Book 22: Fire

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Book Summary:
Fire, the last remaining human monster with an irresistible appearance and hair the color of a flame, is both hated and adored. She has a unique ability to control the minds of others, those that haven't learned to guard their minds against her. When Prince Brigan brings her to King City to help the royal family uncover a plot against the king, she finds that her power could help save the kingdom. In a time of war, she must learn that she is not the monster her father was.

Book Review:
This book is a companion novel to Graceling (whose review can be found here), and takes place approximately thirty years before that timeline in a land called the Dells. There isn't a lot that connects this book to Graceling, except that it introduces how Leck came to be, so you can definitely read it without having read Graceling. Honestly, I liked this story more than Cashore's debut novel. I felt that not only was the story more put together but that the characters were better rounded as well. I was a little put off initially because, like Katsa in Graceling, Fire is against getting married, and I kept thinking that Kristin Cashore must be completely opposed to the idea of marriage. Then the author explains Fire's thinking, which isn't that she doesn't want to get married, it's that she doesn't want to have children because she believes that she should be the last of her kind. She can't subject the humans to another monster that could potentially end up being cruel like her father was. In the end, she ends up falling in love and getting married.

I loved the characters in this novel. Fire was very well written, and I really felt like I knew her. Not only does Cashore describe Fire's looks and personality beautifully, she also makes the reader understand how Fire thinks and feels. Although, she did have a very Katsa-like feel, she was different enough that it didn't bother me when similarities between the two popped up. The one thing I didn't really like is that although Fire is only like sixteen years old, she is written in a way that makes her seem much older. The character of Leck both intrigued and bothered me. On the one hand, I liked getting to read his background, as that was a complaint of mine from Graceling, but on the other hand, I felt that his storyline was out of place and didn't mesh well with everything else that was happening. It seemed like Cashore put him in the story for the mere point of connecting this book to Graceling, and I felt that this was completely unnecessary as it could have stood just fine on its own without that connection.

I thought the storyline in this novel was much better than that of Graceling. Cashore apparently learned from the first novel, and decided to make the romance actually secondary to the main story. My biggest issue with the plot goes back to the character of Leck. Because the author felt the need to bring him into this story, there were almost two distinct plot lines occurring that really had nothing to do with the other, even though throughout most of the novel Cashore tries to write as if they do deal with each other. It doesn't help that the story kind of jumps back and forth between these two plots at random, and it wasn't until close to the end that I understood that Leck had absolutely nothing to do with the story of the war that was happening. It was a little confusing until that point.

I have to say that my biggest issue with the story, and honestly with Graceling as well though I didn't really realize it until after reading Fire, is that Cashore obviously has a view on casual sex that she tries to impress upon her readers. This wouldn't be a huge deal to me except that her target audience is teenagers. On top of this the women in her novels are not ideal role models for young girls as they lie, cheat, and sleep around to get what they want, and they are very irresponsible to boot, getting pregnant because they are either too lazy or just don't care enough to take the medicine that will stop this from happening. I realize that to an extent this is true to life, but it bothers me nonetheless.

So overall, I did enjoy this book. It was a quick read with a decent storyline and good character development. As far as family friendliness goes, there is little, if any, cursing, but there are definitely multiple sexual references (this book talks about periods and pregnancies as well). I originally said in my review of Graceling that I would let my younger teens read it if I had kids; however I would like to update that by saying that although I would let them read it, I would definitely talk to them about all of the things that both these novels bring up.

My Rating: 8/10

Book 21: Graceling

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Book Summary:
Katsa lives in a world where some are born with innate skills. These Graces are feared by many but exploited by those in power. When she was young, Katsa learned that her Grace was that of killing, and though she despises it, her uncle Randa, king of the Middluns, uses her to punish and torture those who displease him. When she meets Prince Po, a Graced fighter, her world is turned upside down. In the midst of turmoil surrounding a horrid secret in a faraway kingdom, she doesn't expect that this cocky prince will become a true friend and that he will show her more about herself and her Grace than she thought possible.

Book Review:
As far as debut novels go, Kristin Cashore did a decent job writing this one. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this book and read it in record time. Overall, the story was engaging and the main characters were interesting. I found Katsa and Po to be pretty well rounded characters, and I loved reading their evolution from strangers to friends to lovers. The back story on both of these characters was decently written, so I definitely felt like I knew them really well by the end of the novel. I think Katsa's character was possibly my favorite thing about this story. Even though she believes her Grace to be terrible, she finds a way to use it for good by helping others whenever she can. I've read multiple reviews where people didn't like that she had such a big issue with marriage and couldn't understand why she hadn't changed her mind by the end of the book given everything she's gone through with Po. I, however, felt that this added so much to her character and that it made perfect sense. Until she leaves Randa's court, she's never had freedom, and even though Po loves her and would never cage her, if she married him she would be giving up her freedom again. Even though I don't agree with that train of thought, I think that it completely matches Katsa's character.

As far as other characterization goes, I don't think Cashore did a great job. Most of the characters other than Katsa and Po are very one-dimensional. I wish we had gotten a little more background on characters like Oll, Raffin, Giddon, and Bitterblue. I felt that these characters were very important to the plot; however, I didn't really feel like I knew them. They felt more like characters instead of friends. And then we have Randa and Leck. I felt that these two characters were very poorly formed, especially Leck since he is the main villain of this plot. Other than the two of them being kings who crave power, I don't fell that I knew anything about them like why they actually acted the way they did. The author definitely could have done a better job writing these two.

I really liked the idea behind the plot of people with Graces that could be as mundane as swimming or as powerful as mind-reading or suggestion. I thought, though, that the plot as a whole was somewhat poorly formed. They say over and over again how people are afraid to be around those who are Graced, but most people that Katsa and Po come in contact with don't seem that scared until either Katsa and Po get angry. And even though the main plot is supposed to be about Katsa and Po finding out who had kidnapped Po's grandfather and in turn learning of a great threat and thwarting it, I couldn't help but feel that this was actually secondary to Katsa and Po's relationship. I know that the novel is supposed to be a coming-of-age story and that their relationship is a big part of that, but it just seemed to overwhelm the book to a point that the rest of the plot outside of their relationship was not well written. For the first half of the book they're trying to figure out who kidnapped Po's grandfather, and then once they figure it out, they realize that King Leck is not what he seems and the rest of the story is them trying to kill him. When if finally gets to the climax of the book, the scene in very underwhelming. Cashore definitely could have put a little more effort into this aspect of her story.

As I said earlier, overall I did really enjoy this book. It was an easy read, and even with the issues of secondary characters and plots, it was definitely worth the time. As far as family friendliness goes, there is no cursing that I remember, but there are some definite sexual references as Katsa and Po decide to become lovers instead of marrying. I would say the killing and torture in the book (there isn't a ton of it, but there is some) is probably worse than the sexual stuff. If I had a younger teen I would probably let them read this.

My Rating: 7/10

Book 20: Shadow of Night

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*Spoiler Alert: This is book two in a series. To read my review of book one please go here.

Book Summary:
Diana Bishop, a witch, and Matthew Clairmont, a vampire, have timewalked back to the year 1590 not only in an attempt to get another look at the enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782 but also to find a witch that can train the spellbound Diana. Once there they are plunged into Elizabethan London, where mistrust lies around every corner. As Matthew's past comes back to haunt him, the two must draw closer together if they are to survive the vampire's shadowed history. And in the midst of turbulence among witches, Diana learns that she is not only a powerful witch but a unique one as well.

My Review:
I really wanted to love this book. If you read my review for the first in the series, you'll know that even though there was much I didn't like about A Discovery of Witches, overall I was swept up in the story. Shadow of Night, however, was completely different. After about ten pages in, I was terribly bored by the storyline. As far as characters go, I was really annoyed (even more so than I was in the first book) by how Matthew treats Diana. Harkness tries to explain it away numerous times by the fact that vampires are possessive, but her explanations fell on deaf ears with me. It just wasn't a good enough reason for him to be continually angry with her. The alchemical stuff was also just a little too much. I understand that Diana is a historian who studies alchemy, but there was just way too much of it written into this novel. If I wanted to read a book about alchemy, I would have picked up a book specifically on alchemy. On top of that, making Diana's and Matthew's blood do extraordinary things in alchemical experiments was too far fetched for me, even in a fantasy novel.

There really was very little that I enjoyed about this book. One of the things that I liked, though, was the introduction of more characters. I really liked the addition of Gallowglass (Matthew's nephew), Annie (a young witch who comes to live with them), and Jack (a homeless boy they take in). I felt that these characters added a lot to the story. I also liked when Matthew and Diana visited Sept-Tours to see his father. This, actually, was one of the only parts of the plot that I enjoyed.

Overall this book is not as good as A Discovery of Witches, and I can honestly say that I have absolutely no desire to read the final book of the trilogy.

As far a family friendliness goes, this is definitely an adult book. There are curse words thrown around a good bit (though I don't believe there are any f-bombs), and there are numerous sex scenes (some of which are a little more graphic than others).

My Rating: 3/10

Book 17: A Discovery of Witches

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Book Summary:
Diana Bishop is an alchemical history professor doing research while at Oxford University. When she requests a manuscript called Ashmole 782 at the Bodleian Library, she believes it to be an ordinary book, that is, until she gets her hands on it. Even though she has tried to keep all magic out of her life, she can tell that this ancient text is bound with it. Insisting that she wants nothing to do with her magic, she makes a few notes and then sends the book back. What she doesn't realize, however, is that this text has been lost for centuries, and the magical community will do anything to get thier hands on it. Soon after, witches, daemons, and vampires begin appearing at the Bodleian. One in particular is Matthew Clairmont, a distinguished scientist who also happens to be a vampire. Once Matthew enters Diana's life, she finds that nothing will ever be the same.

My Review:
If Harry Potter and Twilight were to have a baby, I'm pretty sure it would be this book. That being said, Deborah Harkness is a better writer than Stephanie Meyer, so this was a halfway decent book. I really enjoyed the fact that because Harkness is a history professor by trade, she somehow manages to make a novel that is one part historical fiction and one part modern fantasy. I have very mixed feeling about this book, however, because for some reason I really enjoyed reading it even though so much of it bugged me. Maybe Deborah Harkness put a spell on the book because that is pretty much the only explanation I can come up with.

Though I enjoyed the overall concept of a witch who wants nothing to do with witchcraft who gets violently thrown into that world, I felt that by the end the subplot romance becomes the total driving force for the story. This is fine if you're writing a romance, but I wasn't really wanting to read a romance when I picked up A Discovery of Witches. Also, I feel that though Harkness starts out writing a strong female character who can fully take care of herself, the second Matthew steps into the picture Diana becomes a major damsel in distress. On top of that, Matthew is basically a douche throughout ninety percent of the story, and Diana, after only a couple weeks of knowing him, is completely willing to choose him over her family at every instant. Matthew definitely falls into the stereotypical vampire role of obsession with a woman that turns into the need to posses her fully as if he owns her.  Honestly, I think in general I have issues with vampire romances because they make absolutely no sense unless ultimately the girl is going to become a vampire. If that is not the intention, there is going to come a point where you will look forty years older than your vampire husband. Do characters not take that into account before deciding they want to marry the living dead? On a completely different note, there were definitely some really cheesy lines that I literally laughed out loud at. I also wasn't to keen on the whole genetics side to the story where magical creatures have extra chromosomes, and you can tell what powers a which has based on her DNA. Even in a story about magical beings, this was a little too much of a stretch for me.

All of that being said, I flew through this book and really did enjoy the overall experience of it. Harkness made me care about the characters, and so I fully plan on reading the rest of the series. Maybe this makes me as bad as the twihards or maybe I've just been reading so many books recently that I'm not paying as much attention to writing as I am to the overall story or maybe ever since I first watched Buffy I've just really wanted to fall in love with a vampire, of this I am not sure. Whatever the reason, I definitely want to know what becomes of Diana and Matthew.

As far as family friendliness goes, this is definitely not a book for young teens. There is a decent amount cursing and some semi-graphic scenes both sexual ones and violent ones. I definitely would not let my young teen pick up this book.

My Rating: 5/10

Book 14: Midnighters - Blue Noon

I'm still trying to catch up on my reading, so for book 14 I picked the easy read of the final book in the Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld titled Blue Noon.

 

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*Spoiler Alert: This is book three is a series, so if you don't want books one and two to be spoiled please stop reading*

To read my reviews of the previous books go here for book one and here for book two.

Book Summary:
Blue Noon continues the story of our midnighters - Jess, Jonathan, Dess, Rex, and Melissa - as they make a new discovery about the midnight hour that threatens to destroy everything. Blue time is now hitting randomly throughout the day, and they scramble to figure out why it's happening. They soon find that the walls between midnight and real time are crumbling, and if they don't find a way stop it, the darklings will finally be free to become the predators they once were. The only thing they know for sure, is that the flame bringer is the key to saving everyone.

Book Review:
I really don't want to spoil too much about this book, but let me just say that I hated the ending. I completely understand why Westerfeld wrote it the way he did, but it wasn't a plot twist I enjoyed at all. Now, normally when I read books I go to the end first to make sure I like the ending, and then I go back and read the book from start to finish. I've always said that the reason I do this is because a bad ending ruins the entire book experience for me, so if I don't like the ending, I won't read the book. Well, I promised myself that I wouldn't do that with this book challenge. I decided I would read all fifty-two books like a normal person. Let me tell you, though, had I read this ending first, I wouldn't have bothered with the series. Now, please don't take that as you shouldn't read this series. I did like the series, and if you aren't someone who gets super disappointed by twist endings, you will probably be fine. I just don't fall into that category.

Now that I've gotten my largest disappointment out of the way let's move on to the things I liked. The plot of this book was really engaging, and I found that I enjoyed it more than the previous two novels. I loved the idea of regular people getting pulled into the midnight hour because it's like when Jessica first discovered the blue time only on a much grander scale. I also really liked that the author used Jessica's sister Beth more in this storyline. I think one of my favorite things, though, was the midnighters learning that there is another side to their history, one that tells of mindcasters bending people's wills to match their own and wiping the minds of anyone who dared not submit to their authority. Before the previous generation was destroyed, midnighters ran the town of Bixby, and they stayed in power because they could control the minds of the regular people who lived there. I liked when Melissa realized that she wasn't the first crazy mindcaster, she was, in fact, the first sane one because she believed that their was a major problem controlling people the way the old mindcasters did.

Obviously the ending was the thing I liked least about this book, but there were a couple other things I didn't really enjoy. I realize that Rex being part human-part darkling was a major plot point for the series and without him they wouldn't have been able to stop the rip, but I really didn't like it. I thought Rex getting all creepy and saying that people smelled like prey was just a little too much for me.  Also, there were parts of the story that were a little slow, and I ended up skimming through chunks of the book because it was kind of boring.

Overall, I did enjoy this book until the last two chapters. As far as language goes, I don't think it's quite as much as book two, but there are definitely some curse words (but no f bombs), and there are still some sexual references, though as with the second book they don't ever come out to say that's what they're talking about. 

On the series in general, I failed to mention that some of the stuff they talk about is a little dated. They still use VCR's and cassette players throughout the series. While this obviously doesn't take away from the series, young ones who weren't very old when those things were phased out may be slightly confused by Melissa using a walkman.

My Rating: 5/10 - (the series as a whole I would give a 6/10)
 

Book 13: Midnighters - Touching Darkness

Since I needed a couple easy reads to get caught up on my book quota, I decided to finish out the Midnighters Series by Scott Westerfeld before I started anything else. So, for book 13 I chose Midnighters - Touching Darkness.

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*Spoiler Alert: This is book two in a series. If you don't want book one spoiled, you should probably stop reading.*

Read my review of book one here.

Book Summary:
Touching Darkness picks up a mere days after The Secret Hour ends. Now that Jessica knows she's a flame bringer, meaning she can use technology during the blue time, she seems to be safe from darkling threats. But when the midnighters find out that the ancient darklings have teamed up with some humans, or stiffs as the team calls them, they aren't sure exactly what to do. Help, however, comes from an unexpected source as the the group uncovers the reason why there is no lore from the last fifty years.

My Review:
Unlike The Secret Hour, which I felt was just setting up plot lines for this story, Touching Darkness does a great job of standing on its own. If I didn't know going in that this was a trilogy, I wouldn't have known just from reading this that there was another book to follow. Westerfeld also gives the reader a lot more background information on the characters. I especially liked how much more we learned about Melissa's ability, as she was kind of to the background a good bit in The Secret Hour. Being a mindcaster is about so much more than just being able to hear people's thoughts, and I didn't completely get that until the character of Madeleine was introduced. Speaking of Madeleine, her character was my favorite aspect about this book, as it enabled the author to answer most of my questions from the first book. My biggest issue with the first book was the idea that somehow there are five midnighters in Bixby who are all teenagers. This was very unbelievable to me. However, this issue was explained in detail throughout Touching Darkness.

As far as what I didn't enjoy, my biggest complaint was that I felt like the ending was rushed just like it was in The Secret Hour. Although the buildup wasn't quite as slow, I still thought the climax of the novel could have been written a little better. I also really began to dislike Rex throughout this story. His jealousy over Melissa touching anyone but him drove me crazy. Plus, his reaction to just about everything Jonathan says made me want to smack him. Lastly, I really didn't like that the swearing was amped up a good bit. I realize that teenagers swear, but since there was basically no swearing in the first book and this takes place like a week after those events, I didn't really understand why all the characters randomly started swearing so much.

Overall, I did enjoy this book at least as much as the first in the series. As I stated above, there is a good bit of swearing, however there are no f-bombs dropped anywhere. As far as sexual references go, there are a few scenes where the characters talk about sex, though they never come right out and say it. There are no graphic scenes, though, and the worst the characters do is kiss.

My Rating: 7/10

Book 11: Midnighters - The Secret Hour

I recently found a locally owned used book store in town, and the first time I visited I picked up Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters series. Book eleven was the first in the series, The Secret Hour.

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Book Summary:
When Jessica Day moves from Chicago to Bixby, Oklahoma, she has no idea that she is about to find a whole new world opened to her - a world in which there is a twenty-fifth hour to every day that has been compressed down into a mere moment. The world stands frozen during this blue time when the slithers and darklings come out to play, and only those born within seconds of midnight are able to move freely through this time, each with there own talent. They call themselves midnighters, and Jessica is one of them.

Book Review:
I was first introduced to Scott Westerfeld by his Uglies series (if you like dystopian novels and haven't read them, I would definitely recommend picking them up). I think he is an awesome story-teller and a pretty good writer. In The Secret Hour he does a great job of introducing the main characters and giving the reader just enough information about each of them to feel informed but still intrigued. I loved the concept of the book; the idea that there is this secret hour in which only a few people can move about is really interesting, and Westerfeld does a great job describing the back story for why this hour exists. I also really liked the fact that each midnighter had his or her own special ability that exists only during the blue time; a large part of the story was trying to figure out what Jessica's ability was and why the darklings and slithers wanted her dead so badly.

As I stated above, this is the first book in a series, and you can definitely tell. This is actually my biggest issue with the book as a whole. I honestly felt like a good bit of this story was just setting up the reader for the second novel. The buildup to the climax was really slow, and then I felt like the ending was rushed because so much of this book was spent giving us a lot of information on the blue time, like back story and rules the characters must follow. To me, all of this felt like Westerfeld was filling us in more because it would be useful for the second book than this one, even uncovering Jessica's ability seemed more like it was a plot device to move us to the next novel than the climax of this one.

I also found it slightly unbelievable that there were five midnighters in the small town of Bixby, and on top of that, they were all in high school within one year of each other. If the town is as small as the author makes it seem, it's unrealistic that there would be five people, in general, that were all born close enough to midnight to be able to walk freely in the secret hour. Stepping off of that near impossibility, if there would happen to be five of them, how plausible is it that they are all teenagers? How is there no adults who are awake during this time? I mean, there have to be more adults in the town than teens, so statistically there would be a much greater chance of there being five adults who were born around midnight than there would be of five teens being born around midnight. I realize that this is splitting hairs and that I probably thought way to much about this, but logically this makes absolutely no sense to me, even in the realm of science fiction and fantasy.

Overall, I really liked this novel. It was a easy read and a fun story. I would definitely recommend it, though more for preteens and teens than adults. There is minimal, if any, swearing and no sexual references other than kissing. Obviously there is a little bit of a spooky/supernatural/science fiction-y feel to the book, but I personally didn't have an issues with it and would have no problems allowing my young teen (if I had one) to read this.

My Rating: 7/10

Book 3: The Magician King

For book three I went with The Magician King by Lev Grossman.

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Before I go into a book summary, let me first say that this is the second book in a series. The first, The Magicians, I read last year. I will try not to spoil too much about The Magicians here, but be forewarned that there may be spoilers to that book as I write my summary and review for The Magician King.

Book Summary:
This book picks up after The Magicians, Quentin Coldwater is now royalty in Fillory along
Julia Wicker, his crush from high school, and Eliot Waugh and Janet Pluchinsky, his friends from Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy. As the story starts, Quentin has become bored with his life as king of Fillory and is searching for some adventure, something to fill his dull life. He decides to commission a ship so that he and Julia can collect back taxes from a remote island. Once there he learns of a magic key on a nearby island, and upon finding the key, he and Julia wind up back on Earth. Attempting to return to Fillory become his unintended quest. On earth he and Julia team up with Brakebills' graduate Josh Hoberman and his friend Poppy. Upon returning to Fillory, they find that the entire world of magic is in danger, and that only they can save it.

Parallel to this adventure, Julia's backstory is unfolded. Being that she is a hedge witch (meaning she learned her magic on the streets instead of in a school) her path was much different than that of Quentin's (which is told in The Magicians). After failing her entrance exam to Brakebills, Julia tries to find out anything she can about magic. After years of learning everything she can from the underground world of magic, she catches the eye of an elite group of magicians who, like her, failed their entrance exams but found a way to become powerful regardless. The group teaches her everything they know, but when they decide to further their magic by summoning a god, things go askew and Julia finds herself transformed.

My Review:
I knew going into this book that I probably shouldn't read it, but I did anyway. The reason I say this is that the first book was filled with swearing, sexual references, and graphic scenes. The only reason I read this one was because I wanted to know what happened after The Magicians, the same reason I will probably read the third book when it comes out.

The story itself is very engaging. It's a mix of a really dark Harry Potter with the magical world of Narnia. Some people feel that Grossman ripped off these books, and while I understand why they believe that, there were enough differences for me to feel that this was not completely accurate. I really liked getting to see Julia's background as a hedge witch in this book. After reading The Magicians and seeing how strict Brakebills is about how to use magic, it was very interesting to see the contrast of that in the underground world of magic. Julia quickly became my favorite character in this book, as I didn't really like Quentin in the first book, I still didn't really like him much in this book. He is not who I would choose as a main character in a book. No matter what happens to him, he's never content with his life. Every time he gets exactly what he wishes for, he is unhappy about it. Seriously, you are a powerful magician living as a king, get over yourself!

As far as storyline goes, I kind of felt like the quest to save magic took backseat to Julia. I didn't find that I really cared much whether Quentin and Julia returned to Fillory or whether magic was saved, I just wanted to read about how Julia became who she is.

All in all, this book was okay. I don't know that I would recommend it to people as there is some VERY graphic parts, including a rape scene, along with a TON of swearing. This is not a book for teenagers in any way. That being said, Grossman did end the story in a way that makes me want to find out what is going to happen in the third book, so I give him props for that.

My Rating: 4/10