl has absolutely no spine left whatsoever and is more than happy to let one of her boys shower her with affection one moment, then push her away to next (most of the time literally). Then she lets him do it, all over again. Now, she says she will ignore him, that after trying to tell him how she felt and getting it thrown back in her face, she won't let him toy with her emotions anymore. Literally two sentences later she's letting him pull her into his lap for a hug. But it's ok, she doesn't help him pull her into his lap, she makes him do all the work. Thatta girl. You stand firm!!! Oh yeah and then she starts crying. What a shock.

Her characters are also all stupid. For the sake of the story, there are things they don't think of or miss, so it can be revealed as a big plot twist later on, but they are so glaringly obvious they just come across as feckless idiots. How many times did they repeat, 'be careful when making deals with the fae'? but they missed out one of the most important terms of their bargain, even though they apparently went over all the points in theirs heads over and over. They still missed it. How stupid can you get? There was also a lot of fobbing off in the narrative. A lot of cliches thrown in, a botch job at covering up the holes in the plot, so the author didn't have to try to explain inconsistencies. Some examples were lines like, 'I was trying to protect you' and, dammit I can't remember any more. That's how quickly my brain wants to be rid of this book.

There is also the fact that the ending just kind of fizzles out. A solution is reached in rather lack lustre fashion, again with more stupidity on the part of the characters, the lead in particular, but it just carries on...and gets really stupid. Plus, for some reason, the author refused to stop writing about a character when his part in the plot was over long before the ending. The only reason he remained was most likely to retain the 'excitement and drama' of the love triangle. As it had already failed to begin with, there was absolutely no need to follow the continued escapades of the man who lost. Especially when he just ended up in a brothel.

Then it turned into a seedy porn fest. Nothing up to 'Fifty Shades' standards, but it was just unnecessary and cringe-worthy. Not all females want or need soft porn in their books to enjoy them. I did NOT need an chapterly update of the goings on in the main characters nether regions.

The overuse of the word 'dollymop' made me want to hit things.

Oh heck, there's more, but that goes against my non spoiler giving principles. Heaven forbid I ruin it for you just in case you still decide to pick this up.

Suffice it to say I shall not be reading the further adventures of Noli the insipid.

Wow, that was harsh.


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Saturday 4 August 2012

Anna and the French KissAnna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I should hate this book. It has a plot based around relationships of a particularly fluffy and cutsey nature, it was predictable, cliched, over-dramatic BUT I LOVED IT!!!!! In fact even while reading, I was thinking to myself, 'I shouldn't like this. This is just the sort of book I try to stay away from' but there was just something so charming about the whole thing, that I just couldn't help myself. I freely admit it. Me, who usually hates anything overly sentimental and tacky (not that this was tacky in any way.)

This book reminds me of those girls you used to know in school. You know the ones. Not only were they popular, beautiful, intelligent, athletic, they had to be just so gosh darned nice. No matter how hard you tried, no matter how much you wanted to, you just couldn't hate them. Not that I wanted to hate this, but you know what I mean. It didn't matter that the revelations, betrayals and drama were glaringly obvious, Perkins managed through her approachable writing style and witty characters, to make it impossible to resist. I couldn't hate it even if I wanted to. Like a snuggly duvet, I dove in and let it wrap it's soft cuddleyness around me.

Even the constant to-ing and fro-ing, will they/won't they, Ross 'n' Rachelness of the relationship I enjoyed the most, that butterfly in the tummy feeling of waiting for the moment that you hope will come, that you hope will be amazing and worth it and be everything you wanted it to be.

The plot? well ok there wasn't much of one beyond the growing closeness between the two leads, but what there is in the way of distractions compliment the story. I found myself being drawn more to Anna and Etiene's backstories, how each had found themselves in a school for American kids that just happened to be in France, romance capital of the world. Speaking of France, the way the author described Paris actually made me want to pack my bags and leave immediately. In fact sod the bag. And I don't even really like France (too many trips as a child). Her Paris was quaint, charming, oozing in elegance but above all beautiful.

A few gripes remain though. Etiene's 'Briticisms' threatened to distract me from the story on a few occasions, but being written for an American audience, it is understandable that the author would play up the 'Englishness', but still, I know that pissed means drunk. I haven't read a lot of UK YA authors, but I'm not sure there would be quite so many 'buggers', 'sods' and 'wankers' and I honestly didn't realise that American girls loved Brit boys so much. Is that actually true? Other than that there was little to displease.

So, yeah it was girly and smulchy and romantic, but sometimes that's just what we need, to believe in fairytale romances, that relationships that seem to good to be true could really exist. Why? for the simple reason that they ignite that glowy place in our tummies that makes us feel happy and ok with the world. And we know that these kinds of stories aren't real, but where's the harm in a little day-dreaming? So the drama is heightened and the scenarios are unrealistic? This book made me feel all warm and fluffy in my cold stone heart that is allergic to romance of the gag-worthy kind. And there is a little part of me that hopes that maybe, somewhere out there, there are people experiencing something like this. I even might envy them a little bit...but not much XD

The only reason it got 4 stars instead of 5, was that though they didn't get in the way of my overall enjoyment, there really were a lot of cliches!!! But that's what made it so much fun!!

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Touch of Power (Avry of Kazan, #1)Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Wahhhhh why? Why Maria would you do this to me? I love your books, all of them (though admittedly some more than others) but this?!!! I cannot speak, I am too overcome with all consuming disappointment....

...ok I'm done now. So that was a little over-dramatic and ever so slightly misleading. This book wasn't bad, in fact to most people this would probably prove to be a really worthwhile and rewarding endeavour. For me alas, this book held nothing new. I have read it before. It was called Poison Study, and was the authors first and best book to date.

The similarities are unfortunately many, from almost carbon copies of a number of characters to relationships developing in much the same fashion. For example, in Avry we have a new Yelena, Valek has been renamed, Kerrick. Even Ari and Janco (can't remember his name) make and appearance as Quain and Loren. As much as I liked the characters in Poison Study, I was hoping for something new, in fact I was expecting it, as the author has never let me down in the past.

Then we have the relationships. We have comradery of the dominantly male group, which harks to the bromantic affections Ari and Janco show to Yelena. The most notable similarity though, lies between the two leads. They begin hating each other with a passion (which was way too forced), then once they to get know each other, inevitably and unsurprisingly, feelings start to change. Shock!! There was one difference between this and Poison Study on the relationship and that was that I saw this blooming admiration coming a mile off. There was no subtlety, the characters quite stupid in their obliviousness to their feelings and of each others. Which was to say, devastating, as one of the reasons I loved Poison Study so much was the unpredictability of the relationships.

Not everything in in these two books was the same (as mentioned above). Where Poison Study had a plot that was both engaging and exciting, Touch of Power was sadly lacking. All they did was wander about and camp in caves. Every now and then they would get into some spot of trouble, but before long, they would be back to camping in caves. What we did see of the plot was brief and rather unsatisfying. I feel that if we had stepped away from the characters for two seconds, it could have been promising, but instead it was just a bit odd and random. Hopefully more will be explained in later volumes.

There was also a rather Mills and Boonish feel to the whole thing. A certain cheesyness that I found difficult to ignore. What with Kerrick and Avry's relationship being blindingly obvious, there was also a bit too much 'damsel-in-distressing' for my liking, which was at odds with Avry's personality. The end especially, when we are introduced to a fellow who pretty much wants to own Avry, claim her for himself, mostly just so Kerrick couldn't have her. It was just a bit bodice rippery, not in a graphic 'fifty shades' kind of way. I mean the guy pretty much brainwashes her into wanting him, controls her with his magic so she is powerless to resist him. And he's such a control freak. He goes ape shit when she doesn't wear the dress he picked out for her. What?!!!! I spent most of my time rolling my eyes whilst reading and truthfully, I'm finding it hard to explain exactly what it was that didn't sit well with me, without giving too much away (I fear I may have already said too much). The whole thing just seemed too contrived and pandering to the assumption that all females have fantasies of being dominated and rescued whilst pretending to be strong and feisty. Oh yeah, and the bad guy kept calling her 'my dear'. All. The. God. Damn. Time. It got VERY ANNOYING.

Everything was a bit too stereotypical and there wasn't much in the way of originality. It may seem like I am being way too harsh on this, but it's only because of how highly I rate Maria as an author. It is killing me having to say these things. Her stories usually inspire and shock and delight, but this one did none of those things, mainly because it held no surprises. If you are undecided as to whether to read this, I would say that if you have read Poison Study, then I wouldn't bother, you will find nothing knew here. If you haven't, then go read that instead!!

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Thursday 2 August 2012

The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby BrocketThe Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a great book recommend to those who love Roald Dahl. It has the unique child with the amazing gift but is stuck with despicable parents (and I mean it. I was appalled at how awful the mother and father were in this book. They should not have been allowed to have children and wanting to be THAT normal, is itself not normal at all!!!!) a la Matilda, with the kind of fantastical adventure (visits to a whole host of foreign countries, not to mention Outer space, or I should say Middle space) as seen in James and the Giant Peach (though with slightly less insects). Charming, fun but carrying the important message to those impressionable kids, that it's ok to be different, this is a great little read for youngsters.

It took me a while to get into as it's been a long time since I've read a book aimed at younger kids, but after I realigned my inner child, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Barnaby is a wonderful character and someone young people can really relate to (well, except for the floating).

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