Hey folks, we have a brand new segment! Our delightful buddy Harry, from Temple Library Reviews will be joining us once a month to review paranormal romance from a guy’s perspective. But we will let him introduce himself, please let’s give a warm welcome to Harry!

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I’m not sure whether Ana & Thea have made it public, but I’m the newest honorary addition to the Book Smugglers team [honest to God, I smuggle books home and then lie straight to my family's face about it]. I get the chance to play here at their blog once a month and my small spot will be called ‘A Dude does PNR’. The idea came to be in December, when I posted my Sherilyn Kenyon review and people were interested to see the male POV about Paranormal Romance. The public demands, the attention whore (that’s me) begs, and the smugglers comply. For my christening into the official Smuggler family I have been given “Circle of Fire” by Keri Arthur.

Title: Circle of Fire

Author: Keri Arthur

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Piatkus Books
Publishing Date: 06.08.2009
Paperback: 298 pages

Stand Alone or series: First book in the Damask Circle

Why did I read the book: Ana had lined three novels and the summary made this one a succulent choice.

How did I get the book: Ana mailed it to me.

Summary: Sixteen teenagers taken from their homes. Eleven bodies recovered, each completely drained of blood. Some believe vampires are responsible, but Jon Barnett knows it’s something far worse. To stop the killers in Taurin Bay, he becomes enmeshed in a web of black magic and realizes he needs help. But fate gives him only one choice in the form of recluse Madeline Smith.

Review:

What happened between my reader personality and Circle of Fire can be best described with a typical wedding reception scenario. I was sat on a table with a good looking lady, a promise to have a swell time drenched in conversation. However, after the introductions the conversation ran out of topics and although the time spent together had a few good gems, in the very end I was left utterly bored and the fine lady entertained her neighbor better. I call this the ‘click factor’. Either you almost hear the click sound, when your hands grab the book in standard reading position or you don’t. In the case with Circle of Fire, my ears were deaf, but even so the ride was not all lows. It had a few highs and perks.

Paranormal Romance is a feel-good genre. Compared to all the genres out there, the PNR is the spicy, exotic and sinful meal, which you feel instant guilt about afterwards, but damn it, if you don’t feel heavenly in the moment of consumption. So, I keep wondering, why the heck do all series I have had the opportunity to read feature ominous, big scale [epic] central or otherwise plot lines. Sure, I guess the big bad thing out there ready to bring some distant cousin of the Judgment Day ensures that the series will have a big number of installments, but I don’t see it as necessary. I thought it was refreshing that Arthur decided to have a modest start with one case, which was more or less isolated and personal rather than introductory and the inkling of a storm.

The story is straightforward. The objective is clear: find the missing children and for Maddie to bring her nephew home. In order to achieve that Maddie has to pair up with Jon, the resident brooding hero, who customary for the genre is a shapeshifter. Both aren’t the best match for this investigation, since Maddie [despite her precognitive and fire starting powers] is largely ignorant about the supernatural world. This trait puts her in danger and jeopardizes the whole investigation. Although the opening chapters seemed filled with promise, especially with the way how Maddie and Jon meet, after that I hit déjà vu lane at parade speed and knew just about everything that was going to happen. Call me precognitive…

You may argue that more or less, everything has been said and done as far as plot goes, but it isn’t impossible to give well known formulas a fresh polish, a new spin, some tuning. What worked against from this happening was the lack of meat on the story’s bones. Three hundred pages [barely 300, mind you] is not the healthy, solid bedrock to develop a high adrenaline adventure and a believable romance. Then there’s Arthur’s prose, which left me neutral. I did not feel grabbed by the way she expressed herself and for me prose is a determining factor to whether I enjoy a novel or not. With Circle of Fire I felt largely unattached with where it went and I felt like I was being told rather than shown. I still can’t shake the ‘clutches’. It’s just not how I roll these days.

World-building-wise things headed into a right direction, but never got anywhere. True, there is an avian shapeshifter and not the standard hairy, possessive alpha male. True, the big baddy has a diversified goody bag with ways to kill the protagonists, but there is no actual depth to make this exciting. I had questions about shapeshifters in general, the rules as far as magic is concerned and what not, but that was largely unanswered. I also couldn’t buy that Maddie could so easily figure out how to learn the ropes with her precognitive powers, after a single mention that control was possible. Given her background and the grief her powers had given her, I would suspect it was the opposite.

Last, but not least, the romance. From a logical standpoint, what Arthur did is sound. Maddie was a victim of physical and psychological abuse, so a sensual and naughty relationship was not the best route to take. The romance here is more or less platonic, melting the ice walls both protagonists have raised for different reasons and admitting that love stuck both ends of a long spaghetti strand in their mouths with the intention to get a kiss at the end. I admit that I am a fan of the idea and the actual ending of Circle of Fire was endearing, but getting there was a journey that seemed forced, raw and inorganic. Both protagonists switched between what the Freudian IT wanted [getting it on] and what the EGO [from bad experience] dictated as best course of action [aka straying away from love]. I understand from where this inner dilemma stems and yet the way it was handled did not suspend my disbelief or cemented my conviction that the happily ever after was rooted in reality.

Verdict: I didn’t click with it. I can’t call this a bad novel, because it isn’t. I am sure that this one will be a perfect fit for somebody else, but Circle of Fire can’t provide what I need from a book. Yeah, I am a picky and needy bastard.

Rating: 5 Meh, take it or leave it

Reading next: The Battle Sylph by LJ Macdonald

Title: Mr. Shivers

Author: Robert Jackson Bennett

Genre: Horror, Historical Fiction

Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: January 2010
Hardcover: 336 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel

How did I get this book: Review Copy from the publisher

Why did I read this book: Ever since I saw the mockup of the haunting cover and read the synopsis from Orbit, I was instantly hooked. Billed as an apocalyptic-style horror novel set during the American Great Depression (one of my favorite periods of study as a history major), I could not resist.

Summary: (from Amazon.com)
It is the time of the Great Depression. The dustbowl has turned the western skies red and thousands leave their homes seeking a better life. Marcus Connelly seeks not a new life, but a death – a death for the mysterious scarred man who murdered his daughter. And soon he learns that he is not alone. Countless others have lost someone to the scarred man. They band together to track him, but as they get closer, Connelly begins to suspect that the man they are hunting is more than human. As the pursuit becomes increasingly desperate, Connelly must decide just how much he is willing to sacrifice to get his revenge.

Review:

Mr. Shivers was easily one of the most highly anticipated novels of early 2010 for me – the blend of horror, gritty realism, and the bleakness of the Great Depression setting instantly appealed to me, and I was ecstatic when I received an ARC for the title. Add to that the overwhelmingly positive reviews from the heavy-hitters like Publisher’s Weekly, the Guardian, and Library Journal, and I was one very excited girl.

Unfortunately, Mr. Shivers simply could not deliver. All sound and fury, but ultimately with little to say, I found myself hollowly disengaged and sadly disappointed with this debut novel from Mr. Robert Jackson Bennett.

Marcus Connelly (simply referred to throughout the book as Connelly) is a man that has lost everything. His young daughter has been killed by a mysterious, legend of a man whose face is marred by three long scars. Unable to move on with his life, Connelly’s marriage deteriorates, and he decides to leave to find – and exact revenge – on the gray man that murdered his daughter, the man that the hobos riding the rails call “the Shiver Man.” All Connelly knows is that he must travel west and he makes his way across an arid, devastated American landscape, from Tennessee to Oklahoma, hitching rides and stowing away on trains with other men in search of a better future. Along the way, Connelly learns that he is not alone in his quest as he comes across another trio of men out for blood, payment for the wake of death and destruction left in the scarred man’s path. As the group closes in their pursuit, hot on the Shiver Man’s trail, they gradually begin to realize he may not be any mere man – and Connelly learns, all but too late, that all revenge comes at an unimaginable cost.

Mr. Shivers is the debut novel from Robert Jackson Bennett, and it has a wicked good premise – at its onset, Mr. Shivers is a strong, attention-grabbing novel. The initial descriptions of the Depression-ravaged landscape, complete with Hoovervilles, dust storms, and the constant presence of the railroad are evocative and well-painted, as is the desolate, gray mood of the novel. Indeed, Mr. Shivers begins with a bang, banking on the strength of its morose setting. The historical perspective feels a little shaky at times (with regard to slang/colloquialisms and geography), but Mr. Bennett’s atmosphere in the novel is undeniably compelling. However, as the story unfolds, it’s very easy to see where it is going to end up. There’s a good deal of predictability here, which is unfortunate for so strong a start and premise (barely within the book’s first act, the old adage about those seeking monsters becoming them immediately comes to mind). This isn’t a particularly bad thing, provided that the characters and level of writing are strong. Unfortunately, they weren’t.

As a protagonist, Connelly is simply drawn. He’s a very tall & broad, intimidating, bearded man that does not like to speak. In many ways, he’s empty; a husk following the death of his daughter. This characterization is actually quite effective, at least in the beginning, but Connelly never manifests any semblance of a personality or tone as a character, nor do any of the other secondary cast members in the book (who read like flat stereotypes: an ex-priest, a Jew, a brash young man). There’s absolutely nothing in the way of character development here, which, unfortunately is another point against Mr. Shivers. This, however, would have been forgivable had the writing been impeccable…but once again, I found myself disappointed.

Mr. Bennett’s writing style, unfortunately, comes across as self-indulgent. Every conversation Connelly has in this book (or rather, that he listens to, as he does not speak much), every extended section of descriptive prose feels so melodramatically self-important as to seem…well, silly and derivative. For example,

He looked up at the stars again and considered this spot on the land, this tree he sat under. These empty square feet of land had always been here, would always be here. To this place he was no more than a dream. And he wondered about those who had come before, wandering over the plains, treading this spot. People that came before nature. Animals that came before sunlight. Perhaps it had been so. He touched the coarse earth. Once something had died here. It was a fact of chance. Some animal had dragged itself to this spot or many had fallen, limbs askew, its lifeblood leaking onto the earth. And then perhaps it had lifted its thoughtless eyes to the infinity above, looked at the endless, bejeweled dark, just as Connelly was now, and made some sound, some mewling cry. Asking a question. Begging for a few seconds more. And then expired, maybe leaving its questions behind.

This is perhaps a matter of personal taste, but the constant presence of these sorts of passages throughout the book were grating and felt amateur, the work of an author trying very hard to sound poetic and significant but failing, at least to me as a reader. I also found myself uncomfortable with some of the more religious and patriotic undertones to the novel, but this is, again, a matter of personal taste.

Mr. Shivers is also distinctly reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods (Connelly is a character very similar to Shadow, and the traveling story and American backdrop is also very familiar), as it is of early Stephen King (in particular, The Gunslinger with Roland’s ages-old pursuit of The Man in Black versus Conelly’s Man in Gray). Unfortunately, Mr. Shivers lacks the resonance or skill of these two master storytellers, and the end result is something more derivative and bland. There are good ideas in this book, but Mr. Bennett stumbles, lacking in the execution of these ideas. The plot is cumbersome and the writing overwrought. I finished Mr. Shivers with an overall feeling of disappointment.

All these criticisms said, Mr. Bennett clearly does have promise as an author. This is only his debut novel (which probably accounts for the feeling that he’s trying too hard in this book), and there is potential here. Ultimately, Mr. Shivers isn’t a great book, but it’s not a terrible one either.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From Chapter 1:

By the time the number nineteen crossed the Missouri state line the sun had crawled low in the sky and afternoon was fading into evening. The train had built up a wild head of steam over the last few miles. As Tennessee fell behind it began picking up speed, the wheels chanting and chuckling, the ?elds blurring into jaundice- yellow streaks by the track. A fresh gout of black smoke unfurled from the train’s crown and folded back to clutch the cars like a great black cloak.

Connelly shut his eyes as the wave of smoke ?ew toward him and held on tighter to the side of the cattle car. He wasn’t sure how long he had been hanging there. Maybe a half hour. Maybe more. The crook of his arm was curled around one splintered slat of wood and he had wedged his boots into the cracks below. Every joint in his body ached.

You can read the full excerpt online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: Mr. Shivers has a pretty cool interactive website, which is definitely worth checking out. Also worth taking a look at is the haunting book trailer:

Verdict: Though I was eagerly anticipating this novel, Mr. Shivers failed to live up to the hype. Not without its merits, this is the type of book that may sing to some readers, but, unfortunately, I am not one of them. A plodding, predictable plot, flat characters, and overly-dramatic writing made this a forgettable read for me – though I will give Mr. Bennett’s future endeavors a try.

Rating: 5 – Meh

Reading Next: Need by Carrie Jones

Title: Witch & Wizard

Author: James Patterson & Gabrielle Charbonnet

Genre: Fantasy, Thriller, Young Adult

Publisher: Little, Brown (US)
Publication Date: December 2009
Hardcover: 320 Pages

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in an ongoing series

How did I get this book: ARC from the publisher

Why did I read this book: I’ve actually never read a James Patterson novel, for all his bestsellers and apparent domination of the thriller genre, so when we received an ARC of Witch & Wizard, I have to admit I was very curious. I hadn’t read a good thriller in a while, and the synopsis of Witch & Wizard sounded delightfully fun…

Summary: (from amazon.com)
The world is changing: the government has seized control of every aspect of society, and now, kids are disappearing. For 15-year-old Wisty and her older brother Whit, life turns upside down when they are torn from their parents one night and slammed into a secret prison for no reason they can comprehend. The New Order, as it is known, is clearly trying to suppress Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Being a Normal Teenager. But while trapped in this totalitarian nightmare, Wisty and Whit discover they have incredible powers they’d never dreamed of. Can this newly minted witch and wizard master their skills in time to save themselves, their parents–and maybe the world?

Review:

1. All behaviors NOT in keeping with N.O. law, logic, order, and science (including but not limited to theology, philosophy, and IN PARTICULAR the creative and dark arts, et cetera) are hereby ABOLISHED.
2. ALL persons under eighteen years of age will be evaluated for ORDERLINESS and MUST COMPLY with the prescribed corrective actions.
3. The One Who Is THE ONE grants, appoints, decides, siezes, and executes at will. All NOT complying shall be SEIZED and/or EXECUTED.

N.O. The New Order has seized control of the country, and no one is safe – especially not Wisty Allgood and her older brother Whit. One night, N.O. goons march down the Allgood’s street and force their way into their home, apprehending the Allgood children on account that they are a Witch and Wizard. Whit and Wisty are enraged and terrified – there are no such things as witches or wizards, after all, so why should they go along with these horrible soldiers? Overpowered and with their parents’ safety threatened, the two teens have no choice but to be taken into custody…but soon they realize how hopeless their situation is. Without a proper trial, without due process, Whit and Wisty are convicted as GUILTY by The One Who Judges, and are thrown into a maximum security prison (that is actually a mental institution) with “power dampening” spells to stop the teens from using their magical abilities.

But then, they actually discover that they DO have magical powers. Wisty is able to transform objects, people and animals, and when enraged bursts into flame. Whit is incredibly fast and strong, impervious to weapons like stun guns. Together, the brother and sister must figure out a way to escape their prison, and to bring to fruition a prophecy – a certain prophecy that foretells their rise to power and make right the wrongs of the world.

From a purely theoretical standpoint, the actual story for Witch & Wizard is freakin’ fantastic. The absurdity of the New Order (so poetically reduced to the word “N.O.” on flags and insignias) is pure gold, and the concept of an all-powerful dictator on a determined witch hunt is social satire at its best. The concept of two very powerful siblings, oblivious to their significance to the world as protagonists is also solid gold, and could have made for some fascinating character development.

But…

But, unfortunately, as wonderful as all these concepts seem, they wre never brought to life on the page. There is no soul to this book – it’s written in an entirely simplistic manner with absolutely no skill or subtlety. The entire book, told from alternating viewpoints of Whit and Wisty, is written in episodic, extremely brief 1-2 page chapters. The overall impression I was left with was that Witch & Wizard read like a really bad made-for-tv movie; the ridiculously short chapters equivalent to reading ADD. Heck, in one of the later chapters, Wisty actually gives a bullet point recap of the novel so far. Seriously.

In addition to the simplistic writing, there also was a sad lack in terms of character development (beyond the fact that Wisty is the smart-alec younger sister to Whit’s golden boy/hunk persona). This is probably due to the fact that the chapters were so very short, and entirely focused on the next chase scene. The plotseed of strain between the siblings’ relationship evaporates almost as soon as it is mentioned, and you can forget about any deep, soul-searching thoughts about their newly developed powers or any questioning of the New Order world they live in. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed.

Overall, Witch & Wizard had a great core concept and an intriguing potential for plot and character development. A Great Idea, but really shoddy execution. Top the bad writing with a really crappy, sell-out of a cliffhanger, and you’ve got some frustrated readers on your hands. Perhaps I’ll give Mr. Patterson’s Maximum Ride books a try, but Witch & Wizard disappointed me on so many levels. I’ll give book 2 a read, but there’s a lot of ground that has to be made up to win me over.

Notable Quotes/Parts: The Prologue…

YOU’RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE

Wisty

IT’S OVERWHELMING. A city’s worth of angry faces staring at me like I’m a wicked criminal—which, I promise you, I’m not. The stadium is filled to capacity—past capacity. People are standing in the aisles, the stairwells, on the concrete ramparts, and a few extra thousand are camped out on the playing field. There are no football teams here today. They wouldn’t be able to get out of the locker-room tunnels if they tried.

This total abomination is being broadcast on TV and the Internet too. All the useless magazines are here, and the useless newspapers. Yep, I see cameramen in elevated roosts at intervals around the stadium.

There’s even one of those remote-controlled cameras that runs around on wires above the field. There it is—hovering just in front of the stage, bobbing slightly in the breeze.

So there are undoubtedly millions more eyes watching than I can see. But it’s the ones here in the stadium that are breaking my heart. To be confronted with tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands, of curious, uncaring, or at least indifferent, faces…talk about frightening.

And there are no moist eyes, never mind tears.

No words of protest.

No stomping feet.

No fists raised in solidarity.

No inkling that anybody’s even thinking of surging forward, breaking through the security cordon, and carrying my family to safety.

Clearly, this is not a good day for us Allgoods.

In fact, as the countdown ticker flashes on the giant video screens at either end of the stadium, it’s looking like this will be our last day.

It’s a point driven home by the very tall, bald man up in the tower they’ve erected midfield—he looks like a cross between a Supreme Court chief justice and Ming the Merciless. I know who he is. I’ve actually met him. He’s The One Who Is The One.

Directly behind his Oneness is a huge N.O. banner—

THE NEW ORDER.

And then the crowd begins to chant, almost sing, “The One Who Is The One! The One Who Is The One!”

Imperiously, The One raises his hand, and his hooded lackeys on the stage push us forward, at least as far as the ropes around our necks will allow.

I see my brother, Whit, handsome and brave, looking

down at the platform mechanism. Calculating if there’s any way to jam it, some means of keeping it from unlatching and dropping us to our neck-snapping deaths. Wondering if there’s a last-minute way out of this.

See my mother crying quietly. Not for herself, of course, but for Whit and me.

I see my father, his tall frame stooped with resignation, smiling at me and my brother—trying to keep our spirits up, reminding us that there’s no point in being miserable in our last moments on this planet.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m supposed to be providing an introduction here, not the details of our public execution.

So let’s go back a bit….

You can read more excerpts from Witch & Wizard online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: If you’re looking for a simliar series about two young protagonists fighting a totalitarian nightmare of a government, I *highly* recommend you check out Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series.

Thought-provoking, intelligently written, and with enough depth to satiate even the oldest, most seasoned readers, His Dark Materials is amazing. Start with The Golden Compass (UK Title: Northern Lights), then go on to The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. If you’ve seen the movie adaptation and are (understandably) hesitant, please do not be! The movie was NOTHING compared to the book’s greatness; it was a mere paramecium to the book’s complexity.

Verdict: Excellent idea marred by truly horrendous execution. Witch & Wizard is all action with no soul – a skelleton of plot with no muscle, sinew or flesh to cover it. Perhaps dedicated James Patterson fans will enjoy this book, but it was a disappointment for me.

Rating: 5 – Meh

Reading Next: A Rush of Wings & In the Blood by Adrian Phoenix

Title: Firethorn

Author: Sarah Micklem

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult (US Hardcover) / Spectra (US Mass Market) / Voyager (UK)
Publication Date: June 2004 (US Hardcover) / April 2009 (US Mass Market) / March 2006 (UK)
Mass Market Paperback: 576 pages (US)

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in a planned trilogy.

How did I get this book: Bought

Why did I read this book: I’ve had Firethorn on my radar for a long while, intrigued by the overwhelmingly positive reviews and the comparisons of Sarah Micklem to fantasy authors like Jacqueline Carey, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Terry Goodkind.

Summary: (from barnesandnoble.com)
Introducing a mesmerizing debut in the rich tradition of Marion Zimmer Bradley and the powerful narratives of Jacqueline Carey—a passionate tale of love and war in which the gods grant a common girl uncommon gifts… Before she was Firethorn, she was Luck, named for her red hair and favored by the goddess of Chance. A lowborn orphan, Luck is destined to a life of servitude. But when her mistress dies, Luck flees to the forest, where she discovers the sacred firethorn tree, whose berries bring her fevered dreams, a new name…and strange gifts. When she emerges from the woods, Firethorn is a new woman, with mysterious powers.

And soon, in the chaos of the UpsideDown Days, when the highborn and the low trade places, Firethorn couples with the warrior Sire Galan, whom she follows to camp with the king’s army. There she learns that in her new role as a sheath, a warrior’s bedservant, she is but one step above a whore. By day she uses her gifts as a healer to earn a place among the camp’s women, and by night she shares Sire Galan’s bed, her desire equal to his. But the passion they feel for each other has no place in a world ruled by caste and violence. When her lover makes an ill-considered wager that chances her heart, the consequences are disastrous—and Firethorn will learn how hard it can be to tell honor from dishonor, justice from vengeance.

Review:

A striking young orphan and peasant girl, Luck serves as handmaiden for her Dame, whom she loves (and who loves Luck in return) for a few happy years. But when Luck’s Dame dies and cruel new master Sire Pava and lady inherit the home, her life changes forever. Fleeing from the manor, Luck takes refuge deep in the neighboring Kingswood. As the weeks pass, without food or proper shelter from the harsh winter, Luck is driven to eating whatever she can forage – and when she sees a lone Firethorn tree in dappled sunlight, she takes it as a sign and eats its poisonous, potent berries. When Luck finally emerges from her fever dream stupor, she believes she has been reborn, reshaped by the god Ardor’s hammer into something with a purpose. Luck changes her name to Firethorn, and discovers that she possesses a god-touched destiny and newfound magical abilities. Thus, she leaves her lair in the Kingswood and returns to the village for Midsummer’s Eve. Her return is shortly followed by the UpsideDown Days – a celebration where the Blood (nobles) must serve the mudborn drudges in a reversal of the “natural order” of things. During the celebration, Firethorn meets a handsome knight named Sire Galan, and they quickly tumble into lust with each other. Firethorn feels a connection to the knight, and agrees to follow him as he goes to battle as his “sheath” – the name given to women who follow knights on the road to battle, sharing their beds at night. Firethorn and Sire Galan are tested by the harsh reality of this medieval society, on a rocky path full of danger, mistrust, and jealousy – though their fates are inextricably bound together.

Firethorn is the first in a planned fantasy trilogy, and is author Sarah Micklem’s debut novel. This is astounding, because the book is incredibly polished, both in form with Ms. Micklem’s exquisite prose and also in terms of conception and gritty, uncompromising cruelty. Many reviews I have seen for Firethorn (on amazon, for example) deem this novel a “medieval fantasy romance” – but I have to say that this is a gross simplification, verging on complete miscategorization. Firethorn isn’t really “romantic” at all, and certainly not in the traditional sense. It’s much more of a character-driven novel that takes a long, hard look at gender roles in a medieval society. With her heroine Firethorn, Ms. Micklem shows a female character who is undeniably a strong woman, but within the constraints of her time. She isn’t some emancipated, modern I-Am-Woman-Hear-Me-ROAR! feminist character; rather, she makes her way in the roles society has given her, resisting in the small ways that she can. Though there is passion, emotion, even what could be called love on both sides of this relationship, it isn’t exactly a fairy tale romance. No, Firethorn isn’t your heartwarming tale about a young girl swept away into the arms of her gallant knight in shining armor, her troubles forever forgotten as they ride off into the sunset together and live happily ever after in a castle in the clouds.

What Ms. Micklem does with Firethorn is much more impressive than rehash some simplistic, silly romance tripe. She takes this ideal of the Gallant Knight and the damsel and subverts it, creating a powerful novel so gritty and realistic in its world and characters that it feels more like historical fiction than fantasy.

Firethorn’s strengths lie with its characters, its gorgeous writing, and its grimly detailed world. As I’ve mentioned before, Firethorn is very much a character-driven novel. Narrated in the first-person, Firethorn’s tale isn’t based on action, but character growth and revelation. As a narrator and protagonist, Firethorn is a strong, undeniably captivating heroine. At first glance, or on a superficial level, Firethorn seems weak and powerless by modern standards. She follows her highborn knight out of the loving emotion she feels for him, and a belief that he will take care of her (though she knows nothing of the grim reality of soldier camps and sheaths). While Firethorn feels love for Galan and comes to him of her own free will, being a “sheath” means that she is bound to him in a very tangible way in the eyes of the men of the camp. In the case of Sire Galan, however, he is much less constrained; he can tire of Firethorn and cast her aside, or beat her, or do whatever manner of thing to her as he wishes. Firethorn is Galan’s property, not to be touched by another man until she no longer is his sheath. But even as Firethorn is a willing subject in her bedservant role to Sire Galan, even as she is abused by the men in her life (including Galan himself), she is never weak. The book begins with Firethorn being raped (an unfortunate and frequent reality in this word) – but she chooses to run away, a position of defiance, even though it may mean her death. Even when Firethorn and the other sheaths in this novel submit to the mores of their male-centric society, she is defiant in her narrative. She chooses to bind Galan to her, and she chooses to help him even when he doesn’t really deserve her. Gifted with powers of herb and medical healing lore, she also has the more mystical ability to travel outside her body and create warmth, which she uses to set the wrongs that Galan’s pride have caused.

Which brings me to the other main character in this book – Sire Galan, Firethorn’s handsome, charming knight. If this were a romantic novel, Galan would be the gallant, shining, honorable hero to Firethorn’s beautiful, virginal innocence. But he’s not. Rather, I found myself despising Galan as I read this book – he’s abusive, arrogant, and self-entitled. But again, that’s the point of Ms. Micklem’s writing; she embraces harsh, stark reality. Galan isn’t very honorable and is driven by his own selfish whims, though he does obviously care for Firethorn somewhat.

In terms of world-building, Ms. Micklem does a fantastic job of creating a gritty, muddy world with an intriguing mythology, but is firmly grounded and realistic. The amount of research and detail put into creating this world is staggering. The “magic” of this fantasy novel is apparent, but contrasted against the stark reality of the society of the soldier camps, it’s tempered and believable. There’s violence, rape, and abuse aplenty in this book – much of it aimed at Firethorn herself. But it never feels exploitative or sadistic, rather, Ms. Micklem uses violence as a lens to examine this harsh, cruel world she has created. It’s not a book for the faint of heart, but it isn’t overtly nasty or written with malicious intent, and I appreciate this unrelenting, unflinching look that Ms. Micklem takes at a harsh society that could be representative of many civilizations in times passed.

In all, Firethorn is a beautifully written novel, with rich, flawed characters. The only problem I had with the book was with its lack of action (I am and always will be a sucker for complex plotting), and more importantly the fact that I didn’t particularly love reading this book.

I can objectively appreciate everything that Ms. Micklem has done with Firethorn, with her subversive themes and impeccably detailed world…but I didn’t really like it. For me, it’s the literary equivalent of films by the Coen Brothers. Intellectually, I know that The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men and A Serious Man are important, beautifully shot, impeccably acted films. They are at times nihilistic, at times post-modern, and at times brilliant. But, I don’t particularly like any of their movies.

This is the way I felt about Firethorn – all the components are there, and it is an undeniably Good Book. But it never swept me away, or fully engrossed me as a reader.

With that in mind, I can end this schizophrenic review by saying that while I appreciated and admired Firethorn, it wasn’t really the book for me. But I wholeheartedly recommend it to readers who are looking for a gritty low-fantasy read. I will be checking out Wildfire (book 2 in the series), but with these mixed emotions.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From the prologue:

I took to the Kingswood the midsummer after the Dame died. I did not swear a vow, but I kept myself just as strictly, living like a beast in the forest from one midsummer to the next, without fire or iron or the taste of meat. I lived as prey, and I learned from the dogs how to run, from the hare how to hide in the bracken, and from the deer how to go hungry.

I was then in my fifteenth year or thereabouts. I had been taken into the Dame’s household as a foundling, and when I came to a useful age, she made me her handmaid. I was as close to her side as a pair of hands, and as quick to do her bidding without a word having to be said. I stood high in her regard; many a daughter of the Blood is not so well regarded, being counted more a debt than a gain to her house until she is safely married and gone. When the Dame died, and her nephew and his new wife inherited the manor, I became just another drudge. The world had its order and I my place in it, but I could not whittle myself small enough to fit.

In sorrow and pride I exiled myself to the Kingswood. I shunned fire for fear the kingsmen would hunt me down, and so by way of cold and hunger, I came near to refusing life itself. I never thought to anger or please a god by it. Sometimes I wonder if it was my stubbornness that caught the eye of Ardor, god of forge and hearth and wildfire. And sometimes I wonder–was it by my will alone that I fled to the Kingswood? Maybe Ardor had already taken me in hand, to test my mettle as armor is tested, under blows.

You can read a full excerpt online at the author’s website HERE.

Additional Thoughts: If you’ve read Firethorn and loved it, and like this style of fantasy (or if you read it and were impressed but also had mixed emotions like myself), then you may want to check out some of these other fantasy titles and authors…

In particular, the Kushiel’s Legacy/Naamah books by Jacqueline Carey and the Melusine books by Sarah Monette immediately spring to mind. Both authors have a skill for worldbuilding and flawless storytelling. Others to try include Elizabeth Bear’s Promethean Age fantasy series, Lane Robins’ Maledicte or Kings and Assassins, or Jo Graham’s Black Ships.

Rating: A schizophrenic rating for me – an 8 – Excellent based on objective merit; but also a 5 – Meh because I couldn’t bring myself to like or truly care for the book.

Reading Next: Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier

Title Gift of the Unmage – Worldweavers Book 1

Author: Alma Alexander

Genre: YA (Fantasy)

Publisher: Harper Teen
Publishing Date: March 2007
Hardcover: 400 Pages

How did we get this book: Ana bought her copy. Thea received a review copy from the author.

Why did we read this book: Well, on a shallow note, the main character’s name is Thea – and that’s a true rarity (Thea’s note: I’ve met maybe two other “Theas” in my lifetime, and have read maybe three characters with this name – all of whom have been side characters or villains)! But on a more serious note, we’ve heard nothing but good things about this series, and when the author generously offered us with review copies of her book, we knew it was finally time to dive into the Worldweavers series.

Summary: (from amazon.com)
“When there is a battle to be fought, it is you who can choose the place of the battlefield.” Thus says Cheveyo: mage, teacher, and the first person in Thea’s life to remain unimpressed by her lineage. From birth, great things were expected of Thea, but her magical abilities are, at most, minimal. Now, with Cheveyo, Thea has begun to weave herself a new magical identity, infused with elements of the original worlds.

Back in her everyday life, she attends the Wandless Academy, the one school on Earth for those who, like her, can’t do magic. It is at the Academy that Thea realizes she will indeed have to fight, since her enemies are hungrier and more dangerous than she thought. Fortunately, her greatest strength may be the very powerlessness she has resisted for so long…

REVIEW

First Impressions:

Thea: Gift of the Unmage is not at all what I was expecting – and I mean this in the best possible way. In a sea of young adult fantasy literature that often follows the same pattern, Alma Alexander’s first novel in the Worldweavers series is undeniably unique. It stands out. It’s different. And, I have to say, I really liked the change of pace. Much of this book is internalized, taking place in an alternate dimension as a sort of spirit journey – young Thea travels to Anasazi land, sent by her disappointed family in a last ditch effort to try and dislodge whatever block is keeping her from using her magical powers. A good majority of the book takes place in this strange Anasazi landscape, as Thea discovers exactly who she is – and this is a risky move, especially from a writing standpoint. This is not a straightforward book. In fact, all of the magic in this book is of the surreal variety – vision quests, spirit moons, weaving songs into light, animal guides, etc. And…it’s really, really cool. I loved it.

Ana I came to read this book with the burden of Great Expectations. Not only had I read several positive reviews but I was also in the middle of a reading low after reading two books (one of them a YA novel full of clichés) that I did not like and was hoping for a book to get me out of my reading funk. I thought I should mention this, from the shadow of unreasonable (and possibly unfair) expectations, before I say that I liked the book but it did not wow me. Despite the uniqueness – the book is certainly different, there is no denying it – I felt oddly detached from the story. Whilst Thea is a sympathetic character and I definitely liked the magical aspects of the story those were not enough to make this one a keeper for me. It did take me one step away from the reading low, so I guess that is a good thing.

On the Plot:
In a world where magic is commonplace, Galathea Georgiana is a Double Seventh – the seventh child born of two seventh children. This union is incredibly rare, and as such Thea’s magical powers should be immense and important, but at fourteen years old, Thea has yet to show even the slightest manifestation of magic. Every day she goes to school, and cannot complete even the simplest of spells, and it takes its toll on Thea and her family. Though her ambitious parents love her, they cannot mask their disappointment in Thea’s lack of progress. In a last-ditch effort to awaken Thea’s presumed dormant powers, her father takes a risk and sends her to a different land, a different time, entirely – using a portal, Thea is transported to a strange desert landscape, with a single, quiet man to guide her. Cheveyo, an Anasazi Indian, takes Thea into his keeping as she learns about what questions she needs to ask, how to discover herself, and how to make peace with who she is. There IS something important about Thea, and with an dangerous force amassing on the horizon, Thea must keep her new knowledge very secret.

When Thea leaves the reservation, transformed by the knowledge she now carries with her, she calmly tells her parents that she needs to be sent to the Wandless Academy – the place where the non-magical young go to learn some other skills to help them with their lives. Thea makes new friends at the academy and begins to fit in, for the first time in her life. But the battle has only begun, when a dark and ominous force threatens not only the magical folk outside the warded Academy walls, but the lives of everyone in Thea’s world.

Thea: As I’ve said above, Gift of the Unmage is a very strange, very different type of book – this applies to the plotting and writing of this book in particular. Gift of the Unmage is a surreal trip, spanning different dimensions, different worlds, and strange magics. Ms. Alexander uses some familiar tropes in the YA fantasy genre – there’s the familiar Academy setting, along with the prevalence of magic in the society she has created. And at the same time, Ms. Alexander manages to turn these tropes upside down, and puts a fresh spin on them. Thea’s Academy isn’t Hogwarts or a school for the exceptionally gifted; in fact, it’s the complete opposite, as Thea once calls it “The Last Ditch School for the Incurably Incompetent.” The magic in Thea’s world – or worlds, rather – blends the familiar Harry Potter variety of enchanted sweets and wands and wizardry with an entirely different pantheon of sorcery, with Native American spirit and animal magic. And I think this is what I loved the most about Ms. Alexander’s book – the different, coexisting variations of magic, and the notion that magic that works in one world may not in another.

Ms. Alexander’s descriptions of magic include a wise woman older than the earth, who can change into a spider, the dreaded Alphiri (what we would recognize as Elves – but with malicious, cold calculating intents), stars that take the form of human bodies, and an Elk spirit that encompasses all of his kind. There are many strange scenes in this book as Thea learns her magic, and how different magic may be in different worlds, and it’s almost impossible to relate these all in a review. Suffice to say that Ms. Alexander has an eye for the strange and different, and she manages to weave these threads into her novel with such skill that even the most surreal and impossible scenes seem perfectly natural. I’m not certain all readers, or young readers as a target audience, will like her Dali-esque descriptions…but I certainly did.

In terms of plotting, Gift of the Unmage goes against the grain as well, starting slowly and picking only very near the end of the novel. While this pacing might unnerve or annoy some readers, I didn’t mind it at all. I liked the slower, more introspective pace of the book, and there’s danger aplenty as the book finishes (though I do wish there was a little more time spent on the growing friendships between Thea and her friends at the Academy). Still, there are discoveries and darkness aplenty by the end of Gift of the Unmage, and it’s clear Thea has quite an adventure ahead of her.

Ana: It is the strangest sentiment when one is perfectly capable of seeing why a book should be good, from an objective point of view and yet being unable to connect with it. I agree with basically everything that Thea says: from the subversion of the familiar Academy setting to the inclusion of a different magic system. From the type of magic that Thea is able to perform to the surreal quality that it has. It is all very interesting and worthy of praise especially when it brings something new to the genre. But I have to admit I say that with the most dispassionate frame of mind. Because if Worldweavers was able to engage my intellect it sort of failed to engage my feelings for the most part.

I will put that down to the pacing. And this is where things get really weird, because I disagree with Thea’s assertion that there is a slower pace to this novel. I have to agree with the introspecting feeling but I actually felt that the book went too fast and things happened too soon. The pacing of Thea’s (the character) self-discovery was too fast for me. In too short a time the character went from being at the bottom scale of magic to being too important – more important even than anyone could expect. Although, in theory, I have no problem with the above per se, I do have a problem when it miraculously happens in only a few moons. I think the novel would have benefited from a slower pacing. As it stands, too much happens for a single book that takes place in a couple of months.

On the Characters:

Thea: This really is Thea’s book – as most of the novel takes place in a strange world where Thea is mostly on her own, readers get to know her thoughts and feelings intimately. This is a character that grows and changes over the course of the novel in a very big, admirable way. When I started Gift of the Unmage, I felt sympathy towards the young protagonist, but irritation as well. Initially whiny (though with good reason, considering her parents’ transparent disappointment in her) and overly inquisitive, the Thea that first joins Cheveyo in Anasazi land isn’t exactly the easiest character to like. But, gradually as we become more acquainted with Thea’s thoughts, her fears and her insecurities, she becomes an endearing character. So desperate to initially show her father that she isn’t a failure, Thea’s gradual revelation that she’s anything but useless is masterfully done, and I loved the transformation of her character as she gradually grows up. This is a heroine that I can get behind, and as she reaches out and makes new friends at the Academy, Thea became a character I could not wait to read more from.

The other main characters were well written, if not in the spotlight as much as Thea, but I enjoyed and connected with them nonetheless. I loved Cheveyo’s quiet, solemn, and wise personality – instead of losing his temper with young Thea (which could have been pretty easy), he mentors in a close-lipped way that infuriates Thea, and makes for a fun dynamic. Of course, then there’s Grandmother Spider – an ancient and yet ageless woman who helps Thea, and she is delightful with her loving attitude and wisdom. The other two standouts for me were Thea’s Aunt Zoe, with her peculiar magical abilities (contradictory sensory perceptions – i.e. she “sees” the colors of the wind, and “smells” emotions), and the trickster Corey.

My only gripe with the characters was how little time was spent at the Academy and on Thea forming friendships with her peers. We got glimpses of wonderful characters – Magpie, in particular is a favorite – but it left me wanting more. Of course, as there are two more books in the series, I’m sure these characters will be explored in further depth!

Ana I really liked Thea but unlike Thea (my Thea – this has got to be the most confusing review I have ever written) , I felt sympathy forher at the start and irritated with her as we went along. To start with, I felt for Thea. For all the pressure and expectation her family, and the world even, had for her as the Double Seventh; I could feel her frustration and her despair for not living up to it all, for not being able to do anything magical; for living in a family who was pure magic (including all her 6 older brothers). It wasn’t easy for her. There was one particular point where I was almost moved to tears and she was recalled the look in her father’s eye: a look that was part hope part frustration. All the time. So, yes, I sympathised.
What irritated me was how fast she came to the conclusion that she was nothing but useless and how comfortable she was with the new reality. I am struggling to make myself understood because I fear I would spoil too much but I just wish to make clear, that I have nothing against empowered characters per se. It is just when they go from one end of the spectrum to the other so easily that I have to stop and wonder.

I agree with Thea though when it comes to the other kids at school. I love how all of them were there because for example, they were allergic to magic (literally allergic: sneezing and everything) and I wished more time was spent developing their relationship, that was another thing that was too much too soon.

Final Thoughts, Observations and Rating:

Thea: Gift of the Unmage was a surprising, enchanting read. I loved it, and I cannot wait to read Spellspam soon!

Ana: Worldweavers has an interesting, different premise. Unfortunately the execution left me underwhelmed. Unless Thea tells me I MUST not miss them, I don’t think I will be picking up the other books in the series any time soon

Notable Quotes/ Parts: From author Alma Alexander’s website:

Cheveyo pointed to what looked like a vertical cliff rearing squarely in their path and said, “Climb.”

“Climb? That? How?” Thea gasped after a moment of stunned silence, craning her neck to where the edge of the towering mesa seemed to split the sky. “I can’t crawl up sheer rock walls like a spider!”

Cheveyo seemed to find something about that remark amusing, because there was a flash of a smile in his dark eyes. But he chose not to respond directly. Instead, he merely pointed to what seemed to be no more than a small indentation in the rock. Taking a closer look, Thea suddenly saw something she had failed to notice before. What she had thought of as a tiny hole in the rock had another just like it a little way above it. And then another.

It was a toehold. This was a ladder.

Thea looked up at the cliff face again. “Oh, my stars,” she said in a small voice.

She glanced at Cheveyo but he, other than folding his arms across his chest in a manner that suggested that he’d wait as long as necessary, merely inclined his head at her.

“Did your people make this?” she asked.

“And climbed it,” he said tranquilly, “with water gourds on their heads when it was the dry season. You carry nothing except yourself. Climb.”

Thea drew a deep breath and tucked her sandaled toe into the first indentation, feeling for the matching hand hold above her. It was lower than she thought it would be; she knew a moment of panic as her fingernails scrabbled on bare rock, but then they slipped into their niche. Thea hung her weight from her fingers, lifted her other foot, found a toehold, and inched upwards with exquisite care.

“There is a tree at the top of the mesa,” Cheveyo called out to her as she climbed. “Wait there until you are summoned.”

Thea paused, shifted her grip a little. “But how will I know who…? When is…?”

Cheveyo heaved a deep sigh. “Catori,” he said, “if there is one thing you should have learned by now it’s that your questions almost always answer themselves. Go up, find your tree, sit. Wait.” And then added, cryptically, “Kill nothing up there.”

She had had little choice. She squared her jaw, straightened her body, lifted her eyes, sought the next hand hold. She did not look down again until she was pulling herself up, breathing hard, over the edge of the mesa.

Cheveyo had gone.

You can read the full excerpt online HERE.

Rating

Thea: 7 – Very Good

Ana: 5 Meh.

Reading Next: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

Title: The Hollow

Author: Jessica Verday

Genre: YA (Paranormal/ Romance)

Publisher: Simon Pulse/ Simon & Schuster Children
Publishing Date: Sep 1 2009 / Oct 1 2009
Hardcover: 544 pages / Paperback: 528
Stand alone or series: first in the Hollow series.

Summary: When Abbey’s best friend, Kristen, vanishes at the bridge near Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, everyone else is all too quick to accept that Kristen is dead and rumors fly that her death was no accident. Abbey goes through the motions of mourning her best friend, but privately, she refuses to believe that Kristen is really gone. Then she meets Caspian, the gorgeous and mysterious boy who shows up out of nowhere at Kristen’s funeral, and keeps reappearing in Abbey’s life. Caspian clearly has secrets of his own, but he’s the only person who makes Abbey feel normal again…but also special.

Just when Abbey starts to feel that she might survive all this, she learns a secret that makes her question everything she thought she knew about her best friend. How could Kristen have kept silent about so much? And could this secret have led to her death? As Abbey struggles to understand Kristen’s betrayal, she uncovers a frightening truth that nearly unravels her—one that will challenge her emerging love for Caspian, as well as her own sanity.

Review:

I was very keen about reading The Hollow ever since I learnt that the story was a re-working of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Even though I did not read the original, I am acquainted with the story mostly via Tim Burton’s awesome Sleepy Hollow (which I hear, is not a very faithful adaptation – but still, the basics are there: a small town called Sleepy Hollow haunted by a ghost, The Headless Horseman).

The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane; oil by John Quidor

The Hollow opens with a funeral, that of Abbey’s best friend Kristen. They had known each other since they were very small and shared everything as BFF do – but now Kristen is gone and Abbey is having a hard time letting go. The first few chapters of The Hollow are an exploration of Abbey’s grief – from her lack of sleep, and need to listen to Kristen’s voice by listening to her mobile phone’s message to her loneliness and attempts at adapting to the new reality of life without her best mate. Even though she refuses to believe that Kristen is really dead – the body was never found – the truth is that she is not there. And that truth is claustrophobic and the author excels at showing grief and sadness. In that sense, the beginning of The Hollow is thoroughly absorbing and creepily atmospheric as the reader is able to relate to Abbey and her loss as she wanders around the small town revisiting their favourite spot – the Sleepy Hollow cemetery and Washington Irving’s grave.

Then Abbey meets Caspian and The Romance begins: Caspian is very unoriginally Gorgeous!Dark!Mysterious! They first see each other at the cemetery and later on the same day at Kristen’s house after the funeral. They talk a little and Abbey is immediately taken with the boy and they keep on meeting at the strangest places and times –mostly by chance. Abbey can’t help but to fall in love with him and struggles with guilt and to accept that she can feel happy when Kristen is gone.
It is Caspian who insists that Kristen’s disappearance and death were weird and they start to investigate until one day, Abbey finds a journal; a journal that she did not know Kristen kept and which has secrets that may lead to finding out what happened on the night she feel in the river.

The moment that Abbey started to investigate Kristen’s death came so late in the book , almost like an afterthought , so much so that I did a double take when I realised I had lost the sight of what the book was ABOUT. AND it is not until even later in the book that we learn how exactly does the legend of the headless horseman ties in with the town and Abbey (going beyond a literary connection, if you get my drift).

And that is basically my main gripe with the novel: discounting the great beginning and the great ending (more on that later), the book is oddly…hollow (pun intended) and uneven. The start, and the end show me that the author CAN write a gripping, interesting tale but for a number of pages all we get is a very detailed , pointless examination of Abbey’s daily life:

“I made my way over to the bathroom, pulled the plug on the tub, and turned on the water, wiggling the knob until it reached the temperature I liked. Then I added a heaping scoopful of bath salts and shut the door behind me as I left the room to take the necklace off”

And this bath went on for 3 pages! It may well be that what the author tried to do was to create a connection between the reader and Abbey but I think she utterly failed in her intention because it backfires. Yes, I do get to know Abbey intimately: every single thing she likes and dislikes. She is actually a great character and I like her voice and her self-deprecating sense of humour. I also admired how she was so thorough about her one passion: making perfumes and how she had a business plan for her perfume shop. She is organised, thoughtful and intelligent and it is because I know her so well by the middle of the book that I could not grasp the way she behaved with Caspian – it was as though there were two Abbeys and this is what I simply abhor in these attempts at romance (it is no surprise that the book’s marketing flier links this one to Twilight) : when the Girl loses herself when she meets the Guy. For all that Abbey is smart as evidenced by all the pages we spend with her alone, she shows little or no evidence of that trait when with Caspian, to the point where she falls in love with a guy she knows NOTHING about: where he lives , his telephone number or even his surname. She doesn’t even think about asking until it was way too late. To me, it smelled as an attempt to keep Caspian as the Mysterious Guy at the expense of the Girl’s character – it was not realistic and it did not agree with everything I knew about Abbey.

At a whopping 544 pages(!) , there is very little to show for it. I basically finished the novel knowing only a bit more than I knew when I started reading it except for a couple of major revelations near the end. I was completely frustrated by the end of The Hollow because after reading so many pages I had more questions than answers, and knew more about Abbey’s bathing preferences than about the main plot! What frustrates me even more were the glimpses of great ideas, great plotting – there is a lot of potential here and the ending, OMG the ending was freaking good- not only for the twists but for the utterly surprising direction that the author takes Abbey, THAT being realistic, sad and just about enough to bring me back to being interested in the story all over again and marginally curious about the sequel.

A most bipolar read that one was.

Notable Quotes/ Parts: I really liked Abbey’s visits to the cemetery, as creepy as it sounds.

Verdict: an uneven read with a few glimpses of brilliance. The author has potential but The Hollow is not IT yet.

Rating: to be honest, I am torn between a 4 and 5 – the ending nudges the rate towards a middle ground between Good and Bad , me thinks. So… 5. Meh.

Reading Next: Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

Title: The Strain

Author: Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

Genre: Horror, Speculative Fiction

Publisher: William Morrow (US) / Harper Collins (UK)
Publication Date: June 2009 (US & UK)
Hardcover: 416 pages

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in the planned Strain trilogy.

Why did I read this book: Well, there are a few very compelling reasons. One, it’s oscar winning freaking genius Guillermo del Toro (I have such huge love for Chronos, Hellboy, Hellboy II, and Pan’s Labyrinth). Two, it’s a new, vicious take on vampires (as opposed to the leather-clad/ridiculously sexified vamps that dominate literature and tv these days), in the tradition of ‘Salem’s Lot. Three, Ana is my sugar mama – she went to a signing in London to celebrate the release of the book with a bunch of other wonderful UK bloggers, and SHE GOT ME A PERSONALIZED, SIGNED COPY OF THE BOOK. Seriously:

So, as you can see, I had no choice but to read this book.

Summary: (from amazon.com)
The Strain

So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city–a city that includes his wife and son–before it is too late.

Review:

The Strain begins with a prologue of sorts, as a young man named Abraham listens to a bubbeh meiseh, a grandmother’s story, about the evil that lurks and waits in the darkness. This evil has overwhelmed many before, and continues throughout history, as Abraham will discover during the course of his life. Many decades later, an airplane lands at JFK in New York, but something is horribly wrong. The plane is dead. No lights, no noise from the pilots or passengers. When the CDC arrives on the scene under the leadership of Ephraim Goodweather, the find that the all the passengers on the plane save four have died, mysteriously drained of all their blood. Fearing a viral outbreak, Eph rushes to find the cause of the mysterious deaths – but what he discovers shakes him to his very core, and forces him to confront everything he’s ever known about science. As the situation in New York grows more dire following a total eclipse that eerily coincides with the airplane deaths, Eph teams up with an old man who has seen this evil before and remembers it well from his grandmother’s stories, and together with a few other determined survivors they strike out to stop the spread of the strain.

The Strain isn’t really what I was expecting – I thought this would be a horror novel, when in actuality, thematically and in writing style this is much more of a thriller novel. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – simply unexpected. In many ways, The Strain reminds me of books by Robin Cook or Richard Preston (i.e. Outbreak, The Hot Zone). I used to read these bioterrorism/CDC/USAMRIID books when I was in middle school and Ephraim’s scientific angle with the CDC dominates a lot of this story. On the other hand, balancing the scientific elements The Strain is also a tale of the supernatural, written very much in the tradition of ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. There’s a Master, there’s a moving coffin storyline, there’s a male hero with the son character, and there’s the necessary Van Helsing character. I guess what I’m getting at, is that The Strain borrows heavily from established works of fiction (even the central theme behind the trilogy, with vampirism as a pathogen or strain can find its roots in Richard Matheson’s classic tale I am Legend), cobbling together a modern, grittier take on vampires.

Unfortunately, the overall effect is sadly uneven as the story struggles to balance both thriller with horror and blend science with fiction. The Strain isn’t a bad book, but it’s firmly locked in mediocrity.

The beginning of the novel is undeniably strong – starting with a prologue of sorts in Romania and a glimpse of young Abraham (who will become our Van Helsing in New York many years later). It’s a very Guillermo del Torro-esque way to start a story – as with the story of Nuada and the Golden army in Hellboy II, the grandmother’s tale about the monster Sardu is one that sets an eerie, dark atmosphere for The Strain, haunting with the telltale sound of the monster’s cane (“pick-pick-pick“). It is in this element, the supernatural, that Mr. del Torro and Mr. Hogan excel – the old stories of evil, powerful master vampires in the trenches of WWII, the ancients that still remain on Earth, the motivations for destruction of the human race – these are the thematic and storytelling highs of the novel. In contrast, the medical thriller The X-Files-cum-Outbreak just doesn’t quite work. Ephraim’s struggles with his bureaucratic bosses may ring true, but it’s not something I want to read about for fifty pages, and the alacrity that Eph and Nora switch from concerned CDC scientists to sword-wielding slayers of anyone infected isn’t quite believable. There’s also an attempt to make vampirism a pathogen that can be defined by science, but then it’s countered by decidedly non-scientific factors that don’t make any sense if vampirism is due to a virus (vampires cannot cross moving water unassisted, mirrors only show vampires if they are backed with silver, vampires can be hurt by UV lamps but not killed by exposure to the sun). It never really quite works either way.

As I’ve mentioned above, The Strain is written in the style of a thriller. Actually, a more astute observation would be that The Strain is written in the style of a TV movie or episode of CSI. Sections end on commercial break-like cliffhangers, switching constantly from following Eph’s storyline to Setrakian’s (that is, Abraham’s), to the infected survivors from the plane, and to anyone these characters may have been in contact with. It’s a schizophrenic, sensationalist writing style that I’m not particularly fond of – but perhaps this is just a matter of personal taste. There’s no beauty to the writing, it simply is. Blood gushes, eyes look angry, etc. The action verbs and adjectives are in the right places, but The Strain is descriptive without finesse or anything to set it apart. Yes, there is an apt amount of description of dismembered body parts, but it’s hollow. There’s a lot of ’so and so was sad and tired’ instead of ’so and so rubbed a weary hand over his brow, attempting to soothe the pounding in his head’ or whatever. There’s simple telling, but no showing.

The characters are similarly bland – not badly written, but not particularly memorable or compelling. At best, they are caricatures. Archetypes. There’s the Hero – estranged from his wife, a Good Man, a doting father to his loving son, the man who means well but is married to his job of saving the world. Of course, there’s his predictable love interest Nora (who hardly gets any narrative insight other than being Ephraim’s partner at work). The other main character is of course Setrakian, the knowledgeable old man who has been fighting evil since his days as a survivor of the Holocaust. Again, the characters aren’t poorly written, but there’s nothing particularly interesting about any of them.

Also, another notable writing flaw in The Strain is a bizarre tendency to explicate the strangest little things. For example, at one point in the story, rats have invaded an apartment by vents in the walls. The narrative will suddenly break from the story and start describing characteristics of rats in apartments, i.e.

Norway rats – Rattus norvegicus, city rats – have a highly defined sense of smell and taste. Their front incisors are long and sharp, stronger than aluminum, copper, lead, and iron. Gnawing rats are responsible for one-quarter of all electric-cable breaks in the city, and the likely culprit behind the same percentage of fires of unknown origin. Their teeth are comparable in pure hardness to steel, and the alligator-like structure of their jaw allows for thousands of pounds of biting pressure They can chew through cement and even stone.

While this information is undeniably interesting, these textbook-like asides to the reader by an otherwise non-present narrator is distracting and…well, odd. It’s everywhere in the book, from descriptions of HAZMAT suits and eclipse details.

The biggest detractor, however, from The Strain would have to be in the plotting of the story. The first fifty pages or so are strongly gripping, engaging reader interest, but then for a good chunk of time (about half of the novel) the book plods along with boring exposition. The survivors go home and start to feel a little strange. Eph and Nora deal with bureaucratic BS. Setrakian works his pawn shop with a sense of impending doom. As the first book of a trilogy, it has an open ending that will be resumed in the next volume…but I’m not entirely sure this should have been made a trilogy, as there is a good chunk of nothing happening in this first book that surely could have been reduced or cut out of the novel entirely. One particular problem I had was with the whole eclipse storyline – WTF why? There’s a scary total eclipse. People irreparably damage their retinas by looking at the eclipse without protective glasses…and that’s it. There’s no real tie-in to the vampires or anything (and this eclipse takes up a good chunk of narrative time, in the ballpark of two chapters).

Now, I’ve harped on about my problems with The Strain, and I know I sound like I hated it. That’s not the case – I actually did like the book. It’s nothing new or particularly groundbreaking, and it certainly isn’t perfect. But once I slogged through two-thirds of the book, things FINALLY pick up and get interesting. By the time the strigoi-killing dream team has been assembled, humans are becoming vampire meat and silver swords fly, it’s really freaking exciting. And good. And fabulously gory. I just wish it didn’t take so long to get to that point. There are cinematic elements to these big battles at the end (Setrakian’s “My sword sings of silver!” is just as memorable and unexpectedly splendid as the priest in Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive busting into kung fu zombie slaying while yelling, “I KICK ASS FOR THE LORD!”), and I finished The Strain in a flurry of pages, bloodlust sated. I also appreciated the sense of scope in the novel – as nights continue to pass, the threat of the vampire curse spreading grows to apocalyptic proportions and there’s a revealing scene near the end within the vampire world itself. As for the vamps themselves, I really did like this new descriptive invocation of them. Stinger tentacles as opposed to the usual fangs, mutating and disjointed body parts…it’s really wicked good stuff.

Was this action enough to make up for its other shortcomings, all its flaws and lackluster writing? In my opinion…sort of. At least, it was enough to make it worth reading the sequel.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From the first chapter:

“Once upon a time,” said Abraham Setrakian’s grandmother, “there was a giant.”

Young Abraham’s eyes brightened, and immediately the cabbage borscht in the wooden bowl got tastier, or at least less garlicky. He was a pale boy, underweight and sickly. His grandmother, intent on fattening him, sat across from him while he ate his soup, entertaining him by spinning a yarn.

A bubbeh meiseh, a “grandmother’s story.” A fairy tale. A legend.

“He was the son of a Polish nobleman. And his name was Jusef Sardu. Master Sardu stood taller than any other man. Taller than any roof in the village. He had to bow deeply to enter any door. But his great height, it was a burden. A disease of birth, not a blessing. The young man suffered. His muscles lacked the strength to support his long, heavy bones. At times it was a struggle for him just to walk. He used a cane, a tall stick–taller than you–with a silver handle carved into the shape of a wolf’s head, which was the family crest.”

“Yes, Bubbeh?” said Abraham, between spoonfuls.

“This was his lot in life, and it taught him humility, which is a rare thing indeed for a nobleman to possess. He had so much compassion– for the poor, for the hardworking, for the sick. He was especially dear to the children of the village, and his great, deep pockets–the size of turnip sacks–bulged with trinkets and sweets. He had not much of a childhood himself, matching his father’s height at the age of eight, and surpassing him by a head at age nine. His frailty and his great size were a secret source of shame to his father. But Master Sardu truly was a gentle giant, and much beloved by his people. It was said of him that Master Sardu looked down on everyone, yet looked down on no one.”

She nodded at him, reminding him to take another spoonful. He chewed a boiled red beet, known as a “baby heart” because of its color, its shape, its capillary-like strings. “Yes, Bubbeh?”

You can read the first two chapters of The Strain from DreadCentral online HERE.

Additional Thoughts:

For all its writing flaws, The Strain would make a kickass movie. And there are the cinematic book trailers from two scenes in the novel below to prove it!

You can find out more about The Strain online at the very pretty book website HERE.

BUT for a look at books that The Strain channels, here’s my recommended reading list:

• The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
• Outbreak by Robin Cook
• The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
• ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
• Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons
• They Thirst by Robert McCammon
• I am Legend by Richard Matheson
• Nekroscope by Brian Lumley

Verdict: An all around bland book, but not without its highs. I certainly wasn’t impressed by this literary effort from Mr. del Toro and Mr. Hogan, but I’ll be sticking around for the sequel in hopes that the writing and plotting improves. Recommended only for genre fans (because, of course you’re going to read this book anyways).

Rating: 5 – Meh, but not without some merit (especially by the end of the book)

Reading Next: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Title: The Corinthian

Author: Georgette Heyer

Genre Romance: Regency

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publishing Date: June 1 2009
Paperback: 272 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand Alone

Summary: Walking home at dawn, quite drunk, Sir Richard Wyndham encounters heiress Penelope Creed climbing out her window. She is running away from a dreaded marriage to her fish-lipped cousin, while Sir Richard himself is contemplating a loveless marriage with a woman his friends have compared to a cold poultice. Sir Richard can’t allow her to careen about the countryside unchaperoned, even in the guise of a boy, so he pretends to be her tutor and takes her on a fine adventure. When their stagecoach overturns, they find themselves embroiled with thieves, at the center of a murder investigation, and finally, in love.

Why did I read the book: I was offered a copy by the lovely people at Sourcebooks Casablanca.

Review:

Sir Richard Wyndham, is a 29 year old Corinthian – a bon vivant – but according to his family it is about time he left this self-serving life behind and settled down with a wife. All the hopes are that he would marry a family friend. The thing about Richard is that he may be a rake but he actually believes in true love and the prospect of marrying the cold and unloving girl makes him depressed. Still, he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do but not before getting totally drunk.

On his way home after his last night of freedom, he stumbles upon a surprising scene: a young lad coming down from a window. He helps the little person and then realises the boy is a girl who is attempting to escape a fate not unlike his own. She too has a family who wishes she would marry someone she finds unsuitable. Miss Pen Creed is fleeing so that she can marry her own childhood sweetheart. Richard, even drunk as he is, realises he can’t let the 17 year old girl go traipsing around the country on her own and decides to join her and their adventure begins.

She masquerades as a boy, they take a coach to Kent and in the three ensuing days, end up involved in a robbery, a murder, a star-crossed romance between two youngsters and their own hearts get inevitably connected.

I am at a loss on how to approach this book. I understand that Georgette Heyer writes regency romances but plot- wise, this reads more like a cross-dressing- road- trip- adventure-romp. In that vein, I cannot fault the story. It is fun and entertaining and Georgette Heyer’s clever writing shines through.

Things get more complicated when we get to talk about the romance: it is obvious that Richard and Pen are meant to fall in love. But the romance is very, very subtle , so subtle one needs to be really attentive as to not miss the whole falling in love part of the romance. One moment they are having funny conversations, then Richard is looking at Pen and thinking. WHAT he is thinking, we do not know exactly but we are meant to understand that his gazing at her means he is falling in love. I don’t mind subtle romance but I can’t help but to feel there is something missing here – something more emotional , a deeper connection between the characters and therefore between the book and the reader. Maybe I am spoilt by romance novels written now where wonderful character-driven plots abound.

Plus, Pen is SO young. And it is not simply a matter of age difference as I can appreciate May-December romances. It is just a matter of behaviour. She behaves like a child for most of the book and he behaves like an uncle. It is all for propriety of course, but I can’t get over the fact that she spent the book calling him “sir” and he spent the book calling her “child” or “brat” .

The Corinthian is just so…uneven – there were parts that were immensely fun, like the repartee between the Richard and Pen or Pen’s antics and approach to life. I could keep reading those non-stop. Other parts, like the secondary mystery plotline with the murder, the stolen necklace and whatnots drove me out. Of.My.Mind. with boredom.

This is my third Georgette Heyer and it is not a bad book as the writing is good, the subtle romance is sweet, the adventure is fun. To me, it falls somewhere in between Frederica, which I really did like (perhaps because the heroine was older and much more mature) and recommend as a starter if you wish to read this author’s work and The Convenient Marriage which was a DNF for me (the heroine was so very immature) . Overall, I liked the experience of reading these classic regencies but I think it is time to acknowledge that perhaps these are really not for me and move on.

Notable Quotes/ parts: an example of the clever writing

‘That settles it,’ said Sir Richard. ‘ I will not set you a foot on your way until I have the whole story from you. It’s my belief you are a dangerous criminal.’
‘I am not!’ said the fugitive indignantly.’ Anyone with the veriest speck of sensibility would feel for my plight! I am escaping from the most odious persecution.’
‘Fortunate child!,’ said Sir Richard, taking her bundle from her.’I wish I might do the same. Let us remove from this neighbourhood. I have seldom seen a street that depressed me more. I can’t think how I came here. Do you feel that our agreeable encounter would be improved by an exchange of names, or are you travelling incognita?’

Verdict: Old-time Adventure and Romance in one. Not exactly to my liking but this is far from being a bad book. It is just not a Book For Ana.

Rating: 5 – meh

Reading Next: Surrender of a Siren by Tessa Dare

Title: Prophecy of the Sisters

Author: Michelle Zink

Genre: YA (Horror)

Publisher: Little, Brown (US)/ Atom (UK)
Publishing Date: August 1, 2009 (US) August 6, 2009 (UK)
Hardcover: 352 pages

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in a planned trilogy

Why did we read the book: We loved the cover and the blurb! Two sisters bent on life or death locked in some kind of ancient battle of biblical proportions – how could we refuse?

Summary: An ancient prophecy divides two sisters-

One good…
One evil…
Who will prevail?

Lia and Alice don’t know whom they can trust.

They just know they can’t trust each other.

Review:

First Impressions:

Ana: The opening of the book is set at a cemetery, where the three Milthorpe children, Lia, Alice and Henry are burying their last remaining parent, their father. This beginning sets the dark tone of the entire book and the setting, the descriptions, the narrative are hauntingly atmospheric and evocative and I was definitely hooked and completely freaked out. For the first half of the book, Prophecy of the Sisters totally had me….but later on, when the details of the mystery are revealed, it lost me.

Thea: Like Ana says, the beginning of a book is so very important. The opening line grabs a reader’s attention, and the opening chapter sets the mood, tone and expectations for the novel. Initially, gathered around their father’s grave at a dreary, rainy funeral. The mood is very somber, very cold and morbid in atmosphere. I listen to the main character, Lia’s thoughts. And then…holy monkeywrench, batman!

Thomas Edward Milthorpe
Beloved Father
June 23, 1846 – November 1, 1890

1890?! From the cover, the blurb, even the opening of the chapter, I was under the impression that this was a contemporary novel. 1890 completely threw me…and even after processing this information, this twist seemed to keep coming back to bite me. Not because I couldn’t get my mind around the year, but rather because the characters never felt genuine to the time period. The dialogue and character reactions in particular sat as rather incongruous with turn of the century America.

This is indicative of how I feel about Prophecy of the Sisters – there are some wonderful images and the premise is awesome…but it never quite works.

On the plot:

Ana: Lia is the narrator (warning: the story is narrated in first person, present tense. I don’t mind that, but I know some readers do) and the story stars with her shock at the loss of her father and the increasing feeling that there is something very strange happening to her and her twin sister, Alice. On the night her father dies, a strange mark appears in her wrist; her sister starts to behave suspiciously and her boyfriend James, finds a mysterious book with only one page left, in her father’s library.

The story starts to unfold and the truth surrounding their family’s fate – especially the fate of the twin sisters – is revealed. The Prophecy of the Sisters: twins sisters, generation after generation have a role to play in the protection or destruction of the world. One sister is a Gate, the other a Guardian to an alternate dimension where demons live in wait to cross over to our world. They are set against each other as one tries to thwart the other but then there is The Twist.

And the twist sort of makes the book because it adds another layer of angst and self-doubt for Lia’s character that is really interesting.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, the author went a little too far with a second twist about Lia’s character that was just too much. And then things start to go awry when light is shed on the majority of the details of the Prophecy. I almost wished I was kept guessing and ignorant because the investigating part and the discovering of the clues about the prophecy as Lia went along where really the best part of the plot. The answers themselves…not to so much. Instead of being creeped out, scared or amazed , all I could think of was:

Why? Why all this… drama? To my mind, the whole thing was a problem with a very easy solution: don’t have children. Simple as that – the whole horror behind the prophecy is this suffocating feeling that no matter what you do, your role is set for you.

Generation after generation of twin sisters whose lives ended tragically could have been easily avoided by the sisters NOT having children. Sort of like: “stop the womb, save the world”. Because no sisters, no gate, ergo no problem. Demons locked outside forever. Having said that, and to be fair, parts of the prophecy are still a mystery, it may well be that in the sequel, Lia will find out a proviso that says that there is nothing they can do to prevent procreation; but I would have preferred to learn about this in book 1, as the lack of a believable explanation as to why this prophecy keep going on and on and on prevented me from being invested in it. Which is a shame, because the premise had so much potential.

Thea: I have to echo many of Ana’s sentiments. The most glaring problem with the plot (besides the completely batty character reactions – more on that later) is that the sisters in the family NEED NOT HAVE CHILDREN! I kept waiting for Ms. Zink to at least address this peripherally in the novel, throwing out a line like “When Lia’s great-great-great Grandmother Miranda abstained from relationships with men, she was impregnated against her will,” or something. Anything. Because really – it is a simple solution to a very immense problem.

That said, I did think the premise of the novel was wonderful. Twin sisters, generation after generation, locked in an eternal struggle between Heaven and Hell…it’s scintillating stuff. The prophecy itself is fantastic and very ambiguous – I love that not all of it makes sense yet, and that there is material for the next book. Also, I loved the ‘twist’ to the story – it definitely takes a mediocre premise to a brilliant one.

The only other significant gripes I had with Prophecy of the Sister laid with some of the writing choices. As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t quite buy the dialogue or descriptions – it never quite felt like 1890; rather, it felt like a contemporary author trying to write 1890. Also, I really am not a fan of first person present tense narration. Sometimes, it can be beautiful, seamless, and works with the story: for example, Sarah Cross’s Dull Boy and Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth use this narrative technique and I didn’t bat an eyelash. However, in Prophecy…it never felt right. The narrative voice in combination with the not-quite-right period made for a jarring read.

On the Characters:

Ana: Apart from Lia and Alice (my favourite character by far, I love The Evil One), I didn’t care much for any of the others. James was a nice enough character (and boyfriend, it’s a shame that Lia thought she couldn’t count with his help) and so was Henry, the younger brother. But because of the first person narrative, it was hard to connect with any of them except Lia.

Even harder because at one point, also towards the end, it became clear that there was something off with the characters and I honestly kept asking myself : who behaves like that? Events unfolded and the reactions were all….weird. There is a major, crucial, HORRIBLE event close to the end that had me gasping and yet not a single character seemed to care enough. “SHOW some sort of reaction, people”, I wanted to scream! It was almost like being transported to Bizarro world. A lot of it did not make any sense to me: Lia’s choices (especially regarding James) and their aunt’s inability to act in any way.

Thea: What Ana said. What the heck was up with the character reactions!??!! Even before that pivotal scene near the end, these characters were empty vessels, never reacting in anything resembling a logical, human manner. I was tearing my hair out by those last few chapters – something major happens and no one does a thing except accept that it’s what happened. COME ON PEOPLE! I’m not even delving into Lia’s withholding information from James (which is incredibly annoying – it puts me in the mind of those idiot heroines in bad horror movies that hear a strange noise in a deserted corridor and go investigating).

But, that said, I did enjoy both Lia and Alice’s characters. I do wish that Alice wasn’t so blindly eeeeeevil (though she is also my favorite of the two sisters because of her evilness), or that we had seen a bit more of a connection between the sisters before the two of them are locked in mortal combat for the fate of the world…but I felt a connection with both sisters. As for the secondary characters, they were decently done as well (with the exception of Lia’s aunt, whose withholding of the prophecy for so long is pretty stupid upon reflection). James in particular is an enticing character. However, again, the problem with the characters lies with their strange, unrealistic behaviors and reactions. I can only hope this is addressed and improved on in the next book.

Final Observations, Recommendation and Ratings:

Ana: I really liked the first part of the novel, when Lia and us, the readers, were still wondering about the Prophecy. It was all very mysterious, and the writing was wonderfully atmospheric and gothic and at parts I felt like I was suffocating. Especially every time Alice showed up – I am not ashamed to say that that girl scared me. But as the story progressed, the characters behaved so bizarrely and the story took turns I did not care for and then I lost interest and it ended up being an ok read. I still want to see what happens next though.

Thea: Prophecy of the Sisters didn’t wow me, but I found it to be an all right read. I liked the solid premise, the few good creepy moments and I loved the unresolved nature of the Prophecy. I agree with Ana that the story started strong, but the problems of unrealistic time period and erratic character reactions compounded detracted from the story. I still am interested enough to read the next book in the series, despite these misgivings.

Notable Quotes/ Parts:

Ana: I loved how VISUAL this book is. Right at the start there is a wonderful scene where Lia walks down a corridor towards a room at the back of the house. I was sweating , my heart was beating like crazy, the suspense almost killed me. This is definitely one of the strengths of the writing and part of me even thinks that the story would work really well in either a graphic novel format or even a movie.

Thea: I liked the use of astral projection in this novel, and the few seance scenes. These were pretty popular, especially around the turn of the century, and Ms. Zink handles these scenes wonderfully.

Rating:

Ana: 5 Meh, take it or leave it

Thea: 5 Meh, take it or leave it

Reading Next: Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

Title: Shiver

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Fantasy

Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: August 2009
Hardcover: 400 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel (at least to my knowledge).

Why did I read this book: Although I wasn’t a huge fan of Ms. Stiefvater’s debut novel, Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception (to put it mildly), when I received an advance copy of Shiver I was eager to give the author another shot. A different setting, with different characters, and this time with a new take on werewolves…I was excited. Especially for Young Adult Appreciation Month.

Summary: (from amazon.com)
For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf–her wolf–is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human–or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

Review:

When Grace was a young girl, she was the victim of a freak wolf attack in the woods surrounding her home. She thought she was going to die, when one of the wolves, one with brilliant yellow eyes, fended the others off to protect her. Grace lived, and in the winters ever since her attack, she has always looked into the woods behind her house, always catching a glimpse of those same intense yellow eyes watching her, keeping her safe. Grace has been obsessed with the wolves ever since, always looking for her wolf. When another freak attack occurs in town, and the wolves kill a teenage boy, a hunting party is assembled to shoot the pack in the woods – and Grace is terrified for her wolf. She tries to stop the hunting party, but when she reaches her house she finds a naked, shivering teenage boy on her porch – a naked, shivering teenage boy who has been shot in the shoulder, on her porch. Grace learns that the boy, Sam, is her wolf and that he has been watching her from afar for all these years. Every year during the warm summer, Sam is his human self, but once the temperature drops, Sam turns into a wolf for the winter. And each year, Sam’s summers become shorter and shorter – soon, Sam fears he will turn into a wolf, never to be a human again. Together, Grace and Sam fight to keep him as human, no matter the cost.

So, it’s no secret that I (and Ana!) was not a fan of Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception. Most of my dislike stemmed from a simple but undeniably important keystone for a novel: the characters. I find myself in a similar situation with Shiver. The idea and the premise is fascinating – I love Ms. Stiefvater’s take on the mythos of the werewolf, with the gradual transformation from human to wolf forever in winter. I also cannot deny that Ms. Stiefvater’s descriptions are lovely, and her prose evocative.

But that in itself does not a good story make, and I found myself bored with Shiver. The characters never felt real to me, and the plot – what little of it there actually was – felt shabby and cobbled together.

Grace and Sam are in love. Like, CRAZY in love. Like, they’ll do anything to be together forever and ever and ever in love. Similar to Lament, however, I could not for a second believe that these characters had any reason to be so blindly, worshipfully devoted to each other. Just saying that these two characters are in love and then immediately skipping to all the tortured romance stuff does not make for a believable story. While reading I was constantly asking myself, WHY do these characters love each other so much? This felt much more like obsession to me – and it creeped me out.

*NOTE: I should mention that I loathe tortured love stories of the obsessed nature. Take Romeo and Juliet, for example (which I believe Shiver is supposed to mimic, at least in its tone of desperation). It doesn’t do much for me – which probably makes me anathema in girl romance land.*

Youthful obsession masquerading as love…it bothers me. A LOT. Especially in the context of Shiver (which is essentially Twilight. Replace sparkly stalker vampire with yellow eyed werewolf and it’s pretty much the same story. The subsequent plot differences are mere details). Yes, I get that Grace feels a kinship to her childhood savior wolfboy, and that Sam is obsessed with hottie Grace. They certainly are completely co-dependent and obsessed with each other – but this doesn’t strike me as romantic. Rather, it’s creepy. And completely unhealthy. Beyond their unyielding forever love for each other, Grace and Sam had no other defining characteristics that made them human or remotely believable as characters. Sam is – of course – gorgeous, and sensitive, and he writes romantically corny lyrics in his head all the time, and he writes a song for Grace, and he’s protective and charming and shy and modest, and most importantly he has no other purpose in life but to live for Grace. And Grace is…well, besides totally head over heels in love with Sam…*crickets chirping*…apparently, she knows how to cook. Her parents have fun and don’t really take care of themselves or Grace, so it’s up to quiet, everygirl Grace to make Quiche dinners and check that the fridge is stocked. That is the extent of Grace’s character. The secondary cast of characters is negligible and even less fleshed out than these two protagonists. Furthermore, Shiver is written with alternating chapters from Grace and Sam’s point of views. I found this an intriguing concept, and I appreciated the effort to see the thoughts of both characters – but at times it could be confusing to remember whose head I was in, as Grace and Sam tended to sound exactly the same.

While the characters are sketchy at best, there’s the problem of plotting. Shiver revolves around Grace and Sam’s burningly desperate need to KEEP SAM HUMAN OR ELSE! They spend a lot of time heating up the house and heating up the car, and making sure that Sam only ever spends a split second in the cold running from the house to the car or the car to the house. There’s some half cocked story about a jealous she-wolf that wants Sam all for herself, but that rapidly fizzles out into nothing. There’s a subplot about a new werewolf in town, but honestly, I could care less. Then, there’s the ridiculous ending/resolution of the book. Just…no.

SPOILER: Come on, MENINGITIS is the magic cure!??!?!?! SERIOUSLY!?!?!?!?! Meningitis. *facepalm* /SPOILER (highlight the white space between spoiler tags to read)

So, unfortunately, Shiver did not work for me. From the weak characters to the poor plot and especially the ridiculous obsessed romance that gave me goosebumps from fear as opposed to delight, I couldn’t bring myself to like this book. I didn’t hate Shiver, but I certainly don’t care for it either.

Notable Quotes/Parts: Here’s chapter 1, from the Scholastic website:

Chapter One Grace
15°F

I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves. They were licking me, biting me, worrying at my body, pressing in. Their huddled bodies blocked what little heat the sun offered. Ice glistened on their ruffs and their breath made opaque shapes that hung in the air around us. The musky smell of their coats made me think of wet dog and burning leaves, pleasant and terrifying. Their tongues melted my skin; their careless teeth ripped at my sleeves and snagged through my hair, pushed against my collarbone, the pulse at my neck.

I could have screamed, but I didn’t. I could have fought, but I didn’t. I just lay there and let it happen, watching the winter-white sky go gray above me.

One wolf prodded his nose into my hand and against my cheek, casting a shadow across my face. His yellow eyes looked into mine while the other wolves jerked me this way and that.

I held on to those eyes for as long as I could. Yellow. And, up close, flecked brilliantly with every shade of gold and hazel. I didn’t want him to look away, and he didn’t. I wanted to reach out and grab a hold of his ruff, but my hands stayed curled on my chest, my arms frozen to my body.

I couldn’t remember what it felt like to be warm.

Then he was gone, and without him, the other wolves closed in, too close, suffocating. Something seemed to flutter in my chest.

There was no sun; there was no light. I was dying. I couldn’t remember what the sky looked like.

But I didn’t die. I was lost to a sea of cold, and then I was reborn into a world of warmth.

I remember this: his yellow eyes.

I thought I’d never see them again.

You can also hear Maggie Stiefvater read the first two chapters aloud HERE.

Additional Thoughts: Although I didn’t care much for Shiver, I absolutely love the book trailer that Maggie Stiefvater created herself (from paper cutouts and composed the music too!). Gorgeous.

And here’s the official book trailer, which isn’t bad either:

Verdict: Shiver simply wasn’t for me. The characters didn’t work and I’m uncomfortable with obsession love stories. Certainly Shiver is written well enough, and will appeal to fans of Ms. Stiefvater’s earlier work & to those of the romantic Twilight persuasion – but it’s not the book for me.

For another take on Shiver, I highly encourage all readers to give Angie’s Review (of Angieville) a try.

Rating: 5 Meh, Take it or leave it

Reading Next: Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink