YA

Going Bovine

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by Libba Bray
ages: 15+
First sentence: “The best day of my life happened when I was five and almost died at Disney World.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I think this is one of those books that if you don’t read it at exactly the right time — whenever that is for you — it will mostly likely fall flat. But, if you catch it right, like I did this week, then it will soar. Touching at spots, wild, weird, and very hilarious, it will make you want to shout from the rooftops that this is the best. book. ever.

For those of you that don’t know, the plot is simply this: our hero, Cameron, is a loser and a stoner and basically aimlessly trying not to connect with any other human being. His parents are disconnected, his twin sister hates him. He goes along like this until suddenly — though it takes him a while to realize it — he gets Creutzfeldt-Jakob variant BSE, or in other words: mad cow disease. That’s when the weird stuff begins to happen. Angels, fire demons, the Wizard of Reckoning: throughout the rest of the book, Bray throws all sorts of wild, weird and wonderful things at us, asking us to question what is real.

Cameron is sent on a quest — and I admit that if I hadn’t had seen The Lightning Thief recently, I might have missed this — one that is both epic and legendary. It’s playing right into the whole Greek mythos: young man sent on a quest for x (in this case, to save the world and heal himself), and on those adventures, he is tried, tested and eventually found worthy. I like to think Bray knew this going in — though I think she was aiming more for Norse mythology than Greek; by the way, Balder, the kick-butt yard gnome was, hands down, my favorite character — and used it to her advantage. It sounds like a silly plot, but Bray’s writing — foul though it is — keeps you turning pages. What’s going to happen next? It’s so over the top, so off the wall, it makes you want to know: what’s the next thing Bray’s going to throw at Cameron?

And she keeps you guessing, wondering, all the way up through the very end: was it real? Did it happen? What the heck was that?

Wild.

Leviathan

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by Scott Westerfield
ages: 12+
First sentence: “The Austrian horses glinted in the moonlight, their riders standing tall in the saddle, swords raised.”
Support your local independent bookstore, buy it there!

First, a disclaimer: I have never, ever heard of steam punk before this book, let alone read it. I had no idea what it entails, what makes a good steam punk book, or what even to expect.

But if this is even remotely typical of the genre, I’m hooked. It was an awesome, wild and weird ride, a fabulous adventure — no one writes nail-biting action like Westerfield — and a grand beginning to a story that has the potential to be absolutely amazing.

It’s 1914, on the eve of the Great War. Alek is a prince of the Austro-Hungarian empire and it’s the murder of his parents that sets off the war, as well as sends Alek on the run for his life. All he has with him is a few loyal men, and a Stormwalker in order to fend off the Germans. Deryn is a commoner, a girl, who desperately wants to fly in the British Air Service. Mind you, they’re not flying planes, but rather Darwinist living creatures — huge ecosystems of creatures that work together to get off the ground. Deryn disguises herself as a boy, and by a fluke or two of nature (ha!), ends up as part of the crew of Britain’s newest airship, the Leviathan.

Told in alternating chapters, the book details not Alek’s escape from his palace and Deryn’s entry into the air service, but their eventual meeting and the results of that meeting. As I mentioned before, there’s tons of nail-biting action from Alek’s initial escape to a couple of attacks by the Germans. But what I found most fascinating (and wild and weird) was the combination of historical fiction and futuristic elements, as well as a re-imagining of science. I loved the Clankers versus Darwinist feud, as well as each individual science. The clanker machines were awesome, powerful, and captivating to read about. But the Darwinist inventions — the wild cross-breeds, the machinations to keep them up in the air, the things (like flechette bats, for instance) that Westerfield created — were the things that kept me turning pages and shaking my head in amazement. What kind of imagination dreams this stuff up? (Well, Westerfield’s, of course.)

The book ends somewhat abruptly, but I’m totally sold: I want to know what happens next. I want to know what adventure Deryn and Alek are going to go on, and I want to know about the small mystery that’s part of the larger story.

The problem — like all books with sequels — is being patient until the next one comes out.

Ninth Grade Slays

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The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, #2
by Heather Brewer
ages: 10-13
First sentence: “Jasik gripped the photograph in his hand and scanned the face of the boy.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

We pick up again with Vlad at the beginning of his freshman year. His one goal over the summer was to call Meredith (the love of his life), but… he chickened out. So, where does that leave our teenage vampire? Depressed. Bummed out.

Must be high school.

Vlad has new challenges this year: there’s the leftover problem the vampire community has with his existence. There’s a vampire slayer kicking around Bathory. There’s the training his uncle wants him to get with a uber-vampire in Russia. There’s the teen angst of not knowing whether or not Meredith likes him.

There’s the problem that the book (still) has too much set up and not enough pay off. That Vlad is annoying, the dialogue stilted and the action uninteresting. Which means, even though I read every single page, there wasn’t much there for me to truly like.

Sigh. That’s what really slays, y’know.

Lips Touch Three Times

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by Laini Taylor/Illus. by Jim Di Bartolo
ages: 12+
First sentence: “There is a certain kind of girl the goblins crave.”
Review copy picked up from the ARC exchange table at KidlitCon 09.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Wow.

Oh, I knew Laini Taylor had a fabulous imagination, having adored both Blackbringer and Silksinger, but, really: wow.

This one is three short stories in which the only connection is the act of kissing. Taylor explores what that “means”, but because it’s Laini Taylor, the exploration is not what you’d expect. Or maybe you would, if you’d read her other stuff. In short, it’s weird, wild, entrancing and just plain fabulous. Without giving too much away…

The first story, “Goblin Fruit”, takes something that every girl wants — to be noticed by the popular, cute boy — and turns it ever-so-slightly sinister. Kizzy has a weird immigrant family, one that she’s embarrassed about. It’s all she can do to avoid their practices, beliefs, superstitions, especially those of her (now-dead) grandmother, who believed quite strongly that there are goblins out there waiting to capture your soul. Kizzy tries to live a normal life, even from the sidelines of her high school, but she wants. Wants — to be popular, to be in the arms of the cute boy — so badly it’s palpable. So, when Jack Husk — beautiful, amazing, wonderful Jack Husk — shows up and pays attention to her, she goes with it. It’s got a bit of an open ending: what really does happen to Kizzy, but it doesn’t really matter. In this story, it’s the getting there that counts.

The second story, “Spicy Little Curses”, was my favorite. Taylor played off of Hindu religion and myth on this one, not only setting the story in Imperialist India, but giving us a devil in Hell who thrives off of making life (and death) miserable for humans. There’s a human liaison to Hell who tries to temper what this devil does, but one day — in exchange for twenty two souls — she allows the devil to curse the daughter of the Political Agent. The curse: if she ever speaks, she’ll kill everyone in the sound of her voice. She manages never to speak, but of course, she grows up into a lovely young woman and a soldier falls in love with her. There is not a happy outcome (again, of course), but the twists and turns and the language (oh, the language!) make it simply a joy to read.

And, finally, “Hatchling”. It’s the longest of the three stories, the most developed, the most interesting world-building that I’ve read in a while. Taylor takes were-lore and vampire-lore and develops it in a new and fascinating way in giving us the Druj. Not quite werewolves (and yet they shape shift), not quite vampires (and yet they use and abuse humans for their own pleasure), they terrorize and terrify humans. Mab was one of those, and for some reason, she managed to escape from the Queen. She was pregnant at the time and with her daughter, Esme, she has been in hiding ever since. Fourteen years later, Esme wakes up one morning with one blue eye and one brown eye. This not only terrifies Mab, but leads Emse to the destiny that she never knew she had, changing the way the Druj interact with each other and the world in the process.

I know I didn’t quite capture the wonderfulness that is this book. But it truly is amazing.

The Princetta

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by Anne-Laure Bondoux
ages: 12+
First sentence: “A few months ago you summoned me to the Council Chamber.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Malva dreams of adventure. She’s the crown princess of Galnicia, and she loathes being a puppet in her parent’s grand plans. She hates sitting, looking perfect and pretty and dreams of escape. So, on the night before her engagement party (to some stuffy old prince), she and her maid escape from the castle.

Thus begins The Princetta, a book in the tradition of Grand Fantasy: high adventure, romance, princesses, noble sailors, evil revenge-seeking counts, giants, sirens, mystical lands, battles, storms… in fact, it reminded me a lot of The Princess Bride. Except, it didn’t quite work.

I don’t know if it was the translation — it was originally written in French — or the story. But, honestly, about halfway through the book I started skimming because it was boring. There was a lot of telling, rather than showing, and Malva — for all her feisty ideals — wasn’t terribly interesting. For all the characters to juggle, it was managing okay, until they got to the mystical Archipelago, where they were to get Tested and Tried. The book was only half done, and I had no idea how it was going to manage for the rest of the (overlong) 430 pages. I skimmed enough to get the gist of it, read the ending (which wasn’t predictable at all, which surprised me) and called it quits.

I do wish it had been better, though.

Liar

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by Justine Larbalestier
ages: 13+
First sentence: “I was born with a light covering of fur.”
Review copy sent to me by the folks at Bloomsbury.

The hardest part about reviewing a book like this is not giving anything away. The hardest part about reading a book like this is knowing what to believe.

There are unreliable narrators — characters who don’t understand what’s going on around them, who whether willfully or unknowingly misinterpret the information around them, while the reader fully understands what’s going on. Then, there’s Micah. Micah is a liar, something for which she’s very up front about.

However, that means everything in the book is suspect. Everything.

I think the basic plot — that Micah’s “after hours” boyfriend, Zach was brutally killed — is pretty much sound. But everything else, from the opening sentence to the final paragraph, is suspect. How much is truth? Micah tells you that she’s telling the truth, but as the book unravels, there are lies. So you wonder: is she lying about lying? You can’t trust her as a narrator, and yet you have no information other than what she gives you. Everything in the book is on shaky ground, and you’re left at the end wondering what really happened.

It’s a compelling look at… what? Lying and truth-telling, yes. But other things as well. But you could also go meta here: it’s exploring the role of a narrator in a book, the role of a reader and the agreements the reader makes with the narrator/author when opening up the book. It’s an exploration of a girl trying to fit in, but… how?

I’d go on, but really, as Justine Larbalestier says, it’s better left spoiler free. Once you’ve read the book, head over to the spoiler thread and leave your two cents on what it all means.

I’m still reeling from it all. Fascinating.

Ice

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by Sarah Beth Durst
ages: 12+
First sentence: “Once upon a time, the North Wind said to the Polar Bear King, ‘Steal me a daughter, and when she grows, she will be your bride.'”
Review copy sent to me by the publisher at the author’s request.

Cassie has spent her life knowing two things: polar bears and ice. It’s because she grew up with her father at a remote research station in northern Alaska. There was one other thing she was told: her mother was the daughter of the North Wind, and she was currently residing in the troll castle in exchange for defying the North Wind and having a daughter (who she promised would marry the Polar Bear King). Cassie figured it was just a fancy way for her dad and grandmother to tell her that her mother had died.

Until, on her 18th birthday, she discovers that the story was really true: she encounters Bear, who comes to take her to his castle and marry her.

Thus begins Sarah Beth Durst’s latest book, a modern adaptation of the fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon. There have been other adaptations of this tale, but Durst takes it in a couple of new and intriguing directions. First, by setting it in modern day, it makes the fairy tale end of it seem more surreal. There aren’t supposed to be talking bears or magic in our modern, scientific world. Durst makes this work by introducing a vaguely religious aspect to the book: Bear and his kind are munasqri: beings who have powers in order to capture souls of the dying and deliver souls to the born of the creatures they oversee. It’s an intriguing concept: one that allows for magic without making things overly fairytale-ish.

The other thing I found interesting was that the marriage between the main character and the bear took place near the beginning of the book, rather than being the reward for finding the bear. The basic elements of the tale were there, except that Cassie is married — and pregnant — for most of the book. It added something more to the book; it’s almost more believable that Cassie would go to the ends of the earth and beyond for her husband rather than someone she just discovered she loved (though there’s some of that, too), especially because she’s carrying their baby. As a mother and a wife that particularly touched me. I’m not sure how much teens would find it interesting — M really enjoyed reading the book, though — but I did appreciate it for the picture of a loving, healthy relationship.

Durst opts for a more quiet tone than in her previous two books. There is no supreme adventure, a race against evil — though interestingly enough, evil takes a similar form in this one as it did in both of her other books. No, it’s a quest, a journey in the traditional sense: Cassie is searching for her husband, questing to prove to herself that the impossible can be done, learning that she not only can do what she thought she could — both physically and emotionally — and overcoming all in the end.

An excellent addition to this fairy tale’s adaptations.

The Princess and the Bear

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by Mette Ivie Harrison
ages: 12+
First sentence: “Long ago, there lived a wild cat that was the sleekest, fastest, and bravest of its kind.”

One of the things I like best about sequels and series, especially in fantasy books, is getting to visit the world the author imagined again. Especially when the world is as fascinating as the one that Mette Ivie Harrison has imagined.

The Princess and the Bear follows the story of the Hound and the Bear from the end of The Princess and the Hound. Told through alternating chapter narratives, the book tells the story of the two unlikely companions who find solace in their togetherness, until the spread of unmagic threatens to destroy their comfortable — if lonely — life. They journey to the wild man, the one person who can aid them in righting this horrible wrong. The wild man sends the Hound and the Bear back to a point in time when the magic is overly volatile, to deal with and stop the source of the unmagic. It also happens that this point in time is when the Bear was a human: King Richon, a spoiled brat of a king who was used and taken advantage of by his evil advisers. It’s up to him, with the aid of the Hound — now a human, Chala — to find the source of evil, right the wrongs that Richon did before spending 200 years as a human, in order to fix the future.

The best part of this novel, much like the first one, was the words. Harrison paints a gorgeous picture of the world she’s imagined. It’s also a thoughtful book, one in which the reader does not plow through, but instead lingers over the pages soaking in the atmosphere. Yet, for all its flowingness and thoughtfulness, Harrison is a writer for a particular sort of person, someone who is willing to take a slower, quieter pace and enjoy the words instead of the characterization and plot. There’s very little action, there’s very little romance (like the first book, it grows slowly, so much so that you almost miss it). There is a definite character arc, but, again, its something that will sneak up on you, almost without you knowing. It’s not exactly something that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The evil guys aren’t that scary, the action isn’t that captivating, the romance isn’t that swooning.

Yet, there is something magical in Harrison’s writing. And that’s just enough to draw the reader in and be completely captivating.

Dreaming Anastasia

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by Joy Preble
ages: 12+
First sentence: “I didn’t always dream about my family.”
Review copy sent to me by the publisher.

Dreams are funny things.

They’re often just manifestations of stress or hopes or fears. But, what if they were real? What if what you dreamed really happened… or was about to happen? And what if you dreamed about someone other than yourself?

Anne has dreams like that: she dreams she’s Anastasia Romanov, grand duchess of Russia, supposedly dead as part of the communist revolution in 1918. Except, as Anne slowly finds out, things aren’t always as they seem. Her life was ordinary — except that her brother recently died of cancer — until Ethan showed up… and then ordinary became extraordinary (and not just because he was wicked hot), as both Anne and Ethan work to put right the wrong that was done to Anastasia nearly 100 years before.

Part historical novel, part fantasy, part romance: this book has a little bit for everyone. The best bits were the ones with Anne and Ethan — told in alternating chapters — as they tried to figure out how to unravel the magic that was done 100 years before. It was intense in the action, the magic wasn’t overpowering or awkward, and while the romance was very, very subtle, there was still enough of it to satisfy. I enjoyed Anne as a character as well, as she struggled to grow into herself and come to terms not only with her dreams, but with her own history as well.

In fact, the only real complaint I have is the font for the Anastasia letters — it’s so incredibly difficult to decipher (and I thought my handwriting was bad!) that I was pretty sure I was missing plot points. Other than that, it was an entertaining read.

Check out the rest of the tour:
Hope is the Word (9/20)
Zoe’s Book Reviews (9/21)
Homespun Light (9/21)
Teen Scene magazine (9/21)
Galleysmith (9/22)
Once Upon a Bookshelf (9/22)
Café of Dreams (9/23)
My Friend Amy (9/23; 9pm EST author chat)
The Brain Lair (9/24)
Ms. Bookish (9/24)
Lori Calabrese Writes (9/25)
Mrs. Magoo Reads (9/25)
Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm (9/26)
Fantasy Book Critic (9/26)
Into the Wardrobe (9/27)
In the Pages (9/27)
Beth Fish Reads (9/28)
Reverie Book Reviews (9/28)
BookLoons.com (9/28)

Catching Fire

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by Suzanne Collins
ages: 12+
First sentence: “
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there! (If you haven’t already!)

When Tricia at Library Queue and I realized that 1) we were both reading Catching Fire and 2) everyone else had read it so there really wasn’t much new to say about it, we decided that the best thing to do would be to team up and do a buddy review/chat of our reactions and thoughts about this sequel to The Hunger Games. Since most of you have read it, I’m not going to edit out the spoilers; just know if you’re one of the handful of people who haven’t gotten around to reading it, you might want to come back later, once you’ve finished.

So, our thoughts:

me: SO… what did you think? First impressions?

Tricia: Loved it!

me: Dawn asked if I ever got to the point where I wanted to throw it in the freezer… did you? Did it ever get too suspenseful for you?

Tricia: Nope, I decided to burn right through it.

me: Brave woman.

Tricia: I found it really hard to close it last night at 12:20am on page 260.

me: Well… yeah… so close to the end.

Tricia: What about you? Did you read it straight through?

me: I read most of it in one sitting, but had to stop (at page 253) for a few hours, but I got back to it as soon as I could. It made yoga hard: I kept thinking about the book!

Tricia: That’s funny we stopped at about the same place.

me: Yeah. 🙂 So: are you Team Peeta or Team Gale? (Why is it that we feel a need to divide everything up into teams?)

Tricia: So, going into the book, I was on Team Gale. But I think one of the things that I really felt like Collins did that Stephenie Meyer didn’t manage for me, is really really make me torn between the two.

me: That’s a good point: you really couldn’t root for one or the other, because they were both so good for Katniss.

Tricia: Yeah. I can’t discount the lifelong friend thing. My parents were lifelong friends and it totally worked for them. But, because we’ve really seen so little from Gale in the two books, I’m having a hard time justifying my team. I really love Peeta, especially after reading this book.

me: Me, too. M said, when she finished, that Peeta REALLY rocked. I agree. But Gale’s never really been given a chance. Why do you think Collins chose to do it that way? Not give us too much info about Gale other than they were lifelong friends, and he loves her, I mean?

Tricia: I’m worried about the readers not getting emotionally involved with Gale.

me: Why?

Tricia: Because I’m worried she’s going to kill him off!!

me: Yeah, I can see that. I think she might have a bigger role for him.

Tricia: OK, so you are on Team Peeta I presume?

me: He’s awesome, and Gale’s so much in the background. I thought, too, that Peeta was stronger this time around, altruistic, yes, but also smart, savvy and able to manage himself which is not something he did in Hunger Games. I think Katniss needs him more than she needs Gale.

Tricia: There was something a little pathetic about Peeta in the first book that was totally gone this book. Like he really grew up. At the moment, I totally agree. Katniss does need him. I think it will be hard for Gale to ever fully understand how much the Games has changed Katniss as a person, but Peeta will always have that for her.

me: You know, one of the things I really liked in this book was how Peeta and Katniss needed each other to sleep through the night. I also liked that they managed without sex — that their connection was something more elemental than passionate.

Tricia: Yeah. That was sort of sexy too. Kind of Twilight-ish.

me: Good comparison. Except not as creepy.

Tricia: Right. LOL. So were you surprised by what happened in the book?

me: YES, I was surprised. I was going along the book, and then I hit page 174 (tweeted it, which is why I remember the page number) and it totally threw me for a loop!

Tricia: I am surprised by how much I was surprised.

me: I am, too, especially since I knew going in that there were surprises.

Tricia: Yeah, some of it I anticipated, and other things just had me shocked. And Collins manages to do it BAM at the end of the chapter so you have to keep reading!

me: What shocked you?

Tricia: I was really hoping no one would fight after the holding hands thing.

me: Actually, one of the things that surprised me was the games itself. I thought she’d leave the games behind in this book and just go political. And she did, in a way. Well, not in a way. She did. Just not in the way I was expecting.

Tricia: Yeah, I was expecting a more traditional uprising I guess.

me: And we got some of that.

Tricia: On page 60-something, when they visit District 11, I actually cried. I don’t even remember getting that emotional when Rue died in the last book. But for some reason, it really got me when she was staring at the people’s faces and remembering it all.

me: Speaking of uprisings: President Snow was CREEPY.

Tricia: I could have nightmares about that dude.

me: Oh, MAN. Talk about a good bad guy. He made my skin crawl. And the level of intimidation that he’d stoop to — poor Cinna!

Tricia: Yeah. Love Cinna. He’s kind of a younger Nick Arrojo in my mind.

me: Yeah — how about the mockingjay dress. Totally awesome. He was one of my favorite characters from Hunger Games.

Tricia: Loved the mockingjay dress. I think Collins does a fabulous job with the minor characters. Even annoying Effie and the crying stylists. I love them all!

me: True. Actually, the only person I still really didn’t like was Katniss herself. She’s still too black-and-white, though she’s less so than in Hunger Games.

Tricia: You know, I never really thought about it that way, but I agree with you. She’s still immature. I think this book really highlighted that, especially with Peeta growing up so much.

me: Yeah. Which is probably one of the reasons she got sideswiped there in the end: she wasn’t mature enough to handle what everyone else was doing, and would have probably blown it (she nearly did anyway). Which makes me curious for the next one.

Tricia: So, usually 2nd books in a trilogy are a little rougher for me than the rest. But this one wasn’t. What do you think made this book so different from normal 2nd books?

me: I don’t know: I was thinking that about this book, too. Perhaps it’s because Collins didn’t do what we expected her to do? If you think about it, not much really happened in this book it’s still mostly foundational.

Tricia: Yeah, she seems like she’s got a really clear direction she’s headed. She’s not distracted in her writing.

me: That’s so true. She’s a very tight, very descriptive writer. I don’t feel like she’s telling us more than we need to know which is probably why it’s such an intense reading experience.

Tricia: Nor do I think she’s being influenced by her fans one bit.

me: Good. For. Her. I think being a more seasoned writer helps — she has the whole Gregor series under her belt.

Tricia: Somehow Collins makes a dystopian thriller romantic and heartbreaking and gritty. It’s explosive stuff! Do you think Collins knows exactly how it will all end?

me: Oh, yeah. But I don’t think we can even imagine what’s going to happen.

Tricia: Do you think she’s know that from the beginning?

me: I don’t know. Possibly.

Tricia: I always wonder if writers sketch out the whole trilogy from the start, or if it evolves…or both.

me: Or if she sat down and wrote it all as one long draft, and then perfected it in three chunks. I think sometimes writers just start with one book, and if it does well, make it fit into a series. But sometimes, you can tell that they’ve thought it through from the beginning!

Tricia: Yeah, I think Scholastic booked her for a trilogy from the start on this one.

me: Okay… lightening round…favorite character?

Tricia: This book: Peeta. Yours?

me: Haymitch.

Tricia: Oooh, good call. We haven’t talked about him; why did you like him? (Sorry, not lightning, but I’ve got to know!)

me: Because, like in Hunger Games, there is so much more to him than what we’re really seeing. I liked that we “saw” his games and that he knows more about getting out of the arena alive than anyone else.

Tricia: Yeah. Me too.

me: and then there’s the end… WOW!

Tricia: I’m so SO glad he was there at the end.

me: I think his drunkenness is a mask for something bigger, and Collins hinted at that in the end. Makes me wonder what he’s going to do next. He’s very complex.

Tricia: I hope he’s more sober in the next book though. 🙂

me: Back to lightning round: favorite scene? Don’t give too much away.

Tricia: Having a tough time with that one. You go first.

me: I think I liked the one with Katniss in the woods when she met the escapees from District 8. It gave us a hint of something bigger that was going on, yet managed to not give too much away. And it let us see a bit more into Katniss’s world.

me: Yeah, I agree. OK, I will probably change my mind 1/2 dozen times, but I really liked the scene when the fence goes back online and she gets hurt coming home. And how everyone at home reacts and plays dumb when the Peacekeepers are there. It was serious and funny all at the same time. And I liked the interaction between Haymitch, Peeta, and Katniss there a lot.

me: Oh, that’s a good one. Serious and funny at the same time is something that Collins does well.

me: OK, totally random, but if you HAD to live in a district, which one would you pick?

me: Besides the Capitol? 😉 District 3 or 4. I’m selfish, and I like to live in ease.

Tricia: Remind me, 4 is Finnick…the sea right?

me: Yeah. And three is electronic: Nuts and Volts (I liked them). How about you?

Tricia: I think somehow 12 gets me because my ancestors were coal miners. That, and they had relatively nice Peacekeepers and they were far away from everyone else.

me: So, even though they were poor, they were relatively untouched. Perhaps that’s why the revolution had to start with someone from 12. Hunger Games was a good criticism of popular society and reality television…but I don’t think this one was as much, do you?

Tricia: No, I felt like it was much more it’s own world this time. Any characters you don’t like? Besides Snow?

me: Thresh. I think she makes most of the people sympathetic, and leaves just a couple to be real baddies.

Tricia: I actually really don’t like Joannah, and I think that’s a good thing. How I can dislike someone who’s on the right side…that’s talented writing.

me: That’s a good point. It’s easy to like the likable people and hate the bad ones but to dislike someone who is on the “good” side… but to write someone unlikable who is on the good side. That IS good writing.

Tricia: Did you think someone was going to turn bad? I’ve been worried there’s a mole somewhere. Who saw Gale and Katniss kiss? that never got resolved.

me: Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.

Tricia: I thought maybe Haymitch…at first.

me: Not Haymitch. maybe it’s someone we haven’t met?

Tricia: Right. But snow is getting his info somewhere. Prim?

me: Would it be really terrible if it were Peeta? That, actually, would be interesting. Devastating, but interesting.

Tricia: Yeah, I’m scared I’m emotionally invested in a bad guy!

me: LOL! THAT would be good writing.

Tricia: OK, which book did you like better? I think I’ll go with Hunger Games just because it was first.

me: I think I liked Catching fire better because it was less commentary on society and more a straight-up adventure.

Tricia: I don’t think we could go wrong with either, truth be told. Good stuff!

Good stuff, indeed!