Clary just needs a little normal. Her days are filled with hospital visits to her mother, who is still trapped in a self-induced coma and with avoiding Jace, since their romance is now doomed by the fact that he is actually her brother. Jace wrestles with not only Clary’s addition to his family, but also in the identity of his father, Valentine, who seeks to destroy the only world Jace knows. But Jace may be expelled from the Shadowhunter world even before Valentine has a chance to make his move when a powerful leader questions Jace’s loyalty and isolates him from his adopted family. As Valentine gathers evil forces to him in an attempt to build an army that will destroy Shadowhunters and mythical creatures alike, Clary, Jace, and their friends frantically search for the key to his plan in time to unravel the whole thing.
Filled with the same snappy dialogue and wittiness as the series opener, City of Bones, this novel is wildly entertaining. Though a few of the plot turns are a little too conveniently accepted by the characters, overall City of Ashes is packed with the unexpected twists and unforgettable characters fans of Cassandra Clare have come to expect from her work.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Moderate but infrequent.
Sexual Content Clary and Simon explore their new identity as boyfriend and girlfriend. They discuss sex and go to bed together, but very few details are given. Clary and Jace still experience intense attraction toward one another despite Valentine’s claim that both are his children and therefore brother and sister. They smooch a few times, and realize that their relationship can’t be understood by anyone else because it would be considered incest. Is it too convenient that they never really doubt Valentine’s claims? Also, Jace’s close friend Alec becomes romantically involved with an older man/wizard, Magnus Bane. Nothing much happens between the two on camera beyond some longing looks and a wordless argument.
Spiritual Content Shadowhunters are supposed to be the descendants of angels and are charged with keeping peace on earth and killing demons. No real mention of God or spirituality much beyond the lore about angels.
Violence Valentine gathers a demon army to himself and destroys anyone who stands against him. Battle scenes are scattered throughout the story and though often brief do contain a few harsh descriptions.
Omar, an unappreciated artist in a village of hunters, has a plan to make everyone realize his worth. Surely once they see the wonders of the Safe Lands, they’ll crowd in to thank Omar for bringing them. But when the envoy from Safe Lands arrives and shots are fired, Omar’s brilliant dream twists into a deadly nightmare. Eighteen people are dead, and everyone blames him.
Levi returns from an errand to find his village emptied and many dead. Filled with grief and fury, he vows to enter the Safe Lands to rescue the captives taken from his home. Nothing prepares him for the reality of life in the Safe Lands.
In a city bent on pleasure and fun, Safe Lands citizens mask the effects of a deadly plague with makeup, drugs and free love. Horrified, Levi and many others from the small village of Glenrock cling to the Christian morals and values of their homeland. Their convictions come with heavy prices. As Levi turns his mind to plans of rescue, his brother Mason pursues study of the terrible plague that infects the people of the Safe Lands. Finding a cure is the only way to save those he loves, but time is running out.
The first in a dystopian series, Captives explores the consequences of drug abuse and sexually transmitted disease and contrasts this against a Christian morality and way of life. The few scenes including drug use are brief and the message that experimentation can quickly give rise to addiction is crystal clear in Williamson’s text. Though the values of promiscuity and casual relationships are explained, no graphic sexual content appears in the story. The plot contains rapid-fire twists and unexpected turns, making it a quick read. References to lines from The Princess Bride will make it unforgettable to movie fans.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None
Sexual Content The women from Glenrock village will be forced to become pregnant through an embryo implant. The men are forced to donate sperm regularly. No details are given about how this occurs. Omar spends the night with a beautiful woman in the Safe Lands. Though no details are given, it’s understood that he has had sex with her. Characters visit various clubs and sometimes participate in dancing or watching sultry performers.
Spiritual Content The villagers from Glenrock find their Christian values challenged by the pleasure-seeking ways of Safe Lands. Safe Lands Nationals believe that they are given nine lives on earth before a tenth of eternal bliss.
Violence Enforcers from Safe Lands attack a village, killing several of its people. Few details are given. Omar beats his brother but later feels guilty. A woman is kissed against her will.
Drug Content
Nothing is illegal in the Safe Lands. Various medicines, alcohols and drugs are vaporized and inhaled for ease or pleasure. Omar’s experimentation with these substances quickly rockets out of control and earns him some nasty consequences.
While grief over her mother’s death is still fresh, fourteen year-old Victoria and her two young twin brothers move in with their aunt. Victoria is determined to make the best of things, but when her aunt’s boyfriend attacks her, Victoria fights him off and runs. She knows she will not be able to go home.
As a precocious girl, she quickly finds friends on the street. She washes windshields and sells flowers for a few coins here and there. She knows she must return to school if she is to have any chance at a good job later on, but how can she do that while she is living on the street? After a visit visit to the school and a kindly woman offering her room and board, Victoria begins to hope again. But violence seems to follow her at every turn. When the dangerous Captain comes looking for one of Victoria’s friends, she knows the worst is far from over. Only her determination and strength of character stand between her and becoming lost in a tumultuous street world.
Victoria’s story is a simple and familiar tale: troubled teen chased into street life by unendurable circumstances in her home. Though Victoria faces life on the street, her own experiences are shadows compared to the ones her friends must survive. While this story provides a valuable window into a world in which US teens can only imagine, Victoria’s character development is a little flat. She is very level-headed for a girl who grew up in the conditions as described in the story. The danger her friends experience grounds the story and emphasizes the fact that though people look out for Victoria, life on the street is life on the edge of a knife. One foul move can destroy one’s life. Goldemberg captures this essence clearly yet retains an innocence in Victoria’s can-do attitude and no-nonsense manner.
Language Content
Brief, often in Spanish.
Sexual Content A few brief kisses.
Spiritual Content None.
Violence From a distance, Victoria sees two young men beat and later shoot another young man. Her aunt’s boyfriend makes a pass at her, but she refuses him and escapes. She sees evidence (bruises and testimony) of violence against others and witnesses two more shootings.
Drug Content
Victoria’s friend Marko lights a joint in front of her, but Victoria refuses to smoke with him. Marko sells drugs for a powerful man referred to as the Captain. This earns him lots of trouble.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
With limited memories of his previous life, Thomas arrives in a frightening world, trapped in a hostile maze with fifty other boys. Before he is fully acclimated to his new home, an unprecedented event occurs: a girl arrives, claiming she will be the last person to join them before collapsing into a coma. Thomas reels,feeling that this girl is familiar to him. He can’t stop thinking about her or feeling an intense desire to become a Runner, a member of the elite group of boys who set out into the maze daily, attempting to create a map to the exit.
When the group’s leader, and the leader of the Runners become trapped in the maze, Thomas rushes in to rescue them without considering the consequences: a night surrounded by fierce monsters called Grievers. As he struggles to survive the night, Thomas begins to understand what the boys must do in order to escape the maze. When the girl confesses that she has triggered the ending of the way of life the boys endure, Thomas realizes they must make their move now.
Though the opening is clouded with the intense confusion of the protagonist, the story and its world eventually becomes more clear, and readers are able to invest in Thomas and his friends. In addition to the unique dystopian setting, Dashner creates language used by the boys in place of profanity. While cleverly conceived, the words are overused to the point of obnoxiousness. The Maze Runner contains some dark elements. For instance, a Griever’s sting causes its victim to have a mental breakdown and to experience horrible memories from the past. Grievers attack the boys, and sometimes each other. However, the relationships between the characters are touching and the story’s tension builds steadily. The twist ending makes it difficult for readers not to immediately begin the second installment of the series.
The movie based on the book The Maze Runner is expected to hit the big screen in September 2014.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
No profanity. Characters use alternate words in place of swearing.
Sexual Content When the girl arrives, a few of the boys make comments claiming her. Before anyone can lay a hand on her, the leader makes it clear that harming her in any way will not be tolerated.
Spiritual Content None.
Violence Half-machine, half-animal creatures called Grievers roam the maze at night, attacking and stinging any boys in their paths. Stings cause a reaction referred to as the Changing, which can cause some mad or violent outbursts.
Drug Content
A serum must be taken to save anyone stung by a Griever.
When her father is assassinated, fifteen year-old Laila, her mother and younger brother escape their tumultuous homeland to America. As Laila explores her new freedoms, she learns that what she grew up believing about her father – that he was a king and her family royalty – is not how the rest of the world saw his rule. The ugly words – dictator, tyrant – slam into her, turning her past upside down. She watches helplessly from across the world as her uncle continues the regime of violence and destruction.
Laila joins a school for the first time in her life and struggles to fit in to the complex high school hierarchy. At home, her mother attempts to continue the way of life the family enjoyed in their homeland, a life of luxury and excess. What little money they had quickly runs out, and Laila discovers her mother making secret agreements with the American agent who helped them escape to the US. The agreements force Laila’s friendship with another family from her homeland, one who lives on the other side of the battle lines. Friendship does not come easily, and every time Laila thinks she understands what her mother is doing, the game shifts and new objectives become important. Her mother insists Laila’s younger brother will be king, but Laila can’t help wondering if that is even possible and what it will cost.
For author J C Carleson, The Tyrant’s Daughter began as a question. As the world watched events unfold in Iraq, Carleson wondered about the families of men like Bin Laden and Saddam Houssein. What are their stories? What must it have been like for the man known of the international community as a terrorist or ruthless dictator to be one’s loving father? Though this story examines the violence from a great distance, the shock and tragedy of these events rings out from its pages. Laila’s journey both to find her place in a new home and her new understanding of the events in her past make The Tyrant’s Daughter a dynamic story and a worthy read.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Moderate word choice, mild frequency.
Sexual Content Laila embraces the freedom that being in the United States allows her. She dances intimately with a stranger and makes out with a classmate in a car. She seems willing to have sex with this boy, but he stops her before any clothes come off.
Spiritual Content Laila’s uncle is a devout Muslim and a harsh judge of others who do not live out their faith as he does. Laila’s family is nonreligious.
Violence Though Laila does not witness her father’s assassination, she recalls the moments immediately after, including seeing her mother’s blood-drenched clothing. On an outing with her family once, the armored car approaches a body left in the street and rolls over it. Laila is sickened. Laila’s uncle slaps her mother hard and tries to slap Laila, but her mother protects her. In an argument, Laila’s mother slaps her.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Three brothers and a young girl fight for survival within the towering walls of the Safe Lands. Despite its name, the city is ravaged with disease and infested with corruption. Each brother follows a mission: to find a cure for the sick; to free the captives; to take down the Safe Lands in a rebellion.
The second in her Safe Lands series, Outcasts is quickly earning a reputation as an intense story set in a captivating world. As a fan of Williamson’s fantasy series, Blood of Kings, I’ve been eager to get lost in another story by this worthy author.
The Captive Maiden by Melanie Dickerson
Release date: 11/9/13
Lonely Gisela spends her days serving her stepmother and grasping at memories of a happier childhood. When a handsome Duke throw a grand ball, Gisela is determined to attend and to have one last glimpse of the beauty of her past.
Dickerson won my heart as a reader with her debut novel The Healer’s Apprentice, a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. The beautiful simplicity of the story and the lovely characters she creates are difficult to resist. I am eager to get my eyes on her latest happily ever after story, inspired by the familiar tale of Cinderella in The Captive Maiden.
Cress (The Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer
Expected release date: 2/4/14
The third novel in the Lunar Chronicles series, Cress follows the story of a girl briefly mentioned in the series’ acclaimed story, Cinder. The story features unforgettable cast members, including Cinder, Captain Thorne, Scarlet, Wolf and the dreadful Queen Levana.
With Meyer’s gift for a perfect meld of sci-fi and fairy tales retold, this series is one not to miss. Cinder was a fabulous story and very clean content-wise. I’m very hopeful to find Cress to be another gem.
Shadow Hand by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Expected release date: 2/25/14
The day of Lady Daylily’s wedding draws near. Unlike the princesses of fairy tales, she will wed not her true love, but his awkward and foolish cousin. Daylily has always been the dutiful daughter. This time, however, she rebels, disappearing into the legendary Wilderlands and the land of Faerie. Though not her true love, her betrothed pursues her into peril, determined to rescue her.
If you’ve followed my blog long, you’ll be familiar with this name. Stengl continually amazes me with her brilliant characters and sharp dialogue. She possesses an elusive ability to seamlessly draw symbolism into her stories without distracting from the tales. Shadow Hand revisits a fascinating character from an earlier novel in the Tales of Goldstone Wood called Veiled Rose. I can hardly wait until this one hits the shelves.
Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus
Release date: 2/1/11
A young Japanese boy dreams of one day being a Samurai warrior It seems impossible, since he is the son of a fisherman. When he is stranded and then rescued by sailors on an American vessel, Manjiro begins a grand journey that will take him across the globe.
I stumbled upon this inspired-by-history novel on a rack of books for sale at the public library last summer and was immediately intrigued. My mother recently added it to her library, and has raved about the craftsmanship of the story and the power in its telling. I may have to snag this one as soon as she finishes the last page.
Stay Where You Are and Then Leave by John Boyne
Release date: 3/25/14
From the author who penned The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, an unforgettable tale of two boys who become unlikely friends during World War II comes an intriguing story about the son of a World War I soldier. His father promises not to go away, but then he leaves on a secret mission. Four years later, the boy discovers that his father is being treated in a local hospital. He vows to find his father and bring him home. I’m hopeful to find this novel every bit as engrossing and moving as Boyne’s WW II story.
Interrupted by Rachel Coker
Release date: 3/27/12
In the midst of the Great Depression, Allie’s whole life implodes. Her mother succumbs to illness and Allie is sent to a new family far away. Still lost in her grief, Allie isolates herself from the new family faces around her. The last person she hopes to see is the one she blames for her mother’s death, but her former best friend isn’t going to let Allie off so easily. Interrupted landed on my reading list when it was nominated as a finalist for the 2013 Christy Award.
The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes
Release date: 9/17/13
Henkes captured my household with his delightful children’s stories about two charming mice in Chrysanthemum and Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse. The quirky characters and layers of humor meant for adult and child alike made these oft-repeated bed-time tales. I was thrilled to see this book announced and can’t wait to see what glories he brings to middle grade fiction.
The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson
Expected release date: 3/25/14
Piper scrapes out a meager existence by finding and selling scraps on Meteor Fields. When she finds a strange girl amidst the flotsam, she immediately recognizes the mark that changes everything. The girl’s arm bears the Mark of the Dragonfly, an emblem which means her return home will mean a payday to trump paydays for Piper, if she can just get there. Thus begins a grand adventure.
Something about the description of this book reminds me of the magical world created by Marissa Meyer in the Lunar Chronicles. Without having read the book, it’s difficult to say whether this is an accurate hunch. But two girls on a dangerous journey, one returning to the past and the other grasping at the only hope for her future… what’s not to like? I’m intrigued.
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Release date: 5/20/09
This book may well turn out to be one of those good ones that somehow slipped past unnoticed. I’ve heard some buzz about it lately, and since it was first recommended to me by a friend, I’m more curious than ever to get into this story set in a world in which parents of a child who reaches the age of thirteen have the ability to choose whether to keep the child or to have them “unwound,” and essentially destroyed.
