Category Archives: Fantasy

Review: On a Clear Day by Walter Dean Myers

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

On a Clear Day by Walter Dean MyersOn a Clear Day
Walter Dean Myers
Crown Books for Young Readers
Published: September 23, 2014

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Since her mother’s death, Dahlia has simply survived. On her own in a rundown apartment, she waits for a way to make her life mean more. Then two boys offer her a chance to make a difference. She joins other teen prodigies in brainstorming a strategy to take down C-8, a group of corporations that have the world in a stranglehold. But just as Dahlia and her team stumble onto something big, a big-shot terrorist comes to town. The team knows he must be stopped, but taking him on might simply be playing into the bigger plans of C-8.

I requested an ARC for this book via NetGalley but didn’t get it. Based on the description posted there and on Goodreads, I thought this story would be more like X-Men teens meets The Net (1995, Sandra Bullock, etc.) Now that I’ve read the story, I get where the blurb was going, but I’m not sure it’s the best representation of the tale itself. I wonder if revealing the fact that the narrator is a girl was thought to be off-putting to potential male readership? Pure speculation.

What I liked about the story was that it pulled a lot of different elements together. The cast of characters shows a lot of racial diversity and delivers it with authenticity. In the same way, the team Dahlia joins also shows a lot of intellectual diversity, showcasing different areas of expertise and how they bring a unique perspective to each problem the group faces. To me this also echoed the same message of value and equality about the characters’ ethnic backgrounds: we all bring value. We may not agree on things, but in order to succeed at saving the world, we have to work together and trust each other.

I expected a lot of fast-paced action and suspense, and there was definitely tension building as the story unfolded, but this is more about unique teens dialoguing together over a plan to stop the bad guys from running the show. They do make progress, but not in the ways they necessarily expected, and ultimately, they don’t accomplish their goal. I think I would have liked this book more if there had been a stronger forward push carrying the story along. The group assembles with a vague goal in mind, which keeps things a bit wishy-washy until well into the tale.

This is the first book by Myers that I’ve read, and most of the reviews I skimmed through recommend his other books over this one. Monster has been on my list for a long time, so it’s possible I’ll give that one a read and reevaluate this story again.

Language Content
Strong profanity used with moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
One reference to a man putting his hand between a waitress’s legs. It’s inappropriate and another man calls him out for it.

Spiritual Content
A priest oversees a funeral. Hard times have fallen on humanity and many have died from lost hope. Dahlia makes a comment about having craved her own death before out of a simple desire to “move to the next plane” of existence.

Violence
Groups of vigilantes and terrorists wreak havoc on the population. Dahlia’s team goes head to head with a terrorist group, exchanging fire with them. Resulting deaths and injuries are briefly described. Some soldiers are children. In one instance, a boy is caught in razor wire. Dahlia and her friends watch helplessly as the wire kills him.

Drug Content
A girl in her early twenties drinks a glass of white wine at a café. At a meeting with gang leaders, someone passes marijuana to Dahlia, who refuses to smoke it. Then a woman uses a needle to inject drugs in front of Dahlia.

Review: I Crawl Through It by A. S. King

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Magical Realism, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

I Crawl Through It
by A. S. King
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Four teens battle inner traumas from grief to anxiety to neglect. Stanzi’s parents compulsively visit sites of school shootings. China has eaten herself. Lansdale tells outlandish lies that make her hair grow. Gustav is busy assembling an invisible helicopter from a kit the bush man gave him. The bush man has all the answers. He knows the place Gustav and Stanzi can go, a place that has answers for them, too. Escape seems like the perfect solution, until it isn’t.

Honestly, I so didn’t get this book. I wanted to like it. I liked pieces of it. I think each character individually had a really fascinating story. I just didn’t really understand how they fit together and why they were all stories in the same book. Also, I kept expecting the odd stuff to be revealed as metaphors for something. I thought maybe this layer of fantasy would be pulled back to reveal a layer of reality that made sense beneath it – like Neal Shusterman’s Challenger Deep.

That doesn’t happen, though. The story remains sort of this weird urban Alice in Wonderland, where the lines between reality and I’m not even sure what – fantasy? Hallucination? – blur and loop back on themselves.

The narrative is strong and each character is profoundly unique, so there are some really powerful elements present. But I couldn’t get past feeling left hanging, waiting for things to click into place and make some kind of sense. I felt like I missed the boat somehow.

If you’re looking for an intense emotional read where nothing is predictable and the plot really takes you outside the box, I Crawl Through It will not disappoint. If you need a little more sense and reason in your fiction, it may not be the book for you. Try Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman or We Were Liars by E. Lockhart if you’re looking for something different about mental illness.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
A man lives in a bush near Stanzi’s house. He wears a trench coat but is naked underneath, and sometimes appears to expose himself. Stanzi kisses him, and there are hints that he may be having sex with some teen girls, but it’s never described. Patricia lives with Gary and he asks her for sex, but she makes excuses.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
This isn’t really violence, but Stanzi is obsessed with biology and dissecting things, especially frogs. She doesn’t harm anything living.

Drug Content
The man who lives in the bush sells lemonade with or without roofies. Stanzi believes this is a joke. It’s never specified.

Review: The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Sci-Fi, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

The Scorpion Rules
by Erin Bow
Margaret K. McElderry/Simon & Schuster

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Most of Greta’s memories are from her time spent at the Precepture as a Child of Peace. Though she’s the crown princess of the Pan-Polar kingdom, she and other child royals live together in the secluded school. If their countries declare war on one another, their lives will be forfeit. For Greta, whose homeland stands on the brink of war, reaching adulthood seems an impossibility.

When a new boy enters the Precepture, he’s bound and determined not to let the system dominate him. Greta’s always been careful to follow the rules, but now she finds herself challenged by Elián’s behavior. As their nations inch ever closer to war, he talks of escaping the compound. Hope and terror battle within Greta, but she may not have time to decide the victor before she’s called upon to fulfill her duty.

Wow. Just wow. I devoured this book, page after page as quickly as I could. When I had to put it down, the story stayed in my head. Each of the characters has this really deep individual personality and each really added something significant to the story. I liked that the AI characters didn’t follow the clichéd norms for speech and behavior. The premise – that AI rule earth from a satellite – is really original, and Bow executes the plot with clockwork precision. As each new conflict tore through the tale, I found myself deeper and deeper invested in the lives of the Children of Peace.

The ending definitely set the stage for a follow-up novel. It was intense without seeming like a cliffhanger for its own sake. The ending resolved the crucial conflict but definitely left plenty of things unresolved for the next tale.

If you’re looking for a book that has a diverse, well-drawn set of characters and a strong cerebral feel, this is definitely a book you want to read. Fans of These Broken Stars by Aimee Kaufman and Meagan Spooner or Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee should add this novel to their to-be-read lists.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used very infrequently.

Sexual Content
References to sneaking out at night to have sex, called “going coyote.” A girl confesses that she’d become pregnant and was forced to miscarry. Kissing – girl/girl and boy/girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
References to complete cities being obliterated. Greta remembers one of the Children of Peace who committed suicide and briefly describes what happened. (He used a pitchfork. There was a lot of blood.) Robot minders use electric shocks to keep one rowdy kid in line. A drug is used to induce nightmares in other children who won’t behave. A female hostage is queued for torture. It’s intense but doesn’t get super gruesome.

Drug Content
See sexual content and violence.

Review: Battle of Beings by Nita Tarr

Book Review and Content, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Battle of Beings by Nita Tarr
CreateSpace

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When Gregory finds himself the winner of a large lottery, he knows there’s only one thing he wants to do with the winnings. He will travel to the Congo to help children. Greg and his two friends make the long journey together, but when they finally reach the mission, something isn’t right. The mission director acts suspiciously, and the children are simply too quiet. Greg and his team need to find out what’s really happening to the children at the mission and rescue them. Greg isn’t acting alone, though. All around and unseen, angels aid his efforts, waging war against a legion of demons who would stop at nothing to destroy every child in the mission.

I liked the way Tarr brought the story into the jungles of Africa. It was a fresh setting that definitely shined through the story. Greg and Jenny were a really cute couple, and some of their antics made me laugh – perhaps even ones that were supposed to be serious, though? I’m not sure.

As for the rhythm of the story itself, I felt like I was reading an early draft. There were characters and scenes that really weren’t well-integrated into the story as a whole. Scenes felt choppy. Characters were, at times, unbelievable. For instance, in one scene an angel character is having a conversation with Jesus and Jesus is clarifying that he indeed made up this word or that idea (all the ideas, because he’s God) and I felt like, the angel has been around for a long time. I couldn’t see him still wondering, hey, did Jesus make that up? Because surely it’s not the first time he’s thought about it after all this time?

On the whole, a lot of the story was interesting. It had a pretty solid plot. The Christian elements are pretty deep, and sometimes written in that sort of church-speak that some readers may find inaccessible. Readers with some familiarity with other novels featuring angels and demons may find this story most interesting and easy to follow.

Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Sexual Content
A boy grabs a girl’s chest and pressures her for sex. She tells him he’s crazy and begins to pray for him.

Spiritual Content
Angels and demons are characters in the story and behave according to Christian ideas. Jesus makes an appearance, having conversations with angels on top of clouds and later disguising himself as a human and participating in a fighting ring. Demons control humans, causing them to harm one another. Prayer and angelic warfare casts them out and returns the human to his or her normal self.

Violence
A creepy guy wears a necklace with human pinky fingers strung on it. Children are forced to take up guns and participate in an army led by a warped man. Giant spiders attack people in the jungle. Angels use swords to fight demons. Demons use canes and other weapons.

Drug Content
None.

Review: Lullaby by Amanda Hocking

Book Review and Content, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

Lullaby byAmanda Hocking
St. Martin’s Griffin

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

After Gemma disappeared with Penn and the other Sirens, her sister Harper won’t rest until she tracks them down. She’ll rescue Gemma no matter what it takes. Even if it means spending time with Daniel, whose tanned muscles and bright smile are sure to distract her.

Hidden away in a white beach house, Gemma tries to understand her new Siren needs and abilities. She promises not to run away in a bargain to protect her family and Alex, her boyfriend. At first she’s determined to be miserable, but when that backfires she decides to make the best of it. She tries to enjoy the sea and get to know her fellow Sirens better. Thea has the potential to be an ally, but she won’t easily give up any secrets about Sirens or her own tragic past.

Harper, Alex and Daniel close in on Gemma’s whereabouts. The plan: rescue her from the Sirens and find a way to break the Siren curse so Gemma can be free.

Mermaid stories aren’t hard to find, but this is the first series about sirens I’d ever read. After reading the first book in the series, I wanted to find out what happened to Gemma, a star swimmer-turned-siren and her organized, overprotective sister Harper. Harper’s interactions with the other characters may have been my favorite parts, especially her friendship with her coworker Marcy, whose dry monotone made her offbeat ideas pretty funny at times.

The writing isn’t spectacular. Sometimes passive writing left me disconnected from the story. There were some odd decisions with regard to point-of-view. All characters are referred to by their first names, which seemed strange especially for Harper and Gemma’s parents. The situation with the girls’ parents definitely added to the story and explained some of the girls’ important thoughts and motivations. I just didn’t find it all that believable that they’d refer to their parents as “Brian” and “Nathalie” in the narrative.

I think I liked the first book better than this second one. It seems to fall into the pit that second books often do, where the story winds up feeling like a filler needed to set up for the big finale. Not enough really happened to make it feel like its own novel. Readers interested in mermaid stories might like Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly or Of Poseidon by Anna Banks.

Language Content
Extreme profanity and some crude language used infrequently throughout the story.

Sexual Content
Gemma spends time kissing a couple of boys. Penn uses her Siren abilities to control a young man named Sawyer, whom she appears to be sleeping with. She invites Gemma to join them for sex, but Gemma refuses, grossed out. Both Gemma and Harper reflect on how hot boys are several times throughout the story.

Spiritual Content
The Siren curse began when four girls failed to protect the goddess Demeter’s daughter. Demeter found them swimming and flirting with men, so she transformed them into Sirens, whose songs can convince humans to do their bidding and transform into mermaids and bird-like creatures.

Harper’s friend Marcy decides to hold a séance in an area where a boy was found dead hoping that the boy’s spirit will tell Harper where Gemma and the Sirens have gone. No spirits reveal themselves, so they give up.

Violence (and a bit of a spoiler)
To survive, Sirens must eat the hearts of young men. Gemma refuses to do this at first, but the Siren curse means she becomes more and more susceptible to the desire to feed. She ends up killing a man who is possibly about to rape her.

In one scene, a Siren shoves her hand through a man’s chest and grabs his heart. It’s icky, but brief, and she does not eat the heart.

Drug Content
None.

 

Review: State of Grace by Hilary Badger

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

State of Grace
Hilary Badger
Capstone/Switch Press
Published October 1, 2014

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Wren and her companions live in a beautiful utopian world where pleasure is the highest value. Dot has made all creation good and beautiful, and she’s left instructions for how to live. When strange flashes of another life begin plaguing Wren, she tries to hold on to Dot’s ways and be happy. But as piece after piece of her perfect world begin to crumble, Wren finds it harder and harder to believe.

At first glance, this is definitely a different book. The idea of reading a utopian story really appealed to me, and I think Badger really delivered on that idea. Of course we’re suspicious of the perfect world right from the start, but even that works for the story. In some ways the suspicion which is so well-voiced by Blaze is really what propels the story forward.

The most powerful moment comes when Wren is faced with the knowledge that what she’s believed to be true is based on lies. She must decide if she’s strong enough to pursue the truth or if she can allow herself to be lulled back into ignorance. Can she be happy if she knows it’s all fake? Badger captures the unraveling of the pure dystopian world, juxtaposing Wren’s breakdown against the echoes of bliss still experienced by other characters, revealing the truth in an almost horrifying clarity worthy of big league sci-fi writers.

Readers who enjoy Ursula K. LeGuin (particularly The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas) should absolutely give State of Grace a read.

Language Content
No profanity.

Sexual Content
Characters are encouraged to have sex (referred to as hooking up) as often as they want with whomever they want, as long as it’s not with the same person twice (some couples choose same sex, others choose opposite sex. Anything goes.) In the Books of Dot, pleasure and fun are the highest values.

A boy uses Dot’s principles to manipulate girls into having sex with him. There aren’t a lot of details given. Wren recognizes that there’s something wrong with this, but isn’t immediately able to pinpoint what.

Other hooking up scenes aren’t described either. Wren does refer to the boys’ “willies” and the girls’ “tatas” here and there. Clothing is also optional.

There’s a brief reference to a porn site and a nudist colony.

Spiritual Content
Characters worship Dot as their creator. She is an all-knowing goddess who left instructions within several books. One character claims to hear Dot’s voice. Each character is required to fill a bag with a special fruit as an offering to Dot each day. (See below for more information that includes a spoiler.)

Violence
A boy slits the neck of a deer and guts it. It’s a bit gruesome, which is kind of the point the author is making. A boy’s neck is cut later. There are some flashbacks which include information about a boy beating someone to death.

Drug Content
A boy encourages a girl to take prescription drugs and smoke cigarettes with him.

Spoiler
(Spiritual Content continued) Wren learns that everything she believed about Dot has been made up. She’s frustrated and angry, but also a bit relieved, because it was getting a little Lord of the Flies there for a while. At the end of the book she reflects on the difference between her earlier life and the present. She knows that anyone who has died isn’t out there with Dot. They simply don’t exist anymore. She has zero faith, and that’s implied to be this very superior experience.

Given her earlier time, it’s understandable that faith has left her with this strong aversion and that she’s chosen not to believe anything like that anymore, but some readers may be bothered by the implication that atheism is a superior way to live.

 

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