zombies vs unicorns
holly black, justine larbalastier, editors
read: august 2010
So, as you should know by now, I'm not really a huge fan of short story collections, as I'm not really a fan of short stories. however, a lot of my favorite YA authors have chosen this year to be part of anthologies (Diana Peterfreund, Claudia Gray, I'm looking at you!), i have found myself reading more of them.
Which makes them a little hard to review - having so many different stories and authors.
However, I think this is the best collection I've read in a long time. First of all, you have zombies, which usually means the end of the world, which of course I love. And then you have killer unicorns, which thanks to Ms. Peterfreud, are the coolest things ever.
I remain fully on Team Unicorn, though Scott Westerfeld's zombie story, and Carrie Ryan (come on, she like re-invented zombies) as well as Garth Nix's (truly creepy - wait, that might have been a unicorn story too) were stand-outs on the zombie side.
But when you have a baby unicorn in a cardboard box in a garage who you know is a man-eating monster, another unicorn named (I kid you not) PRINCESS PRETTYPANTS who actually FARTS RAINBOWS, is there really a chance? Meg Cabot, I love you too.
Plus it was edited quite well, though I think Justine did a much better job defending zombies than Holly did with unicorns. But that's probably just because unicorns haven't always been scary, while zombies have. Going against the grain!
Conclusion: enough stories that I don't think you should miss to read it.
(Winners: Diana Peterfreund, Meg Cabot, Garth Nix, Scott Westerfeld, Carrie Ryan. Major winners.)
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Beautiful Creatures (2009)
beautiful creatures
margaret stohl and kami garcia
read: february 2010
recommendation: worth its weight in pages.
"Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena Duchannes moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them."
I don't know what I liked about this that other people didn't, and if I was just in a different mood/mind place when I picked it up, but I had a very hard time putting it down.
Yes, it's fat. It's a thick book with lots of characters and world-building, and yet the setting is this tiny town of Gaitlin, where the past is just as important as the present. Despite the length of the book, about half-way through, I was totally hooked. I couldn't put it down. I truly liked the "Casters" world - where almost every paranormal thing ever is somehow in the mix. It provided a nice break from the usual paranormal YA.
Characters that were my favorite: I loved Macon. I loved Amma. Their stories, their history, and the way they interact with the new generation - these things made me really happy and really involved in the story. I mean, Lena was kind of cool, but she wasn't . . . I don't know. I like very strong female characters, and Lena wasn't exactly the most active heroine anywhere. However, she isn't the worst. I did like her. And Link.
I liked the heaviness of the setting. To be honest, I don't think I've ever read anything that qualifies as "southern gothic" so I don't know how accurate that part was, but i definitely really LIKED the setting. I felt the town and the people in it, i felt like I could almost smell the trees and the weather. I could see Amma in the mist with her chicken bones, and Macon, and the house that makes everyone suspicious of Lena.
Looking back on it, I can see parts that I would have edited it out, or asked the authors to make tighter. (The song, for example, and the initial dreams don't exactly have a conclusion, there's so much about Emily - and we don't even know really what happened there.)
I didn't realize it was a series until the last page. Because this is a first book, I have hope the second installment will have a tighter plot and retain the visceral quality of the writing. The world building was lovely, and I do want to go back there.
And really, I had a very hard time putting the book down. Even with the length. But then again, perhaps the fact that I spent a lot of time reading and loving books that are considered "dense" by most people (Conrad's Heart of Darkness, all of Faulkner, etc.) that I wasn't turned off by the sheer size of the book. This is definitely a book that is worth the time it takes to read (though it *is* heavy to carry around!) and I can't wait to read the sequel.
margaret stohl and kami garcia
read: february 2010
recommendation: worth its weight in pages.
"Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena Duchannes moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them."
I don't know what I liked about this that other people didn't, and if I was just in a different mood/mind place when I picked it up, but I had a very hard time putting it down.
Yes, it's fat. It's a thick book with lots of characters and world-building, and yet the setting is this tiny town of Gaitlin, where the past is just as important as the present. Despite the length of the book, about half-way through, I was totally hooked. I couldn't put it down. I truly liked the "Casters" world - where almost every paranormal thing ever is somehow in the mix. It provided a nice break from the usual paranormal YA.
Characters that were my favorite: I loved Macon. I loved Amma. Their stories, their history, and the way they interact with the new generation - these things made me really happy and really involved in the story. I mean, Lena was kind of cool, but she wasn't . . . I don't know. I like very strong female characters, and Lena wasn't exactly the most active heroine anywhere. However, she isn't the worst. I did like her. And Link.
I liked the heaviness of the setting. To be honest, I don't think I've ever read anything that qualifies as "southern gothic" so I don't know how accurate that part was, but i definitely really LIKED the setting. I felt the town and the people in it, i felt like I could almost smell the trees and the weather. I could see Amma in the mist with her chicken bones, and Macon, and the house that makes everyone suspicious of Lena.
Looking back on it, I can see parts that I would have edited it out, or asked the authors to make tighter. (The song, for example, and the initial dreams don't exactly have a conclusion, there's so much about Emily - and we don't even know really what happened there.)
I didn't realize it was a series until the last page. Because this is a first book, I have hope the second installment will have a tighter plot and retain the visceral quality of the writing. The world building was lovely, and I do want to go back there.
And really, I had a very hard time putting the book down. Even with the length. But then again, perhaps the fact that I spent a lot of time reading and loving books that are considered "dense" by most people (Conrad's Heart of Darkness, all of Faulkner, etc.) that I wasn't turned off by the sheer size of the book. This is definitely a book that is worth the time it takes to read (though it *is* heavy to carry around!) and I can't wait to read the sequel.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Saving Francesca (2006)
saving francesca
melina marchetta
read: january 2010
recommendation: read. read read read.
Wow. Melina Marchetta blows my socks off yet again.
Frankie/Frank/Francesca is a year 11 in Sydney. She has switched schools because her former school stopped at year 10. And Frankie's mother, Mia, decides to send her to St. Sebastian's, where there are approximately 30 girls and a couple thousand boys.
As Frankie says, "You'd think this would be great, but it's not."
Oh, FRANKIE. Oh, Will and Luca and Robert and Justine and Tara and Sibhoan and Thomas and Jimmy and Nonno's and Nonna's . . .
Mia, Frankie's mother, has always been doing ten things at once. She's a personality, a force to be reckoned with. Until one day, the music doesn't go off at 6:45 am, and Mia doesn't get out of bed.
This is beautiful, brilliant, look at family and high school, also carefully dealing with issues of depression and blame and medication, etc.
Being your own person - not as a latch-key kid with responsibilities, but having your own personality and likes and expressions and having friends who like you for who you are and what you want to be - this book deals with that. This book is about the family you are born with and the family you choose, and what it means to love someone.
The prose is tight and beautiful. The slang and the words and the characters hold on to you, and bring you there, and show you the world from a different perspective.
I am so HAPPY to have this book, not just for me, but also for the possibility to give to kids who have parents or other loved ones who are depressed.
Marchetta is such an amazing author. But oh, I think this is my favorite out of all of them. I cannot recommend it enough.
melina marchetta
read: january 2010
recommendation: read. read read read.
Wow. Melina Marchetta blows my socks off yet again.
Frankie/Frank/Francesca is a year 11 in Sydney. She has switched schools because her former school stopped at year 10. And Frankie's mother, Mia, decides to send her to St. Sebastian's, where there are approximately 30 girls and a couple thousand boys.
As Frankie says, "You'd think this would be great, but it's not."
Oh, FRANKIE. Oh, Will and Luca and Robert and Justine and Tara and Sibhoan and Thomas and Jimmy and Nonno's and Nonna's . . .
Mia, Frankie's mother, has always been doing ten things at once. She's a personality, a force to be reckoned with. Until one day, the music doesn't go off at 6:45 am, and Mia doesn't get out of bed.
This is beautiful, brilliant, look at family and high school, also carefully dealing with issues of depression and blame and medication, etc.
Being your own person - not as a latch-key kid with responsibilities, but having your own personality and likes and expressions and having friends who like you for who you are and what you want to be - this book deals with that. This book is about the family you are born with and the family you choose, and what it means to love someone.
The prose is tight and beautiful. The slang and the words and the characters hold on to you, and bring you there, and show you the world from a different perspective.
I am so HAPPY to have this book, not just for me, but also for the possibility to give to kids who have parents or other loved ones who are depressed.
Marchetta is such an amazing author. But oh, I think this is my favorite out of all of them. I cannot recommend it enough.
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