fantasy

Review: Jinx’s Magic by Sage Blackwood

| Tasha

jinxs magic

Jinx’s Magic by Sage Blackwood

In this second book in a trilogy, Jinx’s entire life has changed since his death.  He can now listen to the voices of the trees in the huge Urwald forest and they tell him things.  But his life is also in danger still.  The Bonemaster has been defeated but Jinx’s master, Simon believes he is stronger than the bindings that surround him.  Yet none of the other magic wielders of the Urwald will help Simon keep the Bonemaster restrained.  Jinx is sent to Samara, a land reached via a portal in Simon’s house and also the place where Simon’s wife lives.  Jinx must find a way to enroll in the school in order to discover the magic he needs to save their own world.  But magic is forbidden in Samara and Jinx may put the Urwald at risk as he desperately tries to save it.

Blackwood takes her already impressive world and adds onto it with Samara, a desert land where knowledge and magic intertwine.  She also deepens the readers’ understanding of the Urwald and its own sort of magic.  This interplay between different types of magic and societies makes for a book that is rich and layered. 

Blackwood also takes time to develop Jinx’s own character further, pushing him to reach the extent of his power and yet also allowing readers to see that there is more there as well.  Jinx is a hesitant hero and never quite believes he is doing the right thing along the way.  Even as his power grows, he remains fully the same character and yet changes and grows in a real way throughout. 

A web of magic and mystery, this book is a fitting follow up to one of my favorite reads of 2013.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Edelweiss and Katherine Tegen Books.

Review: Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee

| Tasha

ophelia and the marvelous boy

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee

Released January 28, 2014.

Ophelia knows that everything worth knowing can be proven with science.  Her father is an expert in swords and is helping a museum set up an exhibit.  She and her older sister Alice come along, the entire family still aching with the loss of Ophelia and Alice’s mother.  As Ophelia wanders the museum in the city where it always snows, she discovers all sorts of amazing things.   But by far the most interesting thing she discovers is a boy locked behind a door.  He is a prisoner who claims to have lived for centuries though he looks like a boy.  And he believes that Ophelia is the person who can save him.  So Ophelia starts to help, and along the way, she has to give in to the magic that is around her and discover her own bravery.

A large part of the pleasure of this book is discovering all of the twists and turns of the plot.  This retelling of the Snow Queen fairy tale takes an entirely new approach to the story.  Foxlee has created a novel that is filled with frightening creatures, dangerous situations, and daring feats.  She has incorporated a clock that is counting down to the day that the Snow Queen can finally kill the marvelous boy, so that alone creates a great deal of time pressure.  Yet Ophelia is also struggling to keep her family happy and not concerned with her.  As the book goes on, the tension is tangible on each page.

Ophelia is a wonderful young protagonist.  While she does believe in science and fights against believing in magic, she is also on the adventure of a lifetime.  Her mother was a novelist and serves as the voice of courage in her head.  Ophelia has a great mix of deep courage and vulnerability.  Readers will figure out who the Snow Queen is long before Ophelia does, something that Foxlee uses to continue to crank up the tension.

Magical, frightening and beautifully written, this book is pure warmth and friendship in the face of icy brutality.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Edelweiss.

Review: Sorrow’s Knot by Erin Bow

| Tasha

sorrows knot

Sorrow’s Knot by Erin Bow

The dead live in every shadow.  There are small dead and larger dead, but they are all dangerous.  That’s why the women of the Shadowed People have binders, members of their tribe who are able to use knotted string to turn the dead away and even destroy them.  Otter is a binder, daughter of Willow, one of the strongest binders ever.  As she spends the last of her childhood playing with her two best friends, Cricket and Kestrel, she is almost entirely carefree.  Then Cricket is attacked by one of the dead, and suddenly life is not so simple.  The wards around the town seem weaker, and Willow is slowly becoming insane as her power to bind turns inside out.  As one of the strongest dead, a White Hand, stalks the village, Otter’s must find her own role not only as binder but as a woman of the Shadowed People.

This is the second YA book by Bow and it is a stunner.  First, you have the fact that it is entirely unique.  It’s a horror novel set in the distant past and populated by aboriginal tribes.  The entire world that Bow has created is well developed and manages to be familiar yet profoundly different from anything you have read of before.  Then you have the characters, who are strong and amazing.  There is Otter, the brave and proud girl who transforms into a woman before your eyes, but not before facing the horrors that are plaguing her world.  Kestrel, the ranger, who is also brave but loves deeply and ferociously too.  And Cricket, the storyteller, quick-witted and one of the few boys in the village of women. 

It is Bow’s writing that really sings throughout the novel.  It is her writing that shows us the world she has built, lets us love these characters so deeply, and allows us understand the danger and horror as well.  Here is a quote from page four, early in the book, that shows her skill in creating a place:

So Otter was born, and so she came to girlhood, among Shadowed People, the free women of the forest, in the embrace of mountains so old they were soft-backed, so dark with pine that they were black in summer.  A river came out of those mountains, young and quick, shallow and bone-cold.  Where it washed into a low meadow, the people had cleared the birch saplings and scrub pines and built a stronghold of sunlight.

Her voice is that of a story teller, filled with rhythm and intention.  She captures the setting she has created in just the style of her writing.

Unique and amazing, this book offers a fresh take on horror and an incredible teen heroine who faces death in many ways.  Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Reviewed from ARC received from Arthur A. Levine Books.

Review: Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

| Tasha

curtsies and conspiracies

Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

Released November 5, 2013.

This is the second book in Carriger’s young adult Finishing School series.  Sophronia is still getting into all sorts of trouble aboard the floating finishing school she attends.  It’s an unusual finishing school that prepares its students to be spies and agents as well as ladies of quality.  The girls are tested on their skills and Sophronia when is announced as getting record high scores, the other girls shun her.  Sophronia tries to fill the loss of her friendships by spending more time down in the boiler rooms, but soon she has other distractions.  Boys from Bunsen’s school are on board to travel with the female students to see the testing of a vehicle that will be able to travel the aether.  But there is more to it than that, and Sophronia is determined to figure out why and how the vampires and werewolves are involved.

I loved the first book in the series and was pleased to see the second one lived up to the promise of the first.  Second books in series often suffer from a sophomore slump, but that is not the case here.  In fact, this book builds on the premise of the first and adds much more to the information that the readers have of this steampunk world and its rules.  It also has just as much action, subterfuge and adventure as the first, all done in petticoats and ruffles.

The best part of these books is the humor that laces everything.  Sophronia is a girl who sees past the beauty of society and into the ridiculousness beyond it.  She is a strong protagonist whose wry takes on her own world make for sparkling humor.

For teens looking for steampunk novels, this series is a great one to recommend.  Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Reviewed from digital review copy received from Edelweiss and Little, Brown.

Review: Explorer: the Lost Islands

| Tasha

explorer lost islands

Explorer: The Lost Islands edited by Kazu Kibuishi

This second book in the Explorer series again takes a single theme and has short illustrated stories that center on that.  The book is a collection of different illustrators and authors, so one story to the next is very different both in the story itself and in the style of the art.  It makes for a very compelling book to read.  I had several favorite stories in the book, including The Mask Dance by Chrystin Garland where the setting is dark and looming and people are disguised by masks.  The reveal of the truth is great fun while still being dark and eerie.  Another favorite was Desert Island Playlist by Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier.  Readers of Smile and Drama will enjoy seeing another piece of work by Telgemeier.  This story too has a mystery at its heart all set on a desert island.  This is another strong graphic novel that young readers are sure to enjoy.

This second book loses some of the darkness and wonder of the first which was a masterpiece.  At the same time, it is a book worth getting because it displays such a wide range of art styles and story types.  Both books in the series are like unwrapping presents when you turn to a new story, you are sure to be surprised.

Amulet fans, graphic novel readers and students interested in art should all find something to love in this new collection.  Appropriate for ages 10-13.

Reviewed from copy received from Abrams.

Review: Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman

| Tasha

fortunately the milk

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Skottie Young

When Mum left to give a presentation on lizards, she made sure that Dad knew just what he had to do.  One item on the list was getting milk, but that didn’t happen.  So when the family woke to dry cereal and no milk for tea, Dad headed out to get the milk.  He didn’t return for a long, long time.  But when he came back he had quite a story about why he was late.  It involved time travel, a brilliant dinosaur, pirates who don’t have a plank to walk, wumpires with long teeth, and lots and lots of silliness.

Gaiman is a chameleon of an author, keeping us guessing what his next book will be like because one never knows what style he will try next.  Here he is in pure farce mode, something that will enchant young readers even as they can’t read because they are giggling too much.  The humor here is nonstop, one maniac moment after another until you can’t quite tell which way is up.  It’s a grand adventure filled with outright one-liners and puns.

Young’s illustrations are such a part of this book, it is like Gaiman illustrated it himself.  The results are wacky and purely funny.  The father character seems to me to be a marvelous mix of several Dr. Who characters with his dangling striped scarf, wild hair and rather dapper approach to things. 

Hilarious, wacky and wonderful, get this into the hands of elementary aged kids now.  Appropriate for ages 6-8.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: The Real Boy by Anne Ursu

| Tasha

real boy

The Real Boy by Anne Ursu

The author of Breadcrumbs has returned with another beautiful fairy tale.  Oscar was taken in by the last known magician, Master Caleb, and in return works for him as his hand.  That means that Oscar manages the harvesting and preparation of the many herbs and plants Master Caleb uses in his magic.  Oscar is very happy with his life below the shop, accompanied only by the cats that live there too.  The only problem is Wolf, Master Caleb’s apprentice, who brutally teases Oscar any chance he gets.  But the world around Oscar is quickly changing.  The Barrow, the forest of ancient wizard wood trees that encircles the city, has also begun to be affected.  It may be that the very magic itself is changing too. 

Ursu weaves such beauty into her books.  She lingers over small things, taking the time to build a world in which her characters live.  One examples of this is her description of the Barrow early in the book:

The trees had magic in their leaves, their berries, and their bark.  Plants and shrubs and flowers grew everywhere; purplish-greenish moss crawled on the rocks; improbable mushrooms sprang from the soil in tiny little groves of their own.

The entire book is infused with a sense of rich detail and layering.  Oscar’s own small world below stairs is just as lovingly described and detailed until one longs to be the hand of a magician too and have cats for friends.

Oscar himself is an amazing character.  Because the book is told from his point of view, readers will understand him easily, but Oscar struggles with human beings, emotions and understanding what is meant.  When he is forced out from his snug workspace, the world becomes confusing.  He holds himself stiffly, hates looking people in the eye, and struggles to be social.  Clearly on the autism spectrum, Oscar has unique abilities too, allowing him to see what others do not by paying close attention. 

This amazing fantasy novel is one of the best reads for middle graders this year.  Get your hands on this one!  Appropriate for ages 11-13.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Edelweiss and Walden Pond Press.

Review: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

| Tasha

siege and storm

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

After surviving annihilation in the Fold, Alina and Mal have fled their native country to disappear from the attention of the Darkling.  But their respite is short-lived when the Darkling discovers them and reveals the extent of his new powers.  He can now create entities from the darkness, creatures whose bites never heal and who kill quickly and mercilessly.  Alina still bears the neckpiece that the Darkling had forged and bound to her, but now the power is hers to wield.  Then she learns of two more objects of power, led to one by Mal’s tracking and the Darkling’s own desire to own both Alina and her Sun Summoner abilities.  Helped by an unlikely ally, Mal and Alina may have survived their first encounter with the Darkling, but soon hidden identities are revealed, one of them is welcomed as a saint, and Alina must come to terms with her own responsibility to save her country.

Bardugo’s second book in The Grisha series is just as riveting as the first.  She puts both Alina and Mal in trying circumstances, continually playing hope against fear and destiny against what can actually be accomplished.  These tensions in the book as well as Bardugo’s smooth but detailed writing style make for a book that cannot be put down. 

Bardugo continues to build upon the stunningly inventive world she has created.  New touches emerge, different parts of the world are revealed, and familiar characters are transformed.  My only complaint with the book is that it does have pacing issues in the middle.  While the moments of indecision by Alina are well drawn, they last too long and dull the brilliant pace of the rest of the book.

A strong addition and great second book in the series, this is a must-read for fans of the first book.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Antigoddess by Kendare Blake

| Tasha

antigoddess

Antigoddess by Kendare Blake

Published September 10, 2013.

From the author of Anna Dressed in Blood comes the first book in a new series, The Goddess War.   The Old Gods have been around forever and knew that they would be around for eternity.  But then Athena started to sprout feathers under her skin and in her lungs.  Hermes started to lose weight and become emaciated.  They started to do the impossible: they began to die.  Desperate to find a solution, Athena and Hermes search out Cassandra, the prophetess, who is an regular teenager but one who has visions and is linked to the ancient Cassandra from Troy.  There are more Gods involved though.  Apollo is there to protect his beloved Cassandra.  Hera is moving to survive while the other Gods die and Poseidon is throwing his considerable power behind her.  This is one God-sized epic throwdown that you will not want to miss!

Blake’s world building is incredible here.  While she builds off of Greek mythology, she has created a scenario where the Gods are humanized through their mortality.  They are still amazing, wondrous beings, but somehow Blake manages to mix that with a fragility that makes them accessible in a new way. 

Her writing is fresh and vivid both in character development and in the many action scenes.  Danger seems to lurk everywhere and there are wonderful moments where the shock of violence after being lulled away is breathtaking. The book is so filled with violent action scenes that it is completely compelling to read. 

Vivid and dazzling, this book will appeal to fans of Greek mythology and fantasy novels.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from ARC received from Tor.