Castle Glower isn’t like any other fairy tale castle. Every Tuesday, new room appear, existing rooms may find themselves located in entirely new parts of the castle. Guests may even discover their rooms becoming more or less luxurious depending on their behavior toward the king. The youngest in her family, Princess Celie catalogs the castle’s changes in an atlas. When her parents go missing, leaving Celie, her brother and sister behind, the three siblings must work together to thwart nefarious plans by the council and visiting princes, and with the Castle as their ally, they just might stand a chance.
I bought this book because I enjoyed Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George several years ago. My daughter enjoys books about strong princesses, and this looked like an interesting one. I liked that Celie is the one who maps out the castle. She’s smart and sweet, and everyone seems to like her. Her brother and sister each play a role in protecting the crown of their kingdom, but it’s Celie who has clearly won the Castle’s heart and trust. I loved that the castle has an awareness of its inhabitants and interacts with them through the additions and changes in the castle interior. The Castle Glower was possibly my favorite character in the book.
The story has the feel of a light, fun adventure for boys or girls, especially late elementary-aged readers.
Profanity and Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content One of the boys has a reputation as being quite charming. Nothing happens really beyond some girls being giggly and silly when he’s around.
Spiritual Content One brief mention of maids hiding together praying.
Violence It appears that something dreadful has happened to Celie’s family. There’s no description of violence or gore. A visiting prince has some murderous plans for Celie’s brother, heir to the kingdom.
Celie and her siblings play some tricks on some of the castle inhabitants who are working to harm the kingdom. They do things like hide chamber pots and snip the seams of clothes so they’ll split apart at inopportune moments. It’s their way of going to battle against powerful grown-ups who’ve taken control of the kingdom.
As Cinder and her friends race toward Luna, the final battle with Levana draws near. With the help of her friends, Cinder must rally her people against the queen, liberate them by dethroning her aunt, and take her place as queen. If she fails, it’s pretty much game over – Levana will take over earth once her marriage to Kai is complete, where she’ll enslave everyone.
Though Levana’s ward, Princess Winter, has always seemed reclusive and crazy, the people love her. When that love becomes yet another threat to Queen Levana’s rule, Winter’s stepmother orders her killed at the hands of the guard who has loved Winter since they were children. Though Cinder comes to Luna to stir up a revolution, she may be Winter’s only hope.
There were so many moments in this story that satisfied the needs the earlier books in the series created for me. Scarlet and Wolf. Cress and Thorne. Cinder and Kai. All the romance!! So good.
At first, I wasn’t super crazy about Winter. Jacin wasn’t my favorite either. As the story progressed, I liked both of them more, but I think it was tough to compete for my affection amid the cast of other characters. I am always blown away by how seamlessly Meyer incorporates elements from the fairytales into her novels. In all the chaos of the other story elements, I kept forgetting that Winter had elements from Snow White. As the elements from the familiar tale emerged, I found myself super excited and surprised by them. I feel like this has to be the highest praise a fairytale retelling can earn because to tell a familiar story in such a fresh, new way has to be really difficult.
This entire series has been so much fun to read. It’s largely clean (I think there was maybe the heaviest content in Fairest, which is Levana’s story) and because even the approach to the mind manipulation is taken from a sci-fi standpoint, it doesn’t feature the use of magic. If you like sci-fi or fairy tale retelling, this whole series is excellent. If you’re new to the series, check out my review of Cinder, the first book in the series.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing.
Spiritual Content Lunar people possess a gift which allows them to manipulate bioelectricity and therefore control the minds of those around them. There’s a lot of discussion about the ethics of this behavior and under what circumstances it’s appropriate for the mind control to be used. Cinder struggles with when and how to employ her gift and whether or not using it makes her as evil as Levana. Winter’s stubborn refusal to use her gift has caused mental instability.
Violence Winter witnesses an execution in the Lunar court in which the prisoner uses a knife to kill himself while under the control of a high military official. It’s graphic but brief. Scarlet bears evidence of her torture in Lunar custody, though she doesn’t discuss it. There are some battle scenes between Lunars and revolutionaries. The wolf soldiers are a bit scary, and some of the battles contain vivid imagery. Winter also hallucinates some disturbing images – the walls bleeding, that sort of thing.
In a world in which women are of little value, Grey tries to remain beneath the notice of the ruling Chemists. To draw attention to herself risks her very life and the lives of her family and her best friend Whit. When Chemists punish Whit for protecting Grey, she abandons hope of escaping notice and vows to help others like Whit, no matter the cost to herself. When the Chemists realize what she’s done, her family protects her by spiriting her away to a world within her grandfather’s curio cabinet. There, among a strange world of clockwork people, Grey must find a hidden ally and a key that may bring an end to the Chemists’ tyranny.
Though I’ve been long fascinated with steampunk literature, I hadn’t really read much of it. I enjoyed this story very much. I loved the way Denmark creates not only the dystopian world in which Grey lives but also another hidden world within the curio cabinet. I hadn’t realized when I started reading that a great majority of the story would take place within the cabinet. At first I wasn’t sure if I’d like that idea, but actually, though I think the dystopian world is complex and interesting in its own right, I came to prefer the part of the story that happens within the curio.
Blaise is absolutely my favorite character. I liked that he was a bit removed from both worlds. In terms of the way the story unfolds, I liked that he held his own and played his own part in fighting evil and rescuing Grey, but she had her own heroic role to play.
Also, I have to say that the villain in the curio was super creepy. Like, not in a ‘beware!’ kind of way, but in the sense that I definitely felt the danger Grey was in when she was in his custody.
Over all, I loved the pacing of the story and its great characters. Because of the pervasiveness of the attraction the characters feel for one another and the intense situation described below, this may not be a great book for younger or more sensitive readers. See the content notes for more information.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content From almost the very beginning of the story, Grey has some intense feelings of attraction toward her friend Whit and another man she meets. There are a few kisses exchanged, but nothing beyond that, though there are a lot of moments when Grey or other characters dwell on the romantic pull toward one another.
There’s a scene which might be a trigger for abuse or rape survivors. See below for details.
Spoiler — One of the porcies takes a fascination to Grey, and though the porcies aren’t capable of procreation, he intends to “explore” Grey, by force if necessary. He ties her down and tries to take advantage of her, but doesn’t get very far. It’s definitely intense, but she’s able to escape.
Spiritual Content Within the curio cabinet, the clockwork people believe they were created by a Designer. This idea seems consistent with metaphors for our relationship with a Creator, but it’s not explored.
Within Grey’s village, powerful Chemists who have magical abilities rule the people.
Violence Chemists mete out harsh punishments for rule violations. Whit bears injuries resulting from being whipped. In the curio, a fall or other mishap seriously damages the fragile porcies (living people made of porcelain with steam-powered inner workings.) A girl loses her hand in a battle. At one point, Grey finds a mass grave of tocks (living people made with clockwork pieces.)
Drug Content
Whit comes across a potion dealer who adds an addictive element to the potions. It seems to affect him the way illicit drugs would (he’s a bit out of things for a while after taking it), and he craves more of the stuff.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Three fifteen year-old girls: Fiona, the daughter of an executive at a technology company in Vancouver who has just misplaced her phone, Sylvia, who bears the scars of an attack in her village in Congo and now lives in a refugee camp in Tanzania, and Laiping, a girl from a rural town working in a factory in Shenzhen, China so she can send money home to her family. They lead vastly different lives, but they all share one common connection: the mineral Coltan, or “blue gold” used to make electronics and cell phones.
After sending her boyfriend a topless picture of herself, Fiona loses her cell phone. Though her dad works for a company that makes electronics, he insists she get a job and pay for a new phone for herself. In Nyarugusu, Sylvie cares for her younger siblings and her mama, who won’t get up from her sleeping mat some days and insists that Sylvie’s father will join them soon. Sylvie’s brother, wooed by a local warlord, is slipping away from the family. The only way Sylvie can save them is through sponsorship to go to Canada. Laiping wants to please her supervisors at her new factory job and be a good daughter, sending money home for her father’s life-saving heart surgery. But when the company withholds her pay and punishes her for another’s defective work, Laiping begins to wonder whether she’ll ever be able to make a life for herself as a factory worker.
Told from the point-of-view of all three girls, Blue Gold relates three separate stories connected by the world’s desire for the mineral coltan. A nurse at Sylvie’s refugee camp sets up an online campaign to request aid for her, and Fiona and Laiping see the pictures of Sylvie posted online. They don’t know much more about the girl with the machete scar on her face, though. The politics surrounding the use of coltan are present in the novel, and it’s clearly a book with a message. Each girl’s story is compelling, however, and the passages certainly raise empathy for the real people enduring the conditions related in the tale, such as factories and refugee camps.
I really didn’t know much about coltan before reading this book. Through this story and the references included in the back, I’ve done a little more research and begun to look at which products and companies seem to be interested in or succeeding at supporting human rights and ethical production. One suggestion from a section at the back of the book suggests downloading an app called buycott, which can be used to scan the bar codes of items and provide information about whether it was produced in ways that cause harm to the environment or humanity. I’m eager to check it out.
One element that I found interesting was the way the use of cell phones and technology was portrayed throughout the story. A refugee camp worker uses a cell phone to take pictures and videos of Sylvie and her family in order to gather financial support and sponsorship to bring her to Canada. A photo of Laiping taken to test the cell phone camera makes its way across the globe to Fiona’s hands, connecting them, if only for a moment. For Sylvie, a viral photograph has the power to save; for Fiona, in the case of her nude picture, it can destroy. And certainly, where war and slavery rule the harvesting of coltan, technology and our need for the latest greatest gadgets can destroy lives. Technology connects us all, Stewart seems to be saying, for good or ill.
I liked that Stewart didn’t present the topic as a simple black-and-white issue. I really like that she includes a list of other sites and encourages readers to research products and companies for themselves. In reading reviews posted by others on sites like Goodreads, it seems clear that this book has elevated our awareness of problems surrounding coltan mining and factory conditions in China. I have to applaud her for those efforts, and I enjoyed reading this novel about them.
Language Content
None.
Sexual Content Sylvie briefly remembers being raped by soldiers before fleeing her home. There are a few details given, and it’s definitely the kind of scene that could be a trigger for rape or sexual abuse victims. Sylvie thinks about what it would be like to be married to a man she does not love, and compares it to what the soldiers did to her, saying she will withdraw inside herself, that the man can have her body, but never her.
Fiona sends her boyfriend a topless picture of herself which ends up being distributed online. She’s super embarrassed, and refuses to let her parents handle it, insisting she’ll make things right on her own. Her school principal warns her that distributing the picture is child pornography, and anyone (including Fiona) caught posting it or sending it out can be arrested. When Fiona finds out who first posted the picture, she refuses to out them. While I understood her reasons, I felt like it was a bad decision, and I found myself wishing her parents had insisted on being involved in the situation.
Spiritual Content When one of Sylvie’s allies dies in a fight against a warlord, she prays that his spirit will not be trapped in Nyarugusu.
Violence Sylvie and her mother were raped by soldiers before they fled from their home in DRC. Sylvie briefly remembers the event. For readers who are also victims, it could definitely be a trigger. A powerful warlord threatens Sylvie and her family. Soldiers exchange fire with refugees in one scene. In China, Laiping witnesses police brutalizing workers who’ve gathered for a rally to discuss rights and injustices at local factories. She is knocked to the ground and beaten.
Drug Content
Sylvie fears drunk men in the refugee camp who make lewd comments to her and may try to take advantage of her.
Fiona and her boyfriend go to a party where she gets very drunk. So drunk she’s ill and has to go home. Still drunk, she sends a topless picture of herself to her boyfriend. While she comes to deeply regret sending that picture, neither she nor her friends evaluate the role that drinking alcohol played in her willingness to send the photo to begin with.
Nothing was supposed to happen. Her step-mom left her in the car for a few minutes while she ran inside to pay for antibiotics. But when Cheyenne woke, instead of her step-mom behind the wheel of the car, it’s a boy with a gun. She’d been kidnapped.
Taking the car was supposed to be easy. It was running. Griffin hopped in and took it. He just didn’t realize there was a girl sleeping in the back seat. Once Roy starts calling the shots, things get complicated. The girl’s dad owns a big company. The boys want to collect a ransom. But Cheyenne’s pneumonia’s getting worse, and without antibiotics, she won’t last long. Her blindness keeps her from being able to recognize her captors, but it also makes it that much harder for her to escape.
This book really caught my attention because it’s a story about a kidnapping in which the protagonist is also blind. I liked that it was about a blind character but not about her blindness. I thought Henry portrayed Cheyenne as crafty, smart and independent. I liked Griffin, despite his flaws. He’s not the sharpest pencil in the box, but ultimately he wants to do the right thing and keep Cheyenne safe, and I definitely respected that. I liked that their relationship didn’t go wild and unrealistic places and stayed in this more ‘tentative allies’ frame.
Suspense isn’t really my thing, so I feel like it’s hard for me to evaluate the book in terms of the genre. I thought it could have been more suspenseful and intense. Because Cheyenne reasoned things out carefully, I think it tended to read with a gentler pace than some of the (few) suspense novels I’ve read. I didn’t enjoy it less for the pace, though.
Language Content
Mild language used infrequently.
Sexual Content While the group holds Cheyenne captive, one man threatens to rape her. It’s creepy, but he doesn’t succeed.
Spiritual Content None.
Violence Griffin’s dad is a violent man. There are references to things he’s done, but we don’t see him really become violent in terms of directly harming anyone in the story itself. He breaks windows on a truck and threatens to shoot Cheyenne. A man is shot in the chest with a shotgun at close range.
Drug Content
When Cheyenne is sick, Griffin describes her fevered state as reminding him of really drunk people at parties he’s been to. Cheyenne thinks the men who’ve captured her may be drunk.
On a morning that begins with a suicide fantasy, Jack Polovsky’s ex-girlfriend calls him from the hospital. She’s having their baby and giving him up for adoption. This is Jack’s only chance to meet his son and say goodbye. At first Jack doesn’t think it matters, but the more he thinks about it, the more realizes he wants to say to his son. In a moment part panic, part impulse, and part desperation, he snatches the baby from the hospital and hits the road. He grabs the appropriate baby paraphernalia and finds himself on the run from the police, trying to buy enough time to tell his son (whom he names Socrates) all the things he’ll need to know. He teams up with his best friend Tommy and with Jess, his ex-girlfriend and the baby’s mom, on a journey to visit his grandmother, to say goodbye.
I read this book because I’d been asked to participate in a blog tour for Emil Ostrovski’s sophomore novel Away We Go later this spring, and I’d gone to his blog to find out more about him as an author. When I read the blog post about the release of The Paradox of Vertical Flight, I was completely hooked. I went immediately to Amazon, bought the book and read it that night.
I’m a huge sucker for books with witty dialogue, and this one totally delivers it. I loved the characters, from Jack to his friends, the strangers they meet along the journey and his sweet grandmother with dementia. I loved that this story features issues about teen parenthood from the often-overlooked father’s point-of-view. I loved how tender Jack was toward his son. So neat.
Some reviews and comments compare this book to books by John Green and other authors. I think in terms of the quirkiness and wit of the writing, yes, absolutely. I thought that Paradox of Vertical Flight wasn’t as dark as Green tends to be, though. I really liked it a lot. It’s a great pick for fans of contemporary teen fiction looking for books with unique storylines and great, fun writing.
Language Content
Extreme profanity used moderately.
Sexual Content Jack’s (recently ex)-girlfriend is pregnant, so obviously they’ve had sex. There are a couple of brief references to the experience, but it’s not described in a full-on scene. Jack wants to kiss her, remembers kissing her. He flirts with his best friend Tommy. Their relationship remains just friends though.
Spiritual Content There’s a lot of philosophical discussion—from the allegory of the cave to Schroedinger’s cat. At one point the group goes to a church, though it’s unclear what Jack’s really looking for. It’s not Jesus per se. More the idea that there are things he wants his son to be open to exploring, or wants to feel like he has imparted an openness to exploring to his son?
Violence None.
Drug Content
Jack recalls spending time drinking alcohol with Jess. He finds a bottle of tequila and shares it with his friends during their trip.
