A Very Red Blogpost

Coincidentally, I read two red books in a row. And the dork in my can't resist blogging about them together.

Rose Sees Red-- Cecil Castellucci


It's the early 80s and Rose is your typical teen age girl trying to carve out her own identity and place in the world. When she decided to sacrifice popularity in order to attend an arts-based high school, she didn't realize how lonely it would be. Even her love for dance can't mask the depression she feels. One evening, her next door neighbor (with whom she's never had a conversation) climbs through her bedroom window. Yrena is Russian born, and lives an extremely protected life. Yrena decided to ditch her body guards for just one night, and she and Rose take on New York City with a vigor that can only come when you free yourself from your personal prisons. It's a nice story, and engaging, but not really groundbreaking in any way. I do wonder how much teens will be able to relate to the story. The U.S.S.R/USA tension that was rampant in the 80s isn't really felt now, and that is a key component to the story.

Sisters Red-- Jackson Pearce

What if Little Red Riding Hood wasn't a squeeky little girl who obliviously traipsed through the woods only to be saved by the big brave woodcutter? What if she was a hatchet-wielding, one eyed, scarred up badass? Wouldn't that story be so much better?

Scarlet and Rosie March are Fenris (werewolf) hunters. When their grandmother was brutally murdered by a Fenris, and Scarlet was brutally mutilated defending her sister, the sisters red were born into a new destiny. Killing Fenris is Scarlet's entire reason for living, and she wants to make sure her sister Rosie will never be hurt... and Rosie herself is quite skilled with a knife. Scarlet shelters Rosie to the point of smothering, and Rosie decides that she and her knives need some action of their own. But when Rosie falls for the woodcutter's son, and gangs of Fenris descend upon the city, the life Scarlet has designed for them falls apart. Plenty of love and plenty of gore... I think this book will please fans of Twilight and other romance/horror novels.

Half World-- Hiromi Goto and Jillian Tamaki

In our universe, there are three realms: there is the realm of flesh, the realm of spirit, and half world. Over the course of time, the three realms have functioned as a piece of the whole, until a rift is formed and half world becomes a grotesque purgatory where twisted creatures lose their humanity and are stuck repeating torturous acts again and again... think Sisyphus from Greek mythology rolling the rock up the hill for all of eternity. One day there is a prophecy: a child of flesh will be impossibly conceived in half world, and will escape, only to return and reestablish balance and order to the realms, thus freeing the trapped souls in half world.

Melanie is an unlikely hero. She's dimwitted, overweight, and woe-begotten. When her mother disappears, she turns to the only friend she's ever had: the old shopkeeper Ms. Wei. With the help of Ms. Wei, a rat, and a murder of crows, Melanie finds her way into half world. Her intention is to save her mother, but in the process she develops more fully into an individual and learns selfless compassion.

Overall, I really enjoyed this creepy/strange book. I am not well-versed in Japanese mythology, so I am curious to know if half world is a creation of Goto or if it's a traditional tale retold. Either way, I am sure this book will be a hit with teens. Although the protagonist is female, there are many elements to this story that will be enticing to boys, and manga and mythology fans will probably like this book. I found it to be well-written, maybe a bit overdramatic in some places but the plot allows for the drama. Jillian Tamaki (illustrator of the awesome graphic novel Skim) adds to the story with her uniquely styles illustrations.

A Blast of Books II

So every now and then I get so behind on my blogging, I have to blast you with a bunch of books at once... and heeeeeeeere we go!

Flash Burnout-- L.K. Madigan

Blake is a photographer who captures the gritty and hideous in a beautiful way. His photography pal, Marissa, is just the opposite... she takes beautiful things and makes them quirky and interesting. One day Blake captures the image of a drugged out streetperson... who ends up being Marissa's missing meth-addicted mother. This book is an emotional journey about friendship, family, growing up before your time, and the power of art. Bonus: it takes place in Portland, OR.





Stitches-- David Small


For whatever reason, I really love GN memoirs... and David Small's is just another to add to my list! Poignant, honest (brutally at times), and deeply revealing, this book is just as well-written as it's well-drawn. Small tells of his struggle with cancer, his abusive parents, and how he overcame both and finally found his voice.






How Beautiful the Ordinary-- Edited by Michael Cart


In this collection of short stories, we get to read works by YA author superstars including Francesca Lia Block, David Levithan, Julie Anne Peters, William Sleater, Emma Donoghue and more. It's a collection of coming of age stories, mostly coming out stories to be precise, and for the most part it's quite a good read. Is it memorable? Not really. Still, there are lots of teens out there that hunger for honest tales of growing up and I think this book will have a fairly wide audience.




Tangled-- Carolyn Mackler



Told from the perspective of four different teens, all in alternating chapters, we learn that life isn't perfect for anyone, despite outward appearances. Contrived and unoriginal at it's worst, touching and relatable to teens at it's best, I think Mackler's fans won't be toooooo disappointed in her latest effort. At least it has a good message that isn't nauseatingly heavy-handed.





Lips Touch: three times-- Lani Taylor

I have to admit that this was my favorite out of the bunch. It's a collection of three stories, all based on a traditional tale or poem, and illustrated by her husband. I will confess that I am biased about this because the first story was based on Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" which is my favorite Victorian poem. But still, the writing was amazing, and the stories were strange, creepy, and just plain good. This would be a great book to recommend to the teen who thinks they only like adult books because YA books aren't well-written enough. Oh and it was nominated for a National Book Award in 2009.

Shimmer-- Dallas Reed

A box made out of human flesh. Open it and shimmering wasp-like dust will fly out and settle on you. Run away, run away NOW because if that dust touches you, you will be unable to control your urges...

Shimmer is a piece of light-horror fiction set in the remote Colorado town Winter. There is a big divide between the rich kids and the working-class kids, and as we've learned from Gossip Girl, rich kids throw wicked parties. At Justin's party, the queen bee Tess finds a box in Justin's dad's office. Although it feels disgusting and appears to be constructed of flesh, she opens it and releases hell on all the party-goers. Nerds, Betina and Emma who also happen to be at the party, are the only ones to keep their heads amongst the madness. Emma closes the box and takes it away. She doesn't know what's going on, but the cold chill of evil has spread and all she knows is that she needs to get the box away from the now insane rich kids. Persuit, betrayal, fear, sin, and love continue the story's plot.

This novel is a thinly veiled Pandora's Box retelling and I can honestly think of quite a few teens who might like this... still, it wasn't particularly well-written or captivating to me, the adult reader. I love it when I can find teen fiction that is well-written AND has high teen appeal. For whatever reason those seem pretty few and far between for me this year. Anyway, I would recommend this book to teens (especially girls, but not exclusively) who like light horror (kinda scary but not gory or nightmare inducing), mythology, retellings of folk tales, and suspense.

Tender Morsels-- Margo Lanagan

First I must apologize for my brief blogging hiatus... I was on a vacation, but mostly the blame for why I have not been writing can be pegged on this book, Tender Morsels.

WHAT?! I hated Tender Morsels?? But it won a Printz Honor!
Yup. Sorry. It kinda killed my will to read and sucked the joy out of retold fairy tales for me...

I should say that I typically love retold folk and fairy tales. This usually makes me biased IN FAVOR of them. And, furthermore, I was reared on East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Peter Asbjornsen and I love the brutal gory tales of the north. So, it really took me by surprise how much I didn't enjoy Tender Morsels.

Tender Morsels tells the story of two worlds: the real and true world where men rape women, fathers abuse daughters, and mothers die, and the heavenly world where Liga and her daughters Branza and Urdda live happily and peacefully. The novel transpires equally in both worlds, and the reader is sometimes left to figure out which world is being featured and which version of each character we are seeing. After a lifetime of sexual abuse and impregnation by her father, Liga's fragile spirit is crushed irreparably when she is gang raped and impregnated by local ruffians. Just as Liga is about to throw Branza, and infant, and herself (pregnant with Urdda) off a cliff, a spirit appears to her and transports her into a heavenly dimension. In this personal heaven, Liga raises Branza and Urdda. In the real world, a local witch and dwarf man in search of easy fortune, decide to poke holes in the space-time continuum and ultimately disrupt Liga's perfect heaven. First Urdda, then Branza and Liga are transported back to the real world and have to learn how to exist in a land that's brutal and real.

I can see why some people might consider this work worthy of a Printz honor. It was a complexly written book, and Lanagan mostly succeeds with a Norse influenced prose. Still, I think that complexly written doesn't always equal great, and this is where Tender Morsels falls short for me. To me, the story itself got a bit lost, and if the plot isn't driving the reader forward, what will? I would love to hear other people's opinions about this book, as I know there are big fans of it out there!

I would recommend this book to older teens, as it's a quite complex read. It would be good for teens who liked East by Edith Pattou (one of my all time favorite books), Norse fairy tales, and books that play with the space-time continuum. Just a note so you know what you are recommending, in case you haven't read it: there are multiple rape scenes, incest, and some blurry relationships with animals.

The Looking Glass Wars and Seeing Redd-- Frank Beddor

Fantasy has just declared war on reality.

*Grins* Isn't that the best tagline for a book trilogy ever? Ok, maybe not EVER, but I really like it. I have always been a huge fan of all things Alice in Wonderland, so I will be the first to admit this book review might be a little biased. However, upon speaking with others who have read and enjoyed the first two books in this trilogy (the third is forthcoming), I am glad to know it wasn't just my personal Alice in Wonderland obsession taking over.

Put simply, the trilogy is based on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland... but it is much, much more than that. The white rabbit is now Bibwit Harte, an albino tutor with extraordinarily large ears and Alyss' Chief Advisor. The Mad Hatter is now Hatter Madigan, the Chief Bodyguard whose tophat folds down into a series of spinning blades, and is the world's most deadly weapon. Imagination is just like magic in these books, and Alyss is the expert in utilizing White Imagination. Of course, her opponents, namely Redd (Queen of Hearts), employ Black Imagination. And, let's not forget The Cat (Cheshire Cat) who is a deadly assassin employed by Redd, who has wolverine-like claws and nine lives.

These books are surprisingly violent... although the violence is fantastical (an ace of hearts gets beheaded, a bomb made out of crystal blows up a tower, etc etc), it is still present. There is much war, espionage, and intrigue... perfect for young readers for whom realistic violence is not appropriate, but they want to read about it none-the-less. These books are particularly good in the audio version. In fact, they are so good that way, I would recommend listening to them rather than reading them, if possible. But in either format, I would recommend these books to tweens and younger teens, both boys and girls, especially those who like retellings of old tales and fantasy stories.

Side note: These books are currently being made into films, and there is a graphic novel series debuting at Comic-Con featuring Hatter Madigan.