The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin

What a delight. I know I read it in late elementary school and loved it, but I didn't remember anything about it. It's sincerely great -- the diverse characters, the nuanced interactions, the really fun mystery. And a spunky pre-teen who solves the mystery an becomes a successful business woman. No wonder it stuck with me.

Grade: A
#36 in 2017

The Girl From Everywhere, Heidi Heilig

I really enjoyed this. It's a beautiful story, I liked how time travel was dealt with, I liked the setting -- Hawaii just before it became part of the United States -- and I liked the crew of the ship. My one complaint is that it felt like it was more the protagonist's father's story than her own. Everything hinges on decisions he makes, and how she'll react to it, rather than a decision that she's going to make. (In fact, at the end, she makes a decision to leave, since he can't seem to decide anything, then he changes his mind, so so does he. It still comes down to him.)

Grade: B
#23 in 2017

Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom, by Leigh Bardugo

These books are GREAT. I really really really liked them a lot. These are the "read on the subway, read during lunch, read in your spare five minutes, stay up too late to finish" kind of books.

Things I loved: the world building is so interesting! It's set in what I think of as fantasy Netherlands, although fantasy Russia, fantasy Germany (or maybe Finland/Sweden), and fantasy China make appearances. Old school fantasy used to have each country be a different type of person, as if all the people from country X are evil, and from country Y are religious zealots, and from country Q are proud but dumb (cough cough David Eddings cough). This does a great job of showing people from each country being influenced by their own culture and history, but also able to grow and change when they meet new people. There are good and bad people from everywhere.

Things I loved: the characters! A great range are assembled as part of Kaz's gang, not just "a sassy girl" and "a smart boy" and "the love interest." Everyone is complex, everyone gets flashbacks about how they became who they are, and everyone contributes. There is no whiny princess dragged along against her will, nor is there an ass-kicking warrior chick who never talks except to growl or be sexy. I liked everyone. (Okay, I especially liked Inej and Wylan.)

I haven't told you anything about the plot because book 1 is about a heist, and book 2 is about the repercussions of that heist, and you'll be happiest not knowing anything except that. I was sold on these books when I was told that Lymond is one of Bardugo's favorite hero-types, and you can see reflections of that in Kaz, but again, you'll be happiest not explicitly trying to compare this to Dunnett. It's twisty it's exciting, it's awesome.

One thing that made me laugh: everyone is a teenager, because it's YA, but also everyone is weighed down by endless tragic backstory and difficult experiences. These are some worldly, grizzled teens.

Grade: A
#88 and #89 in 2016

The Fate of the Tearling, Erika Johansen

Oh my goddddddddddddddddddd.

I am not sure how to talk about this without spoiling the very end of the series. Here is the non-spoilery review: It did not wrap up the way I expected! I think the ending works, and it definitely builds on the themes that came before it. I loved Lily and Katie and Kelsea. I liked the book's discussion of what is or isn't a utopia and what it means to create a "better world." I liked Kelsea's struggle between wanting to help people and do good things, and wanting to just destroy the shit out of bad guys once she had that power. This book was more dystopian than I usually go for, but it's not utterly hopeless. It's not a Hunger Games ending, if you know what I mean by that. It's really well written, and nearly every question that was asked, gets answered. It takes a lot of YA fantasy tropes and spins them on their heads, for better or worse. And after I finished it, I needed to run around shouting at a friend for a long, long time. I think it's well worth a read.






OKAY HERE ARE SPOILERS. STOP READING NOW. GO READ THE BOOKS. SPOILERS.




One thing that had carried me through the dystopian parts were the little excerpts of books at the beginning of each chapter, implying that Kelsea would win the war and the future would be bright. And at some point in this book you realize that although she wins, these books come from a darker future timeline where everything is even more fucked up -- and when Kelsea makes her ultimate decision to use the Tear jewel to go back in time, they vanish. I loved that.

I had spent a lot of books 1 and 2 wondering why William Tear's vision of a perfect utopia was a kingdom, not a democracy. And that question is pretty thoroughly answered in this book. Because it got fucked up. Because he got killed. Because Jonathan got killed, too, and because the Raleighs were jerks. So in the final timeline there are not and never have been any kings, only one Queen of the Tearling.

SO let's talk about that ending. I figured we were going somewhere ~it's all a dream~ about the time Aisa died horribly, but was absolutely not expecting the way it actually all came down. On the one hand, yeah, it feels a little bit cheap to erase everything. Row gets a fast death after creating centuries of suffering and violence and destroying everything in his path, including children. None of Kelsea's sacrifices or struggle really happened. She never killed anyone, she never had to deal with that. She goes back in time and undoes the major turning point in history, and then that's it. Gavin doesn't have to atone for centuries, either. (Can we talk for a second about the sexy, daring Fetch as a whiny little monster of a teenage boy? I laaaaaaughed.)

But on the other hand -- oh my god, does she pay a price for that. The scene where she murders Row is one of the creepiest things I have ever read. And then at the end, when she wakes up in what is inarguably the Better World at last, having saved her kingdom, having saved all her friends, having saved the world... she's all alone, and she will be forever. She saved the world and lost literally everything doing it. No one knows her. I still expected some kind of wink at the end, for the Mace or someone to also vaguely remember or recognize her. But no one does, not the Mace, not Father Tyler, not Pen. It's devastating. It balances out how good things are really beautifully, but oh my god, it leaves you feeling hollowed out and miserable at the same time. She saved the world! And no one knows, or cares, or remembers her. What a fucking gut-punch.

Grade: A
#87 in 2016

A Court of Mist and Fury, Sarah J Maas

"But you didn't like the first one! Why did you read this one!"
"To see if it got better."
"...and did it?"
"NO."

So in the first book Feyre meets Tamlin, the High Lord of the Spring Court of the faeries, falls in love with him, and fights the evil Queen of the faeries to save him. She dies in the attempt and is resurrected as the strongest, most badass faery ever, but is understandably all fucked up from the terrible things she had to do.

Then suddenly in book 2, Tamlin is abusive and won't listen to her, has a secret dark past of evil running through his family, and is willing to collaborate with the evil faeries he tried to die to stop in book one. Luckily for our heroine, she had a dark and sexy maybe-evil guy in book one who loved her but whom she hated. And now he turns out to be all sad backstory and secret goodness inside, and ACTUALLY her true love after all.

Nonsense. Just hilarious nonsense.

I really like the idea of a YA novel where the heroine has a good and boring boyfriend and a sexy semi-evil boyfriend, and she chooses the semi-evil one. I was all about Elena and Damon on the Vampire Diaries. But the retconning this book attempts is hilarious. I actually liked Rhys okay, but he was a sexually harassing creep in book 1, which no amount of "but he's SAD inside!" could make me forget.

About 40% of the book is Feyre moping that she's twisted and broken inside, while trying on endless beautiful dresses. Another 40% is backstory of characters we've just met who weren't in book 1 but are now the heroes of the series which... is an interesting way to do things. The last 20% is plot, but just barely. A lot of the book is macguffin quests to do stuff that doesn't ultimately matter. The ending was particularly bizarre. It's been 1st person pov from one character for 2 books and then suddenly it isn't. There's also a switcheroo that doesn't particularly work.

I don't know. It's not TERRIBLE. I get the appeal of throwing out Tamlin and subbing in Rhys as the romantic lead. The problem is that I'm not convinced anything from book 1 supports that, and that I kind of don't like Feyre enough to care who she ends up with. She's always moping and shouting at people, and her adorable sass which wins everyone over, is mostly just not that sassy.

Will I read the 3rd book just to shout about it? Signs point to yes, as long as my library has it.

Grade: C
#81 in 2016

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J Maas

There is a trope in YA fiction, where the heroine's arc is to learn about the world and how people (or aliens, or fairies, or vampires) aren't the way she assumed they were, and she's going to have to grow up and realize everyone can be good or bad. A lot of the book is her assumptions, and her finally realizing how wrong she is. And there is another trope in romance, where the heroine hates the hero for some reason, and just when she's starting to thinks he likes him, she overhears part of a conversation that seems to confirm all the things that make her hate the hero. Then she runs away, and then dumb terrible stuff happens to her.

Neither of these tropes are bad; they just aren't my favorites. I'd always rather have a clever heroine, and a romance where the tension of "will they or won't they?" is built on actual problems rather than overheard, imagined ones. So this book wasn't my favorite, because to some extent it's built around both these tropes. The romance also felt a little.... Well, he's handsome, and he's nice, so now she LOVES HIM, even though he represents everything she always thought she hated. And he loves her for no reason I ever totally understood (she's not that nice, and she's not that smart). Of course, some of that gets explained with a twist toward the end, but it still felt a little unearned.

I really liked parts of the book. Feyre is a human, and she kills a faerie so her family won't starve to death. Then another faerie comes for revenge, and rather than murder her, demands she come live with him forever instead. (Yes, it's Beauty and the Beast.) She haaaaaates faeries, and spends a lot of the book plotting escape, and being a huge brat to someone who is instantly only nice to her (for reasons that are explained later, in fairness to the book). Eventually a Thing happens, I won't ruin the twist, but she has to go rescue him, because now she LOVES him, and to do that she has to survive a bunch of trials and solve a riddle. I bet you could solve the riddle even if I don't tell you the riddle, but sure, okay; it's a YA book.

The problem was that by the time we got to Feyre standing up to the evil queen, I didn't believe she was smart enough to survive the traps set for her, or to bargain her way out of tricky faery deals. And frankly -- she's mostly not. She solves the brute force puzzle okay, but needs help to solve the thinking puzzles, makes terrible deals, and only solves the obvious riddle on the verge of death. She's bad at rescuing; she isn't even plucky and stubborn and determined. By the end she's sadly resigned to lose and die.

Oh, and there's what I think is going to be a love triangle in the sequel, which might be the dumbest love triangle I've read in years. (There is an evil faery who is dark and beautiful and saves her, but ONLY FOR HIS OWN SELFISH REASONS, or did he, or does he have SECRET FEELINGS??????? This subplot features a lot of sexual harassment, and being saved from sexual harassment, and although he has a reason, I didn't like it.)

I think I really really would have liked this if I were younger; the heroine rescuing the hero from the evil person who has stolen him away to be her consort is a great twist on a fairy tale. But Feyre just wasn't the kind of heroine who I like reading about, and so for me, this book wasn't great.

Grade: C

#69 in 2016

The Invasion of the Tearling, Erika Johansen

The second book in a trilogy can be hard to pull off, but I loved this book. It added to what we knew from book one, it advanced the plot, it was full of great exciting moments. And it ends on a cliffhanger, which I figured it would, but.... Now I have to wait a couple of months for the last book to find out if the series sticks the landing. (I really hope it does.)

In case you forgot: the Tear is a fantasy land, and Kelsey is its queen, raised in seclusion so she couldn't be murdered by her mother's enemies. In book 1 Kelsey comes back to her kingdom, realizes how messed up things are, and tries to make it right -- which kicks off a war with a much more powerful country on the border. We also know that Kelsey and other characters read books from our world, reference the Bible and Shakespeare, and came to the Tear on something called "the Crossing," in boats, a few centuries earlier. All the technology and history from before that is more or less lost, though.

In this book Kelsey has to figure out what to do about the invading army. She has magic, and she has the potential to use it to destroy her enemies, but just like Luke Skywalker could have told her, once you go down the dark path forever will it control your destiny. Kelsey can't save her people without doing some potentially terrible things. And meanwhile, she's having visions of the life of a woman before the Crossing, back in Manhattan, dealing with a dystopian slight-future where a terrible US president has seized power and is using censorship to make life terrible, especially for women. But maybe there is hope for a better world...

This story gets dark (if you have trouble with sexual assault or self-harm I wouldn't recommend it) but I loved the story Kelsey finds herself watching, and I loved Kelsey's story, too. I really liked how it expanded what we know about the Crossing, and the Tear, and I liked Kelsey's arc here. I also like Pen, and the Fetch, and the Mace. So many good characters! So much going on!

And who the heck is Kelsey's dad, you guys. Seriously, I need to know.

Grade: A
#67 in 2016

The Reformed Vampire Support Group, Catherine Jinks

I'm making my way through the ALA's list of top 10 YA novels, (except I keep skipping ones that are written in the present tense or about teenage suicide). This one was great. Set in Australia it's kind of an anti-Twilight story; vampires are listless, tired, often sick, and can't do anything fun like go out or meet people. Nina, our heroine, has published a couple of books about a kick-ass vampire out of sheer boredom because her real life as a vampire is so miserable. She is stuck with the same group of vampires bitching about their lives every Tuesday night and has been for 30 years. The only people she gets to talk to are the local priest who runs the support group, and her mom. Then someone kills a member of their group, and Nina is forced to try and be the brave, smart, daring vampire she's only ever written about. 

There is a very sweet little romance, some moral debate over when (or if) it's ever okay to kill anyone, some terrible bad guys, and a lot of super annoying background vampires (and other things, too) that I had a little bit of trouble telling apart because I read it so fast. But if I were a teenager THIS would be a vampire story I'd actually enjoy and identify with, and I am totally going to read the sequel when it comes out; The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group.

Grade: B

Originally posted 2010

I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

I loved the narration and the tone of this whole story, it was fantastic without being saccharine. I can't read books that are all about coming of age if the story centers around dead relatives or stupid decisions involving sex, so I tend not to read them at all; this was lovely.

More worryingly, if I had been the type of teenager to keep a journal instead of write endless fantasy stories, a lot of it would have sounded just like this. So while I enjoyed it, I probably won't re-read it, because it was too much like chatting with my 17 year old self. And boy, she was a mess.

Grade: B

Originally posted 2008

The Keys to the Kingdom: Book One, Mister Monday, Garth Nix

In 7th grade we wrote short fiction stories, and mine was a fantasy knockoff. My teacher gave it back to me covered in red ink, and with "Please do not capitalize every single noun!!!" written across the top. I wish Nix had been in my class.

This is a weird little book (YA fantasy) with lots of problems. For a start, the only things we learn about our hero, whose name I've forgotten in the 24 hours since I finished it, are that A) his parents died in a flu epidemic, so he's afraid of the flu, and B) he has asthma. No, I'm serious; that's all we get. He's not a reluctant hero or a scared hero or an overly-confident hero; he's a hero who suffers from asthma, until halfway through the book, when it's cured. And then he's just nothing. (Oh, his name is Arthur; I just remembered.)

Secondly, although the world is incredibly complicated, none of it makes a ton of sense, and instead of living in it, Arthur just sort of drifts from plot point to plot point. Alice in Wonderland had more motivation, and all she wanted was to find a way home. Arthur doesn't even have that. The book is filled with characters who exist only to tell Arthur what to do next, or to save him in the nick of time. There are two characters who could easily be named Deus Ex Machina. 

This kind of thing works really well when the character is a fish-out-of-his-universe who's forced to struggle with it and survive according to a new set of rules. Two great examples are Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and Otherland, by Tad Williams. They are both for slightly older readers, and Otherland is about 500 pages too long (it's a 4 books series), but they are both incredibly captivating and utterly terrifying. This book is slightly creepy and more than a little boring. If I were a middle schooler, I'd rather struggle through either of those than be confused and bored by this.

As for the capitalization problem... Arthur has to go to the House, where the Will is waiting to give him the Key which is the Minute Hand to the Great Clock which he finds with the help of the Old One who uses the Nothing to fight Nithlings... You get the idea.

Grade: D

 originally posted 2006

Westmark, Lloyd Alexander

It's back in print! This is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOKS EVER from when I was 8, and upon re-reading, I think it says alot about who I grew up to be. You may know Alexander as the author of The Book of Three series. Those are a re-telling of Celtic myths with a King Arthur flare. This series is a retelling of -- I kid you not -- the French Revolution in an alternate Europe, not that anyone says that explicitly in the book, or that I realized it as a kid. Alexander was in my top three authors all through adolescence, because his books have kick-ass female characters and they don't talk down to kids. I'll give you an example. Our Hero, who is honest and serious and just trying to do the right thing, starts off by accidentally almost killing someone in a fit of anger. Later in the book, he admits to himself that he did it on purpose, feels awful, and promises himself it will never happen again. Then, because he's frozen with indecision, he can't fire a gun to save the life of a friend later on. It won't give much away to say that he has to decide whether to kill or save the bad guy in the end, and although it's predictable, when you're 8, it's also thought-provoking.

The language is great, too. Describing Our Hero: "As for Theo, he loved virtue, despised injustice, and was always slightly hungry. Apart from that, he was reasonably happy." When we meet the villain he is described as having "the virtue of diligence with an immense capacity for drudgery." You don't get vocabulary like that in most YA books.

The only place Westmark falls a little bit flat is with the romance. Theo and Mickle hang out together, he teaches her to read and she teaches him the sign language she uses for breaking and entering. Then he leaves -- it's complicated -- and when he finds her again a few months later she's furious with him for leaving. And then the story ends and they seem to be engaged, but without ever really having had a conversation. It's odd. I think as a kid I filled in a lot of the blanks myself.

There's another Alexander book that seems to still be out of print about a rich girl and her butler, who travel around the world solving crime Indiana Jones-style. When I find that one, expect the review to be in all caps.

Grade: B

Originally posted in 2006 -- The other Alexander books are definitely back in print now.