Selah has finally found her father only to lose the rest of her family. And with her transformation to novarium in process, the clock is ticking down to her destruction if she doesn’t complete the final phase in time. Answers will only be found by returning to the one place Selah least wants to go: the Mountain. She must gather the answers she needs, rescue her family, and bring her friends to safety before time runs out.
I think my first mistake was probably in reading this book without having read Thunder, the first book in the series. I never felt like I could fully grasp the storyworld elements critical to the tale. I’m still not totally sure what Landers are and I definitely didn’t follow the First, Second, and Third protocol explanations or understand why they were relevant. A lot of the information comes out in the form of dialogue, but I kept feeling like I was missing the pieces of information that would make everything suddenly make sense.
The side characters were my favorite. Mari and Cleon and Treva, in particular. Selah felt uneven to me, sometimes acting like a grown adult and other times reading much more like a younger teen. Some of her conversations with Bodhi (I LOVED the character names in the story) felt like they were arguing because this is the scene in which they’re supposed to argue. Some of the dialogue felt like it was jumping around and responses didn’t seem to follow any linear ideas.
I liked that there were all these groups vying to use Selah for their own means. Even her father had his own agenda. That kept me guessing and wondering what would be around the next bend in the story.
Bottom line for me: if you’re going to read this series, start with Thunder. I haven’t read it, but I think I would have enjoyed Lightning a lot more if I wasn’t struggling to understand the mechanics of the storyworld in the midst of the tale itself.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content Brief kissing.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content There are some brief battles, but very little gory detail. One of Selah’s companions is fatally injured and asks to be left behind.
The year Louisiana – Easy for short – meets Janis Joplin is the year everything changes. Easy is a car mechanic in her dad’s shop, but she can sing the blues like someone twice her age. So when she hears that Janis Joplin is passing through her small town of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Easy is there with her heart – and her voice – in hand. It’s 1970 and Janis Joplin is an electrifying blues-rock singer at the height of her fame – and of her addictions. Yet she recognizes Easy’s talent and asks her to meet her in Texas to sing. So Easy begins an unusual journey that will change everything.
About Caroline Stellings
Caroline Stellings is an award-winning author and illustrator of numerous books for children and young adults. She has been given many honours for her work, including nominations for both the Geoffrey Bilson Award and the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award, and she has won both the ForeWord Book of the Year and the Hamilton Literary Award. Her picture book Gypsy’s Fortune (Peanut Butter Press) was chosen as a Best Bet by the Ontario Library Association. Caroline has a Masters degree from McMaster University. She lives in Waterdown, Ontario.
Why I Can’t Wait to Read Freedom’s Just Another Word
I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by Caroline Stellings, but The Manager is the book that really made me fall in love with her writing. I loved the spunk and heart in that story. It was all the things I wanted the movie Million Dollar Baby to be. Read my review here.
I love music in literature, so as soon as I saw the name Janis Joplin, I was pretty sure I needed to read this book. I loved Scar Boys by Len Vlahos and I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuenhert.
If you’re a reviewer or have a NetGalley account, you can request Freedom’s Just Another Word for review from Second Story Press. The book will be available for purchase on September 1, 2016.
Let me know if you request the book or think you want to read it! I’d love to know how you like it.
The Raven King has been on the To Read list of practically every blogger that I follow. I’ve been a pretty big fan of the series so far, so I was really eager to get into this last chapter of the tale.
If you’re new to the Raven Cycle, here’s what you need to know:
Growing up in the company of psychics, means getting used to people knowing your future. Blue has always been told two things about her future: she will fall in love, and, if she kisses her true love, he will die. She meets Gansey and his friends and realizes she’s seen him before. On the Corpse Road, walking among the other souls of those who will die in the coming year.
Gansey died once already. And because of Glendower, he knew life again. Now, Gansey believes his purpose is to find the Welsh king of legend and wake him. He brings three remarkable friends with him on the quest. Adam, who has made a bargain with a magical forest, to serve as its hands and eyes, Ronan, who can bring items back from his dreams, and Noah, a boy who died on the ley line years ago, and joins the friends now as a ghost.
So now it’s the fourth book, and Gansey et al are closing in on Glendower’s location. But a powerful demon has been set loose, and the team needs to find Glendower before the demon destroys Cabeswater and Ronan with it. If they can wake the legendary king, they can use the favor he’s promised to put an end to the demon.
One of the most difficult things about a highly anticipated book like this is it has so many expectations to live up to. We’ve followed this big stories all the way to this point and we’re braced for the big satisfying moments where dreams are realized and plots come full circle and everyone lives gloriously if not happily ever after.
Here comes a little diversity. In the first three books, the central characters are a pretty narrow bunch: four white boys and a white girl. The Raven King introduces Henry, a Korean boy, and reveals two of our boys as having feelings for each other. While I liked that the story broadened in terms of diversity, and I liked Henry a lot, I didn’t really feel like those elements were as well-integrated into the story. I kept waiting for Henry to emerge as having some critical role, and apart from having a really cool artifact and some comic relief, he really doesn’t add much in his own right.
The boy/boy romance. I really couldn’t decide how I felt about it. Totally did not see it coming, which I kind of liked. On the other hand, I felt like after three books, I should have suspected something. Also, one of the boys had a girlfriend earlier in the series, and I wondered why the other hadn’t responded to this girl as more of a rival in a romantic sense? Then again, maybe I’d see some of those queues if I went back and reread the first three books?
The climax really threw me. Pretty much from the point where the cloud of ravens come up through the end of the book kind of went downhill for me. Things happened too easily. Oh, here’s a car. Oh, here’s a cave. Oh, here’s a sacrifice. I kept thinking, that’s it? That’s all we get? ALL this buildup for THIS?!
Also – okay. I spent the whole book anticipating this big boss fight with this waspy demon (perfect villain considering Gansey’s life-threatening allergy to bees.) What we got was the literary equivalent of the boss fight in Halo 4. (Go with me, here. You pretty much fight your way through aliens level after level and finally make it to the big scary bad guy and it’s like, ‘press right-trigger to defeat boss.’ Kind of a letdown.)
So, the wasp-demon fight went down a whole different way, leaving some pretty big loose ends: The Green Man? Henry’s mom? Piper’s dad and his brother?
I was relieved when I discovered there was an epilogue. But honestly, it didn’t answer any of the questions the story left me with. In fact, I really didn’t know what to make of it. Sure, we get to see the characters moving on after completing this quest which has dominated their lives for four whole books, but it was like suddenly they’re ordinary people. (And ordinary people who make weird choices. Really, Adam??) I had a rush of the same feeling I get when watching The Return of the King in the scene where Aragorn is finally crowned king and suddenly he’s soft and sweet and awkward and I’m like where is the warrior who didn’t even blink at taking on nine freaking Nazgûl?! But I digress.
Bottom line: am I glad I read it? Yes. Totally. Even if every review said exactly all these things, I would still have said, yes, but I need to read it. I need to follow Blue and Gansey to the bitter end. So I’m not sorry. The first three-quarters of the book was great. Lots of tension. So many moments where I was biting my nails and holding my breath. I loved the stuff about Blue and her dad. I loved that we got to see Ronan at home and kind of unguarded. All the stuff revealed about Ronan’s dad and his brother Declan? Awesome.
So there are good things to be had in the story, too. For me, like I said, I’m glad I read it. Now I want to go read Dream Thieves or The Raven Boys and let those earlier, grander parts of the story live on in my mind instead of the true final moments of the series.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used moderately throughout the book.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing – girl/boy and boy/boy.
Spiritual Content Blue’s mom and their other housemates are psychics. They perform a tarot card reading early on in the book. Gansey and his friends are looking for a Welsh king who, according to myth, sleeps somewhere along the Ley Line that runs through their town. If Gansey and his entourage can find the king and wake him, legend says he’ll grant them a favor. Along the course of the hunt, one of their rivals woke a demon. The demon will destroy Cabeswater (a magical forest), Ronan’s home and family, and even Ronan himself unless they can kill it first.
Blue learns of a people who can transform into or disappear into trees.
A ghost attacks and physically harms Blue.
Violent Content The demon kills a woman in a pretty gruesome way. Later, a man shoots his daughter. A ghost attacks Blue, tearing at her face. The demon takes control of a boy and uses him to attack his friends.
Drug Content
Blue and Gansey attend a party where some boys are drinking alcohol.
On a hunt, Arud faces one of the ferine, a terrifying wolf with serrated teeth and murderous heart. He escapes home, but the wolf follows, and his mother begs him to go, taking his sister with him, to a village weeks away. Confused and frustrated at the secrets he knows his mother keeps, Arud takes Lykke and together they travel as quickly as possible. They must reach the village before the next moon frees all the ferine from the Dreadlands and allows them to hunt freely. A beautiful girl joins Arud and Lykke on their way. She tells him of a prophecy and a ritual which could alter the course of humanity. If Lykke is captured by the ferine, a powerful sorceress will perform the ritual and the ferine will be free to hunt and kill at will.
Right from the opening pages, this story takes off. I was immediately hooked. Arud’s family practically bursts with secrets, from his grandmother’s strange ways to his sister’s mysterious illness, to his father’s disappearance. Add to that deadly wolves already on the hunt for Arud, and I could not stop reading.
I liked the characters. There are a lot of named characters, but it didn’t feel like a lot to me as I read the story because they’re introduced at a nice pace, and for the most part, each contributes something to the story that makes that person memorable. Scalvia, the girl who accompanies Arud and Lykke, was definitely my favorite. She’s every bit the warrior, but still kind and sweet, especially to Lykke. Sometimes when story features a small child character, they end up unrealistically good. I felt like Lykke’s character had a great balance of being a good kid, but also still acting like a kid and wanting her own way sometimes.
Werewolf stories aren’t my usual go-to, but I really liked the unusual way those elements were worked into the story. The Viking mythology added some interesting elements, definitely something I don’t see often enough. This is sort of How to Train Your Dragon meets Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls series).
Fans of teen paranormal should definitely check out this book. I liked the fresh take on the werewolf lore and the complex, suspenseful plot definitely entertained.
Cultural Elements
The story contains a lot of references to Viking culture and lore.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content A few kisses between boy and girl.
Spiritual Content Some characters pray to Odin and Freya. Arud talks to Scalvia about his own belief that another god, a Creator exists. He often talks about the importance of faith. Some of the lines about faith are paraphrased from the Bible.
A powerful sorceress leads the ferine. She seeks to perform a ritual that will free the ferine from captivity in the Dreadlands and let them roam freely.
Violent Content Arud hunts and cleans the animals he catches. Some of the descriptions are a bit vivid. The wolf-like animals who hunt Arud and his sister attack animals and humans. Arud and his allies fight back in several battles. Descriptions range from brief to moderately detailed. I’m a bit sensitive to violence, and it was definitely at the upper edges of what I’m comfortable with, but other readers may not have issue with it.
Drug Content
Brief mention of elderberry mead included in table fare.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
After her grandparents’ unexpected deaths, Anna begins to feel untethered from her life. She fantasizes about suicide, the only end to the awful pressure of existing that she can see. On the outside, her best friend Aliya senses something isn’t right with her usually level-headed friend. But as Anna’s behavior becomes more and more erratic, it’s hard for her friends and family members to face the truth that something is deeply wrong.
This is a fairly dark story about a teenage girl suffering from depression. What I liked most was having the inside and outside views of Anna—in her point-of-view and her friend Aliya’s. I found it easy to empathize especially with Aliya because while she watched Anna spiral downward, she wanted to help, but she didn’t want to overreact. Where’s the line between someone having an off day versus some kind of deeper masked depression? I had several friends who wrestled with thoughts of suicide in high school, so that definitely resonated with me.
There are a couple of sections of the story written from Anna’s mom’s point-of-view that I didn’t think were really necessary. Of anything, they felt the most preachy and repetitive, since often we saw the same scene again through Anna’s perspective.
Often a story about depression (sometimes even without meaning to) glamorizes the depression itself. This story doesn’t do that. Anna’s feelings are disturbing, even to her, but she feels trapped by them. They make her blind to the things going on around her—things like the boy who has a crush on her, and the joy she once felt spending time with her friends. Detached captured that element of depression really well, I thought, and it also offers hope without feeling chastising or belittling to Anna’s experience. We see the trauma that not only she experiences. We see it in the reactions of her family members and her friends.
While I think this is a great examination of depression and suicidal thoughts, some of Anna’s ideas and pursuits are a bit graphic. This might not be a good read for someone in the midst of these kinds of feelings. Friends and family members of someone suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts might find the window into Anna’s and her family’s experiences validating or helpful.
See the content notes for additional information.
Cultural Elements
None.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Moderate profanity. The first half only uses mild profanity infrequently. After an intense event, Anna ups the ante and swears quite a bit (which she acknowledges).
Romance/Sexual Content Kyle hopes to ask Anna out, but instead chickens out.
Spiritual Content Anna briefly contemplates jumping in front of a car to end her life, but worries about facing God afterward. What if she killed innocent people in the process?
Later, she comments that maybe God figures she deserves to die after all when one of her plans to kill herself seems to be coming together easily.
Anna faces her family’s grief over her depression, and for a moment wishes to go back to believing she succeeded with her suicide.
Violent Content Anna spends a lot of time fantasizing about and planning her suicide. She makes several attempts to kill herself, one of which is pretty violent. A boy hangs himself in a tree on Halloween. He appears to be the victim of bullying.
Drug Content
Anna and her friends sneak off to parties a couple of times. Anna drinks beer and lies to her mom about it. Aliya and her friends also drink.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
After recovering from a kidnapping, Elaine Westover wants nothing more than to live a quiet secluded life with her paints. But as her father’s home falls into disrepair and his business fails, she has little choice but to offer her services painting portraits. When a wealthy man hires her to paint an impossible portrait for a year’s income, Elaine considers accepting the job. At the interview, he makes it clear she has no choice but to accept, and he bundles her off to the attic against her will, promising to release and reward her when she completes his task. Her only friend and protector is Will, a young man she takes to be a servant. He vows to help her in any way he can, and soon she realizes she’s falling in love with him. Will feels drawn to Elaine as well, but when he discovers the connection between his family and hers, he knows he can never let her discover his name without ruining every moment they’ve shared together.
The first book in the Andari Chronicles was one of the best surprises I’ve had this year. I loved Davidson’s retelling of the story of Cinderella with its added political intrigue, and ever since I read it, I’ve been excited to read more. I like that this story features characters who appear very briefly in Traitor’s Masque, most importantly, Elaine Westover. While she didn’t strike me as a particularly dynamic character in the first book (she’s really just mentioned and off-stage the entire story), I liked the way her character unfolded in Goldheart.
Rumplestiltskin isn’t one of my favorite fairytales, and I wasn’t sure how a painter would factor into a retelling, but I have to say, I loved how it all played out. The themes about value and gold made the story even richer (see what I did there? Ha ha.) than the original tale. One thing that Davidson does really well is to craft believable fairytale men with believable friendships. Will and Blaise were a great pair, and the scenes featuring the banter between the two of them rank among my favorites.
So far I have to recommend this whole series. I’ll be reading the third book soon, though I’m honestly tempted to start it today. The next book is a retelling of Twelve Dancing Princesses and features another character I enjoyed from Traitor’s Masque: the prince’s friend, Kyril. Can’t wait!
Fans of fairytales definitely need to give these stories a read. They’re a bit grittier than Melanie Dickerson’s novels and a bit more traditional than Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles. It definitely reminds me of Robin McKinley’s Beauty and Spindle’s End, but without the magical elements.
Cultural Elements
The landscape of the story and the characters feel very Western European.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used with moderate frequency.
Romance/Sexual Content A man makes veiled threats that he could and might harm Elaine. She fears for her physical safety and it’s clear he could rape her if he chose, though it’s not explicitly stated. A man hints that his friend needs a few minutes alone in a carriage with a certain woman, but he means for privacy, not sexual reasons.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content Elaine has nightmares and remains tormented by memories of her earlier kidnapping. (From the first book in the series.) A man is bound and left in a cellar after being smacked around a bit. A madman lights his home on fire and himself as well.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
