the unpunctual book reviews

It's finally here! The post I've been promising you for weeks is finally here! By means of apology, I have gone to extra effort to make the formatting for this post extra fancy [I even figured out how to add stars, you guys. Stars.] and I've included a couple of "bonus books" that I read outside of the huge library batch that this post is based around. In the spirit of fairness I have also included the two books I borrowed but did not finish with a brief explanation of why I chose to stop reading them along with a small summary. For the majority of my life I couldn't force myself to stop reading a book regardless of content or whatever - I had to know how the story played out. That changed when I attempted to read The Handmaid's Tale a couple of years ago. Suffice to say the explicit nature of that book helped me draw a line in the sand that probably should have been drawn a while ago.

Anyway! Be warned: there be spoilers ahead! I'll try to keep them to a minimum but there are no promises when it comes to me talking about books so heads-up. Hopefully this lives up to whatever level of expectation you may have had for it and who knows? Maybe you'll find some new favorite reads!








Ready Player One ★★★★
by Ernest Cline


It's 2044 and the only thing that doesn't totally suck about the world Wade Watts lives in is the OASIS - the immersive virtual utopia that is the internet's "final form." At a time when the world is dying around them, most people choose to work and live in this online world. And why not? In OASIS an overweight orphan can be whoever he wants to be and maybe even find a way to improve his real life along the way. When the creator of the OASIS dies, leaving as his legacy the treasure hunt to end all treasure hunts, Wade, along with the rest of the world, sees his opportunity for fortune and fame. When he becomes the first person to solve the first cryptic clue in the five years after the hunt began, his dreams become reality but so do new nightmares. With players and corporations out for his life both in OASIS and the real world, Wade will have to decide who to trust and confront the real world he's spent so long hiding from.

I really enjoyed this book. It is equal parts Willy Wonka, the Matrix, and Tron. The treasure hunt Cline has constructed is heavily steeped in the culture of the 80s and while I'm not comprehensively versed in that decade the story was still accessible for me. If anything, the plethora of references made me want to do some research so I could more fully appreciate all of the little Easter eggs that Cline has meticulously planted. This is really a geek mecca. Whether you're coming from D&D or video games, Ready Player One has something for everyone. Action, intrigue, daring escapes, romance, cultural commentary, nostalgia, and more! The treasure hunt itself keeps you on the edge of your seat as you discover clues along with Wade, and the immersive nature of the OASIS creates a feeling of reading two stories at once as you see Wade's real-life life evolve over the course of the hunt. With fantastical imagination mixed with real-world grit, Cline has created a complex and satisfying epic adventure.

My only hang-ups on this one was the language. Now, I don't mind some language in my reading as long as I feel like it's justified by the story [The Martian, anyone? If there was ever a time to curse.]. There are many places in Ready Player One where the language makes sense but there are also several instances where it feels like Cline threw in the cursing for shock value or because "that's how kids talk these days, right?" and it pulled me out of the story. Thankfully these instances are not so frequent as to overshadow the wonderful writing and story. Four stars!

Shadows of Self ★★★★
by Brandon Sanderson

In the second installment of Sanderson's Mistborn spinoff, Wax has settled more into his rolls of Lord of House Ladrian and honorary constable. His first big case is a mystery that drags him to all corners of Elendel and has a nasty habit of dredging up parts of his past that he's pretty sure were buried. The city is experiencing its first real encounter with terrorism and it'll take the combined skill and ingenuity of Wax, Wayne, and Marasi - aided by Harmony himself - to track down this evasive criminal and thwart their destructive plan.

I thought this was a really excellent follow-up to Alloy of Law and I'm keeping my summary short because the twists and turns in this book are too good to spoil for anyone.

My Name is Not Easy ★★★★
by Debby Dahl Edwardson



This book, guys. This book. I am dead serious, if you pick only one book to read from this list please please please read this one.

Luke's real name, in his native Iñupiaq, is more than white people can say and so he is rechristened before he and his brothers arrive at Sacred Heart boarding school. Is it better to rebrand yourself than to wait for a Catholic priest to change your name for you? Hundreds of miles from their Arctic village, Luke and his brothers enter a world that is constantly trying to change them---to erase what they have always been taught to take pride in, and mold them into good, clean, Christian, American boys. The cafeteria is split into mini armies of Eskimo, Indian, and White---all outsiders in their own way. For Luke, life at Sacred Heart, where engaging in native culture and language are both severely punished, becomes a matter of survival in the face of an onslaught of oppression. In the name of survival, bonds are slowly forged across the no-man's-land between groups. Amiq, an outspoken leader headed down a path of self-destruction. Chickie, isolated for her yellow hair and freckled skin. Junior, an observant boy who's quiet recording of events spurns the other students to tell and share their own stories and shed light on the results of an education practice long kept quiet in the US.

Edwardson's book is planted in both reality and fiction. Luke's story is heavily drawn from her own husband's experiences with America's education of Eskimos as well as experiences of other native populations. The historical gut-punch behind this book brings an overwhelming gravity to the piece. Children of these populations were adopted out without parental notification, let alone consent. All efforts were made to erase native tongues and culture without any attempt to understand them. Testing was performed on students of such schools without full disclosure or real consent. Edwardson manages to capture the haunting horror that was the life of many such children within beautiful prose rich in emotion and defiance.

 

The Haven ★
by Carol Lynch Williams


Having read Williams' The Chosen One, I was eager to dig into this book but came out the other end confused and sadly disappointed. The Haven reads like a formulaic YA dystopian [I don't know about you guys, but I'm really just done with these] that was overwhelmingly reminiscent of The Island with the occasional influence from The Giver and The Hunger Games. A girl lives in a hyper-clean and -structured environment that is strictly separated from the rest of the world. She and all the other teens are Terminal, carrying a disease that mysteriously claims limbs, organs, and memory and must be secluded from the general populace for the protection and health of both. But, surprise, Girl does not forget things as she is supposed to. Girl beings to feel things and becomes entangled with Boy-who-is-also-different who is bent on rebellion in the name of truth and a cure. From the Amazon summary: "What if everything they've been told is a lie?!?!?!?!" [excessive punctuation added].

I really wanted to like this book. I genuinely enjoy this genre, when it's well-crafted, but it's become so exhausting to sort the wheat from the many many tares. A more forgiving reader might enjoy following Shiloh's journey of discovery, shock, awe, dangerous plan, daring and traumatic escape, but that reader is not me. I originally used a three-star rating scale for all of these books but I changed in to four because I felt the need to really highlight how disappointed I was with this one.

Code Name Verity ★★★★
by Elizabeth Wein



When "Verity," a British spy, is captured by the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied France she must choose between gruesome execution or exposing her mission, followed, most likely, by a gruesome execution. A self-branded coward, Verity obliges the Nazis, and the reader, with the former via an extensive and detailed account that follows timeline of her friendship with Maddie, the pilot that deposited Verity in France before crashing. Each piece of paper given to her means another day breathing and another day confessing secrets that bring Verity to face her own definitions of bravery, failure, and hope. Living in a spy's worst nightmare, can she be held accountable for what she divulges? Will her secrets be enough to secure her life? Will reliving the past ease the pain of leaving Maddie to die in that plane? What is Verity's truth, and how much is it worth?

Okay, this is another one I don't want to go in depth on too much because it blew my mind and I do not want to ruin that for any of you. Verity's record flashes back and forth between an account of her relationship with Maddie and an account of her current confinement. The two timelines create an added sense of suspense and tension to a story naturally rife with it. Wein has skillfully drawn the fear, frustration, self-loathing, apprehension, and buried forbidden hope that drive a story where the main character is largely stationary in the present. While Code Name Verity is not graphic in nature, the nature of Verity's situation is still painfully conveyed. I could not put this book down in my rush to discover if Verity would survive and to learn what had bound to friends so closely together that they would die for each other. A magnificent, edge-of-your-seat read that is not entirely for the faint of heart but will reward those who venture.

Birthmarked ★★
by Caragh M O'Brien



In a post-environmental-apocalyptic world, Gaia Stone and her parents live and work on the lake shore of Lake Michigan, which no longer exists, outside the walls of the Enclave. Following in her mother's footsteps as a midwife, Gaia knows that it is her duty to fill the Enclave's quota for infants every month. "Advancing" the infants over is sold as a blessing---they'll have a better life inside the walls than they could ever have living off the scorched land outside them---and Gaia is confused and uncomfortable when the mother of her first quota baby makes a scene. It isn't until Gaia's parents are arrested by the Enclave itself that Gaia begins to question everything she thought her parents supported, especially the quota law. When the dashing but cool captain refuses to give an explanation for her parents' disappearance and weeks go by without their release or any news, Gaia must scheme a way into the Enclave to discover what has become of them. In the process, she learns the truth about the infant quota and the desperate situation that has developed within the Enclave's gene pool. Should Gaia help them decipher her parents' forbidden records or let them all fall to the blood disorder that plagues them? And can that dashing and surprisingly sympathetic captain with a twisted, tortured past really be trusted?

Birthmarked experiences some of the same pitfalls as other common YA dystopian novels, though the premise felt fresh and interesting. Can I just say that I'm really tired of the protagonists who have been "living this way for ages and never thought to question if what they're doing or being required to do is okay or not"? Teenagers aren't stupid. You can only make a world issue so obvious before it just becomes ridiculous that it's never struck someone as being weird or wrong.

I didn't really feel like Birthmarked lived up to its potential but it was a passably enjoyable read, if the romance was predictable. It is the first in a trilogy and, having read brief synopsis of the second and third books, I have no interest in taking it any further as it seems to go completely off the rails...

One White Dolphin ★★★★
by Gill Lewis


This is another book I reviewed for the CBMR and you can read that review here. I really enjoyed this one so why don't you pop on over and check it out? Go on, the rest of these will wait.

The Returning
by Christine Hinwood



I haven't rated this book because I did not finish it. I barely got into it, in fact. There were simply some content elements that I'm not personally interested in reading [nothing graphic, at least that I got to].

As a rough synopsis: it's about the aftermath of war and how the challenges and trauma associated with it can shape a person and mold a destiny.

Chime ★★★★
by Franny Billingsley



If you click the link you'll notice that I've used a different version of the cover art here. This is because this was the art on the copy I read and I think the other design is ridiculous and doesn't fit the book at all. The end.

Guys, I love Franny Billingsley. I don't think I even knew she'd written anything aside from The Folk Keeper until I spotted this lovely sitting on the library shelf. The Folk Keeper has been in my Top Five Favorite Books From My Childhood [And All Time] since I was little. She has such a skillful way on intertwining the fantastical with the real that you might just accuse her of being a witch, which is what Briony is. No one knows Briony's secret. No one knows that she ruined her sister's mind and killed her step mother. No one suspects her and if she wants to escape a hanging she must keep her secrets close. She has sworn never to use her powers again, but when her sister falls ill with the swamp sickness, Briony is the only one who can hope to intercede on Rose's behalf. But to save Rose, Briony risks exposing herself to the town, to her emotionally absent father, and to Eldric who has been trying to convince Briony that she's a good person. She wishes she could believe him, but she knows what she's done.

Chime is a haunting story about a family long disjointed and the lies we tell each other until the truth looks like mud. Briony is a girl desperate to live and grow up but bound to an eternity of self-punishment for her past wrongs and the ever-present wrong of being what she is but not turning herself in. Billingsley manages to carry off a rare thing, a tragic YA heroine who's self-loathing isn't overly dramatic or grating. The choices Briony must make that bring her close to being found out and killed may not be directly relatable [witches and boogey men do not live alongside modern technology in our world, and yes, blogger, relatable is a word] but her struggles with accountability and identity strike very recognizable chords. What are we responsible for and how do we know?

Readers who are hungry for fairy tale and mythos transplanted into less fantastical settings will really enjoy this one.

What Came from the Stars ★★★
by Gary D Schmidt


Tommy Pepper doesn't know that the chain he found in his lunch box comes from a planet a trillion stars away. He doesn't know that the necklace was sent from the Valorim infused with their people's entire culture in a desperate bid to keep it from the dark lord that has overwhelmed them. He does not know that the dark lord seeks the chain and has sent agents to seize it. All Tommy Pepper knows is that he's begun to draw pictures of twin suns and hum beautiful music that no one recognizes. All he knows is that the arrival of the mysterious chain has coincided with his family's desperate bid to save their home from land developers in the painful wake of his mother's death and the sudden, unexplained monster attacks around his hometown of Plymouth, MA. He knows that the chain has somehow lifted the crushing confusion and grief of his loss, and returned beauty to his family's life. But there are forces willing to kill and a people already dying to retrieve the chain. Can he part with it and face the world without such brilliance again? Will he be given the choice?

What Came From the Stars is a poignant story about a young boy and his family trying to recover from loss, clinging to the past and each other even as others and the future threaten to take away what little they have left. Schmidt takes the fairtale/fantastical parallels that are often used in such narratives and makes them a part of Tommy's reality. By connecting two otherwise completely unrelated stories, he creates a tale that highlights how we can strengthened and learn to give strength to each other despite and because of our respective despair and grief. Tommy's life is enriched by the Valorim arts and language that he absorbs and without the chain the world threatens to swallow him and his broken family again, but he comes to learn that courage and strength can be found in grief and even as the tragedy of the Valorim was able to serve him, he has the power to do the same for others.

The Kingdom of Little Wounds
by Susann Cokal

Of the set of books I borrowed from the library, I saved this one for last. It was thick and the cover art as well as the dust-jacket summary promised what I thought would be a fantastical, fairy-tale-esque story. I didn't get far enough into it before I set it down to say for certain that this is not what the book turns out to be but it certainly had more of a historical-fiction feel to it than crafted-fairy-tale. The premise follows a young seamstress and a nursemaid, both employed by the royal family, as they struggle to survive the various power-struggles of a kingdom who's heirs are all stricken with a fatal disorder. Sounds interesting, right? So why did I put it down? Well, historical-fiction-feel and power-struggles equals graphic sexual content here. This may not bother some readers but want to be upfront about it for those who prefer to avoid this kind of content. I honestly wish I'd stopped reading earlier but I persevered initially in the hope that it would not be frequent and/or pervasive. That hope was ill-founded and I'm stuck with the mental images now so consider yourselves warned.

 

Beastkeeper ★★★★
by Cat Hellisen


Sarah has lived her life chasing the son, her family packing up and moving on every few months as her mother flees the cold she hates. But when her mother walks out on Sarah and her father one night, Sarah's life takes a decidedly magical and dark turn. The cold was not the only thing her parents were running from. A curse ensnares Sarah's family that dooms them all the turn to beasts if they ever love unrequitedly. Sarah must come to grips with the nightmare of her family's real-life fairy tale even as her father is overtaken by the curse, delivering her to a grandmother she's never even heard of before his transformation is complete. Between a cryptic and bitter grandmother, captive grandfather, a curious white raven, and the mysterious boy who knows how to cross through the woods of the world Sarah must piece together the cause and source of her family's curse if she is to discover how to break it. And even then, the task may be beyond her control.

This book was my selected payment for the two reviews I've done for CBMR [guys, you get to keep the ones they send you to review and then they give you another one for reviewing them, all free] and it definitely helped to fill the hole left by my disappointed anticipation of The Kingdom of Little Wounds. Not to mention, this little hard cover is the most satisfying size to carry around in your hand. I'm pretty sure my husband found me several times just sitting on the couch holding this book, not even open to read.

Hellisen, here, has crafted an eerie, haunting tale that hearkens back to classic fairy tales where the stories weren't always clean, the characters untrustworthy, and the trick to breaking a spell dirtier and more complicated than a Disney kiss. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times my breath was taken away and my mind blown by Hellisen's beautifully new and achingly perfect writing. She captures the darkness and intricacies of this tale so well that 224 pages feels like triple that by the time it's through. You wont forget this book anytime soon.

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The semester officially ended this week which means two things:

This girl got published!

And my birthday was on Sunday so I now have money for MOAR BOOKS AND the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone just arrived in the mail today, courtesy of my lovely mother. You know you're jealous.