Fire by Kristin Cashore

Fire by Kristin Cashore

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Fire is a prequel to Cashore's debut novel Graceling. You don't need to have read Graceling to understand this novel.

Fire was born beautiful and marvelous. Her fire red hair and exceptional beauty make her not only something to be admired but also a target. She is a monster by nature born to a monster father who almost single-handedly destroyed the kingdom of the Dells, and that kingdom is now being ruled by the previous king's son, Nash.

King Nash is doing his best to keep his kingdom from falling apart, and is trying to repair what his father and Fire's father did to almost destroy it. There is an impending war that could either dethrone King Nash or bring the kingdom together. King Nash seeks out Fire for her ability to read people's minds, and to have her as an ally in his quest to unite his kingdom. Fire must not only work towards understanding herself and her abilities, but also decide on how these abilities will be used or not used.

As said before I'd never read Graceling before reading Fire. With so much fantasy being set in modern times lately it is a breath of fresh air to read a book set in a more traditional fantasy setting. Fire is a fragile women who feels the scars of her father's past are her own to bear. Fire is, at first, someone who only wishes to be normal. She hides from her beauty and from her mind reading abilities. She is ashamed of them because of how her father used to and taught Fire how to use them. To Fire's father their exceptional beauty made humans their play things not their equals. To her father they are the superior beings, and should use their powers to their greatest advantage.

Fire is different. Fire wishes only to be seen as someone beyond her exceptional abilities. When King Nash asks Fire to use these abilities to his advantage Fire must decide for herself if using her abilities in this way is immoral. Cashore is an exceptional writer with an ability to make her readers think about the consequences behind Fire's actions as well as the actions that others ask of her. Fire also encompasses questions of gender, violence, family, friendship and race that all of the characters must face and react to individually giving Fire a highly engrossing cast of characters as diverse and intriguing as the main character.

Cashore delivers an amazingly realistic fantasy world. Her writing is understated and beautiful which can only lend to it's readability for its readers. Fire is at a mature teen reader level as it deals adult situations. The book will definitely rate high on any fantasy lovers list. Fire has also been nominated as a CYBILS finalist for 2009.

Candor

Candor by Pam Bachorz
(Amazon)
(Author Website)

In the model community of Candor, Florida, every teen wants to be like Oscar Banks. The son of the town's founder, Oscar earns straight As, is student-body president, and is in demand for every club and cause.
But Oscar has a secret. He knows that parents bring their teens to Candor to make them respectful, compliant–perfect–through subliminal Messages that carefully correct and control their behavior. And Oscar' s built a business sabotaging his father's scheme with Messages of his own, getting his clients out before they're turned. After all, who would ever suspect the perfect Oscar Banks?

Then he meets Nia, the girl he can't stand to see changed. Saving Nia means losing her forever. Keeping her in Candor, Oscar risks exposure . . . and more. Candor was an amazing book with Alfred Hitchcock like tendencies. While it's not high Science Fiction it is Sci Fi and touches on the theory that subliminal messages can control human actions and emotions. To the point that you could create well-behaved and robotic teenagers. This book is a must read.

Girl In The Arena

Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines.
(Amazon)
(Author Webpage)

Lyn is a neo-gladiator’s daughter, through and through. Her mother has made a career out of marrying into the high-profile world of televised blood sport, and the rules of the Gladiator Sports Association are second nature to their family. Always lend ineffable confidence to the gladiator. Remind him constantly of his victories. And most importantly: Never leave the stadium when your father is dying. The rules help the family survive, but rules—and the GSA—can also turn against you. When a gifted young fighter kills Lyn’s seventh father, he also captures Lyn’s dowry bracelet, which means she must marry him...

The whole time I was reading Girl in the Arena I was intrigued by what kind of arena the author was trying to portray. For one there is the arena that fame, which has been trusted upon Lyn by the decisions of her mother, the family arena, and then there is the physical arena that Lyn's fathers have entered into and died over and over again. I felt that Lyn's story was one of being torn. Torn between her family and duties to her younger brother, Thad, and torn by her duties to the world that she has been raised in. She is expected to do as she is told. When she is told to marry Uber Lynn finds herself torn between duty, family, and herself.

Haine's book had me thinking, a lot. I was intrigued by the fairy tale-like world that the GSA is trying to create for entertainment and monetary purposes. The lengths to which the faceless association will take in order to keep making money of off the gladiators and their family is astounding. The dehumanizing, and violent way in which the GSA uses people constantly surprised me. This plus Uber and Lynn's relationship in contrast to Lynn's relationship with her best friend Mark almost had the potential for a love triangle. Thankfully Haines didn't go with this. While I like a good love triangle there was too much for the story to be weighed down with too much romance. I felt this was a good call by Haines. The purpose of the story, I felt, was to show humanity in a cruel light based on the idea that entertainment can become boundary-less simply because viewers are able to so aptly detach from the reality that there are real people in the arena.

With that said there were things that bothered me about the book. The dashes in place of quotation marks was more then annoying. Apparently other authors have done this little trick with success, but I have yet to personally read these works. I found the style useless to the story, and at the beginning I was very close to giving up on the story because at times it was confusing at times for me to figure out when a character was still talking or had finished talking. Next time I truly suggest that Haines not do this. It distracts from the story and character development.

Next, the story dragged. It was overly long, and Haines could have told a crisper, cleaner story by cutting out about 100 pages of world building and character background. There was a little too much information without enough action to propel the story forward. For a story about gladiator fighting as a main sport there surprisingly little gladiator fighting, and the fights seem too short to really project the violence.

With all that said I still found this book noteworthy. I still found myself thinking over the plot and picking at the world that Haines built in an effort to understand it better. For this I have to say pick up the book. Read it. Hopefully you'll find yourself mulling over it as much as I did.

The Dust of 100 Dogs

The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King (author website)

Emer Morrisey was about to run away and live a quiet life as a good Irish women when the love of her life was killed, and she along with him. However, this was not before she was cursed to live the life of 100 dogs as punishment for killing another man's lover. Over the next 300 years Emer lives the lives of various dogs with all her memories intact, before finally being born again as the human, Saffron Adams. Saffron is considered a genius by her parents, and she goes through most of her life waiting to turn eighteen. She dreams of leaving to Jamaica and finding the treasure Emer buried there before her untimely death. She also has violent daydreams that include inflicting horrible, violent actions on others.

Saffron wishes to be free. Free from her parents, free from her brother, and most of all free to get what rightfully belongs to her.

The Dust of 100 Dogs is a fairly violent and graphic novel. However, this doesn't not detract from the wholly original and intriguing story of both a female pirate and three hundred year old soul trapped in the body of a modern young girl. The most interesting storyline, for me, was Emer's first life. Emer was a child during the time when Oliver Cromwell invaded Ireland, and killed thousands of people. Essentially Cromwell commited genocide, and Emer is left without her father, mother, and brother. I won't write anymore since I don't want to spoil anything. I simply wish to say that this storyline was amazing, and I truly loved it.

The way that King interweaves all three storylines, yes there is another storyline besides Emer and Saffron's lives, are so well done that I was enthralled by the book. I had to finish it and talk about the story to someone else. I have noticed that quite a few other reviewers and readers become hung up on the rather bad language and some graphic events that occur in the novel. If you are a person who wishes not read a book with bad language and violent scenes this book may not be something you'd wish to read. If these kinds of scenarios are things that may not bother you then read this book. It is an excellent debut, and I for one look forward to reading more by A. S. King. Visit the author's website to watch a trailer for this book, read her blog and learn more about Dust of 100 Dogs.

Many reviewers have also commented on how this book might not necessarily belong in the Young Adult genre because of the very adult situations and bad language brought up. The author also states that when she wrote the book there wasn't a specific genre in mind. So in essence it was not originally written with a young adult audience in mind. However, I am a reader who thinks that just because a book has the label of Young Adult doesn't mean that it should be censored to fit a certain idea of what young adult readers should be reading. Every reader is different, and some YA readers can handle this kind of book.

The Van Alen Legacy

The Van Alen Legacy: A Blue Bloods Novel

by Melissa De La Cruz

Blue Bloods was a series I came into contact with fairly recently. Around the time the third book, Revelations, came out I was browsing for Christmas presents for my friends. For one I was looking for a vampire book since Twilight was such a huge hit for her. I saw the covers of Blue Bloods and thought, hum, why not? Eventually I became a fan of the book and she, I believe, never really got into the stories. I have all four books now with The Van Alen Legacy being my most recent addition. (Copied from an earlier entry of mine. To continue reading it and learn more about the Blue Bloods series click here.) The rest of this review will spoil earlier volumes so tread carefully.

The Van Alen Legacy picks up directly where the third book, Revelations, left off. Lawrence Van Alen, Schuyler's grandfather, is dead, and the Conclave believes that Schuyler played a part in his death. They do not believe her when she says that Lawrence was killed by Leviathan. So Schuyler and her best friend Oliver do the only thing they can think of; they run. Legacy starts one year after Lawrence's death, and continues to cover, at best, a few months of time and is narrated by the three girls; Schulyer, Bliss and Mimi.

Some good things about this book:

A lot was answered. Schuyler's true feelings towards Oliver and Jack, Mimi's feelings about Jack and Schuyler, what has taken over Bliss, and what the Visitor is planning to do. The fact that it starts off almost a year after the last books gives the characters a chance to get past the utter shock that they may be feeling. I even believe that narrating with three different characters allowed De La Cruz to successfully tell the reader about events happening that still moves the story forward at a quick pace.

The way that De La Cruz (seemingly) gave the love triangle between Oliver, Jack and Schuyler a very realistic (supposed) ending. I say 'seemingly' and 'supposed' because this series is still on-going and has plenty of time for this love triangle ending to change. I know that many people are tired of love triangles, and there is only so far you can go with one before fans become bored of it. Thankfully De La Cruz has (apparently) realized this and ended it. I won't tell you which way either. You have to read it for yourself.

Somethings I didn't like: Quite simply De La Cruz's story is becoming very big. She did very will with the Van Alen Legacy and managed to continue to make the reader enjoy and become sucked into the story. I was disappointed at the explanation of what the Van Alen Legacy was. It was done so quickly and some what forced that I had to re-read the page it was explained on to get it. My first reaction was "what?" and then after re-reading the page "oh that's it?". This is one of the reasons why I didn't enjoy the fourth books as much as I did the first three. So much was tied up and so much was started that this book felt more like a filler then a real addition to a great series.

I'm definitely looking forward to the next two books slated to come out in 2010 and 2011, but I can tell you I'm pretty sure werewolves will make a debut into the Blue Bloods world by the next book. I hope De La Cruz treads carefully. If she tried to over-extend herself too much with Angels, Vampires, and now the entire Rome story by adding in werewolves she might just end up jumping the shark! I really hope she doesn't!

Shiver by Maggie Stiefavter

Several years ago Grace was attacked by the wolves that live in the forest that borders her house. She was nearly killed, but lived because of one wolf in particular. Her wolf. The wolf with the yellow eyes.

Now seventeen Grace finds herself continuously entranced by her wolf with the yellow eyes. Every winter she looks forward to seeing her wolf just outside her home. Her friends know about her self-proclaimed obsession with the wolves, but none of them know the truth about the wolves.

Sam is an eighteen-year-old boy who has always lived a double life. During the summer he's a human and able to live a normal life. During the winter Sam becomes a wolf, and runs with his pack. Every year the amount of cold it takes to turn him into a wolf becomes less and less, and soon he knows that he will be a wolf forever. He thought he could handle that fact, but once he truly meets Grace and becomes apart of her world Sam realizes he doesn't want to let go of Grace.

I had a love/hate relationship with Shiver about half way into the book. Stiefvater started out really strong with her story. The first few chapters alone draw you in and make you want to know more. The fact that the book is narrated by both Sam and Grace makes this book even stronger. It isn't easy to write in two different protagonist voices and not confuse a reader. Stiefvater did so beautifully. She also wrote the story with such gorgeous prose that it was hard not to fall in love with the way it was written. Where the story started to almost loose me was some of turns not taken and some of the turns that were taken.

Grace's parents, for example, are extremely neglectful and out of the picture. Grace is left to fend for herself all the time while her parents gallivant around town pretending they don't have a daughter. When Sam is brought to their attention Grace's parents don't seem to care enough to ask too many questions. Without trying to say too much there is even more that makes me question these parents when Grace basically insults her mother when her mother does ask questions about Sam and her mother just shrugs it off like it's no big deal. All the while the parents are still painted as basically good people who don't care about their daughter. Those two personalities didn't mesh well with me at all.

Then there were the wolves. A lot of the story is centered on Grace and Sam living their lives together in their relationship, but very little is done with one of the more intriguing part of the novel; the wolf pack. They are mentioned and they make appearances but these appearances are far between. It makes the story move along slowly, then pick up, then move slowly again. It was a bit frustrating, but the story and the characters were still so interesting I had to keep reading. Stiefvater definately succeeded in making strong, likeable, and balanced characters which isn't easily done when it comes to a romance. Grace was a strong person on her own as well as with Sam, and Sam leaned just as much on Grace as she did him.

Over all though I enjoyed the book. I would recommend this to readers who love the romance of a story rather then any that look for action to really push a story along. It's a beautiful book and it certainly will garner quite a following. I will definitely be looking for the next installment.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Mary's world exists inside a very delicate balance. The only thing that separates her from certain death is one fence. The fence protects Mary and her village. The village has survived because of the balance of power that the Sisterhood and the Guardians hold over Mary and her fellow villagers.


While Mary may be safe in her village from the constant threat of death at the hands of the Unconsecrated Mary dreams of more. She dreams of freedom, of what is beyond the fence, and most importantly of the ocean. Mary knows she has the Sisterhood and the Guardians to thank for her safety, but Mary still dreams. She can't help but think of the ocean and of her mother's stories of the world before the Unconsecrated.

When the fences are breached and the village is overrun with the Unconsecrated Mary is thrust into the world beyond the fence. Now, Mary runs for her life.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is an excellent, heart-thumping, mind-blowing read. I cannot talk highly enough about this book. What makes this book ever more impressive is that this book is Carrie Ryan's debut novel! Ryan has weaved a world and this both eloquent and devastating which is an amazing feat for a book about zombies. That's right, zombies.


Don't let the subject matter fool you into making judgments about Hands and Teeth. Ryan has broken into and artfully designed a type of horror book that is written in a hauntingly beautiful way. Mary is such a compelling protagonist that I found myself wanting to hate her for her faults and love her for her strength and her sheer force of will.

One of the best things about this book is that it I believe it will surpass not only the Young Adult to Adult label barrier but also the gender barrier. With a female protagonist most male readers won't initially want to read this book, but Ryan has created a tale so fascinating that even my Boy couldn't put this book down. He read the whole thing and asked for more.

Hands and Teeth can't get enough good press. It has already been optioned for a movie, and the second book of this trilogy, Dead Tossed Waves, out March 2010 has already garnered good reviews! Personally I can't wait.