YA

Audiobook: The Boneshaker

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by Kate Milford
Read by: Erin Moon
Content: some intense moments (the Devil’s pretty scary), some violence, some disturbing images (if it were a movie). Language is probably suitable for someone reading on a 5th grade level. Has the feel of an older Middle Grade book, so I’d probably put it in the YA section (grades 6-8) at the bookstore.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

It’s 1914, and 13-year-old Natalie Minks has a pretty good life. Her father is the local mechanic — bicycle, mostly, but he’ll tinker with cars — and her mother tells the most amazing stories about their town, Arcane. Natalie herself has a predisposition for both: she loves tinkering with her father as well as listening to her mother’s stories.

Then one day Dr. Jake Limberleg’s Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show comes to town. It was a fluke — their front wheel came off at the crossroads, and they decided to set up shop while they waited for Mr. Minks to fix their wagon. And that’s when the Trouble starts. Natalie, for better or for worse, is tuned into it and with her frienemy Miranda (I think that’s what her name was; I can’t look it up in the book!) and her trusty Chesterlane Eidolon bicycle (a bone shaker of an old thing that would be the fastest in the world, if Natalie could ever ride it), she decides to take on Limberleg and solve the mystery, saving her town. If she can.

I don’t know how I can write about the way this captured my attention. Sure, I was on a long drive to Austin, and it had my full attention anyway, but I didn’t want to stop listening. Milford has taken the idea of a Faustian Bargain — you know: those stories where a character meets the Devil and then outsmarts Old Scratch? — and elevated it. Not only is there two elements to this bargain, but we get historical elements thrown in as well. The traveling medicine show (I loved the Paragons of Science, even though they were Evil), the bicycles, the references to the “war” (which took me a minute to realize they meant the Civil War): it all added Atmosphere, which made the fantasy element, the bargains with the Devil at the Crossroads, that much creepier.

(It also helped that I kept thinking about this song:)

In short: a winner of a book.

Rose Under Fire

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by Elizabeth Wein
First sentence: “I just got back from Celia Forester’s funeral.”
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Content: there were a lot of f-bombs (I didn’t count them) that came up once at the concentration camp (understandable) and other mild swearing throughout. Also a number of disturbing images and content (Nazi concentration camps don’t make for Light Reading). It is most definitely one I wouldn’t hand to a kid under the age of 13 or 14 (depending on their maturity handling Difficult Situation), whether or not they were on the reading level, so it’s shelved in my Teen section (grades 9-12) at the bookstore.

I don’t quite know where to start with this one. Once I discovered it was a Holocaust novel (as opposed to just a WWII novel), I put off reading it. I don’t like Holocaust novels, mostly because I don’t like being confronted with the evil things the Nazis did. But, because it was Elizabeth Wein, and because it’s a companion to Code Name Verity, I bravely gave it a shot.

And I found myself sucked into the world of women pilots, of strong, resilient women who know how to survive. It’s odd to say this about a Holocaust book, but I loved it.

Rose Justice is an American who has pulled strings to get enlisted as a transport pilot for the RAF. She’s doing her duty, blissfully unaware of the evils of the Nazis. Sure, they’re the Enemy, but the can’t be as horrible as they all say, right? Then, on a mission, she chases after a flying bomb (German pilotless planes loaded with bombs), gets lost over enemy territory, and ends up in Ravensbrück.

Even I, who actively avoids anything Holocaust, know about the horrors of Ravensbrück.

And yet, even though Wein captures the horrors, and the crimes, and the terribleness (I can’t seem to find a word strong enough) of Ravensbrück, it isn’t a hopeless, dark book. Even though Rose is changed permanently by her six months (only six measly months! How did people survive years there?), she retains her will to survive. And Wein has created a cohort of strong, amazing, wonderful (again, there is no word strong enough) women who do just that: survive. It’s amazing — and inspiring — to read.

I’m so glad I did.

All the Truth That’s in Me

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by Julie Berry
ages: 13+
First sentence: “We came here by ship, you and I.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy pilfered off the ARC shelves at work.

Two girls go missing. One turns up dead, floating in the stream. Two years later, the other one returns to the small town, intact, but with her tongue cut out. The villagers — from the preacher to her own mother — call her cursed, and shun her.

I’ve tried to sum up what goes on in the rest of the book, but I’ve found that I don’t really want to give too much away. Because much of the pleasure I got from reading this (in one sitting!) was not knowing that much about it. I will tell you this: at first, I thought it was a fantasy setting, because I think that’s what I was expecting. It’s not. Even though it’s not explicitly stated, it’s a Puritan setting, somewhere on the east coast. And the religion and mores that those communities set out play a major role in the book. And, even though it’s a story about kidnapping and murder, and you fear the worst for Judith, I will tell you that, as the story unfolds, it’s not the worst. It’s bad, but it’s not as bad as it gets.

The meat of the story is Judith — she’s the girl that returns — and her road to healing. For, in spite of everything that the village (and her mother) heaps on her, she does need to heal. It’s this process that is the true story. How Judith salvages her life from her trauma and reclaims her own sense of self. How she finds friends in the face of all the opposition in the town. How she even finds love. It’s a testament to the power of truth, to the power of the human spirit.

Remarkable.

The House of Hades

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Heroes of Olympus, book 4
by Rick Riordan
ages: 12+
First sentence: “During the third attack, Hazel almost ate a boulder.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, Mark of Athena

First off: I liked this one SO much better than Mark of Athena. I am glad for that.

The plot picks up right after MoA left off (actually, one of my favorite things about the book is the dedication. I love how Rick knows his fans.), with Percy and Annabeth in Tartarus and the rest of the seven (Leo, Hazel, Frank, Jason, Piper) plus Nico are on the Argo II. Both sets have one goal: make it to the House of Hades and shut the Doors of Death before Gaea raises the giant army.

From the start, you know that the heroes have to fail. If they succeeded, there wouldn’t be a need for a fifth book. And yet, I like how Rick (we’re on a first-name basis  now, you know) plots this one. They do fail, but not completely. And, along the way, they learn some valuable lessons about themselves and each other.

To be fair, this was an incredibly crowded book. While I’ve enjoyed this series, I do have to admit that, in many ways, making it so huge with so many view points and so many main characters is a drawback rather than a plus. I enjoyed the book as a whole, sure, but I also felt like there were things missing. There is so much going on — not just Percy and Annabeth sludging through the monster hell, but also the impending battle back at Camp Half Blood, or the rest of the heroes’ adventures — that bits are bound to be left out. And part of me wants those stories, as well. Granted, those aren’t the stories that Rick chooses to tell, but I still feel like there’s something missing.

Even with the crowded feeling, I did enjoy the book. Rick has a gift with creating characters you just love (Bob! Nico! Frank! Leo! Hazel! Even Piper had a chance to be awesome!) and — I know I’ve said this before — he still has a gift for making you want to turn pages, to find out what’s next. And just when you start to think it’s slogging (at least this time), he switches the action somewhere else. (On the other hand, that’s probably a contributing factor to the busy-ness of the book.)

No, this isn’t my favorite series Rick has written (give me the original Percy Jackson and the Olympians!), but it’s a good one. And I’m more than happy to go on a journey one more time with Percy and crew. And I do think I’ll be sad when it’s over next year. Which means, in spite of my quibbling, it really was a good book.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

The Clockwork Scarab

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by Colleen Gleason
ages: 12+
First sentence: “There are a limited number of excuses for a young, intelligent woman of seventeen to be traversing the fog-shrouded streets of London at midnight.”
Review copy pilfered off the ARC shelves at my place of employment.

Years ago, I remember when Colleen Gleason came out with the Gardella vampire books. I won the first one, if I remember right, and I remember liking it quite a bit. And so, when I got wind that she was writing a YA books, starring the “niece” of Sherlock Holmes and the half-sister of Braham Stoker, I was excited. And the cover is sooo pretty. I had high hopes.

The basic story is this: There have been a series of disappearances and apparent suicides in late-19th century socialite London. Miss Holmes and Miss Stoker are invited by Miss Irene Adler (I had to remind myself who she was), to help assist in this investigation. There are suspicious circumstances surrounding the deaths/disappearances of the girls, and there’s a mechanical scarab left at every scene. There are, of course, several love interests, including a Lieutenant, a mysterious gentleman who goes by the name of Pix, and (most interesting), a time traveler from the future.

That’s all the plot I got from the handful of pages I read. See, in spite of my high expectations (or perhaps because of them?), I couldn’t make it very far in this one. It just wasn’t clicking for me. Miss Holmes was interesting, but Miss Stoker was… off. And I was put off by the talk of clothes and hair, and the swooning over the boys. Much like Etiquette & Espionage, I felt like Gleason was dumbing herself down, and that wasn’t sitting right with me.

True, it has all the markings of a good YA mystery, but in the end, I bailed.

Quintana of Charyn

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by Melina Marchetta
ages: 14+
First sentence: “
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Finnikin of the Rock, Froi of the Exiles

(Spoilers, obviously, for the other two.)

It’s been a few months since the Charyn king was killed, and Charyn is in upheaval. Froi is recovering from his wounds (to put it mildly), Quintana is pregnant and in  hiding, in the valley bordering Charyn and Lumatere. Isaboe and Finnikin are fighting, mostly because Isaboe, who is expecting their second child, is obsessing over Froi (he hasn’t returned from his assignment to assassinate the Charyn king). It’s all very complicated and political. As the book progresses, it doesn’t get any less so: the setting up of a country (or re-setting, I guess) is a messy affair. There are fits and starts, miscommunications and offenses, second guesses and traitors. It’s not a pretty story, laid out in nice, neat rows, but rather a realistic one: in this political game, where the futures of several countries are at stake, the question is how many lives is it going to cost?

(I’m glad I didn’t have to write the jacket blurb on this one.)

I wish I had had the opportunity to read this series like M did, one right after another. Well, actually: she read Finnikin, started Froi, didn’t like the book because it wasn’t Finnikin, put it down for a while, picked it back up, finished it, demanded Quintana, and then RAVED about it.

It took me a bit longer, and I think the book suffered for the wait. because it took me a while to get into the characters and the world again. But, thankfully, Marchetta remembered that it’d been a while since Froi came out, and helped me remember the important bits as we went along. While it’s not as dark as the previous two books, it’s still an intense ride. Marchetta keeps us on the edge of our seat the whole way through (which is a considerable feat, seeing as the book is 500+ pages long) , wondering if the outcome will be what we want, and wondering how she is going to get there. I loved this book for many reasons, but two stand out. First, that it was a messy book, which made it more real. This isn’t a fairy tale. This is a political drama, and I appreciated the mess. It kept me interested. The second thing was that the relationships were so complex. All of them. Marchetta has a gift when it comes to writing relationships. And not just romantic ones. Friendships were complex. Parent-child relationships were complex. And loves were complex, deliciously so. And because of that, everyone (EVERYONE!) had a growth arc. There were no simplistic characters. I can’t tell you how happy that made me.

And the end, oh the end. (Endings have been meaning a lot more to me lately, for some reason.) I should have seen it coming (M did!), but I didn’t, and it was perfect in so many ways.

Which means the only thing wrong with this book was that it was over, and there are no more stories to tell about these characters. And that makes me impossibly sad.

Untold

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by Sarah Rees Brennan
ages: 12+
First sentence: “Welcome to Sorry-in-the-Vale.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Unspoken
Review copy greedily stolen from the package the publisher sent to the bookstore, then hoarded on my shelves until I finally devoured it.

To catch up (spoilers for Unspoken, obviously.):
1. Kami’s imaginary friend, Jared, is real.
2. He’s part of an old sorcerer family.
3. Who used to rule Sorry-in-the-Vale
4. His uncle, Rob, is more than slightly batty, and is killing people because blood gives him power.
5. Kami wants to stop him.

In many ways, this is very much a second book in a trilogy. The first was a brilliant set up. This one, while still interesting and laugh-out-loud funny at times,  had the feel that everything is building toward some grand conclusion. Though we never quite get to it in this book.

That’s not to say that it’s a bad book. On the contrary, it’s actually quite good. Even though I felt like I was spinning my wheels — will Kami and Jared get together? Will Lillian ever stop being a Royal Snob?  Will Angela and Holly work out their differences? Will Ash ever grow a backbone? — it was done in a way that I didn’t mind the spinning. At all. It was also because I adore Kami. I hate to call her plucky, but she really is. She’s smart, and determined, and bossy, and willing to do ANYTHING for her family, friends, and town. I love her.

And the ending? Oh. My. Gosh.  If I wasn’t already convinced that endings can make or break a book, I would be now. The ending is brilliant. And painful. Because now I have to WAIT for the next book.

It was worth it, though.

Frozen

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by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston
ages: 12+
First sentence: “They were coming for her.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy snagged off the ARC shelves at my place of employment.

I’ve come up with a tagline for this: It’s what’d you get if you smashed an environmental dystopian novel with Firefly. And I’m not just saying that because of my Nathan Filion crush. Promise.

It’s a future where due to environmental changes, the world flooded and then froze, and those who survived did so by either stubbornness or by selling their soul to the military that controls the government of the RSA — the Remaining States of America. It’s a tough world, one where you get by on luck and with a quick wit and a faster gun.

Nat is one of the survivors in this world, and she’s found herself in New Vegas, working as a blackjack dealer. Except she’s one of the Marked: a race of people with special powers, who have been marked on their body some way. That makes them ripe for persecution; the military, especially seems hell-bent on exterminating them. Nat was caught, once, but managed to escape. And now her powers — voices in her head, really — have her set on finding the Blue: a place where the sun shines and the grass grows.

For that, she enlists Wes, a captain of a crew and a ship, a mercenary with a heart of gold. Why, yes: he is Captain Mal and Han Solo rolled into one. He’s charming and captivating, saucy and sly; everything you’d expect a 19-year-old mercenary in a dystopian world to be. And yeah, there is a romance. But I didn’t mind that.

Oh, one more thing and it’s a little bit of a spoiler: that dragon in the O? It means something. And it makes the book that much better.

Considering my last outing with Melissa de la Cruz ended in a Did Not Finish, I consider this a win. It’s not a amazing book, but it is a lot of fun.

As a bonus: pictures from the event last night. They were really fun, and talked a lot about collaborating and selling the rights to their stuff. The girls had a good time.

I think out of all of them, Alison was the most interested in the book. We picked it up, she got it signed to her, and started reading it. Pretty cool.

Dream Thieves

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by Maggie Stiefvater
ages: 14+
First sentence: “Theoretically, Blue Sargent was probably going to kill one of these boys.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy snagged from the ARC shelves at work.
Others in the series: The Raven Boys
Release date: September 17, 2013

I’m not quite sure where to start off on this one. Sure, I could always start with the plot, but in some ways, that’s mostly immaterial in this book. Yes, yes, Things Do Happen — it’s mostly Ronan Lynch’s story: about who and what he is, about his family, about how he got to be who he is — but that’s really a side effect to everything else that is going on in the book.

First off: because it’s about Ronan, it’s not a happy, or a light book. No, this is threaded throughout with all sorts of Darkness and Violence. Ronan is not a nice person. No, that’s not true: there are people in this book that are truly Not Nice, and Ronan isn’t one of them. But he’s not a carefree, happy-go-lucky person (well, none of them are), or at least an immediately likable and charismatic one (like Gansey, whom I decided I really liked by the end). No: you have to work to understand Ronan (I won’t say like, because I’m not sure I did), and spending so much time in his head isn’t easy.

But, it is worth it.

This time it’s worth it for the words. For the “furiously red tie” or the “sanguine, pleasant air of either a nun or a pothead” or the “all food eaten in anticipation of a kiss is delicious.” This book is full of gems like this. Stiefvater’s descriptions, casual throw-away lines littering the book, left me literally in awe and aching for more. I couldn’t read this one fast enough (and considering I had to put it down for days while I read a couple others, that was only magnified): it was mesmerizing in its terribleness, in its rawness.

And the end? How it wrapped things up, but gave us a new mystery to solve, while weaving everything that happened in both of these books together? Perfect.

Seriously.

Winger

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by Andrew Smith
ages: 14+
First sentence: “I said a silent prayer.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy picked up at ABA Winter institute for me. Yes, I have taken that long to get to it.

Ryan Dean (yes, that’s his whole first name) West has a lot going for him: he’s a junior at Pine Mountain, a boarding school for troubled rich kids (his dad’s a high-powered Boston lawyer) in the Pacific Northwest. He is first string winger (think running back in football, but more intense) for the rugby team. He’s pretty smart.

But there are some downsides: he got transferred into O-Hall this year because he was caught hacking into a cell phone account at the end of last year. And, to top it all off: hes only 14.

And when you’re in O-Hall with all the delinquent football and rugby players? It’s not going to be a stellar year.

Add to that some major girl drama (he’s in love with his best friend, Annie, but snogging his roomate’s girlfriend), late night poker games (let’s just say that Ryan Dean is not a good drunk), and lots and lots of testosterone-induced fights. Let’s just say, I was impressed that Ryan Dean — who was decent human being underneath all the 14-year-old boy nonsense — survived until Thanksgiving.

I’m of two minds about this book. On the one hand, I can sum it up in two words: sex and rugby. Actually, the sex is all in Ryan Dean’s mind: he’s incredibly immature, and objectifies EVERY girl, and EVERY situation becomes about sex. In other words: he’s a normal 14-year-old boy. But unlike Carter’s Unfocused One-Track Mind which I couldn’t get through (and which is the best comparison to this one), I found myself endeared to Ryan Dean. Maybe it was the underdog element. Maybe it was because although he was annoying, he was almost mostly harmless. Maybe it was because he really did mean well, in the end.

Because, I found myself compelled by this. I was invested in Ryan Dean’s drama. I loved the camaraderie of the rugby team. I enjoyed Ryan Dean, dork that he was.

My only real problem was with the ending. See: Ryan Dean becomes good friends with the rugby captain, Joey, who also happens to be gay. Joey’s sexuality isn’t a big deal for Ryan Dean (though he feels the need to comment that he isn’t a lot), but it is for other guys in O-Hall. And in the last 20 pages of the book, it takes a sharp left turn and stops being a fun boarding school drama, and becomes Something More. Not that I minded something more, it was the sharp left turn that threw me. It didn’t work. I didn’t feel pain, or anguish, or anything at all at the end, because I was flabbergasted that a fun and entertaining book so suddenly became Serious. It came off as bad pacing and lack of focus rather than anything more substantial.

It didn’t ruin the book for me, but it did take some of the shine off. Which is too bad, because I was having fun with it before then.