The Peculiar

The Peculiar 
by Stefan Bachmann

Don't get yourself noticed and you won't get yourself hanged.

In the faery slums of Bath, Bartholomew Kettle and his sister Hettie live by these words. Bartholomew and Hettie are changelings—Peculiars—and neither faeries nor humans want anything to do with them.

One day a mysterious lady in a plum-colored dress comes gliding down Old Crow Alley. Bartholomew watches her through his window. Who is she? What does she want? And when Bartholomew witnesses the lady whisking away, in a whirling ring of feathers, the boy who lives across the alley—Bartholomew forgets the rules and gets himself noticed.

First he's noticed by the lady in plum herself, then by something darkly magical and mysterious, by Jack Box and the Raggedy Man, by the powerful Mr. Lickerish . . . and by Arthur Jelliby, a young man trying to slip through the world unnoticed, too, and who, against all odds, offers Bartholomew friendship and a way to belong. (description from Amazon.com) 

The world that Bachmann built here was very intriguing.  I was impressed that the author is only a *teenager!*  He managed to drop me into a world that felt very real, and very alien from our own.  As a lover of all things fairy, a fan of the steampunk sub-genre and a murder mystery fan, this book hit just about every right note for me.  Bachmann did an admirable job mashing several genres together while not overwhelming the reader.  

I distinctly enjoyed both the new world and the concept for this book.  At times, though, I felt slightly disconnected to the main characters.  While I found Bartholomew to be a character I felt great sympathy for, at times he was hard to connect to, and when the perspective would jump to Arthur, I found that to be even more true.  I was very interested in seeing how things unfolded. I wanted Bartholomew to save his sister.  I wanted Arthur to uncover his government's corruption... 

Essentially, I enjoyed this book a lot and I hope there might be another in the works... I hope in the second that I have an easier time connecting to the characters, though, too. 

Full disclosure: Purchased for my Nook 

Mini Reviews: The "I'm Just Trying to Find My Place in the World" Edition

Where I Belong

by Gillian Cross

In the hot desert of Somalia, Mahmoud is kidnapped and held for a ten thousand-dollar ransom. His older sister, Khadija, is in London, thousands of miles away; and yet Mahmoud s life is in her hands. Someone has discovered her identity, that she is Qarsoon the Hidden One the face of famous fashion designer Sandy Dexter s newest collection. Who can Khadija trust to help her? She now must appear as planned on the Fashion Week runway. Only then can she possibly earn the money to save Mahmoud s life. Also involved is Abdi, a fourteen-year-old boy coming to terms with the mysterious disappearance of his father, and Freya, the totally unfashionable daughter of Sandy Dexter, trying to find her place in her mother s world of haute couture. (description from Amazon.com)

I thought that this was an interesting way to introduce a lot of information about Somalian culture. The kids each brought a totally different viewpoint to the story and it was intriguing to read how they interacted with each other and the adults around them.  I had trouble sometimes keeping track of who was the narrator of the different chapters, though, and while this was a sometimes exciting story that was easy to read, it didn't totally enthrall me. 

Show More

Tall Story

by Candy Gourlay

Andi is short. And she has lots of wishes. She wishes she could play on the school basketball team, she wishes for her own bedroom, but most of all she wishes that her long-lost half-brother, Bernardo, could come and live in London where he belongs.

Then Andi's biggest wish comes true and she's minutes away from becoming someone's little sister. As she waits anxiously for Bernardo to arrive from the Philippines, she hopes he'll turn out to be tall and just as crazy as she is about basketball. When he finally arrives, he's tall all right. Eight feet tall, in fact—plagued by condition called Gigantism and troubled by secrets that he believes led to his phenomenal growth. (description from Amazon.com)


Show Less



I hadn't been sure I would like this story, but it was actually a very touching, almost folk-story feeling tale. I loved both Bernardo and Andi in different ways.  He was a wonderful boy, who just happened to grow 8 feet tall, and had to deal with how that affected how all the people around him viewed him.  Andi was fiesty, loyal, and incredibly impatient to be independent...and yet, she loved her brother without reservation.  With a slight touch of "magic" and a great, loving family, this turned out to be a great read!

PS - The audio version is phenomenally done. A fun one to listen to!

Full disclosure: Audio book received to review for SLJ
*2012 Debut Author Challenge title*

The Mostly True Story of Jack

by Kelly Barnhill

Enter a world where magic bubbles just below the surface. . . .
When Jack is sent to Hazelwood, Iowa, to live with his strange aunt and uncle, he expects a summer of boredom. Little does he know that the people of Hazelwood have been waiting for him for quite a long time.

When he arrives, three astonishing things happen: First, he makes friends -- not imaginary friends but actual friends. Second, he is beaten up by the town bully; the bullies at home always ignored him. Third, the richest man in town begins to plot Jack's imminent, and hopefully painful, demise. It's up to Jack to figure out why suddenly everyone cares so much about him. Back home he was practically, well, invisible. (description from Amazon.com)

This was a magical tale. It was that side of magic that turns out to be creepy.  I felt bad for Jack as he was trying to figure out who and possibly what he was...and yet, he was good and he made new, loyal friends. I liked the style of this book a lot, and will be checking out Barnhill's next book.

 



The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
by Catherynne M. Valente
Illustrated by Ana Juan

Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn’t . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. September is already making new friends, including a book-loving Wyvern and a mysterious boy named Saturday. (description from Amazon.com)

What a glorious adventure. Valente has managed to merge the feel of an old fairytale with the sarcastic realism of Lemony Snicket. September is a girl who is both immensely loving and emininetly practical. While feeling terrible about leaving her mother, she cannot pass up the adventure of a lifetime! To enter fairyland...who would say no?

While in Fairyland, September meets many interesting and unique characters. She travels to new and wondrous places. She is tasked to retreive magical objects.

While there have been many tellings of a child that enters the fairy realm, Valente makes this feel new and fresh. The characters are intriguing and unlike those I've read before. The aspects of Fairyland are amazing and unheard of in other tales. Each aspect of this story was just another layer that drew me in. One of the best things, though, was that even as I knew that September's story must end well, I appreciated some of the terrible things that she went through to come to a happy ending.

This was no Disney fairy tale.

This was real life and purely magical.

Full disclosure: Review copy received from Zieghost media and the publisher

The Replacement

The Replacement
by Brenna Yovanoff

Mackie Doyle is a replacement - a fairy child left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago, to replace the baby when it was stolen away by the fey. So though he lives in the small town of Gentry, Mackie's real home is the fey world of tunnels and black, murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. Now, because his fey blood gives him fatal allergies to iron, blood and consecrated ground, Mackie is slowly dying in the human world. Mackie would give anything just to be normal, to live quietly amongst humans, practice his bass guitar and spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably back home to the fey underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem, where he must face down the dark creatures, rescue the child, and find his rightful place - in our world, or theirs. (description taken from Amazon.com)

Oooh. I was salivating over this book for months, and months, and months...ever since I first glimpsed this awesomely creepy cover. (Not a huge fan of the new paperback cover, btw...) I was only slightly disappointed when I finally finished it.

The premise of this book is not wholly original, but the execution is almost flawless. Mackie's hometown of Gentry is a deliciously dark place full of secrets and people more than willing to keep them...

I love dark, creepy faerie stories and this one is amazing. I love the idea that the main character is actually a changeling and the obstacles that Mackie has to face as he gets older and cannot survive in the human world gave this book a clever twist. My only (and I mean only) problem with this book was that I just couldn't really connect with Mackie.

I've read tons of reviews...and almost everyone loves Mackie. He is a very interesting character. His progression from sickly "freak" to reluctant hero is believable and fun to read...but he just didn't...reach out and grab me.

Whereas...many of the other characters practically leapt off the pages at me. For one, Mackie's love interest, Tate. She is one of my new favorite heroines. This is a girl that doesn't buy the local bull...this is a girl that faces down ridicule, stands up to the mean girl, fights (literally) for what she knows is true...she will do ANYTHING to save her sister. She is in a word, awesome!

I also really loved Mackie's best friend, Roswell. His loyalty knows no bounds. He and the twins were awesome comic relief and back up when needed. Not to mention Mackie's sister...

Lastly one cannot ignore the "Old Ones." The Morrigan was unlike I'd ever seen her before and I truly adored the way that Yovanoff wrote her... Her blue girls and Janice and the others from the House of Mayhem struck that perfect balance between dark and dangerous and good. The Lady and her Cutter were the ultimate nemeses and I was creeped out in ways I can't even describe.

Other than feeling a slight disconnect from Mackie, which I actually felt was an advantage...since he's supposed to be "other" and I wouldn't want to be able to wholly relate to him...the writing was amazing...the characters were deep, twisted, and compelling...the setting was phenomenal....

This is definitely going to the top of my personal list for the dark fae/horror genre!

In My Mailbox - November 28, 2010

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme, hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren, inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie. Every week bloggers can share what they received in the mail or at the bookstore or at the library. The goal is that everyone can be exposed to more books this way!

For Review:

Oddly Enough by Bruce Coville

From the Library:

Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire by Margot Derwin

On My Nook:

Switched by Amanda Hocking