Parthenons: reviews

Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts

Bumped by Megan McCafferty - Review

Bumped by Megan McCafferty

This book was crazy good. The writing is just stunning at times. BUMPED is the story of twins-separated at birth, Melody and Harmony, in a near-future where a sterility virus makes it impossible to get pregnant past 18 years of age. Most of the novel hinges on a single day of mistaken identity, a day that changes both twins' lives. A premise like that sounds unmanageable. But everything was so well-written, so perfectly plotted and paced that I just found myself saying YES! That is exactly what would happen there, and, of course! The transformation of each of the girls is believable and the reader is along for the ride at each momentous point on the journey leading to each of the girls’ varying revelations and final destinations. A lot of dystopias coming out recently have been compared to Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale, but this is the only one that earns the comparison in my book, both in it’s complexity of theme and quality of writing. There’s this luminescence to Harmony’s voice as she experiences things in the world for the first time, especially after the reader has seen her so on-script for her religion at the start of the book.

On a side note: this book made me ache. While Harmony, the super-Jesus sister at the beginning probably sounds like a humorous stereotype to many not familiar with religious subculture, she rang all too true for me with my fundamentalist Christian background. Being in her head as she spouts verses at her sister was almost painful to read, painful to embody in my head for the space of the book. At the same time, it also made her transition all the more believable. Let me tell you (and I went to a Super Holy Bible College), Christians are thinking the most about sex. The thing which we were commanded NOT to have (though most found secret ways to get it anyway) becomes the thing we were most obsessed with.

It’s why I got married at 19 years old to my first ever boyfriend, why the first kiss of my entire life was on my wedding day, up there at the altar in front of everyone after saying our vows. So yes, the scriptures that come to Harmony’s mind throughout the book, even as circumstances change and she begins to see those scriptures in new light, felt very, very real. Because of this bias probably, I was far more moved by her story than Melody’s, which was interesting enough in its own right—-the girls just have such different things at stake, at least in this first book. I can't wait to see what comes next for each of the sisters. This book was everything I’d hoped it would be, and that's rare, usually I get anticipation-itis and then the book disappoints. Not so here. Five stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and Balzer + Bray for this ARC for review!

BUMPED releases April 26th!

The Goddess Test - Review!

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter. I've been wanting to sit down and escape into a great epic love story for awhile now, and I finally found what I was looking for in The Goddess Test! This book had a great premise (mythology! Hades! love story!) and I loved what Carter did with it. I loved the way the story was built, with a murder mystery theme underlying the drama—who is killing off all the girls? will Kate be next??—and some great unexpected twists at the end. Not to mention the love story. Swooooooon.

This story reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, one of my all time favorite stories. A contract ties the initially unwilling Kate to the estate with the dark, brooding dude, and her love is the last chance to save him.

Carter was great about making Kate’s slowly changing feelings toward Henry (Hades) really believable, as well as demonstrating her free will in the situation so that it doesn’t get into weird Stockholm’s Syndrome territory. Kate does always want to save other people, but I think her compassion for others is what makes her unusual and unique, as well as logical for the role as a potential candidate for Queen of the Underworld. The reader sees why Kate is different from other girls, stemming from her long-term care of her ailing mother. Being a constant companion to someone you love who is suffering changes a person. The fact that Kate remains compassionate instead of becoming hardened made her very attractive to me. Not to mention, I’m a fan of non-whiny non-self-involved protagonists who are willing to make heroic sacrifices for others! I downed the book in one sitting and at the end wanted more.

Release date is April 26th! My thanks to Harlequin Teen for this ARC for review via NetGalley!

Friday Reads! The Vespertine

The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell. This book was so thick with longing, so achingly decadent in every sense of the word. The writing was lush--written in first person, the novel simultaneously manages to carry a strong and relatable voice and an inescapable sense of the time and era it was written about. You truly believe you're hearing the voice of a seventeen year old girl from 1889.

Amelia's naive delight at visiting her relative Zora for a summer season--the only one either of them is likely to have--is easy to get swept up in as a reader. Yet the novel is framed by a sense of tragedy (this isn't a spoiler, it's clear from the first chapter), and it infects and hovers behind all of the gaiety of the girls' dances and laughter and frivolity. The growth that Amelia goes through in the novel is heart-wrenching but unflinchingly honest.

And then there is the love story. The unconsummated longing between Amelia and Nathaniel is so delicious. In a time where touching bare hands was considered wanton and dangerous, every intimate look and moment they steal alone has a heightened sense or eroticism (even though all of their contact by today's standard is chaste). But the Victorian setting and forbidden nature of their longing for one another, with added tension because of the supernatural elements of the book, makes for the most exciting love story I've read in a long time. Five stars.

The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney, Review

The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney. First of all, can we just bask in the gorgeousness that is this cover? It's even better and person, with the script filigree all shiny and raised over the matte background, I'm so cover-lusting!

As soon as I learned the premise of this book, I was hooked: it's pretty common knowledge that in the fey mythology, iron is deadly to faeries, and the premise that this girl had iron tattoos woven magically into her skin?! And that a sexy fey boy is involved? Couldn't wait, and I finally got this book at my closing Borders this week, and totally devoured it tonight in one sitting.

This book had all the things I love in a good story: a real romantic connection, the supernatural, and a slowly revealed mythology that comes to a kick-ass climax at the end, bringing elements that begin the story to a close with satisfying symmetry. I also liked that Donna was so strong, literally and figuratively. Even just the paradoxical idea of iron, something we think of as brute and burly, being woven in delicate tattoos on a girl's forearms, is a striking image. Not to mention that I love a girl who can hold her own, even rescue the DUDE once in awhile. A nice break from damsels in distress, I'm excited to see where this series goes!

Gut Reaction After Finishing Across the Universe

So. HOLY FREAKING SH#*!!!! I just finished Across the Universe by Beth Revis. I've been anticipating this book ever since the cover and premise reveal. I was patient when I couldn't get my hands on an ARC, then the semester started, so I waited for the library to order a copy. That copy has been sitting on my bedside table for a week. And tonight I picked it up and devoured it in one sitting.

Almost every time that I anticipate a book so much, it's a bit of a let down. But This. Freaking. Book. I mean, so much of YA tends to circulate around the same themes: supernatural dude, high school girl, danger, evil, kick-butt fighting. But this book, not only did it have a concept that's just so original as far as YA fare, but then it's so amazingly executed! I mean, I'm really just sitting here flabbergasted, and still reeling from everything that happened at the end, still feeling the characters in my friggin gut. So, um, yeah, actual coherent review to come later, but all I can say now is it's freaking awesome and YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.

Across the Universe at Goodreads.

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand - Review

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand. This book was so beautiful I was literally crying at parts, not because it was sad, but because it was so achingly BEAUTIFUL. There was this one passage where I could f#%@ing FEEL the glory. I just put finished the book down and it's still zinging around and resonating deep in my chest. I think it was her depiction of fallen angels that got to me too--as the heroine at parts of the novels feels what they feel, a sadness, hurt, and rage beyond anything you could imagine. But at the same time, Hand was able to evoke it on the page! And then when the glory comes, by God you can feel it too.

There's so many things the book brings up about responsibility and destiny and free will, and most of all, about love. But not cheesy or love-at-first-sight or we-are-beautiful-people-and-must-therefore-be-in-love love. The real kind of love, the kind that catches you unexpectedly in the gut. And the characters were so well-realized, especially Clara, as we ride through the first-person narration of her entire journey, from an unquestioning certainty about the way the world works to that uncomfortable nebulous confusion that most people live in. In this way, Clara's journey echoes that of moving from adolescence to adulthood. Yes, when you are young your parents are heroes and the world revolves steadily on a bedrock of absolute truths. But then you grow up, and life is hard and uncertain, and you get to know yourself even as all the other things you imagined were solid turn to unsteady subjective whisps. What is truth? Where do you go from here? What is important in life? But this book seems to give hope that, underneath all the uncertainty of being human, love is at least real. It might not be entirely steady either, but it's something to ground you, or maybe even, something to lift you up and make you fly.

Hello, Crazy Week. I'd Like To Stop and Breathe Now

This past week was officially The Craziest Week Ever, with all the highs and lows of any quality roller coaster week from school disciplinary meetings about my kindergarten son to getting the acceptance letter for my husband's PhD program to working on remodels and re-carpeting half of the house as we get ready to move and then there were some other exciting things that happened too, metaphorical kettles still getting ready to boil on the metaphorical stove-top.

So now I just want to STOP and catch my breath and maybe take a minute (or a day or a week) to reflect and remember to breathe, breathe, breathe. And oh yeah, take care of all those things that were completely abandoned, like say that thesis proposal deadline that blew past or the pile of dishes or grocery shopping that needs to be done. But back to the taking time to breathe :) I read a delectable book tonight: Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler. This is one of the most passionate and realistic romance stories I've read in awhile, woven among a really wrenching narrative of one family's growth and healing after years of silence and still-raw wounds.

My husband is currently sitting at his desk across the room from me whispering answers at an online tutorial about linear algebra. This is how he spends his free time, no lie. He's so frickin' ADORABLE, I guess that's why I've kept him around the past nine years :)

And tomorrow I'm going to the book release party for Cynthia Leitich-Smith's Blessed. One of the things I'm going to miss most about Austin after we move is BookPeople and the great authors I've gotten to listen to speak and meet.

You Should Read This Book

The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith.

This book. This book. This book. It's worming it's way inside me. This book makes me want to start giving a shit again, about entering into the suffering of others, about the worth of all the lives around you and the acknowledgment of the difficult legacy of race relations left to young Americans today. The Other Side of Dark is one of the most poignant and honest fiction books I've read about the haunting (dramatized literally) legacy of slavery, so honest and transparent about all the complex ways we think--the good and the bad--the multiple truths that exist alongside each other in our heads. Our UNlovely motivations. This book makes me want to crack open my hardened chest again and start giving a crap about people, with humility and love.

During my very religious years I kept repeating words and trying to feel the things I ought to feel. Trying to love my neighbor. Trying to do charity and want to keep doing it. Wishing I didn't hate working at the soup kitchen and scrubbing the very dirty bathrooms afterwards because it was the one time a week some people had access to hot water. Because out of all the many shoulds that I accomplished with great zeal, I smiled and lied about how I really felt. Because to admit my less than lovely thoughts meant I was wrong and sinful.

And then afterwards, I told myself I'd give myself a few years off from charity, from giving a fuck about others. To cleanse my palate maybe? To stop living like Jacob Marley with chains of guilt banging around my neck? And then when I was so sick for years, nobody cared, and I thought, maybe that's just how we all are--selfish and self-involved.

I think enough of that pain has scar-tissued over now. The clouds of anger and bitterness have cleared enough where maybe I can try to love other people and still be honest at the same time. Not expect perfection of myself, or be disappointed when I don't find perfection in the people around me. Maybe there's still hope for truth and beauty in the world? In others? In myself?

Quote from near the end of the book:
Death sucks. Life is a lot more fun. So live, huh? Even when it's hard.

The Duff by Kody Keplinger - Review

Goodness gracious, I loved this book. From varying reviews I've seen around, people either loved this book, or hated it. It surprised me at first when I looked after I'd read it, but upon further reflection, I get it. The main character, Bianca, is a bit acerbic, with a biting bitter wit that I, for one, appreciate. People have called Bianca our generation's Holden Caufield, and I'm tempted to agree. She's so wonderfully displaced in her own life, so correctly cutting in her views of the world around her. And then there's the fact that she's just a friggin' teenager who is going through some really tough sh#%.

But of course, since it's YA, people get all book-baning on Keplinger's ass, even though SHE'S STILL AN ACTUAL TEENAGER!! Yes, and don't think I'm not depressed at this debut by such a talented 19-year-old, but this amazingly-voiced novel is from an actual teenager. And for that reason alone, she should get past all the fuddy-dudding book-banners.

Everything in this book is so funny, and HONEST. Want to hear an authentic teenage voice with a less-than-conservative-happy take on the world? Pick up this book. Plus, can I just say, hot love story, while also poignant and honest? This book is a crazy mix of tear-your-heart-out honesty and suprising-love-story. I read this book without knowing how young the author was, and then when I found out, I was absolutely-frickin-shocked. You will not believe how friggen good this book is. Absolutely, one of my top-ten best reads of 2010.

Lots of Delicious Reading, So Little Time

This week, in between maniacally working on edits for the book, finishing a paper about an 800 pg Renaissance book, and finishing classes, I also downed a few YA books that were really delightful. I'll rank them in order of awesomeness.

The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell. I'll post a fuller review closer to when it's published next March, but it was A-MAZING!!!! Set in Victorian Baltimore with a hint of supernatural elements, this book was thick with longing, so achingly decadent in every sense of the word. In a time where touching bare hands was considered wanton and dangerous, every intimate moment Amelia and Nathaniel steal alone has a heightened sense or eroticism (even though their contact by today's standard would be considered chaste). The tension and haunting narration also adds a depth that really launches this book beyond the normal YA fare. I can't say enough about how happily surprised I was at devouring this advanced readers copy. Five stars.

It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han. The first book in this series, The Summer I Turned Pretty, was one of the few non-paranormal reads that has really stuck with me. Han has a knack for capturing real-life emotions, weaving the present in with memories of the past that make you feel like you really know all of the characters, in all their complexities. And a love story that was so real, and so, so satisfying. The sequel was just as satisfying, but had some surprising twists. I can't say too much without giving away spoilers, but I was really happy about where Han took Belly's story in the sequel. I'm also glad there's just two books in the series, which felt like bringing the story full circle without dragging it out to make it a trilogy just for the heck of it. Four stars.

Wish by Alexandra Bullen. This book was kind of fluffy, with fairy-tale elements (hello, magic dresses you can wish on), but at the same time, it was attempting to tackle some heavy issues: death of a family member. I feel like this is becoming a young adult lit trope: kill off a family member and suddenly your main character is deep because they have really been through something. It separates them from all their classmates and gives them a more mature perspective on things, and when done right, it's very effective (like in one of my fav reads of the year, The Sky Is Everywhere). But here, eh, it was like the frosted cupcake version of the dead-sibling narrative. Which was a little disconcerting, though it was an okay read in and of itself. Three stars.

Review of TORMENT

One of the most gorgeous covers of the year, hands down. I could just stare and stare at the gorgeous image. So evocative, so full of longing. This is Book II in the Fallen trilogy by Lauren Kate, I liked this installment better than the first. This book, in cover images, tone, and release dates shares so much with the Hush, Hush series - both are about bad boy fallen angels in which the girl main characters are magically entranced by the beautiful boys, even when it endangers their life.

In Torment, suddenly the main character, Luce, realizes just how quickly she "fell in love" with Daniel, how little time they've actually spent together, and how superficial it might all be. A similar thing happened in Crescendo (Book II in the Hush, Hush series) that was recently released. As a result, I thought Torment presented much more complex characters. Luce seems like a real girl who starts asking real questions about this suddenly consuming relationships. Some reviewers have thought that Luce makes stupid decisions throughout this book, but I didn't find that at all. Her decisions in this book actually make sense. I was so bummed by the lack of time spent on Luce and Daniel's connection in Book I, that I was fine with Luce's wavering here. It made the ending of the book feel real, and fought for. I hate easy outs, and I was glad the author is willing to continue developing Luce, and that she is letting Luce finally discover herself, without Daniel around treating her like an infant. In a manner generally unlike myself (I love me the romance!), what I found most interesting about this book was Luce's personal development, not her romantic connections. Four out of five stars.

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld - Review

Oh, can I sing the praises of the YA god that is Scott Westerfeld! I was looking forward to this steampunk series from him ever since I heard about the first book Leviathan coming out last year, and over the weekend, I just read book II in the trilogy, Behemoth. Westerfeld's Uglies series was so fabulous-- everybody talks about The Hunger Games as starting the dystopia craze in YA, but it was totally this series that was first written and became popular. And they had great covers, and a great underlying theme, and romance, and were so well written. Yes, I can gush and gush about this man. He seems pretty awesome as a human as well, and is married to the fabulous Justine Larbalestier (How to Ditch Your Fairy). In my head I envision them as this awesome funny creative couple.

SO! On to the Leviathan series! It's basically a revisioning of WWI, but steampunk, so the opposing armies are an army with mechanical creatures against an army using gigantic animals (some of which are filled with hydrogen and are turned into organic airships!). He's created a world so much more complex and complete than most YA storyworlds, down to the very language that his protagonists use. All of their sayings relay culture, making the alternate reality he creates feel real. There are pictures every so often, which I thought was a little dorky when I first saw it in Leviathan, but then realized was necessary because of all the crazy contraptions and creatures he describes--you seriously need pictorial representations to figure out what the crap some of these things are supposed to look like. But soooooo cool.

The books are very episodic, and there's so much going on in each episode, it was a little harder to feel hang on to larger storylines going on. But the characters and their motivations and feelings are always clear. I'm always a fan of too much complexity rather than too little. Reading this book felt SO different from the normal YA fare--Westerfeld just takes it to a completely higher level on all accounts. Reading the book was like a mini master class on how books should be written. I'm trying to hijack some of his methods for culture building to make the storyworld in my novel fuller and more realistic.

Reading My First E-Book

Oh irony, you saucy little minx. I read my first e-book tonight, and it was a dystopia about a society in which almost all of life is experienced online, people stuck watching computer screens--which was exactly what I was doing all night as I read the book on my computer :)

It was an advanced reading copy I requested from the publisher through a galley request web service-- Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky, and it was really wonderful. I'll do a full review closer to when it comes out next May, but it was compelling. I read it all in one sitting, and it had well-developed relationships and a quality story. The author doesn't have a web presence, though, and I wonder if that's because in real life she is so against being "plugged in" all the time, or maybe she just hasn't gotten around to it? I just take it for granted these days that after I read a book I like I'll be able to google the author and find their blog!

I will say, if the ridiculous occurs, and I get a book deal, the first thing I'll do is buy a Kindle. Well, okay, the first thing I'll probably do is get a new tattoo to celebrate, but the second thing will be a Kindle! Reading the book on my computer wasn't as frustrating as I thought, but I've been a long hold-out for paper books. I think Kindle will be the best of both worlds, b/c you can't beat the convenience of e-books, but pushing the PgDn button on my computer was a bit annoying, as was staring at the screen for three hours straight.

Yes, I'm unapologetically part of the generation that will never be unplugged. Though now that I think about it, in my novel, I'm also examining our reliance on technology, envisioning a future where we start implanting it in our bodies more and more. But even that, to me, isn't an entirely a horrible concept. I just think humanity's relationship with technology is always going to be a mix of good and bad, something we're going to have to negotiate.

Malinda Lo's ASH

I've been trying to track down a copy this book since it came out last year--the gorgeous cover first caught my eye, and when I heard it was a retelling of Cinderella (I'm a sucker for retellings of any kind--fairytales, myths, Jane Austen novels, etc!) with LGBT themes, my interest was piqued. They finally got it at my local library, and I picked it up this week. It was a lovely read. Today has been frantic with an unconscious stress that had been making my jaw tense and tired all day, but settling into Ash tonight helped everything slowly unwind. It was the perfect kind of retelling--keeping with the spirit of the tale, but taking it to new and unexpected places. Too many modern Cinderella stories are heavy-handed about reversing the problematic gender stereotypes it reproduces, but this one was beautifully written and paced. It was nuanced in all the right places with a story that unfolded naturally. And, you know, with some tricky fairies thrown in for good measure :) The setting was a little removed, set in a story-world that felt akin to a high-fantasy with villages and princes and forgotten magic and such, and it didn't quite pull me in as entirely as other books, but it was still a high quality book. I look forward to Lo's forthcoming Huntress.

A passage from the climax of the book (but I don't think it's spoiler-y, just lovely):

As the people swayed and stamped and sung their way around the bonfire, Ash knew that this was what the fairies were always hunting for: a circle of joy, hot and brilliant, the scent of love in the deepest winter. But all they could do was create a pale, crystalline imitation, perfect and cold. How it must disappoint them: that they would never be human.

SEX?! In Young Adult Novels?! Oh my!

I was reading a YA author's blog recently, and when asked why she wrote in the YA genre, she answered frankly that one reason was that she didn't want to write sex scenes! This cracked me up because it is so spot on! My graduate studies in children's literature has made clear the long tradition of viewing children as innocents who are not to be corrupted, not to mention the notorious history of book-banning. Consequently, there's traditionally hasn't been too much sex in YA books. But this is changing, most notably among some excellent male authors willing to transgress normative YA sex-talk boundaries like Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and John Green's Looking for Alaska (mainly in their *shocking* frank discussions of masturbation, which really, is even more transgressive than talking directly about sex!). For all the girls, on the other hand, there are several writers who are talking details of the deed (albeit couched in someone ambiguous terms, at least as far as naming body parts goes) in their books:

Simone Elkeles: Both Perfect Chemistry and Leaving Paradise are so, so good, surprisingly good. And yeah, sexy too. No problem talking about melodramatic sexy situations here! Unfortunately, the sequels to both of these books bummed me out, but the initial books are great reads.

Jennifer Echols, who's recent two books, Going Too Far and Forget You.
I've been seeing a lot of attention toward, and for good reason, they are quality chick-lit reads. These books are fluffy, but oh the most delicious and well-written kind of fluff. And unabashed with the sexy.

One of my favorites is Elizbeth Scott, who continues to take on such a variety of interesting projects, mixing up really difficult stories like Living Dead Girl and her newest one, Grace (which I really want to read), with other plain-talking very real feeling stories of teenage girl life. She's like Sarah Dessen, but with more honesty and real-to-lifeness, and she doesn't seem to feel the need to wrap up every little ending with a happy, unrealistic bow. I first read Bloom by her, which talks about a girl dealing with burgeoning sexy feelings and just last week read The Unwritten Rule, the rule being, don't want your best friend's boyfriend. But the stories are so much more complex and honest than their cover blurbs. I love every one of her books, but they are always too short!

And one by a debut author this year that was absolutely amazing, top ten reads of the year: Jandy Nelson's The Sky Is Everywhere. I mean, this is amazing writing, hands down, poetic and gorgeous and with a super compelling story, and again, not afraid to talk about female sexuality.

Crazy Week & Good Book

This has been, wow, one hell of a nutty, busy, wonderful week. I just finished planning out and outlining the other books in what I hope can be a trilogy, and I'm emotionally exhausted after losing myself in the fiction-world and figuring out the end of everybody's story. In the last week and a half, I also finished a paper for my Renaissance lit class, finished revising and editing the Twilight paper for publication, did a big edit on the novel, finished the outlines for the two books, and today, had a birthday party for my wonderful kiddo--he just turned six!

Oh, and I had a parent-teacher conference with his kindergarten teacher yesterday and talked about all the things I already knew--he's smart, but has behavior problems, like talking back and never doing what she says the first time (apparently he's one of six boys in the class who are the bane of her existence, though she put it in nicer words than that). Leaving the meeting, all I could think was: Thank God I'm not a kindergarden teacher! I mean, my kid's not that bad when he's at home, prob because he's an only child and so doesn't have to share his toys, and we discipline and do lots of consequences and rewards for positive reinforcement. But I can't imagine being surrounded by twenty crazy-o kids. Everyday. For eight hours. I shudder just thinking about it.

Also! I finally had time to pause and enjoy some great YA lit, which I haven't had time for all semester. But the library told me the book I'd put in a hold request on was in, so I've read it this week and just finished it tonight. And damn, it was a good one, really good: Clockwork Angel (don't like the title, but do like the cover). I read Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series and was like, meh, it's okay--lots of action, but I didn't feel totally connected to all the characters. But this one, zing, straight to my melodrama loving heart, mixed with great action, set in Britain in the 1890's, a bit steampunk, all done really well. Love, love, love.

Now I'm going to go shower, sleep, and wake up tomorrow and start the paper due next week on Samuel Coleridge.

Philosophy as Fiction: Is Life Meaningless?

Literature has the power of philosophy made plain, tied to human emotions and given a body. I’m reading the 6th in Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, and I am continually moved by it’s lengthy examination of the question: is life meaningless?

This is where Goodkind shows his true genius – not in his writing skills per se, but in examining and pushing the limits of human psyche in various fictive scenarios. With the last book, I was about to give up on the series – I don’t really care about movement of troops and battles. But this book, Faith of the Fallen, he has stepped back into the intimate of the human. Why do we do what we do? What is the point of continuing on? His answer, I think, is moving toward something I’ve thought similarly – meaning is found in relationships and the experience of loving and being loved.

This sounds like a trite answer on the face of it. It is, when it’s the knee-jerk response. Love is the reason for living and for hope – a common fictional tool – It’s the thing that saved Harry Potter and is otherwise commonly depicted as the only thing can ultimately overcome the greatest evil and power. It is so common we cannot see underneath the statement – the never-ending complexity of this answer.

The more I think on love, and experience it, the more I think of it as something magical, and by that I mean, it’s Other. Not grasped by reason, or even words adequately – the experience of it, like other physical sensations I can feel, but never describe, or have described to me in any way close to the actual experience of it. I’m not even talking about understanding it from biological and anthropological standpoints – the emotion of love as a series of chemical responses and electrical brain activity that maybe one day will be charted by computers. That won’t make it less real, because it is Other. It is a language that reason cannot understand. It simply IS.

Maybe one could try to explain in terms of evolution – that these feelings of attachment evolved as a way of keeping a family unit stable, of bonding a mother to care for her infant so as to promote the survival of the species. I’ve tried for a long time to understand why love is. But at the end of the day, I can only call it magic. Other. Something I experience in different ways at different times, and whatever makes love what it is, it's the reason for living.

Realization of Category fit. And Zombies.

So since I've been reviewing all these YA books, it's made it clearer to me where my book fits in the genre. It struck me yesterday that while my book isn't urban fantasy, the gods are kind of like the heartless faeries - all powerful and many completely without morality. In tone, my writing is kind of like Melissa Marr or Libba Bray though without the gritty urban sheen.

Then today it struck me, when trying to describe what the dead would look and act like in the Underworld, that the best near description would be zombies (I'm reading a zombie book right now). Corporeal, but for the most part zoned and out of it (though not chasing the living around trying to canabalize them or anything). Zombies are another bizarre category in YA that's coming into style.

I've only read a couple zombie books, all though yesterday I came across a post of a person coining the term "Zom Rom", as in, zombie romance as a genre. WTF? These seem like two incompatible categories, though the book I was reading last night does a pretty good job of it:

Generation Dead by Daniel Waters - this book is suprisingly kick ass. Maybe I've just been reading so many poorly written books lately that I'm just shocked by how well written this book is. Really good, intelligent. It takes the undead trying to integrate into society in a situation throw-back to the 60's racial hatred at integration. Fascinating look at humanity - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan - first of all - how amazing is that title? Hands down, best title of the year. And here you get traditional zombies - mindless, hungering for human flesh, kept at bay from a small community in a post-apocalyptic world by a giant fence. Good and intense.

Faerie Tales - YA Lit Part II

So, faeries. And no, I'm not trying to be pretentious writing it that way, believe me, that's the way the new faery-tale writers want it spelled - or rather, the way it used to be spelled and they are going back to the original idea of The Fair Folk as mischievous baby-stealing hedonists.

Rundown of the goods out there:

Wicked Lovely Series by Melissa Marr - Definately the best writing. But in book II of the series, she focuses on completely different characters, then back to the main one's for book III (in all, there will be five books). And the narrative goes places I don't want it to go. Unpleasant, certainly uncomfortable. But very REAL characters. Gritty. Urban. Just not my cup of tea, you know? I like conflict, but maybe not this much.
Impossible by Nancy Werlin - I really, really liked this book. It's not as heavily into the faery mythology as some of the others, but is based around a fairy-curse with an evil fairy-like dude taking his revenge, generation by generation. It's good stuff. It's out in paperback now. Check it out.
Wings by Aprilynne Pike - Slower start, but got very good by the end. A new take on fairy mythology, and I really liked it. I liked the love triangle built. I read it quick and wanted to know what comes next. Always a good thing.
Lament by Maggie Stiefvater - I didn't like this as much as I thought I would. I first read her newest book Shiver about werewolves, and it was excellent, so then I picked up this one, her first book. And I thought there were some leaps in logic that didn't quite make it for me - the love story between the two leads wasn't quite believeable enough. It just didn't do it for me.
Tithe by Holly Black - this is really the seminal book for the faery story revival - of faeries as dangerously beautiful and murderous, and humans as mere playthings. In a gritty, urban setting. It's good. I didn't love it, but then, I'm not all about gritty urban fantasy. And it gets props for being the first of the movement.
Wondrous Strange by Leslie Livingston - It was good. If you like the genre, check it out.

Others I haven't read (though I currently have one checked out from the library!)

Bones of Faerie - by Janni Lee Simner
Fairy Tale - by Cyn Balog - I've heard good feedback about this one. I'll probably check it out if I can track down a cheap or library copy.

In other exciting news - an agent requested a partial of my manuscript for Becoming Persephone! Which I know, I know, it's just a first step, and most partials eventually get rejected, but still! I got a bite!

Parthenons

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