All These Things I've Done

All These Things I've Done
by Gabrielle Zevin
The Birthright series, book one

In 2083, chocolate and coffee are illegal, paper is hard to find, water is carefully rationed, and New York City is rife with crime and poverty. And yet, for Anya Balanchine, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the city's most notorious (and dead) crime boss, life is fairly routine. It consists of going to school, taking care of her siblings and her dying grandmother, trying to avoid falling in love with the new assistant D.A.'s son, and avoiding her loser ex-boyfriend. That is until her ex is accidently poisoned by the chocolate her family manufactures and the police think she's to blame. Suddenly, Anya finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight--at school, in the news, and most importantly, within her mafia family. (description from Amazon.com)

This book *almost* earned a gold star. I LOVED it, overall. Anya is a great character. Overwhelmed by responsibility, emotionally wrung out, and yet she plugs away, pulling through, and maneuvering her way through a dangerous world. The world! Can we talk about how believable Gabrielle Zevin has made this world? Set in 2083, this is obviously in the future, and yet other than knowing about things that have become illegal, it feels as if it could take place tomorrow. There was never a doubt in my mind that this world could become a reality.

The designation of coffee and chocolate as illegal substances has created black market trading, which in turn has created mafia-like families that deal in these substances. Anya is a Ballanchine...and the Ballanchines are Russian chocolatiers. Seeing the Ballanchine crime family's interactions with each other and the outside world was fascinating. I loved how the family was ever present in Anya's mind.

The only thing that Anya considered more in her decision making was her religion. While some could consider this book as Christian fiction (because Anya is a devout Catholic, practicing to feel closer to her deceased mother), it never feels overwhelming. Some books have a religious theme that ends up overpowering the rest of the story. Here, it is just such a strong part of Anya's character that it only adds to the amazing story.

In fact, the only thing that I thought detracted at all from the story was that Anya would occasionally address the reader. The book is framed as a recounting of her early years, written almost as a journal. The reader easily forgets this, though, as the story goes on...until Anya suddenly addresses the reader...then goes back to the story. While not a bad idea in theory, in practice, it disrupts the flow of the story and feels jarring. However, it did not bother me enough to make me love the story any less...it just meant that the book wasn't quite perfect.

I have high hopes that book two in the Birthright series will indeed earn a coveted gold star review. For now, my recommendation? Ummm...READ THIS ONE. It was great! (And if you loved Holly Black's Curseworkers books, you will LOVE this one...)

Full disclosure: Audio book received to review for AudioFile magazine, review copy received from Zeighost Media

Revolution

Revolution
by Jennifer Donnelly

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present. (description from Amazon.com)

A long time ago, I read Jennifer Donnelly's A Northern Light. It was great, one of those books that reminds me exactly why I love historical fiction, even if I never seem to want to admit it. When Revolution came into the library, I thought, oh yeah, I'll want to read that eventually and listened to patron after patron after patron come in and tell me how they absolutely loved it. It wasn't until just recently, though, that we got in the audio book and I decided, "hey I never actually read that, so guess I can listen to it instead!"

This book was an amazing pleasure! This is one of my new favorite books. I laughed. I cried. I cried. Oh yeah...I cried. This was one of those books that I would listen to on the way to work and then have to sit in the car for an extra couple of minutes to let my face become less splotchy before running in...and it was sooooo worth it. This was one of those books that had me making excuses to get back into the car.

Aside from a fantastic story with breathtaking emotional upheavals, the historical vividness was mesmerizing, and the blend of contemporary and historical settings was amazing. Donnelly is one hell of a writer. I loved learning more about the guitar and music in general. I loved the influx of scientific facts. I loved all of the familial relationships that were explored. I loved the romance. I loved it all.

This book officially earns a coveted GOLD STAR!





For those of you audio book listeners, this was also a great book to experience in audio format. The narrators were great. There was a sprinkling of guitar music and the lyrics were almost sung. It was engrossing and thoroughly engaging. Very well done.

Absolutely recommended to music lovers, history lovers, romance lovers, readers who love exploring difficult family relationships, readers who love to read about causes, and those who enjoy light time travel. Ummm, basically everyone!

Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales

Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales
by Tamora Pierce

Collected here for the first time are all of the tales from the land of Tortall, featuring both previously unknown characters as well as old friends. Filling some gaps of time and interest, these stories, some of which have been published before, will lead Tammy's fans, and new readers into one of the most intricately constructed worlds of modern fantasy. (description from Amazon.com)

Tamora Pierce is my favorite author. I love almost everything she's ever put out. She is an incredible world-builder and her characters have phenomenal depth. If you've never read anything by Ms. Pierce, this would be an excellent place to start...you could read one story, or them all!

I loved that while some of the stories relate to Tamora Pierce's larger series books, each could be read individually, and some were completely new. One of my favorites was called "Huntress," and took place in modern day New York City, seemingly realistic fiction until Artemis, the Moon Goddess makes an appearance.

Fans of Daine from the Wild Magic series will rejoice to read a story about Kitten, her little dragon friend. Aly's fans (Trickster series) will love to read the story about birthing her triplets. Several others are set in the Tortallan kingdom and surrounding lands, but feature new and interesting characters.

The best thing about these stories, though, is that they can tackle tough topics without losing the reader's interest in the fantastic. Morality, murder, discrimination, sexism, abuse...it's all there with tough, interesting characters in fascinating situations to take it on. I ended just about each story with a smile on my face (sometimes a tear in my eye...) and a warm feeling in my heart.

Well worth checking out!

Tighter

Tighter
by Adele Griffin

When 17-year-old Jamie arrives on the idyllic New England island of Little Bly to work as a summer au pair, she is stunned to learn of the horror that precedes her. Seeking the truth surrounding a young couple's tragic deaths, Jamie discovers that she herself looks shockingly like the dead girl—and that she has a disturbing ability to sense the two ghosts. Why is Jamie's connection to the couple so intense? What really happened last summer at Little Bly? As the secrets of the house wrap tighter and tighter around her, Jamie must navigate the increasingly blurred divide between the worlds of the living and the dead. (description from Amazon.com)

This was a really well written book. It did not end up being a favorite...I just didn't really like it, but man is it well done. Griffin starts this story as a thrilling ghost story, and as Jaime begins to break down, so does the writing. The story becomes disjointed as Jaime loses time and begins to have trouble distinguishing reality from the world beyond. As the reader, you also become confused... sooo well done.

As I said, though I didn't love the book it is very good. The end is surprising and interesting and heartbreaking. I would definitely recommend this book to readers who like thrillers. I would also caution more conservative readers that there is a LOT of prescription drug abuse and underage drinking.

Full disclosure: ARC received to review for SLJ

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters
by Natalie Standiford

The Sullivan sisters have a big problem. On Christmas Day their rich and imperious grandmother gathers the family and announces that she will soon die . . .and has cut the entire family out of her will. Since she is the source of almost all their income, this means they will soon be penniless.

Someone in the family has offended her deeply. If that person comes forward with a confession of her (or his) crime, submitted in writing to her lawyer by New Year's Day, she will reinstate the family in her will. Or at least consider it.

And so the confessions begin....
(description taken from Amazon.com)

I really loved the premise for this book. The idea of three sisters' stories building into a larger book was very intriguing, and though I enjoyed parts of this book, overall it just didn't do it for me.

Part of that, I think is that I'm really just not a contemporary realistic fiction reader in general. My overall preferences are fantasy/sci-fi/historical, etc. *Sigh* This book got such great reviews, I really wanted to love it.

I did enjoy parts of it very much. I loved Jane's story about blogging her family secrets to the world, and Sassy's story about thinking she'd become indestructible, but I just couldn't really connect at all to Norrie and I felt like I was really reading three individual books rather than one larger one.

Standiford did a good job layering complexities into the stories, building on each girl's experiences during the same time, but there was still a feeling of utter disconnect for me. One of my biggest problems, too, was that a secondary character named Shea was mentioned over and over and over, yet her story was never explained. I really wanted to know why she did the things she did!! *(An update - I emailed the author and she said that though she did not really envision exactly what happened to Shea, that I could imagine a happy ending for her...so I'm choosing to think that she turns her life around!)

This book was well written and I am sure that a lot of people will really enjoy it. Unfortunately, it just didn't quite capture my attention the way I'd hoped it would.

The Curse of the Wendigo

The Curse of the Wendigo
by Rick Yancey
The Monstrumologist, book two

While attempting to disprove that Homo vampiris, the vampire, could exist, Dr. Warthrop is asked by his former fiance to rescue her husband from the Wendigo, a creature that starves even as it gorges itself on human flesh, which has snatched him in the Canadian wilderness. Although Warthrop also considers the Wendigo to be fictitious, he relents and rescues her husband from death and starvation, and then sees the man transform into a Wendigo. Can the doctor and Will Henry hunt down the ultimate predator, who, like the legendary vampire, is neither living nor dead, whose hunger for human flesh is never satisfied? (description taken from Amazon.com)

I have to say that I was really pleasantly surprised by this book. When I accepted it for review I didn't realize it was the sequel to The Monstrumologist. I had really wanted to read that when it came out, but kept hearing how gruesome it was, so decided to skip it. When I then realized that I was going to listen to the sequel, I have to admit that I was really nervous that I would not be able to get all the way through it.

I was amazed, though, as I started listening, at how much I love the style that Yancey writes for this series. It is written as if he is investigating the events in Will Henry's journals to prove that they really happened. He reports whole portions of the journals and these are done in the vernacular of 1800s New England. What a wealth of vocabulary!! I love words. I pride myself on not only knowing a lot of words, but of being able to understand the meanings of many words I do not know from the context in which they are used.... Yancey not only gave me a plethora of new words, but also reminded me of words I had not used recently! I loved it.

I think that this step away from today's common language, along with a very matter-of-fact delivery in the narration of the book, allowed me to get through some parts that were very gruesome. In fact, a lot of the visceral action happened so fast that my brain couldn't really process the disgust before we were moving on.

I am not normally a horror fan, almost at all. I tend to avoid this genre, but I have to say that I was absolutely compelled to finish this book. I did not at all regret reading it, and I may even go back and read the first in the series. Very well done!

Full disclosure: Audio book sent for AudioFile review

Kiss of Life

Kiss of Life
by Daniel Waters
Generation Dead, book two

The phenomenon that’s been sweeping the country seems to be here to stay. Not only are the teenagers who have come back from their graves still here, but newlydeads are being unearthed all the time. While scientists look for answers and politicians take their stands, the undead population of Oakville have banded together in a group they’re calling the Sons of Romero, hoping to find solidarity in segregation.

Phoebe Kendall may be alive, but she feels just as lost and alone as her dead friends. Just when she reconciled herself to having feelings for a zombie -- her Homecoming date Tommy Williams -- her friend Adam is murdered taking a bullet that was meant for her. Things get even more confusing when Adam comes back from the grave. Now she has romantic interest in two dead boys; one who saved her life, and one she can't seem to live without.
(description taken from Amazon.com)

This series really blows me away. With both Generation Dead and its sequel Kiss of Life I have picked up the book just expecting an exciting zombie story. You get so much more out of Waters' books, though. There are astonishing depths that I smile to think the teen readers will pick up on and contemplate once they are done reading.

After the zombie phenomenon is set up in Generation Dead, you truly get to see the repercussions in this book. There are huge metaphors here for discrimination and segregation. Waters story made me think of Japanese interment camps in California, segregation in the historical south, and much more. These things are all layered into a story that somehow does not manage at all to lecture, even while it teaches!

Through all of this there is also the story of Phoebe and her two potential love interests. One, Tommy, she met and loved as a zombie. The other, Adam, gave his life trying to save hers and she comes to love him as a zombie. Either way, Waters deals with the way that society views "mixed" relationships, and I love how Phoebe explores her feelings, never once feeling as if she shouldn't love either boy because of their "biotic" status.

I cannot wait to see what other themes Waters explores in Passing Strange...as well as seeing what happens next! (They do have really great plots beyond the themes, I swear!! :) )

Tween Tuesday - The Goose Girl

The Goose Girl
by Shannon Hale
Books of Bayern, book one

On her way to marry a prince she has never met, Princess Anidori is betrayed by her guards and lady-in-waiting and must become a goose girl to survive until she can reveal her true identity and reclaim the crown that is rightfully hers.

*sigh* When I finished this beautifully written tale, all I could do was sigh...and then immediately plan when I could read book two, Enna Burning. Shannon Hale is a Master when it comes to fairytale based storytelling. Her books are phenomenal and The Goose Girl is the best I've read yet.

Hale took a little known Grimm tale and fleshed it out in a heartwarming and compelling way. Princess Anidori, Ani, who later becomes Isi, is a girl that immediately pulled on my heartstrings. She doesn't want the spotlight of being Crown Princess, yet when her birthright is denied her, she learns who she truly is, and finds that that is a much stronger person than she'd ever thought.

Her relationships with the people around her are real, fully imagined, and totally believable. The fact that others can see her goodness and true royalty when even she can't, brought tears to my eyes in a few places. The bad guys are truly bad and the good Prince is well worth loving.

*sigh* I LOVED IT. I can't say much more....

Generation Dead

Generation Dead
by Daniel Waters

Phoebe is just your typical goth girl with a crush. He's strong, and silent, and dead.

All over the country, a strange phenomenon is happening. Some teenagers who die aren't staying dead. They are coming back to life, but they are no longer the same - they stutter, and their reactions to everything are slower. Termed "living impaired" or "differently biotic," they are doing their best to fit into a society that doesn't want them.

Fitting in is hard enough when you don't have the look or attitude, but when almost everyone else is alive and you're not, it's close to impossible. The kids at Oakvale High don't want to take classes or eat in the cafeteria next to someone who isn't breathing. And there are no laws that exist to protect the differently biotic from the people who want them to disappear - for good.

With her pale skin and Goth wardrobe, Phoebe has never run with the popular crowd. But no one can believe it when she falls for Tommy Williams, the leader of the dead kids. Not her best friend, Margi, whose fear of the differently biotic is deeply rooted in guilt over the past. And especially not her neighbor, Adam, the star of the football team. Adam has just realized his feelings for Phoebe run much deeper than just friendship. He would do anything for her, but what if protecting Tommy is the one thing that would make her happy? (description taken from Amazon.com)

This was a really well written book. It's a cool concept. Teenagers, just in the US (and a few in Canada) coming back as zombies. I loved reading the different potential explainations for the phenomenon, especially when Tommy finally tells Phoebe why he thinks that different zombies are able to be more highly functioning. Waters is able to present this topic in a humorous way, while still exploring some deeper emotions.

In fact, racism and discrimination are HUGE topics in this book. Yet, it's done in such a way that it's touching and the reader becomes invested in the characters and so it doesn't have that overwhelming heavy feeling that can totally ruin a book with its overarching concept. Waters presents not only the evidence that zombies are being murdered because they are "unnatural," but also allows readers to see how easily "traditionally biotics" can grow to hate.

There are degrees of fear and hatred shown, from Margi's fear derived from guilt over her friend's death, to Adam and Phoebe's mild fears of the unknown, to Pete's overwhelming, unrelenting, and unreasonable hate...that leads to some atrocious plans. What really struck me about this book was that it also showed the fear and hate that builds on the receiving end of this kind of racism. Several of the zombies are afraid to interact with "trads" for fear of being hurt. There is a moment when Adam and one of the zombies, Karen, connect and he kisses her cheek - she is overcome by the fact that he did it...like she was any other girl. Honestly, that was my favorite moment in the whole book!

There were moments when I felt like this book sort of dragged for me, but each time I thought about maybe, just maybe taking a break, two pages later one of the excellently drawn characters sucked me right back in! I loved Karen, Evan, Thorny, and Adam...

There was quite a bit of foreshadowing in this book, and I like where it's leading. Then with the big twist at the end....I will definitely be reading Kiss of Life very shortly!!