Shelf Talkers Anonymous

Wednesday Review: Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

Wed, 30 May 2012 04:26:46 -0700

This is not your average book about witches: the Cahill sisters live in a alternate New England that is ruled over by the oppressive and overzealous Brothers who seek to rid the world of witches by controlling women. And the Cahill sisters are witches, three sisters that may be the subject of an old prophecy, trying to find a place in their world. A great romance in the style of the Regency and Gothic romances, and a exciting new take on the world of witchcraft and religion in colonial times, Born Wicked was a delight to read and a heart-wrenching beginning to a new series.

The three sisters offer a wonderful diversity: Cate is the oldest and the most sensible, taking care of her younger sisters in the wake of their mother’s death and giving up her own hopes in the process; Maura is the middle sister, with her head in a book every chance she gets, grand dreams of the world outside their little town, and a distaste for everything the Brothers say is good and proper for a woman; Tess is the youngest, new to her magic and eager to learn, simply wishing for her family to be stable and happy. The story is told from Cate’s perspective, but we get a good dose of both of her sisters through her eyes. Though she is always calling Tess the most perceptive, Cate is well tuned to her sisters desires and needs, perhaps more so than even her own.

This is certainly a romance from the very start—Cate is mere months away from having to choose a husband or join the Sisterhood (the nuns associated with the Brothers), and her options are limited. Paul, her childhood friend, is home from University and seeking her hand, but friendship has not turned to love for Cate like it has for Paul. Then the ginger-haired, freckled, book-loving Finn enters her life and Cate finds that love is something wild and wonderful and worth fighting for. But as the date of her seventeenth birthday approaches, the world narrows in on Cate and she discovers that simply choosing to love someone does not solve all your problems.

While it is certainly a romance, Born Wicked is also a mystery. The sisters’ mother was also a witch, but she was able to teach them very little before she died. Now years later Cate receives a mysterious letter telling her to seek her mother’s diary, and when she finds the hidden journal, Cate finds that her and her sisters’ lives are far more complicated than she ever imagined. Because they are not just budding witches hiding from the Brothers: they are also the subject of an old prophecy, one that says they will either bring about a new golden age of witches, or a second terror of the Brotherhood.

My favorite part about this book was the world building. Cate and her sisters live in an alternate version of New England. There is no United States, and the rest of the colonies are still controlled by the Spanish. The world is vast and grand, with trade stretching all the way from New Mexico City to the shimmering desserts of Dubai. While Cate and her sisters chafe in the constrictions of their world, they hear about the wonders of the outside world, where women roam free in trousers, taking lovers where the wish, and keeping their own money. These freedoms once belonged to the women of New England when witches ruled the land, and the prophecy about Cate and her sisters promises that this freedom could return again. Jessica even touches on issues of sexuality with her world building, spreading stories throughout her grand world, and then bringing it solidly home and terrifyingly real for the girls of her story. Freedom for the girls of New England isn’t just about choosing who you marry: it’s about choosing everything you do in your life.

This was certainly not the most rough-and-tumble action-filled story, but it was very well-written and engaging in its own sort of quiet of way. The ending will have you glued to your seat until the very last page, and then leave you frustratingly desperate for more.

Book of the Day: The Last Princess by Galaxy Craze

Wed, 30 May 2012 03:55:42 -0700

Happily ever after is a thing of the past.

A series of natural disasters has decimated the earth. Cut off from the rest of the world, England is a dark place. The sun rarely shines, food is scarce, and groups of criminals roam the woods, searching for prey. The people are growing restless.

When a ruthless revolutionary sets out to overthrow the crown, he makes the royal family his first target. Blood is shed in Buckingham Palace, and only sixteen-year-old Princess Eliza manages to escape.

Determined to kill the man who destroyed her family, Eliza joins the enemy forces in disguise. She has nothing left to live for but revenge, until she meets someone who helps her remember how to hope—and to love—once more. Now she must risk everything to ensure that she not become… The Last Princess.

Book of the Day: Silence by Michelle Sagara West

Tue, 29 May 2012 03:56:15 -0700

It began in the graveyard. Ever since her boyfriend Nathan died in a tragic accident Emma had been coming to the graveyard at night. During the day she went through the motions at her prep school, in class, with her friends, but that’s all it was. But tonight was different. Tonight Emma and her dog were not alone in the cemetery. There were two others there—Eric, who had just started at her school, and an ancient woman who looked as though she were made of rags. And when they saw Emma there, the old woman reached out to her with a grip as chilling as death…

To read before I read anything else...

Mon, 28 May 2012 16:15:52 -0700

I’ve been piling up books that I own on my shelf but have not read. So in an effort to make my bookshelf a “I have read these things” shelf, I am going to try and read most of these unread books (at leas the YA ones). Here’s the list I’m going to spend the next month working my way through:

Overweight Heroines

Mon, 28 May 2012 15:46:22 -0700

Over at the YALSA Hub they’re talking about the recent emergence of overweight heroines in young adult novels. They talk about two contemporary pieces, but I think they’ve left out a very important addition to this topic: The Girl of Fire and Thorns. It’s an amazing book, and really deals with the issues of weight and self-image in some great and refreshing ways.

Check out the YALSA article here.

Who is the best couple in YA?

Mon, 28 May 2012 15:36:25 -0700

Vote at the YALSA Hub! Here’s how the votes stack up so far…

Hazel and Augustus/Gus (The Fault in Our Stars) (39%, 16 Votes)
Katniss and Peeta (The Hunger Games) (22%, 9 Votes)
Tris and Four (Divergent) (15%, 6 Votes)
Tiny Cooper and Will Grayson (Will Grayson, Will Grayson) (10%, 4 Votes)
Clary and Jace (The Mortal Instruments) (7%, 3 Votes)
Ash and Meghan (The Iron Fey series) (2%, 1 Votes)
Nora and Patch (Hush, Hush) (2%, 1 Votes)
Brittany Ellis and Alex Fuentes (Perfect Chemistry) (2%, 1 Votes)
Deryn and Alek (Leviathan trilogy) (0%, 0 Votes)
Stefan and Elena (The Vampire Diaries) (0%, 0 Votes)
Bella and Edward (Twilight) (1%, 0 Votes)

Middle Grade Monday: The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom

Mon, 28 May 2012 11:29:19 -0700

A wonderful, hilarious, rollicking re-imagining of all the fairy-tales you thought you knew.The Princes Charming: Frederic, Gustav, Liam, and Duncan are the best kinds of heroes, and their stories (along with their unwitting heroines: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Briar Rose) will delight boys and girls.

So many fairy-tale re-tellings take the stance that Prince Charming is the same guy, and he happened to marry all the princesses. This of course leads to the conclusion that he is less than perfect, and his relationships with our favorite princesses less than true love. Many times Prince Charming ends up being the bad guy—or sometimes just the skeezy guy. The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kindgom comes at this dilemma from a different angle: what if the Prince Charming from all the stories was just some name used by the bards and storytellers to refer to wholly different men? Thus enters the princes of this novel, all flawed and yet heroic in their own quirky ways. It’s perhaps the best premise for a fairy-tale re-telling I’ve seen in a long time; because when you put four wayward princes together and send them off to rescue their world, nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

The best part about the heroes of this book is that they are all so real, as opposed to their fairy-tale counterpart Prince Charming. They each have flaws and challenges that they are overcoming in their own lives, but in the end their differences make them the perfect team. And the fact that none of them have been properly recognized for their heroic deeds—Prince Charming always gets the glory—makes them even more motivated to save the day. They are the kind of heroes that you want to read about: funny, brave, terrified, and the kind of man that you would want to be best friends with (or marry).

The princesses of the story were also unique in their own ways. Cinderella is the adventurous one, flying across the kingdoms in search of excitement, and running into our princes at the worst (and funniest) of times. Snow White is an odd duck, but loyal and courageous even if she does wear an inordinate amount of bows. Rapunzel is a bit of a wild card in the story, but an important role nonetheless. Briar Rose takes an interesting turn, and offers up a bit of the villain’s role (even though she is not per se evil, just a little spoiled).

The narrative voice throughout is funny and insightful. Bouncing from one prince’s head to the next, we get to follow the princes exploits from all of their perspectives, giving you a chance to get to know them all equally. We even get to join the princesses for a while, which is a great treat.

The best part of all is the “happily ever after,” because there isn’t one. Sure things end for the best, but there is no perfect fix to the princes problems in this world: they have to fix it themselves. So instead of ending on a ride into the sunset, it ends with them plotting their next adventure, and a guide for other hero’s to come…

A truly excellent debut, and a great addition to fairy-tale re-tellings.

Book of the Day: Slated by Teri Terry

Mon, 28 May 2012 03:56:53 -0700

Kyla’s memory has been erased,
her personality wiped blank,
her memories lost for ever.

She’s been Slated.

The government claims she was a terrorist, and that they are giving her a second chance - as long as she plays by their rules. But echoes of the past whisper in Kyla’s mind. Someone is lying to her, and nothing is as it seems. Who can she trust in her search for the truth?

Book of the Day: Gilt by Katherine Longshore

Sun, 27 May 2012 04:00:06 -0700

In the court of King Henry VIII, nothing is free—
and love comes at the highest price of all.

When Kitty Tylney’s best friend, Catherine Howard, worms her way into King Henry VIII’s heart and brings Kitty to court, she’s thrust into a world filled with fabulous gowns, sparkling jewels, and elegant parties. No longer stuck in Cat’s shadow, Kitty’s now caught between two men—the object of her affection and the object of her desire. But court is also full of secrets, lies, and sordid affairs, and as Kitty witnesses Cat’s meteoric rise and fall as queen, she must figure out how to keep being a good friend when the price of telling the truth could literally be her head.

YA Trends

Sat, 26 May 2012 04:27:40 -0700

Here are the trends the readers at YALSA’s The Hub think are up and coming in YA lit. What do you think the new trends are?

Personally I think dystopias are still going to reign. And dark, edgy fairty-tale retellings are taking a close second.

Jack the Ripper. Between September of last year and this month, three Ripper-based books have been published: Maureen Johnson’s The Name of the Star, Ripper by Stefan Petrucha, andRipper by Amy Carol Reeves. I actually think this is a sub-trend of a bigger serial killers trend (see also: Barry Lyga’s I Hunt Killers) but three books featuring the same historical figure in seven months is worth nothing.

– Emily Calkins

Serial Killers. Maureen Johnson was onto something with The Name of the Star. Books with serial killers that either just came out or are soon to be published include I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga, My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf, Ripper by Stefan Petrucha, Ripper by Amy Carol Reeves, and a nonfiction book on the Boston Strangler by Paul Hoblin.
– Erin Daly

One mini-trend I’ve noticed is teens scavenging to survive. I think this was inspired by the success of the Printz Award-winning Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, but I’ve also recently seen it in Trash by Andy Mulligan and The Glass Collector by Anna Perera. I’m sure there are more!

I’m also not quite sure I’ve seen enough of these for it to be a trend, but I’ve noticed circuses popping up in YA lit recently, too. There’s Circus Galacticus by Deva Fagan and Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby, but I’m not sure two books constitutes a trend. The Night Circus was written for adults but was an Alex Award recipient this year, so maybe I can count that?
– Gretchen Kolderup

One thing I feel like I’m seeing more and more of is dual-perspective books where the chapters go back and forth between and male and female characters’ perspectives. Some examples off the top of my head are Incarceron, The Scorpio Races, Across the Universe, and Legend.

Also, I swear a couple years ago I had never heard the word Nephilim before, and then after reading the Cassandra Clare books I’m seeing it everywhere–from Becca Fitzgerald’s books and other supernatural series to Printz winner Where Things Come Back.
– Annie Schutte

A trend I continue to see in YA is how to get rid of the ‘rents. I’ve taken to predicting how the author will get those pesky parental units out of the way so the teens can {save the world, have a romance, catch a killer, see dead people, etc}. We can even look for “sub-trends” in this. Will it continue to be boarding school, or car wrecks, or death by a mythological creature, or complete unobservancy, or abandonment, or going on a trip and leaving the kid home alone? What will these ingenious YA authors think of next?
– Michelle Blank

Game of Thrones for teens is one of the trends I’ve been keeping an eye on–there are at least two I can think of coming out this fall: Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes (Razorbill) and Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury).
– Kelly Jensen

I don’t know if the authors are aware this but my teen readers are constantly asking for science fiction, not dystopias. They also ask for books where they aren’t any grownups. A trend of a futuristic world where everyone is young would be very popular in fiction with my readers.
– Laura Perenic

A trend I see coming, other than a glut of dark dystopian/whimsical dystopian novels (is that even a thing?) is straight-up, non-dystopian, space-ships-and-aliens science fiction for teens. Possibly this is wishful thinking on my part, but a handful of titles have surfaced that make me hopeful. I’m thinking books like Across the Universe, Glow, Black Hole Sun, Partials, the Star Kingdom series (first book by David Weber, the ones to follow by Jane Lindskold), Losers in Space, John Scalzi’s Redshirts (which is published for adults, but should have big crossover appeal), Cinder, etc. I’m seeing more books actually set in space, and with the excitement building over the Ender’s Game movie (plus lots of other SF films coming up) I think (hope!) there will be more and more.

What would I like to see as a future trend? Girls’ adventure novels, exceptional mythic fiction, and more books about completely average teens with no special powers, super-lineage, or extraordinary fates who manage to be amazing anyway.
– Julie Bartel

I’ve been noticing a trend of amateur girl-sleuth stories, a more hip and updated Nancy Drew. Examples include Kim Harrington’s stories Clarity and Perception, Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig (who does the opposite of solving a mystery, instead perpetuating a crime–but it definitely has the same feel to it),Deadly Cool and Social Suicide by Gemma Halliday. The female protagonists may not be the most popular girls in school but they stumble into murder and mischief, cheating and scandals very easily and then use clues to help their classmates. There’s a bit of romance and snappy dialogue and they’re just really quick and fun reads!
– Sarah Wethern

I just read two separate series that feature poisons explicitly: This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel (book #1 in a trilogy; the second, Such Wicked Intent comes out this August) and The Poison Diaries andThe Poison Diaries: Nightshade by Maryrose Wood (book #1 and #2 in a trilogy).

I’ve also seen a few ballet titles come out in the last few months. Zombies are also popular, so I think zombie ballet dancers are going to be the next big thing in dance-related books.
– Amanda Margis

A trend I see? Girls who know how to kill people. Trained assassins, bodyguards, mage warriors, and girls who are just good with knives. It’s a long-standing trend, but it’s definitely building momentum. Ismae from Grave Mercy immediately comes to mind, as well as Tris from Divergent and Insurgent, Vienne from Black Hole Sun and Invisible Sun and Clary in The Mortal Instruments. There are probably more!
– Jessica Pryde

Ghosts are a Girls Best Friend–or ARE they? In Ruined by Paula Morris, graphic novel Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol, and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, we see girls with ghostly friends. I think this is an interesting trend because so often the ghosts and the girls they befriend both embody the loneliness of being an outsider and finally finding that ONE friend, but also the slightly sinister way that manipulation and mistrust can play into teen girl relationships.
– Mia Cabana

Additionally, we had a few playful ideas about what might be coming in YA lit:

We’re going to see hard-boiled noir detective stories come back. Big time. The world-weary detectives, the femmes fatales … these books will be trouble, but we find ourselves irresistibly drawn to their danger, their allure. We know we won’t come back from this trend.
– Maria Kramer

YA fiction will spill over into other categories, and we’ll see self-help books that capitalize on the popularity of YA fiction, including Make Your Relationship Sparkle: Un-dead Your Marriage, Dystopia in the Cubicles: Surviving at Work, The Zombies Next Door: A Guide to Suburban Living, and He Who Must Not Be Named: How I Learned to Stop Hating Myself and Conquer My Rivals.
– Joel Bruns

Book of the Day: Shadow Bound by Rachel Vincent

Sat, 26 May 2012 03:58:21 -0700

If you live in the dark long enough, you begin to forget the light…

KORI DANIELS is a shadow-walker, able to travel instantly from one shadow to another. After weeks of confinement for betraying her boss, she’s ready to break free of the Tower syndicate for good. But Jake Tower has one final job for Kori, one chance to secure freedom for herself and her sister, Kenley, even if that means taking it from someone else…

The job? Recruit Ian Holt—or kill him.

Ian’s ability to manipulate the dark has drawn interest from every syndicate in the world, most notably an invitation from Jake Tower. Though he has no interest in organized crime, Ian accepts the invite, because he’s on a mission of his own. Ian has come to kill Tower’s top Binder: Kori’s little sister.

Amid the tangle of lies, an unexpected thread of truth connecting Ian and Kori comes to light. But with opposing goals, they’ll have to choose between love and liberty…

Books that make you want to change your life

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:43:12 -0700

Kate McNair over at the YALSA Hub, says that these books make her want to change her life:

The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Nothing by Janne Teller

The only one of these I’ve read is The Fault in Our Stars (and it is a totally amazing book, maybe even life-changing). But I think my list would be a little different. These are the books that make me want to change my life (and why):

1. Graceling by Kristin Cashore: Katsa makes me want to get up from the computer and go out and actually live. But maybe not the extreme of hiking over a whole mountain range.

2. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede: this just makes me want to go out and have more adventures. I need to find some wizards to soak with some soapy water and a squirt of lemon juice.

3. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde: I need to read more. Like all the classics referenced in this series that I haven’t read yet.

4. Divergent by Veronica Roth: I so wish I could be as kick-ass as Tris.

Cover Watch: The Glimpse by Claire Merle

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:29:24 -0700

I find this cover fascinating, considering that this book is a dystopia. To me this cover screams: realistic love story. But ins some ways, I think it could work for its title.

First, The Glimpse is not the typical dystopia to come out: it’s about mental illness, sort of an untouched topic for dystopia. Mental illness has certainly been a part of other books, but not the focus. Here’s a bit from the Goodreads summar:

In a near future, society is segregated according to whether people are genetically disposed to mental illness. 17-year-old Ana has been living the privileged life of a Pure due to an error in her DNA test. When the authorities find out, she faces banishment from her safe Community, a fate only thwarted by the fact that she has already been promised to Pure-boy Jasper Taurell.

Considering this theme, I can see why a more “realistic” cover might be appropriate. Certainly other books about this topic have covers more like this, so readers who like that kind of book might be more drawn to read it. The cut-out heart wrapped in barbed wire in a very striking image, and could potentially work for both realistic and dystopia readers. The font is very in style with many of the new dystopias (it makes me think Cinder), but it’s also riding that line of being almost lovey-dovey.

Overall I think this design is a little confused. Is it a love story or a dystopia? Obviously the publisher thought that the realistic love story was more important to play up than the dystopia. I’ll have to read it to pass judgement muyyself.

Book of the Day: Taken by Storm by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:55 -0700

Bryn knows first-hand that being the alpha of a werewolf pack means making hard decisions, and that being human makes things a thousand times worse. She’s prepared to give up her humanity, but the wolf who promised to Change her is waiting - though for what, Bryn doesn’t know. Still human, she must take her place in the werewolf Senate, the precarious democracy that rules the North American packs. Standing side by side with werewolves who were ancient long before she was ever born is enough of a challenge, but Bryn soon learns that the Senate has been called to deal with a problem: the kind of problem that involves human bodies, a Rabid werewolf, and memories that Bryn, Chase, and the rest of their pack would rather forget. With bodies stacking up and political pressure closing in from all sides, Bryn and her pack are going to have to turn to old enemies and even older friends for help - especially when it starts to look like this time, the monster might be one of their own.

10 YA Books that still haunt us

Thu, 24 May 2012 19:44:11 -0700

Do you have any haunting memories of reading these books (or are they still nagging at you today)? I know that my days reading HatchetÂ were some of the mostÂ frustratingÂ of my life. Mostly because I was a twelve year old girl and I liked fantasy; I would have rather read the dictionary than Hatchet. The Golden CompassÂ definitely still sticks with me, but in a good way. And I totally have nightmares sometimes about Lord of the Flies.

Hatchet, Gary Paulsen

In this novel, Brianâs plane crashes, leaving him alone in the wilderness with only his hatchet to rely on, staying alive on his wits and this one archaic tool. Okay, we learned some survival skills, but we canât evenÂ bringÂ hatchets on planes anymore. We canât even bring Swiss army knives! We bought a Swiss army knife after reading this book and then realized it totally wouldnât help in a plane crash situation! This book just reinforced our feeling that we would probably die if stranded in the wilderness for 54 days. Sigh.

Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls

Look, as far as weâre concerned, this book is not appropriate for children. Your humble author read it in the third grade, when the teachers realized I was bored stiff with the picture books they were prescribing to the rest of the class. I fell out of my chair crying. Spoiler alert, but at the end, the one dog dies, and then the other dog dies ofÂ sadness. That is just the worst thing I had ever heard. It still might be.

The Giver, Lois Lowry

The ending of this book has been plaguing us for oh, almost two decades now. The premise is startling enough â a world without color, emotion, or any free will â and we still think of the stern lesson in âlanguage precisionâ Jonas received whenever we whine that weâre âstarving,â but the ending is what keeps us up at night. The way we see it, there are only two possibilities: either Jonas finds the non-dystopian world of his dreams, filled with soft light and warm food, or itâs a death hallucination. Sadly, we sort of think itâs the latter.

Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson

Itâs bad enough when animals die in books, but this was probably the first book we read where a kid â a kid our age â died too. Plus, Paterson took so much care to make her awesome before she killed her off. Lesson learned: stay away from rope swings at all costs. Especially if youâre an atheist.

Loganâs Run, William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson

Another book centered around a futuristic dystopian society, this one ageist to the point where they have it all set up so you happily go to your death as soon as you hit age 21 and the little shiny crystal in your hand turns black. Â Needless to say, this book has only gotten more profound (well, sort of) as weâve gotten older, but we remember being horrified by it even at a young age, examining our palms and eyeing our parents and teachers with mistrust whenever they asked us to go anywhere. We would not be summarily executed on our birthdays. No, sir.

Lizard Music, Daniel Pinkwater

Pinkwater is pretty much the weirdest, and your intrepid authorâs father enjoyed pressing his books into her hands just to see what faces sheâd make. In this one, Victor, home alone for two weeks, sees some giant lizards playing in a band on late-night TV. Turns out no one knows anything about them except the Chicken Man, who leads Victor on a absurd, hilarious, wild lizard chase to an invisible island. This had us both hooked on and terrified of television for years.

The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman

So letâs get this straight: there is a woman kidnapping children to do sick experiments on them â separating them from their souls, essentially â and then we find out itâs our heroineâsÂ mom? Thatâs just not right. Also, we want our own personal daemons, stat. No, that teddy bear wonât do, Mom. What is this, more torture?

The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis

We probably donât have to explain to you why these books were so scarring, but letâs put it this way: more than one of our friends has a story about how, when she finished the final book, she fell to the ground crying, wailing that she had to die, or sheâd never get to Narnia. Sure, we donât think that anymore (we get it, itâs a Christian allegory), but you canât deny itâs a pretty messed up message to send to a kid.

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

Like everyone else (probably), this book had looking at our classmates with distrust when we read it in school. Ever since weâve been plagued by the question â what would we do? Would our animal instincts take over? Would we hunt pigs? Would we hunt Piggy? We just donât know, but this book terrified us.

White Fang, Jack London

New GirlâsÂ Schmidt isnât the only one whose life choices have been informed by the end of Londonâs classic. True, weâve never personally âWhite Fangedâ anyone, but we canât say weâve never thought about it. Itâs kill or be killed, after all.

Use books to survive: Seattle boy says Pendragon books saved his life

Thu, 24 May 2012 19:38:18 -0700

A kid from Seattle nearly drowned this weekend when he went out to go swimming in the Wallace River. As he struggled to stay afloat, heading towards a water fall, he remember the Pendragon books by D.J. McHale:

After slipping into the fast-moving river during a hike Saturday afternoon above Wallace Middle Falls, Hickman heeded the advice of the book’s hero and rode feet first down a 10-foot waterfall, trying to avoid the center of the river where the current was at its strongest. But he didn’t avoid all rocks, grabbing one only feet from the towering falls, a move that likely saved the Burien boy’s life.

Craziness. Good reason to read. Also, the Pendragon books are excellent middle grade/young adult boy books. And just fun all around.

You can read the rest of the article from the Seattle Times here.

Book of the Day: Dark Kiss by Michelle Rowen

Thu, 24 May 2012 03:59:34 -0700

I don’t do dangerous. Smart, über-careful, ordinary Samantha-that’s me. But I just couldn’t pass up a surprise kiss from my number-one unattainable crush. A kiss that did something to me…something strange. Now I feel hungry all the time, but not for food. It’s like part of me is missing-and I don’t know if I can get it back. Then there’s Bishop. At first I thought he was just a street kid, but the secrets he’s keeping are as intense as his unearthly blue eyes. If he’s what I think he is, he may be the only one who can help me. But something terrifying is closing in, and the one chance Bishop and I have to stop it means losing everything I ever wanted and embracing the darkness inside me…. NIGHTWATCHERS When angels and demons must work together, something beyond evil is rising…

Wednesday Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Wed, 23 May 2012 04:30:12 -0700

Uglies is the story of a world where at sixteen you have an operation that turns you pretty. Tally is two months away from joining her friends and her destiny in New Pretty Town with a brand new face. But then she meets Shay, who doesn’t want to become pretty, and Tally’s whole world changes. A wonderful story of friendship and discovery, Uglies exposes the underbelly of society’s self-image and what we will all do to be considered beautiful.

Uglies is not your typical YA dystopia, partly explained by the fact that it was written several years before The Hunger Games began this whole dystopia phenomenon again. The major differences between Uglies and current dystopias: 1) it’s in third person instead of first, and 2) the romance is far less important.

Being in third person means that you do not get to experience the book with Tally directly. You are removed from her head—though you are allowed into her thoughts—and this does create a bit of a disconnect between you and Tally, which is what I felt was the book’s only true flaw. Current dystopias succeed so well at sucking us into the story because you are put immediately into the head of the main character, learning about their world and their position from the first page. It took a little while to get to know Tally and to care about her. Of course once you do get to know her, she’s a great character to follow, and a wonderful heroine. She’s resourceful and brave, without really knowing that she is, and she does her best to follow her heart, even when her society is trying to force her to conform.

The fact that the romance is far less pronounced as in current dystopias was a bit of a blessing. I like a good romance as much as the next reader, but it can get tiring to have a book be so dependent for a good portion of the plot on whether “they get together.” Romance has always been an important part of dystopias (think 1984 and Atlas Shrugged), and should remain that way. But it was nice to see that the quest for discovery and the challenge of growing up was more important in this story than which dude she was going to fall for. Of course the hint of romance is present almost from page one, and does provide a great driving force to the climax. Scott balances his heroine’s need for a kiss with her need to survive very well.

The commentary on the idea of self-image and beauty in this book was provoking, almost to the point where it stings. Who hasn’t thought about the one little thing they would like to “fix” about themselves? Uglies takes that impulse, which has certainly been a part of human society since long before we had plastic surgery, and pokes at the dark underbelly of it. What is everyone in the world go their one fix? Would we be more beautiful? Or just more the same? Uglies offers wonderful questions in its pursuit of the humanity hiding under the science of its world. It doesn’t necessarily offer clear answers, but then the best books don’t.

Book of the Day: Shine by Jeri Smith-Ready

Wed, 23 May 2012 04:00:45 -0700

In this dramatic conclusion to the Shade trilogy, Aura and Zachary’s relationship sizzles as the secrets of the Shift are revealed.

Life can change in an instant, and no one understands that better than Aura. It’s been almost a year since her boyfriend tragically died. She’s finally letting go of Logan’s violet-hued ghost, but not her search to uncover the truth about her past.

As the first in a generation that can see ghosts, Aura is convinced she has a connection to the Shift. She’s trusted Zachary, ever patient and ever by her side, with all that she knows. But when the government threatens his life in an attempt to learn Aura’s secrets, she will stop at nothing to protect herself and the one she loves…even if that means betraying her own heart.

Book of the Day: Darkness before Dawn by J.A. London

Tue, 22 May 2012 04:00:12 -0700

This electrifying new trilogy blends the best of paranormal and dystopian storytelling in a world where the war is over. And the vampires won.

Humans huddle in their walled cities, supplying blood in exchange for safety. But not even that is guaranteed. Dawn has lost her entire family and now reluctantly serves as the delegate to Lord Valentine, the most powerful vampire for miles. It isn’t until she meets Victor, Valentine’s son, that she realizes not all vampires are monsters….

Darkness Before Dawn is a fresh new story with captivating characters, unexpected plot twists, a fascinating setting, and a compelling voice. Written under the name J. A. London by a talented mother-son team, the trilogy is perfect for fans of True Blood and the House of Night and Morganville Vampires series.