Black Heart by Holly Black – A Review

Title: Black Heart

Author: Holly Black

Publisher: Gollancz

Published: 19^th April 2012

Pages: 296

 Rating: 5/5

In Black Heart we are thrown back into the deep end of The Curse Workers world as the characters face the consequences of their actions in Red Glove.

I have always liked Holly Black’s writing. The fact that she brings darker themes to the forefront in YA is something that I commend her for. But it wasn’t until I read Black Heart that she was cemented in my mind as one of the front-runners of her craft.

Throughout the series the reader has been taught about grifting, and how to pull off the big con, and with this book we realise that the author has been steadily preparing us for the events with each book. In each book we have read as the cons have become that bit harder to pull off. Yet in Black Heart, the reader finds themselves reading through a maze of twists and turns, not knowing how Cassel is going to get himself out of each sticky situation, until you realise that he has been provided with the necessary tools to do so.

Something else I have appreciated as a reader is Black’s use of misdirection. She will be showing the reader one thing, whilst something else is going on entirely. As a reader, you think that some events are unrelated and wonder what they have to do with the rest of the story. When we look at it in terms of the actual writing we are able to appreciate the attention to detail that Black has included in the book. Take for instance Cassel’s mother – something happens that we don’t think is important, however, when it comes to a major scene with Sam, we have that ‘Oh’ moment. You know the one, the one where you’re sorry you didn’t trust the author enough.

The plants and pay-offs in this novel are seriously awe-inspiring. Some will say that they could see things coming, but I couldn’t, this was one of those books where I was thrilled, wondering what was going to happen next, trying to solve the small seemingly unrelated mystery of Mina. Black gives the reader everything they could possibly needed, yet manages to retain a level of concision I wish I could lay claim to.

We also have the relationship between Cassel and Lila. Their relationship has been fraught with problems since the beginning of the series, and once again the reader doesn’t know how they’re going to be able to move past them. The reader understands that they’re in love with one another, but wonders whether too many bad things have happened between them to get past.

Black manages to make their relationship more tense as Lila is the only person Cassel can go to with his problems, and she’s the only one with answers. You can’t help but feel that it’s incredibly cruel that they’re being thrown together in this manner – you want them to reconcile, but you don’t want them to hurt.

Altogether, I thought that this novel was brilliant – a well-executed Young Adult novel with darker themes and humorous undertones. The characters are well-rounded and as a reader you are able to empathise with them as Black makes the situation strike a chord with the readers – after all, haven’t they all done something to please the ones they love?

Until next time, that is all.

 

City of Lost Souls – A Review

Title: City of Lost Souls

Author: Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Walker Books

Pages: 540

Published: 8^th May 2012

Rating: 4/5

 

City of Lost Souls is the first YA novel I’ve read that has looked at the various stages of relationships. We have followed the love story of Clary and Jace for five books now, we have examined each nuance of this burgeoning relationship, yet we have only had glimpses of other relationships in the series. In CoLS, Jace and Clary’s relationship is further tested, as Cassandra Clare questions whether there are any limits when it comes to love. However, as the novel progresses, this question evolves, asking how far would you go to protect the one you love?

Alec’s relationship with Magnus comes up against a barrier, as Alec faces the imitable question about his own mortality. Alec becomes more aware of the fact that he will die and Magnus will go on living. When presented with the opportunity to remove Magnus’s immortality, the reader is left to wonder what Alec’s decision will be.

The question of mortality has been handled before, in the form of Twilight, however, Clare handles it in a new and interesting manner. Instead of having the mortal party try and become immortal, they are offered the chance to make their love interest mortal. This becomes a major theme throughout the entire novel: possession.

Sebastian has possessed Jace’s mind and body and wishes to possess Clary. Simon possesses the Mark of Cain, the only thing keeping him from being killed. Alec might wish to possess Magnus’s mortality.

We also gain insight into a relationship that isn’t about love but trust. After Jordan turned Maia, their relationship has been strained. They’re not on good terms with one another, both know that they love one another but neither knows how they can turn their backs on the past.

In terms of the novel, this works well as we are seeing a different kind of relationship. We are seeing two characters after the fallout, unsure whether they will be able to rebuild what fell apart.

Once again, Clare mirrors this against Simon’s relationship with Isabelle. Throughout the novel, we are told that Isabelle is unsure about Simon’s friendship with Clary – will she ever be loved as much as her. This is another relationship we are seeing after the fallout. Both parties are willing to rebuild a relationship here as well, however, the characters themselves are unsure where to start.

Familial relationships are also called into question here. On the first page we’re alerted to Simon’s cracked relationship with his mother; she has disowned him, covering her house in religious images, knowing that he is a vampire. This is mirrored against Alec’s relationship with his parents – they don’t talk about his homosexuality, or the fact that he is in a monogamous relationship with another man.

Furthermore, Alec’s relationship with Isabelle is used to mirror Simon’s relationship with his sister. Unable to cope with rejection, Simon has not spoken to his sister in months, now she wishes to get in touch with him. However, Rebecca accepts Simon as a vampire, no questions asked – the same way Isabelle accepted Alec’s sexuality.

As a reader, you’re glad of this, as it provides you with further insight into Isabelle and Alec’s relationship.

Further to this, Clare shows us the relationships between Clary and her mother and Clary and Sebastian. Jocelyn and Clary’s relationship doesn’t so much reach breaking point, but after a natural progression achieves a crescendo where Jocelyn reveals how she feels about her daughter’s relationship with Jace.

As we know Clary can’t stand Sebastian, due to events in City of Glass, yet Clare hasn’t really revealed Sebastian’s attitudes towards his own actions. However, in this novel, Clare does give us a glimpse at Sebastian’s mind-set. As a reader, I didn’t necessarily feel sorry for Sebastian, so much as pity him. You get this impression that all he wants is a relationship with his sister, but she wants nothing to do with him.

If we see this novel as a novel about relationships, then we can also consider the fact that this isn’t about good versus evil. Throughout the novel we are told that it’s not black and white, emphasised by the fact that Jordan did something seemingly unforgivable but Maia is able to forgive him, then Clary is asked the question of whether she can forgive Sebastian.

I think that this is something more writers could take heed of, myself included, not all antagonists have to be perfectly evil, they do have to have some motivation for what they do. Even though I still think of Sebastian as a manipulative character, capable of more evil than we have yet seen in the series, I think there is more that we haven’t seen yet. I don’t feel sorry for him, but I did find, when reading, I was reminding myself that Sebastian had a different upbringing to the other characters – his morals and his communication skills are different to everyone else’s in the series.

Clare could have left Sebastian’s motivation at ‘he has demon blood’, but she doesn’t. She shows the reader how Sebastian came to be who he is, rather than shrugging it off with the simple explanation.

If I’ve got so many good things to say about the book, you might wonder why I only gave it a four out of five. I do have my reasons. Even though this book was crafted well, there were still problems. As a novel exploring the relationships between characters this novel is great, but as a book in the series that all it is, a book in the series. It doesn’t change anything we already know, the characters progress, but only in terms on their relationships and I feel that this book was only there to get us from City of Fallen Angels to City of Heavenly Fire.

It’s a bridge to another novel, and you read fast anticipating something big to happen, but it doesn’t. There’s a battle, and the novel can be thrilling, but there’s quite a strong amount of telling us about how the characters feel rather than showing us.

As an analysis of the characters, this novel is brilliant, but I can’t help feeling there was something missing. Something that I haven’t been able to put my finger on whilst reading. Altogether, I did enjoy this novel, and still applaud Cassandra Clare as a writer, this just wasn’t the best book in the series.

Until next time, that is all.

 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone – A Review

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Author: Laini Taylor

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Date Published: 29^th September 2011

 Number of Pages: 432 pages

I wanted to like this book, so much. There have been that many folk across the internet exalting this book in reviews, loving its ‘lyrical prose’ and the protagonist. The plot is seen as original, yet I couldn’t find much semblance of plot at all.

In the beginning, we’re led to believe that the book is about a teenage girl trying to uncover the mystery surrounding her supernatural ‘family’ of Chimaera. Admittedly, I was interested to find out who Karou and the Chimaera were, and what relation they had to the Seraphim. However, it seems that Taylor couldn’t figure out a way to show the reader without writing a hundred-page flashback with characters the readers didn’t care about. It felt like a cop-out, as though Taylor hadn’t properly considered the craft of the mystery and thus thought she’d betray the reader’s trust. Veering off after three-hundred pages to show the reader something they didn’t need to be shown was a bad decision.

Taylor has also created what must be the biggest Mary-Sue of the twenty-first century. Karou has an extraordinary hair colour, draws amazing artwork that people can’t help but admire, and everyone around her is in love with her. Even her best friend, who is annoyed with her, forgives her at the drop of a hat. Karou is able to get anything she wants by wishing for it.

When the reader expects some confrontation, Taylor doesn’t show it, making me question her ability as a writer. When Karou discovers the fates of the Chimaera, Taylor shows no confrontation, just Karou doing something you’ve been expecting for four-hundred pages. If Taylor had shown some confrontation between Karou and Akiva then I would have understood the relationship, but this is a world seen through rose-tinted glasses.

This is meant to be the first of a series, yet this book could easily have been summed up in one paragraph from what I’ve read. Taylor wasted time providing the reader with unnecessary backstory. There were long-winded passages that could have also been trimmed down to one sentence.

The dialogue was also stupendously Americanised. I’m not saying this is a bad thing but Taylor failed to remember that she’d set this book in Prague. I’ve never been to another country, but I know that they have a different sense of humour and frames of reference. There’s also the fact that even the Chimaera that had been alive for centuries still spoke like modern-day Americans. I’m not saying that Taylor should have written with stilted dialogue, but she should have paid attention to the fact that different nationalities and species were talking in the same style. There was no variation in character, each character could have been condensed into one ultimate parody of itself.

Over all, this is not the best Young Adult book of the last year. As a writer, and a reader, I was disappointed by what I read and think that there could have been great improvement made if the storyline had been condensed to one book.

 

 

The Lacuna – Review

Title: The Lacuna

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

Published: 22^nd April 2010, Faber and Faber

Number of Pages: 688 Pages

Rating: 5/5

‘In the beginning were the howlers.’ So begins The Lacuna, one of my favourite books of the last year. As writers we’re often told to ‘start late and leave early’ so that the reader ends the novel or short story wanting more. The Lacuna doesn’t do this; however, as you continue the novel, you begin to see why Kingsolver chose to begin her novel in this manner.

            The first line of the novel is one of those lines. You know, the ones that make you stop and think. It drew me in immediately and I found myself enraptured by the prose. I’d stay up until the early hours of the morning, longing to spend more time in the world Kingsolver created. This must be the first novel I’ve read and – despite being told in the beginning – wondered whether it was real. Kingsolver creates this effect by grounding the characters with historical events and characters such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Riviera. The words felt true, and, as a reader, I was almost saddened to discover the protagonist didn’t exist.

I was first introduced to this book last year. Perhaps, Kingsolver is best known for The Poisonwood Bible, a book I previously owned but never read, and now regret. A good friend found The Lacuna and recommended it to me; telling me that Kingsolver was one of her favourite writers. I took the book home and read the first fifty pages.

Then I left it.

Other books got in the way, or I was doing uni work. Life got in the way. But over Christmas I sat down and decided I was going to read this mammoth of a book. I never expected to be as inspired by a book as I was. I lived for finding out more about the characters – it’s made me want to go to Mexico just so that I can see the world where these characters walked.

I must admit, I did spend time wondering whether the first few hundred pages were necessary, but found myself arguing with myself. The novel wouldn’t have had the same set-up, and events in the early pages foreshadowed later events in the novel. This is a novel I still feel passionate about, a month after finishing it. I remember snippets and I’m drawn back to feeling sorry for the protagonist, wishing him luck in his endeavours.

This is a novel unafraid to point the figure of truth at the world it is set in. As I approached the end of the novel, I began to realise how it would end; Kingsolver had made me think there was no other way for this story to go. It reminded me of The Outsider by Albert Camus (another of my favourite books), in that it emphasised the stupidity and fear of the world through the eyes of an innocent character who, by association, had been made out to be an evil man.

This novel is also one of those novels that have me questioning my rating system. I’ve given books five out of five before, meaning they’re perfect, and this novel has its imperfections yet it is still one I would give a perfect rating to. It is in some ways better than the books I have read – I can tell you what happened in a book, but I won’t be as passionate about them. This is one of those novels that will have you questioning how you see the world – there are other books that will do this, I’m sure, but this is by far one of the better ones.

Angel’s Fury – A Review

Title: Angel’s Fury

Author: Bryony Pearce

Date Published: July 4^th 2011 by Egmont

Number of Pages: 304

Rating: 5/5

Every atrocity. Every war. Every act of vengeance. One fallen angel walks the earth to bring mankind to its destruction…Turning love into hate, forgiveness into blame, hope into despair. Through the fires of hell he will come to haunt one girl’s dreams. But what if everything she ever dreamed was true? Every time Cassie Smith tries to sleep, she is plagued by visions of a death: A little girl called Zillah. A victim of the holocaust. In desperation Cassie is sent for treatment in an old manor house. There she meets other children just like her. Including Seth…Seth who looks so familiar. Her dream becomes nightmare. And then reality. [FROM AMAZON]

I finished this book over a week ago now, but I’ve been unable to fathom how to review it. I mean, I really enjoyed this book; it has big themes, a strong female heroine and its pretty dark for teenage fiction. Yet something niggled at the back of my mind, telling me that nothing I possibly say could get across how much I like Angel’s Fury.

All right, so maybe I should start with the protagonist. Cassie Farrier is having nightmares, those terrible nightmares where you wake up terrified, only hers are about one-hundred times worse than anyone else’s. (Apart from the dream I had where my father drove me off the side of a multi-storey car park, that was pretty horrendous, and I refused to speak to him for a week afterwards.) Yet she soon begins to realise that what she’s seeing in her dream actually happened.

There was something incredibly real about Cassie. The way she spoke, and behaved, you could imagine yourself feeling the same uncertainty, and I have to say that if I were her, I think I’d have fallen down at the first hurdle. The characterisation of Cassie could have gone way over the top, yet it didn’t, she did what all teenagers do when they think there’s something wrong with them: she hid it. She kept everything bottled up, and I think this is another reason I enjoyed Cassie’s character.

The book also has an incredibly fast-pace. If you wanted to, you could finish it within a few hours. This was another of those books where I held my breath and didn’t realise I was doing so until I was completely out of breath. It encompasses a thriller, a romance and fantasy fiction, as well as making the reader debate about the possibility of reincarnation.

You might be shying away at the mention of romance in teenage novel, but in this novel, it’s tentative, and isn’t the be all and end all of the world. Seth and Cassie’s lives are intertwined in a big way, but there’s a rather hefty question over whether they can be together or not, and I was pleased how Pearce handled the relationship, and the repercussions their past lives have on them now.

There are a great many cultural references that give the characters depth. Cassie isn’t reading Wuthering Heights she’s reading a Meg Cabot novel, and in my opinion this is much more believable for a teenager. Then we have the mention of Blackadder Goes Forth, and its finale,
and how it would affect Cassie, and that, to me, was just brilliant.

Throughout the novel, I was unsure who Cassie could trust. Pearce keeps the reader waiting until the last possible moment before revealing who the villain of the piece is, and it was a big ‘oh yeah, I should have seen that coming moment.’

I met Bryony at a signing on Saturday and she’s extremely kind and approachable and offered me book recommendations. She even led me around Waterstones looking for a book, and yes, I am now the proud owner of a signed copy of Angel’s Fury.

Until next time, that is all.

 

 

The Demon’s Surrender – Review

Author: Sarah Rees Brennan

Title: The Demon’s Surrender

Date Published: 9th June 2011

Published By: Simon Pulse

Rating: 5/5

Wow … that’s the only word I believe could best describe my experience reading this book. I’ve seen many folk discussing how it shocks you, and how it runs you through every single emotion until you’re practically balled up on the floor, sobbing into the carpet.

As many of us know, the tale is told in the third person from Sin’s point of view. I think the fact that Sarah Rees Brennan uses a new POV for each book is amazing. Each time, we see an outsider thrust into the world they thought they knew everything about. Sin is an extremely strong female character, with more responsibilities than a teenager should have.

Until the world comes crashing down around her.

I think what the author has done well is have every character forced to grow up too quickly. It has been a constant theme throughout the trilogy but it really comes into play more in the final book. We’re shown the characters that we love in a new light, as we see Sin’s opinions and her fears about what will happen.

Another big theme of this book is ‘surrender’ all the characters have to give up something they love in order to improve the world around them. I also like how Sarah Rees Brennan forced two characters together who have always seemed to hate each other. It was amazing and slightly unexpected but when it happened you knew it was perfect.

We’re given more background on the Goblin Market and Sin, which is good as they’ve always been something of a mysterious force. Yet we’re shown that not everything is as it seems and everything is in disarray after the events of the second book.

Oh! And we also have to mention Jamie! Writers seem to have it in for characters with the name Jamie nowadays. Here I’m talking about Jaime from George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, if you’ve read book three (?) you’ll know what I mean. Either way, the same thing happens to both Jamie’s and it’s terrible and traumatic and heart-wrenching and you wonder how the world can be so cruel.

Although we should also mention that it’s great that more writers are including gay characters in their novels. They’re severely under-represented and we all know that folk still shy away from the subject. What’s also amazing is the fact that Jamie’s sexuality isn’t treated in a stereotypical fashion, he goes through what all teenagers discovering themselves go through.

Sarah Rees Brennan adds comic relief to extremely tense scenes, but it never seems forced. Everything fits together, the humour, the sadness, the sheer terror of Sin’s death-defying stunts, and I loved every minute of my reading.

Until next time, that is all.

The Dreamers

Title: The Dreamers

Author: Tanwen Coyne

Publisher: Salt Publishing

Date: 14^th June 2011

Rating: 4.5/5

Blurb: When Jennifer moves to a remote Welsh cottage, she falls in love with the solitude and the beautiful landscape. Back in the Victorian age, Arianwen lives a lonely and repressive life in the same isolated cottage, knowing she can never be with the girl she adores. Playing the piano is her only comfort. Yet how can Jennifer hear Arianwen’s hymn-playing in her dreams? In this erotic ghost story, the two young women’s lives embrace so tightly, past and present blurs until it’s hard to tell where Jennifer ends and Arianwen begins. [FROM AMAZON]

E-books are becoming something of a trend, and Embrace books have caught onto this trend. I still wouldn’t buy a Kindle, but if my friend, Tanwen, continues to publish books in this manner, I may have to rethink this.

Onto our review:

When you first start reading The Dreamers you’re reminded of Joanne Harris’ prose. Coyne has crafted her words so beautifully it’s like wading through chocolate, with its velvety, luscious tones. You’ll find yourself drawn into this mystical world from the first few lines alone, as the prose lulls you into a dream-like state. I know that Coyne is proud of her heritage and it shows here, you can tell that it has been written with such passion and verve that you can’t help but escape to Coyne’s beautifully-crafted world.

There’s this sense of the Gothic throughout the whole novel. Coyne not only writes about two eras, she pulls them together, interweaving the themes of the contemporary and the Gothic, so that as Jennifer and Arianwen collide, the prose around them does as well.

It’s also good to see the exploration of homosexuality in society this prominent in a novel. Coyne emphasises how attitudes have changed, but it never seems forced. Jennifer’s narrative runs alongside Arianwen’s seamlessly, yet the latter isn’t accepted by the one she loves, and Jennifer doesn’t want to be.

What Coyne also does well is torment the reader. You know that Jennifer and Arianwen can never be together. That much is obvious throughout the book, you’re not constantly told, but it’s always there. You’re hoping that it doesn’t come to a head, but it does, and when it does, it does so with a bang.

It’s a heart-wrenching tale of two lovers who can never be together. Their stories may mirror each other’s, but then again, they’re interwoven. They know each other existed or will exist, but they don’t know what to do about it. When the book ended, though, I can’t say I wasn’t angry. I knew that the book had to end the way it did. In fact, Coyne set this up that well that you can’t help but splendour at her craft.

My only nit-pick would be the length of the tale. Of course, it is a novella and I understand word count constraints, I just wish that I could spend more time with the characters. I read the book in just over an hour; it drew me in, and appealed to my senses. It will also appeal to the romantic in everyone.

City of Fallen Angels Review

Title: City of Fallen Angels

Author: Cassandra Clare

Published: April 7th, 2011 by Walker Books

Number of Pages: 428

Rating: 5/5

City of Fallen Angels takes place two months after the events of City of Glass. In it, a mysterious someone’s killing the Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine’s Circle and displaying their bodies around New York City in a manner designed to provoke hostility between Downworlders and Shadowhunters, leaving tensions running high in the city and disrupting Clary’s plan to lead as normal a life as she can — training to be a Shadowhunter, and pursuing her relationship with Jace. As Jace and Clary delve into the issue of the murdered Shadowhunters, they discover a mystery that has deeply personal consequences for them — consequences that may strengthen their relationship, or rip it apart forever.

Meanwhile, internecine warfare among vampires is tearing the Downworld community apart, and only Simon — the Daylighter who everyone wants on their side — can decide the outcome; too bad he wants nothing to do with Downworld politics. Love, blood, betrayal and revenge: the stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels. [From Goodreads.]

City of Fallen Angels is the fortieth book I’ve read this year and it is by far the best. Continuing the amazingly brilliant Mortal Instruments Series, Cassandra Clare draws you back into the world that we have grown to know and love. You can certainly tell that the series has turned a corner with this book, the themes are darker than the previous books, as well as the character’s personal storylines as the story progresses.

The characterisation needs mentioning here. Cassandra Clare handles the multiple POVs with such ease that it’s difficult not to be inspired. I found myself considering myself as a writer and wondering whether my multiple viewpoints could ever move so fluidly. When she switches from one point of view to another, it never seems forced and always seems to work. Clare often ends a character’s scene on a cliffhanger but when she moves on, you’re still as intrigued with the characters.

Through these cliffhangers she achieved a great sense of tension. I have never been so out of breath reading a book. I’d be reading, the pages flying past, and then I’d realise that I’d been holding my breath, literally breathless at this amazing tale. Each character has their own struggle, and some characters that weren’t necessarily at the fore-front of the past books.

As a reader, I felt sympathetic for every single character, including the antagonist – again – Simon’s struggle with his vampiric nature, Isabelle’s struggle with loving anyone, Jace’s struggle, trying to figure out who he is, Alec’s worry that Magnus will watch him die and move on. And it’s all happening while everything else is moving along quite normally.

It’s like, there’s this engagement happening and everything should be moving swimmingly, whilst in the background we have treacherous vampires, werewolf domestic abuse and demons with quite a lot of heads.

As well as all the character’s personal struggles, I also had a struggle getting this book. A few months ago, I pre-ordered City of Fallen Angels on Amazon, in hardback because I’d been told we couldn’t get a hardcover in the UK.

However, last week I got an email telling me that they couldn’t collect any money from my card. I re-entered my card details and went to stay at my Nan’s. When I returned I had another email telling me I didn’t have any money. Someone had used all my money. So yesterday I begged my mother for the money, whilst telling friends that I’d steal money from hobos if she didn’t agree. I needed this book.

Today, after Weight Watchers, we drove to town. I practically ran into WHSmith, it was Buy One Get One Half Price, but I went to Waterstones, thinking, ‘maybe they’ll have a hardback copy’. I am exceedingly disappointed in Waterstones, all their copies were bent. So I returned to WHSmith, and went to stand in the queue.

It seems that whenever I try to buy a Cassandra Clare book there has to be a problem.

There was only one person at the check-out, and he was dealing with a customer who wanted a memory stick for his computer. It took about five minutes, at which point a little old lady entered the shop. She really did look quite fragile. She proceeded to the front of the queue, at which point, I’m thinking, ‘Hang on a minute, what do you think you’re doing?’

She stands there and turns to the queue: ‘Is this the queue for the lottery?’

A man told her that no, there was only one queue. And when he pushed in front of her an argument began. The old lady stormed out.

I thought she was going to punch somebody.

I bought the book and left. WHSmith don’t give bags anymore, and it was raining outside. Only slightly pattering down, and not touching my copy, but still I ran. Have you ever seen a rather large teenager running towards his car, his mother’s keys in his hand with their Eeyore keyring? It’s not a pretty sight.

I started reading the book right there in the car, at 12:30 and continued until I’d finished at 18:40. I experienced the most rollicking adventure of my life. I was snapping at people for interrupting me. I told the man when he came asking for charity money that I had no money to give and slammed the door in his face. I didn’t drink, no matter how much my mouth might have dried, didn’t eat.

Those six hours were the most epic six hours ever. I had that electric feeling of shaking. I was that gleeful. Cassandra Clare brought together both the Mortal Instruments and the Infernal Devices, we see more of Camille, and Magnus’s memories of his past in London.

Speaking of Magnus, I must commend Clare on showing her readers that it’s all right to be gay. Okay, so that could be said more of Alec, since Magnus seems to be … – can we call him omnisexual? She shows that not everything is black and white and that there’s nothing wrong with loving who you want to love. I often wonder whether writers are scared to write gay characters, and when they do it seems to be a really big thing, sticking out like a sore thumb.

Yet, Clare emphasises that no matter your sexuality every relationship will have the same ups and downs. They’re not always fawning over other men, and thrusting themselves at everyone with a pulse. Not all gay men are camp people who watch soap operas. Does Alec even know what a soap opera is? They also aren’t always complaining about homophobia, I think if you tried anything with Alec, he’d kill you.

As well as the relationship between Magnus and Alec, we have the relationship between Clary and Jace. Jace still feels that he’s not worthy of Clary’s love, and she spends her time trying to get him to open up. There’s this overall feeling of Beauty and the Beast between them, with Clary trying to show Jace that he’s not as bad as he feels.

And we have another love triangle! Between Simon, Isabelle and Maia. We all knew that it was going to happen but you’re still shouting at Simon for being so stupid. Maybe it’s because I feel like Simon and Isabelle should be together because they both feel their out of each other’s league. Maybe I want to see more Downworlder/Shadowhunter alliances. I don’t, however, want to see Simon and Isabelle going all Breaking Dawn and having a baby; although I do believe that Magnus and Alec should have a child, be it through adoption or surrogacy. I think they’d be wonderful parents.

There were more twists and turns than a Minotaur’s labyrinth, and then she shot us with that ending. The heart-rending cliffhanger, that brilliantly beautiful cliffhanger was the most fitting, appropriate ending to this book. This book tears at your emotions, causing so much upheaval you can’t help but wonder whether you’re getting stalkerish about these characters. I loved this book. Seriously, I’ve written reviews that have been 5 out of 5 and this has surpassed them all.

Shiver: Review

 

 Title: Shiver

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Date Published: 5^th October 2009

Number of Pages: 448

Rating: 5/5

 

Synopsis:

the cold.

Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn’t know why.

the heat.

Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace…until now.

the shiver.

For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it’s spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human—and Grace must fight to keep him—even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future. [From Goodreads]

I first came across this book in WHSmith last year. There seems to have been a rather sudden influx in ‘Paranormal Romance’ lately, and we still don’t have as much as the US. But when I saw the cover I was intrigued, and then I read the blurb and thought it sounded too much like Twilight and although I wanted to read it, I didn’t want to pay £6.99 to read something directly off the back of that one vampire series. I waited until it came into the charity shop and bought it for 70p.

I should have paid the £6.99.

Shiver completely and utterly surpassed my expectations. It was so much better than I’d thought it would be. The story is told from the points of view of both Sam and Grace; a decision that I have to say was remarkable. As a reader, you know that these characters love one another. Grace is constantly on the search to stop Sam turning back into a werewolf, she figures it out and they’re able to make their love last, but that’s only the beginning.

I read the book back in November, and recently lent it to a friend of mine. It was a book filled with intrigue, there was the mystery surrounding the missing corpse of a school bully, and the brother of Grace’s enemy. Yet, this was a novel built upon love. Like many YA novels at the moment, their love can’t last, there’s something standing in the way. Here it was done beautifully, how Maggie Stiefvater crafted the characters was perfect, both main characters struggled to hide Sam from the world around them.

The two worlds against each other added a Romeo and Juliet atmosphere to the whole event. Werewolves against humans, yet the humans are completely oblivious to the fact that they’re not wolves. You often felt that Grace wished she could tell people about her world, yet keeps it secret, and I was unsure whether this was to keep Sam safe, or because she wanted to keep that world her secret.

I have given 5 out of 5 ratings for the majority of books I’ve reviewed, lately. But Shiver really did deserve this rating; it’s a beautifully crafted novel, a love story that you’ll fall in love with and so many twists and turns you’ll need Theseus’s ball of string.

Paranormalcy: Review

 

 

Title: Paranormalcy

Author: Kiersten White

Date Published: 31^st August 2010

Number of Pages: 335

Rating: 5/5

 

Synopsis

Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals’ glamours.

But Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal. [From Goodreads]

I write about madeleinerex.com a lot, but she was the first person who drew my attention to this book so I’m mentioning her again. Once again, I couldn’t find this book anywhere, and when I found out that Waterstones had numerous copies last week, I’d forgotten my wallet. I rushed in after volunteering on Saturday and bought the book. It was mine, although I couldn’t start until I finished Beautiful Creatures, I had it, there on my shelf, in all of its glory, placed in between Sarah Rees Brennan and Holly Black. (I’m not an alphabetical person, Paranormalcy fits perfectly between The Demon’s Covenant and Tithe.)

As soon as I finished Beautiful Creatures I threw myself into reading the book. (Hopefully you’ve noticed the link <- over there to Kiersten White’s blog – she’s amazing, funny and the cover for Supernaturally is spectular.) The first chapter is humorous, yet somehow you feel some tension, Evie’s standing there, telling a vampire that she doesn’t find him the least bit scary. She doesn’t even need to use weapons or fight, her words are enough to sting the vampire into submission.

We then meet Reth, a faerie who we’re told Evie had something of a relationship with, but it was almost as though he had a hold over her, this sinister reason for keeping her. I agree with Madeleine when she says that the faeries in this book are a lot different than the one’s we’re usually presented with in YA Literature. The faeries here all seem to have a hidden motive, although there are Unseelie and Seelie faeries they still both enjoy making people’s lives hell. Kiersten has put a new spin on the genre, showing us that we should still be scared of the paranormals, their human selves may be beautiful and kind, but other than that, they’re darker than we can imagine.

Once she returns to the IPCA, we’re introduced to her relationships with other characters. Raquel is her mother figure, yet she’s presented as a woman who doesn’t really understand what she’s doing; she’s born of sighs, having little idea how to react to Evie, or properly care for her. Kiersten has managed to show the angst that teenagers feel, with their parental figures rarely understanding them, only here it’s emphasised because of the world that Evie can’t remember. Her only glimpses of the world being the tween drama Easton Heights, so much so that she bases the fallout of situations upon the show.

Lish, the mermaid, was a character I loved. I could imagine her monotone brilliantly, she was described as well as she could be, and you almost felt the friendship between the two characters. She doesn’t seem to mind about working for the IPCA and I thought that this was good, we’re often presented with characters who overtly show their displeasure at being forced to work for an organisation they disagree with, so this was nice to see. We do find out that all is not as it seems though, but I won’t mention this for fear of spoilers.

The first meeting with Lend was great. Although he doesn’t appear in the traditional sense, the awkwardness between him and Evie is shown from the start. He’s a character that shows Evie what life is like in the outside world, he may be a shapeshifter but he goes to school, has normal friends, and is all Evie could ask for. Throughout the book the relationship grows organically, the teenage awkwardness is amped up here, and their first kiss … their first kiss was awkward, and angsty and magical, one of the best first kisses I’ve read in literature. You’d been waiting for that moment for so long that when it happened you could have thrown yourself up from your chair in glee, could have sung ‘Hallelujah’ from the roof-tops. You can hear the angels singing, the fireworks working and the applause of every other reader to have been pulled in by this magically magical, amazingly beautiful first kiss, presented in a way that your heart bursts at the seams.

An Ode to the Serial Killer: She’s murdering paranormals and I feel sorry for her. This happens far too often for my liking. She doesn’t see what she’s doing as wrong, and while I didn’t like what she was doing, I couldn’t help but hope for there to be some solution for her to be safe. I think I need to realise that villains are villains for a reason, and I will, once writers make a villain so morally abhorrent that I can’t help but hope for someone to push them through a window. That probably wouldn’t work though, not with this serial killer, but I have to say that she had her reasons and I’m glad that the reader was made to feel sympathy for every character. Apart from Reth – I never liked Reth – which was something that was great as well, Kiersten twisted that on its head splendidly.

I also have to praise the line that I think of as poking fun at Twilight, because I’m cruel that way. When a vampire is coming on to her, she replies, ‘I prefer my guys with a pulse.’ One of the most amazing lines in a novel. Evie’s sense of humour is amazing, her sarcasm is second to none, yet she never works to offend other people. There are plenty more quotes that you can read on the internet, but this is the one that stands out for me; although if someone is mocking a vampire then I’ll stand by them.

This was a fantastic read that I’d recommend to anyone, it’s funny without being insulting, there’s angst and teenage woes and everything that it should be. Even prom is more hassle than it should be and it’s all completely amazing. Please check out her blog, it’s in the sidebar, kierstenwrites, it amps up the humour by about a thousand percent. So, yes, read this, then read it again, because Supernaturally is out soon and if you miss it, I swear, there will be plenty of pink, rhinestoned tasers, armed and ready, and pointing you towards your nearest book shop.