Review: Requiem by Lauren Oliver

age: YA
genre: futuristic, wannabe dystopia
rating: 2/8 tentacles

This is a sequel, there will be Delirium & Pandemonium spoilers.  Don't read the review if you haven't read the first two books.

I really did not like this book. I thought the trilogy was on an upward trajectory, the second book being an improvement on the first, but this fell flat. Most of the characters fail to stand out. They're like ghosts. Cardboard cutouts of people. Nothing happens until about 120 pages into the story. There's a lot of unimpressive description of nature that seems to exist only as filler. There's no real resolution at the end, which sometimes isn't necessary, but there's nothing else to make up for the lack of resolution either--just a little preachy message.

Here is a problem I have with the trilogy as a whole: the premise is never explained. Again, the explanation of love as a disease--who decided this, what are the accepted symptoms, how does the cure actually work, what emotions does it actually block out, what emotions that stem from love are tangentially blocked out--all this doesn't need to be clarified in scientific terms, but I need to feel that the author knows all these things, that she knows where she's going with the story. I need to trust in her authority. And the way the author can gain my trust is by relaying this explanation through the characters, through the ways they think and feel and interact.

Did anyone else notice that there is absolutely no difference between the thoughts and behaviors of the cured and the invalids? Sure, the only cured whose POV we get is Hana's and she has doubts regarding the success of her cure. But if the difference between the cured and the invalids is the basis for the main conflict of the trilogy, shouldn't we be able to see the difference? Maybe it just went over my head. Hana tells us her thoughts are clearer now. That's it. That's all the distinction we get.

I'm not even sure what "love" means in the context of this trilogy. Does the word refer only to romantic love? Lust? If I recall correctly, the love between a mother and her children is also meant to be extinguished by the cure, according to Delirium. What about self-love? Wouldn't a lust for power come out of self-love? Unless the person had this robotic, Darwinian urge to be Numero Uno. And jealousy? And pride? Do those come out of a corrupted love? Or does the cure simply kill the ability to form bonds with other people, with little effect on emotions of passion? It's all so muddied. After three books, I'm still not sure.

Review: Diary by Chuck Palahniuk

age: adult
genre: transgressive
rating: 8/8 tentacles

This is about art and ambition and immortality. It's about inspiration and irony. It's about the torment of geniuses.

There's this animal, amost-hysteria in Chuck Palahniuk's writing that appeals to me. His main characters (I've only ready two of his books so far) are falling apart, inside and out and then sometimes rebuilding themselves, as they strive for the extraordinary, or suppress their potential to achieve the extraordinary, like Misty Marie. The other book I've read is Fight Club.

Diary is honest and desperate and crazy and surreal and sad and tragic. I love the idea of the "lunatic's" ranting on the walls, the missing rooms. The conspiracy. I enjoy reading about the acoutrements of art--makes me want to go paint something

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

age: YA
genre: paranormal, fantasy
rating: 3/8 tentacles

Daughter of Smoke & Bone tells the story of Karou, a blue-haired art student living in Prague. Karou was raised by creatures called Chimaera in a wish shop that connects to portals all over the world. Her guardian, demon-like Brimstone, collector of teeth and purveyor of wishes, sends Karou on shadowy errands that prevent her from living a "normal" life. Karou resents these errands until the portals close, and she's left stranded from her Chimaera family. When Karou embarks on a quest to find them, her adventures dredge up the mystery of her past and she struggles to discover who she is and where she came from. Also she falls in love with a warrior Angel who gazes at her with burning eyes.

I heard a lot of hype about this book before I picked it up, which might explain away some of my disappointment. It has a cool title. It's main character is an art student with sketchbooks full of monsters. The wishes and teeth collecting create a dark fairy tale vibe. All of these elements drew me to the story, but they weren't enough to make me like it.

After reading the first couple of pages of any book, you can get a good idea of the mood and focus of the rest of the story. When DSB begins with Karou's annoyance at an arrogant ex-boyfriend and her vengeful pranks, I was already thinking oh boy, this book is not what I thought it was going to be. I like all the stuff with Brimstone, and the necklaces of teeth and the mystery of their purpose. I like the art school stuff, and the way Karou's friends think the portraits she does of her monster family are this really creative story she's invented. I like angels sweeping silently through cities all over the world, their wings visible only in their shadows. I like the black hand prints burned into the portal doors. I like Karou's hidden past and the war that's waging another world. I preferred the sections set in the other world. The flashback stories.

I don't like the cutesy joking dialogue, the rhetorical questions (thank you I understand what I'm supposed to be wondering about), the abandonment of the plot for the omg we just met and now I love you story. Although this last part can be explained, the explanation doesn't diminish my annoyance at having had to read those scenes in the first place. They feel contrived because they're so romanticized and bear so much resemblance to similar scenes in other YA novels. In these sections, the illusion of reality thins and I feel the author manipulating the characters.

I had repeated urges to cross out lines and paragraphs. For me, the book wasn't dark enough, wasn't suspenseful enough, wasn't real enough. I want to inject some Guillermo del Toro into this. As is, the story feels a little like a cartoon. Maybe you like that. In my opinion, it's not a good thing. I want my novels to feel alive.

Review: Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

age: adult
genre: fairy tale, dream
rating: 8/8 tentacles

Author St. John Fox--who always kills off his heroines--and his muse, Mary Foxe, circle each other in story after beautiful, beguiling story. This novel requires some suspension of disbelief, so just go with it. There are ghosts, and foxes who turn into men, and girls who appear out of thin air. It is a novel about loneliness and love, a playful modernization of Bluebeard's tale. The writing is gorgeous and human and honest. I enjoyed reading Mr. Fox in the same way I enjoy dreaming.

Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

age: children's, YA
genre: paranormal
rating: 7/8 tentacles


Is this going to be series? I thought it was stand alone before I opened it, but now I could see there being a second book... I kind of hope there is a second book. I enjoyed spending time with these characters and I want to know more!

Jacob Portman, a lonely teenage boy, suffers a mental breakdown when his grandfather dies under what Jacob (and only Jacob) sees as mysterious circumstances. He convinces his father to travel with him to a tiny island off the coast of Wales, the setting of tales that Grandpa Portman shared with Jacob in his childhood. Jacob feels these tales were more than just stories, and is determined, unbeknownst to his parents, to discover the truth behind them and his grandfather's enigmatic past. He hopes this truth will make sense of his grandfather's death.

The premise of the story is weird and original. I mean, time loop? Ymbrynes? How did Riggs come up with this stuff? I love it. The vivid world of the novel lures the reader deeper and deeper into the story, as Jacob's thirst for answers lure him through forests and bogs and abandoned old houses. Jacob, as well as the characters he meets on his adventure, are human, idiosyncratic, and vulnerable. It is easy to become invested in their lives. The photographs included add a haunting, historical vibe, that contributes to the novel's mysterious. I enjoyed this book immensely and look forward to the sequel, which I've just researched and am now sure exists.