Review: Grim by Christine Johnson

Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist, Grim contains short stories from some of the best voices in young adult literature today:

Ellen Hopkins
Amanda Hocking
Julie Kagawa
Claudia Gray
Rachel Hawkins
Kimberly Derting
Myra McEntire
Malinda Lo
Sarah Rees-Brennan
Jackson Pearce
Christine Johnson
Jeri Smith Ready
Shaun David Hutchinson
Saundra Mitchell
Sonia Gensler
Tessa Gratton
Jon Skrovan

Kindle Edition, 480 pages

Expected publication: February 25th 2014 by Harlequin Teen

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

GRIM is an anthology of short story retellings of fairy tales.  This is true.  However! not every story is as dark as the blurb promises.  It was a nice surprise to me that the stories are all mixed up: you have dark tales and funny tales, urban fantasy and science fiction.  GRIM ended up being a delightful collection in how eclectic it was.

I'm not going to go through every story's ups and downs individually; each story in the collection was enjoyable (though to varying degrees).  Some highlights for me where Julie Kagawa's THE BROTHERS PIGGETT, an awesomely dark tale, and also Sarah Rees Brennan's BEAUTY AND THE CHAD, which had me laughing out loud.  And although I personally didn't enjoy SKIN TRADE by Myra McEntire, it definitely made my skin crawl, and I'm sure there are those out there where that is exactly what they're looking for.  And that is my point: there is something for everyone in this anthology.  There was a lot of variation from each original story, but also from each story within the anthology.

All in all, a great collection of short stories perfect for anyone who wants to revisit some familiar tales, but each with a twist.  The authors are truly talented and packed so much emotion and fun into their stories.  It was a fast read and surprisingly easy to read in one sitting.  Each tale stood on it's own and didn't blend into one another while reading.  I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone, because who doesn't love a good fairy tale now and again?

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Hero by Alethea Kontis

Rough and tumble Saturday Woodcutter thinks she's the only one of her sisters without any magic—until the day she accidentally conjures an ocean in the backyard. With her sword in tow, Saturday sets sail on a pirate ship, only to find herself kidnapped and whisked off to the top of the world. Is Saturday powerful enough to kill the mountain witch who holds her captive and save the world from sure destruction? And, as she wonders grumpily, "Did romance have to be part of the adventure?" As in Enchanted, readers will revel in the fragments of fairy tales that embellish this action-packed story of adventure and, yes, romance.

 

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published October 1st 2013 by Harcourt Books

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

This book was a huge let down.  I adored ENCHANTED with its magical world chock full of fairy tales and was thrilled to read the sequel.  HOWEVER.  This sequel does not live up to any of my expectations.  Maybe the bar was set pretty high after how much I loved ENCHANTED, but HERO honestly doesn’t even come close on any level to the amount of enjoyment of its predecessor.

HERO follows Saturday Woodcutter, Sunday from the first book’s next oldest kin.  The non-magical sister gets a fantastical tale of her own: whisked away to a mountain cave inhabited by a witch, Saturday faces danger and excitement, with a touch of romance.  It sounds like this story couldn’t go wrong.

My first bone of contention?  Saturday.  Saturday Woodcutter is not nearly as fun to read as her little sister Sunday.  Whereas Sunday was whimsical and dreamy, Saturday is tomboyish and … boring.  She is a generic I-wish-I-were-a-boy character that had no original spunk.  Her lack of personality made reading her adventure tiresome, and I just couldn’t keep reading.

Next issue: the writing is pretty bad.  Alethea Kontis excels at writing interesting dialogue.  Other than that, everything gets confusing and isn’t described nearly enough -- there was never a moment where there was a beautifully painted picture of what was going on.  It seemed like guesswork whenever there was any action, where this was less of a problem in ENCHANTED.  The characters were what pulled you into the story and kept things interesting in addition to helping the reader find their way through the somewhat lacking prose.  In HERO, where I had no connection to the main character, the writing issues were all the more apparent and unforgivable.

HERO ended up being completely dissatisfying and disappointing.  I had other issues that I decided if I fully disclosed, this would turn more into a rant than review.  If you’re a fan of ENCHANTED, then you probably are going to pick up this book regardless.  Maybe with a bit of warning the reading experience will be more enjoyable for you.

Final Thought: 2 out of 5 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Indelible by Dawn Metcalf

Some things are permanent.

Indelible.

And they cannot be changed back.

Joy Malone learns this the night she sees a stranger with all-black eyes across a crowded room—right before the mystery boy tries to cut out her eye. Instead, the wound accidentally marks her as property of Indelible Ink, and this dangerous mistake thrusts Joy into an incomprehensible world—a world of monsters at the window, glowing girls on the doorstep, and a life that will never be the same.

Now, Joy must pretend to be Ink’s chosen one—his helper, his love, his something for the foreseeable future...and failure to be convincing means a painful death for them both. Swept into a world of monsters, illusion, immortal honor and revenge, Joy discovers that sometimes, there are no mistakes.

Somewhere between reality and myth lies…

Paperback, 384 pages

Published July 30th 2013 by Harlequin Teen 

 

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

I am going to get right to the chase: Indelible was a good book, but not a great book.  Not on the fence on being a great book either, it was just good.  It was enjoyable and I didn’t want to throw it across the room, but I didn’t ache to keep reading either.  The biggest pro is that Dawn Metcalf has a great imagination and has created a novel using new ideas -- something not seen terribly often.  She mixes faerie mythos and creatures from her own mind to create a new world for the reader.  However, fresh ideas do not necessarily make a great novel. 

The book revolves around a very original mythology of fae created by the author.  The world of Indelible is creative and great imagination food.  The issue became though, that there was very little that was original besides the backdrop of the story.  Joy is your average YA female lead; she doesn't have a particularly strong personality, she's not a dynamic character in any sense, and she's not particularly joyful.  She's not particularly anything.  Ink is your typical aloof male character, with his lack of interest at first but overall vulnerability that develops because of the female lead.  Though there were some very well done scenes between the two characters that sparked with emotion, overall it wasn’t enough for me.  The romance, which was more the focus of Indelible, was rather blah for a romance novel.

My big dilemma with the world building was the stark contrast of the original concepts in the world mixed with the bland romantic plot.  It felt to me as though the story was too original in some aspects for how unoriginal it was in others.  I got the overwhelming feeling at times that I had read this book before, but with a different backdrop.  It made it hard for me to continue reading at times as I found myself bored.

Indelible, in my opinion, is a book that readers are going to be torn about.  Some readers, those who are big fans of PNR in all forms and have a less discriminatory eye, will love this book.  Others who are craving something new will feel half starved and underwhelmed. 

Final Thought: 5 out of 10 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Splintered by A. G. Howard

This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.
 

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

Hardcover, 371 pages

Published January 1st 2013 by Amulet Books 

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

I went in hoping for a new absolute favorite, but I was on the fence about how I felt about this book for awhile after reading it.  While there were a ton of things in Splintered that I adored (especially the new versions of characters within Wonderland), I didn’t love everything.

What I did love was that I felt the author precisely captured the balance of lunacy and nonsense from the original Lewis Carroll books.  I was absolutely enamored with her version of Wonderland: a slightly darker and more demented one than the Lewis Carroll stories, but also more whimsical and nonsensical than the more recent Tim Burton movie.  If murderous flowers and a tentacled Walrus have you remotely intrigued, you will not want to miss Splintered.  It was the darker interpretation of Alice in Wonderland I was waiting for (the Tim Burton movie didn’t really do it for me).

Also the motivations for Alyssa to dive head first into Wonderland and sort out the madness made sense: save her mom.  It was relatable and understandable.  But what I was impressed with was how Alyssa goes about her quest, not just the wondrous world that A. G. Howard created along the way (though I could gush some more about it if you’d like).  Some solutions were quite clever, while others were dumb luck that was cleverly written.

I adored everything after we reached Wonderland, but before that, I did feel the book was lacking… something.  I felt the story was a bit immature before that point, and almost wanted to throw the book a few times.  Specifically, some of the actions and words of Alyssa and Jeb in regards to their friendship/relationship were just inexcusable.  Jeb has been Alyssa’s best friend since childhood, but at the beginning of the story has been dating the girl who has been her tormentor since elementary school.  I didn’t feel that the pairing of Jeb and Taelor was realistic, but even so I thought that the actions of these three characters when the story was getting starting were nothing short of douchebaggery and stupidity.  Jeb also for some reason likes to tell Alyssa what to do in the beginning, resulting in me wanting to reach into the book and give him a good punch in the face for feminism’s sake.

However.  Most of this is rectified by the end.  So anyone who is sensitive to stupid teenagers, do not beware but be aware: most of the issues I had were rectified by the end of the novel.  I felt everything kept getting better as I read, even in the relationship category and especially in the world-building category (it just went from great to awesome-sauce topping glory).  Therefore, I recommend to anyone who loves Alice in Wonderland (in any form, be it the original books or either movies).  I think Splintered has something for any kind of Wonderland fan.  Just remember, if you start to read and get annoyed with Jeb, that it does get better.

Final Thought: 4 out of 5 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888. As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.

An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.

The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?

Hardcover, 386 pages

Published January 10th 2012 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers 

(info grabbed from GoodReads) 

The Gathering Storm surprised me by being exactly what I expected, but in a way I didn’t expect it too.  I was not expecting to really like this book, as I thought mixing Russian history with the supernatural would be too… I don’t know, but it would be “too-something.”  But I didn’t find The Gathering Storm to be too anything; in fact, I thought it served up a generous heaping of both historical fiction and paranormal and mixed them seamlessly to form a dish that turned out to be “just right.”

I have been bored with historical fiction in the past by the slow pacing and lack of plot development, and I grew to expect that from all historical fiction.  That was incorrect of me, and any time you generalize to an entire genre it usually will be just that: an overgeneralization.  I was happy to find in The Gathering Storm a well paced plot while maintaining the sense of history in the novel.  The historical aspect seemed very accurate to me in terms of what nobility everyday life is like, and even felt that the writing fit.  Not that it read like late 19^th century literature, just that the prose wasn’t as relaxed as contemporary paranormal.

The insert of paranormal elements into the Russian court was like adding a needed spice to a dish -- it would have been incomplete without it.  At first, I thought having fairies mingling within court a bit odd, but it grew on me.  I thought Katerina’s response to her own gift of necromancy (she saw it as a curse) was appropriate for the character and the time period.  Raising the dead unintentionally is pretty scary and her reluctance towards exploring her ability was understandable (though maybe a little annoying for me as I heart some zombies).  

The Gathering Storm is a great start to a potentially superb trilogy.  I loved how it felt like a complete book in and of itself while still alluding to its sequel, as some other trilogies have failed to do.  The addition of the paranormal to history was something I had not anticipated liking as much as I did.  I would recommend it to anyone who thinks the mix of paranormal and historical fiction sounds intriguing and is craving something a bit different.

Final Thought: 5 out of 7 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads