Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

Publishing year: 2010
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

Scarlett and Rosie March have spent years hunting the Fenris-werewolves who took Scarlett’s eye in a brutal attack years ago. Donning blood-red cloaks and wielding deadly hatchets, the sisters kill Fenris to protect other young girls from a grisly fate. Yet even as the Fenris seem to be gaining power, Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves. She finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is lethal with an ax and is Scarlett’s only friend-but does loving him mean betraying her sister and all that they’ve worked for?

Review:

First I want to say that I read this in one sitting. That’s right, it’s that good. The writing is fast-paced, and never dull. The imagery is bold and defined. For example:

“His irises were dark sienna, the red-brown shade of Autumn leaves.” Page 2.

No matter the scene, it’s always detailed in a way that makes you feel like you’re there. A few times when reading about the Fenris attacks a chill went down my spine. It became incredibly easy to see those creatures with yellow fangs and patchy fur in my own house. This is a brilliant book to read late at night.

As for what kept this from achieving a perfect score, it begins with the beginning. Har har.  I was lead to believe this was written in third person thanks to the prologue and later I discovered the epilogue was also in third. Everything else was in first person with each chapter being narrated by the sisters. I’ve never been a big fan of alternating perspectives except with Across the Universe and it was also okay in this book.

I loved that this book was set in Georgia, especially since so much action took place in Atlanta. It seems childish but I’m always delighted when the setting of the book is a real-life location near me. It just makes it easier to fall for the book.

Another minor thing. Their cat is named Screwtape. I bet there’s a story behind that and I am so disappointed Pearce didn’t throw in a bit more of a backstory that way. Still every time Silas was attacked by the cat I had a good chuckle.

Sadly, the plot was a bit predictable. I had the basic ending sketched out after the first hundred and fifty pages or so. I’m not sure if that’s because I was on the lookout for a plot twist or not but it was still disappointing.

The age difference between Rosie and Silas was also a hurdle I had to overcome. If memory serves correctly, Rosie is sixteen to Silas’s twenty-one. When they’re in their thirties five years won’t make much of a difference but for this novel, I had to suspend my disbelief and that’s a hard thing to do. I understand why Silas has to be twenty-one but I don’t see why Rosie couldn’t be eighteen or nineteen. And while I’m on this topic. The scene where Silas and Scarlett kiss. Rosie never finds out and that irks me. It’s as though Rosie is second best to Scarlett for his affection and that’s not okay. It completely undermined Silas as a character.

One last piece of criticism. I read somewhere that this book was listed in the top 100 ranking of young adult books for feminists. Or something along that line. I just don’t see this as a feminist book. Every female character aside from Rosie, Scarlett, and Oma March is shown as superficial and vain. They’re overheard talking about nail polish and described as dragonflies. Brightly colored and flitting about. I might be missing a clue here. No doubt that Rosie, Scarlett, and Oma lead self-empowered lives but I don’t see how this can be called a feminist book when every other girl is so shallow.

Despite all my negative thoughts this is a book I’d recommend and I definitely plan to check out other books by this author.

Threads and Flames by Esther Friesner

Genre: Historical Fiction
Publishing year: 2010
Publisher: Viking
Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

It’s 1910, and Raisa has just traveled alone from a small Polish shtetl all the way to New York City. She is enthralled, overwhelmed, and even frightened, especially when she discovers that her sister has disappeared and she must now fend for herself. How do you survive in a foreign land without a job, a place to live, or a command of the native language? Perseverance and the kindness of handsome young Gavrel lead Raisa to work in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory sewing bodices on the popular shirtwaists…until 1911 dawns, and one March day a spark ignites in the factory. Fabric and thread and life catch fire. And the flames burn hot enough to change Raisa-and the entire city-forever. One hundred years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (March 25, 1911) in New York City, the stories of love and life lost are still relevant, and the hope that can come from despair still resonates.

Review:

This is the third historical fiction novel I’ve read about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and it’s vying to be my favorite.

I love how the story starts in Raisa’s Polish shtetl and carries through to the trial of the factory owners. It shows us what life was truly like in the early 1900s. Raisa’s older sister Henda even believes her to be dead because the wrong letter reached her before the correct one could. This makes me extremely grateful for telephones and the internet. All those modern conveniences we take for granted.

There were some large time gaps after the fire we swiftly move through spring and summer and find ourselves right back in chilly weather. I think Raisa’s fifteenth birthday is skipped over as well, although I’m not certain.

The strongest factor of this book is the characters. Friesner did a wonderful job of bringing them to life. I envied Raisa’s ability to quickly befriend and comfort Brina, the child she saves from a bleak future in a New York orphanage. I’ve never been popular with small children, likely because I’m an only child and have only babysat a handful of times. Already I admire Raisa and as her tale unfolds that admiration grew. Each time she was backed into a corner or faced with an insurmountable problem she tackled it head on and overcame the odds. She’s one of the strongest characters I’ve encountered recently.

Gavrel the funny one.

“Now, let’s be honest, dearest,” Gavrel said to her. “I know I love you, but I’ve got no idea if you can cook. That’s why I’m eating all the good food I can get now, so that after we’re married, at least I’ll have my memories.” Page 337.

He is never without humor and in several instances, he boosts Raisa’s falling spirits and encourages her to strive towards her goals of becoming a teacher and finding her sister. I was on pins and needles when Raisa learned he had been working at Triangle on Saturday when that dreadful fire occurred. Rather than be at the synagogue, he chose to go to work so he could save money so that he could announce his plans to marry Raisa to his parents. This was an almost unbearable sweet gesture on his part and it seemed so tragic when he disappeared afterwards. I had to know what happened. Did he die? Was he comatose? Where the heck did he go? I was tempted to go to the end, but I held myself back. He had to be alive. He just had to be. That’s the way this book is written. It grabs you and doesn’t let go until you finish it. Bravo.

I only have one problem with this book. Gavrel. Which is almost funny because he’s my favorite character. Throughout the book he is strong and confident but in the end he almost breaks. We finally discover his flaw, and it bothered me. True it proves him to be more than a flat character but this made him seem weak to me.

Raisa was stronger than him and maybe I’m a tad old fashioned but it’s not right. Anyway this only dropped my rating by one point because otherwise it’s a terrific novel.

If you have an interest in historical fiction, especially pertaining to further reading on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, I would recommend Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix and Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch. 

Inventing Elliot by Graham Gardner

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Publishing year: 2004
Publisher: Dial Books:
Rating: 3/5

Synopsis:

When fourteen-year-old Elliot Sutton arrives at Holminster High, he is determined not to stand out. He simply can’t let himself become a target like he was at his last school. He’s going to invent a whole new Elliot. The new Elliot is tough, impenetrable. Enter the Guardians. A group of upperclassmen that secretly rule over Holminster with a quiet and anonymous terror. Obsessed with George Orwell’s book 1984, they desire power for the sake of power. And strangely enough, they want Elliot. Not to terrorize…but to become one of them. Everyone knows that if the Guardians notice you in the wrong way, life will be miserable. But as Elliot soon discovers, even if they notice you in the right way, there will be some terrifying choices to face.

Review:

Genuinely a good book but I can’t help having mixed feelings about it. At 181 pages, it’s one of the shortest books I’ve read in a long time. I think this counts against the book only because it limits the amount of detail that can be squeezed into such a tight page count.

I wish the author had gone into more detail about Elliot’s father for a start. The physical injuries were described well but it wasn’t clear what the current situation is. The impression I got was that his father’s spirit was broken. He seems capable of moving about but he never speaks through the course of the novel. I wonder if after the beating, something may have damaged his mental health. Perhaps his brain was oxygen deprived for an extended period. At any rate, I would have preferred a clear reason.

1984 by George Orwell is referenced dozens of times in this book and if this book accomplished nothing else, it did stir my interest for this book. I will probably read it sooner rather than later.

Elliot’s determination to never be a victim again is the fundamental reason he falls in with the Guardians. His fear of being beaten and humiliated is very well conveyed. The process of choosing a punisher, punishment, and selection was self-explanatory. Just not the standards that they use to choose a victim. At first I had the understanding the Guardians were a vigilante group. Wrong understanding.

Upon finishing the book I believe the victims are chosen by the whimsy of whoever is doing the choosing. If I had to describe it with a phrase I would say, ‘organized bullying’. I just would have enjoyed a method to this madness.

One more thing bothered me. The ending. My issue with it: it wasn’t an ending. But wait there is more. It’s a standalone so there is no sequel. There is a feeling of hope at the end and Elliot has done a substantial amount of growing as a character over the past 180 pages. There are good points. There are just too many loose ends, to call this an ending. His farther is still a silent man who spends his days watching TV. His mom is still overworked and has no true idea of the turmoil Elliot is going through. Louise, his love interest, is still on the fence about him and for good reason, nothing has been resolved there. In summary, nothing has been resolved. Elliot has made a decision, that much is clear, but none of the consequences are mentioned. I am left with a tiny voice speaking in the back of my brain saying, “…And then?”

Besides those three things, the book was great. The pace was delightfully quick and was written in smooth even prose. It wasn’t made for suspense but I had to finish it and that’s a good thing.

Question: If you were given the chance for a fresh start at a different school, workplace, or city, would you take it? Would you be yourself or adjust your personality, attitude, and dress to suit the environment?

How Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl Lost a Reader in the First 100 Pages

Series: Caster Chronicles #1, Paranormal Romance

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Publishing year: 2009

Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company

Rating: N/A

Synopsis:

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps, and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

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 moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Review:

The reason I didn’t rate this book is that I didn’t finish it, hence the title. If I had to rate it, it would be a one out of five but that would be wrong. I didn’t finish the book, so what right to I have to judge it? So, I’ll just explain why I stopped reading it. With quotes of course, because we all love quotes.

“And if there’s one thing a Southerner knows, it’s their family tree.” Page 93. The South plays a large role in this book, a large tacky role.  I work in the genealogy section of my local library and if there is one thing I have learned in the past two years, it’s that everyone gets it wrong at some point. Patrons may think they’re descendants of the Cherokee or that their great-great grandfather served in the Civil War, or something much similar like the spelling of a family name that now looks like Smith but two hundred years ago was Smyth. It takes a lot of work to compile a family tree with any degree of accuracy, and the above quote is not only stereotypical, it’s dismissive. Hackles effectively raised. But it doesn’t compare to the next quote.

“The Sisters of the Confederacy, the lesser cousin of the DAR, but equally horrifying, was some kind of sewing circle holdover from the War.” Page 93. I think this was meant to be the United Daughters of the Confederacy but regardless that ended this book for me. Final nail in the coffin. I’m sorry but the DAR is a wonderful organization and if you are able to prove your lineage to a patriot of the American Revolution, you had better be damn proud. That little sewing circle comment wasn’t needed either. This is why I truly can’t respect Ethan Wate as a character. He is rude about everything, as if he is better than his heritage. 

I realize both of these quotes are from the same page, and that I need to give more reasons for why this book failed to gain my interest. Ethan sounds like a girl. I’m all for male protagonists, but I get irate when their voice sounds like a teenage girl. Example: 

“It was like I was in love with her, even though I didn’t know her. Kind of like love before first sight.” Page 5.

That’s right. Page five. This book is all about insta-love, which is a concept I hate. I have seen books that have pulled it off, there are always exceptions, but this one couldn’t manage that. So he’s already in love with Lena before he even meets her, and from here his masculinity never recovers. 

“When I touched her, electricity ran through my body.” Page 44.

I hate this sentence. It sounds like something a twelve year old girl would say to one of her friends after her first date. “And then Billy took my hand and when he did, electricity ran through my body.” Why didn’t they just say it gave him the shivers or goose bumps? On that note:

“Butterflies in your stomach. That was such a crappy metaphor. More like killer bees.” Page 6.

That was a rather poor attempt at humor. I put this with the electricity quote for a reason. The sensory details in this book are lacking, it goes into great detail about clothing and Southern history but it skips over these, or makes it overly cheesy. His stomach could be described as twisting in knots or churning. But no, we get butterflies or killer bees.

“She had the longest eyelashes I had ever seen, and her skin was pale, made even paler by the contrast of her wild black hair.” Page 46.

He just noticed her eyelashes. Her eyelashes. Most female protagonists don’t notice those. While I’m pointing this out, let me also mention that Ethan goes into great detail about every other character’s clothing. Not only does it distract from the action of the story but it takes away from whatever appeal Ethan originally held. 

So to recap:

1.      Insults DAR and possibly UDC

2.      Ethan is a girl.

3.      Awful descriptions-eyelashes, electricity, butterflies, etc.

I feel that this book had some great potential, if it had been revised before publishing. This just proves that if you write a book, someone will read it. This one certainly doesn’t live up to the hype. I wanted to like it but every time the Civil War, the DAR, and Southern hospitality were brought up it became too difficult. I’m proud to come from a Southern state; Georgia is a great place to live in my opinion. It’s not for everyone but I like it. I like seeing Civil War Reenactments, and I enjoy conversing with others who have that soft accent. It just seems to me that this novel pushes everything Southern onto the reader in a tacky, annoying, and over the top way. 

Reading the authors’ bios, I noticed they both live in LA, although Garcia is mentioned as having Southern roots. I just wonder if I was the only reader who found this portrayal of the South as false and mildly insulting.

But maybe I’m just ranting. Whether you loved the book or hated it, let me know in the comments below.

 

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Genre: Science Fiction

Publishing year: 2011

Publisher: Razor Bill

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis:

Amy is cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the spaceship Godspeed. She has left her boyfriend, friends-and planet-behind to join her parents as a member of Project Ark Ship. Amy and her parents believe they will wake on a new planet, Centauri-Earth, three hundred years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed’s scheduled landing, cryo chamber 42 is mysteriously unplugged, and Amy is violently woken from her frozen slumber. 

Someone tried to murder her.

Now Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed’s 2,312 have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader. And Elder, Eldest’s rebellious teenage heir, is both fascinated with Amy and eager to discover whether he has what it takes to lead.

Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she put her faith in a boy who has never seen life outside the ship’s cold metal walls? All Amy knows is that she and Elder must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again. 

Review:

I have been hearing a lot of hype about this book, actually the trilogy as a whole, and since I’m always willing to give anything a go, I picked it up. Unlike most popular novels, I feel this one truly lives up to a high standard. It didn’t start out that way though. The first line:

Daddy said, “Let Mom go first.”

The good news is that it immediately launches us into the action with dialogue. The bad news is that we have a semi-grown teenager calling her father ‘Daddy’. I don’t think this will bother many people, but somehow it just managed to wiggle underneath my skin. She automatically seems desperate, clingy, and heavily dependent on others. Not exactly, what I like to see in a heroine, but later on she did show some improvement so I’m willing to let it slide.

What I like about this book is that the plot is not spread paper thin just to make sure there is enough material left for a sequel or two. Too many series can be summed up as a whole in a few paragraphs and quite literally could be edited down to a single average size novel. The action in Across the Universe flows quickly. Like a machine gun, it’s just BAM, BAM, and BAM. 

The alternating perspectives of Amy and Elder also helped to keep up the pace. Neither of them had a dull day since Amy was unfrozen. While Amy is discovering what the fourth floor of the hospital is actually used for, Elder is learning the truth about the Plague from Eldest. Both are monumental plot twists, and I found myself encountering cliffhangers at the end of every chapter. One second Amy is in trouble and I want to speed read through Elder’s chapter so I can find out what happens next to her and then I’m pulled into his difficulties with Eldest and I don’t want his chapter to end. And the cycle just kept repeating. It really kept me on my toes. 

On character growth, I believe Amy has taken a few steps closer to adulthood. She has begun to spend less time mourning her life on Earth and I think she has embraced life aboard Godspeed somewhat. When she realized that her father never expected her to join them on the ship, she was visibly upset. Realizing that her own father had counted her out is the point where I stopped thinking of her as a child. She still refers to him as ‘Daddy’ but I like to think that she isn’t as childishly naïve as she was at the start of the book.

Elder is a tough nut to assess. He has doubts about his leadership ability throughout the course of the book, and I don’t think these doubts and fears could have been vanquished in one book. This is why I am so glad the rest of the trilogy is already published. Still in the end he has stepped into a leadership role, and I think that while there may be plenty of bumps in the road he is capable of being a strong dependable leader. 

The ending. It was surprising, but not horribly so. The book ended on a mixed note. It wasn’t a happy ending, but it was pleasant and left me with hope for the characters. Well I still don’t know about Elder, but I’ll just have to wait and see when I read the second book in the trilogy, A Million Suns. 

Question: Could you ever imagine leaving Earth behind, allowing yourself to be frozen for a few centuries in the hope that you would land on a new planet that may or may not be better than Earth?

The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow

 Genre: Historical Fiction

Publishing Year: 2011

Publisher: Harper Teen

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis:

Fourteen-year-old Karl Stern has never thought of himself as a Jew. But to the bullies at his school in Nazi-era Berlin, it doesn’t matter that Karl has never set foot in a synagogue or that his family doesn’t practice religion. Demoralized by relentless attacks on a heritage he doesn’t accept as his own, Karl longs to prove his worth to everyone around him.

So, when Max Schmeling, champion boxer and German national hero, makes a deal with Karl’s father to give Karl boxing lessons, Karl sees it as the perfect chance to reinvent himself. A skilled cartoonist, Karl has never had an interest in boxing, but as Max becomes the mentor Karl never had, Karl soon finds both his boxing skills and his art flourishing.

But when Nazi violence against Jews escalates, Karl must take on a new role: protector of his family. Karl longs to ask his new mentor for help, but with Max’s fame growing, he is forced to associate with Hitler and other Nazi elites, leaving Karl to wonder where his hero’s sympathies truly lie. Can Karl balance his dream of boxing greatness with his obligation to keep his family out of harm’s way?

Review:

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I couldn’t help but feel disappointed when I finished it. Karl has taken definitive steps toward manhood by this point but in many ways, he is still a frightened boy. I feel that this book is more of a coming to age novel, than historical fiction.

 Still there is something to be gleaned from its pages. I have heard the stories of several Holocaust survivors in person and still many more that I read about in school. My World History class in high school went over the causes of WWII in detail and of course, the Holocaust came up multiple times. Whenever Nazi Germany was brought up, the conversation immediately turned to either the concentration camps or Kristallnacht. 

There was never much discussed about what led up to Kristallnacht, and I think that is where a good deal of this book’s power lies. It answered many of my questions. I always wondered if there were Jews who had abandoned their faith before the Nazi party rose, and if those Jews existed, where they still identifiable or could they slip under the radar. Every book about this time focuses on the Jews, but what about the homosexuals and the Gypsies, among others. Where they treated the same?

Karl is a nonobservant Jew and most others; he has none of the stereotypical features. Still his heritage is eventually revealed and he is expelled from his school. I didn’t encounter a Gypsy character in this book although they were mentioned but there were two homosexuals. The Countess and Fritz. Fritz turns out to be a weak character but I genuinely like the Countess, and his bravery on Kristallnacht. The book didn’t go into much detail about his own hardships although it is hinted that his business is beginning to suffer. Still he ends up risking himself to help Karl and his sister, Hildy. He is a strong character and extremely likeable. 

This novel spans about four years and I felt the transitions were a bit rough. One minute Karl is fourteen and the next he’s sixteen and having his heart broken and then he’s seventeen and his father is finally treating him like a man. Otherwise the story did flow well and I found it to be a good read. 

The ending left me dissatisfied even as I realized that it was much more realistic than any happy ending would have been. Hildy and Karl are on their way to America leaving their parents behind in Germany and once in America they will be split up. They have hope but their difficulties are hardly over. Maybe their parents will join them in America or maybe their father will be sent to a concentration camp and likely that their mother will fall back into her manic-depressive state. I am not a happy camper at the moment. 

For everything negative, I’ve said about this book there is a upside. I could not put this book down for all its faults. Sharenow is a wonderfully powerful writer and when I was reading this book, I was in the book. As I read I made several comparisons of this novel to the Rocky series and I think any reader who is familiar with them will notice similarities as well. 

I won’t be rereading this book, but it did serve to stir my interests in the Nazi-era again so I consider my time spent reading this book well worth it.

Question: When choosing a historical fiction novel to read do you prefer books with a heavy focus on war and soldiers or those that do not?

Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer

 Genre: Mystery

Publishing year: 2006

Publisher: Miramax

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

Fletcher Moon has never been like other kids. For one thing, he first had to suffer the humiliating nickname “Half Moon” because of his short stature. But the real reason Fletcher is different is that ever since he was a baby, he’s had a nose for sniffing out mysteries. And after graduating at the top of his Internet class, he is officially certified as the youngest detective in the world. He even has a silver-plated detective’s badge to prove it. Everything is going along fine until two things happen: a classmate hires him to solve a crime, and his prized badge is stolen. All signs point to the town’s most notorious crime family, the Sharkeys.

As Fletcher follows the clues, evidence of a conspiracy begins to emerge. But before he can crack the case, Fletcher finds himself framed for a serious crime. To clear his name, he will have to pair up with the unlikeliest of allies and go on the run from the authorities. Fletcher has twelve hours to find the guilty party-or he is the guilty party.

Review:

I’ve always been a fan of Colfer; you can see this in my review of one of his latest releases The Reluctant Assassin here. I feel like this book may have been targeted for a younger audience, but I was unable to find a recommended age on the cover. While this can’t confirm my suspicion, it’s actually a tick in the pro column for this book. It just bothers me when I read a book that has an age range on it, and I don’t fall in that range. The cover is almost telling me to grow up. As if that’s ever going to happen.

Now about this book, I enjoyed the character development. This sounds like something I would put in an English essay but is in fact true. Fletcher, or Half Moon as I prefer to call him, seems to be a bright and likeable child. He just spends more time with detective work, bordering on obsession than he does with other children his age. Not too horrible, upon first look, but then I realized that he wasn’t merely withdrawn he had no friends. He had a solitary informant, who is never to be mentioned again after the first few chapters of the book, but he has no friends. What brought an excellent close to this book in my opinion wasn’t the solving of a case, but more on that in a minute, it was this quote.

“You’ve already been thinking about this haven’t you? You already have a name. Let me guess: Moon Investigations.” I grinned at my new partner. “You’re half right,” I said.

He has a partner, a friend who shares his hobby and that sounds absolutely cheesy and overdone, but I think it was a sweet ending. The tie in to the title was nice as well.

Another change I saw in Half Moon was by the end of the book he has learned that grey areas exist, whereas before he saw everything in black and white. Spending time as a runaway and fugitive with a crime family helped to give him a new perspective. 

Okay the case solving could have been complex, this is what leads me to believe that a younger audience was intended, but even with the answer becoming apparent quickly, this is still a marvelous book. A small irritant was the pro-Apple comments that kept popping up. It was an iPod that was stolen not simply an mp3 player, and Half Moon uses an iBook to search the internet not a nondescript laptop. As I said irritating, but really a minor concern. I give it a four out of five because I could find no other fault. Truly a quick, easy, and happy read.

Question: Have you ever had a hobby that drew your focus away from everything else? Did your friends and family support or encourage you to pursue this hobby or did they frown on it as Fletcher’s parents and classmates did?