Saturday, August 29, 2015

Review - Plain Kate

Plain Kate
by Erin Bow
Date: 2010
Publisher: Scholastic
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 314
Format: e-book
Source: Kobo

A debut novel that's as sharp as a knife's point. Plain Kate lives in a world of superstitions and curses, where a song can heal a wound and a shadow can work deep magic. As the wood-carver's daughter, Kate held a carving knife before a spoon, and her wooden charms are so fine that some even call her "witch-blade" -- a dangerous nickname in a town where witches are hunted and burned in the square.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This book has been sitting in my TBR pile for years.  I finally got around to picking it up... and do I ever wish I had done it sooner!  I've been torturing myself with bad books when I could have been reading this?

Please, dear author, I want some more...

This book is such a refreshing change from most of the YA I've read recently.  The main reason is that it has no romance.  I've grown so accustomed to seeing romance in YA novels that every time a male between the ages of 15 and 30 came on the page, I would wonder if he was going to be the love interest!  But, no.  There's no romance in this book at all... but there is love.  Love is a major theme that runs throughout the story.  Love between family.  Love between friends.  Love for art.  That theme twines itself around every character and event in the story, making a complex and highly readable tale.

The interesting characters really drive this story along.  Katerina (aka Plain Kate) is plain but not ordinary.  She is unique in appearance and she's a highly skilled wood carver.  She knows she's good, but she neither brags incessantly nor annoys the reader with false modesty.  Because of her skill, the people of her town thinks she must be a witch... an impression that isn't helped when she sells her shadow to an actual witch and acquires a talking cat.  Now, about that cat...  I really love Taggle as a character.  Talking animal characters, especially when they're combined with humans (as opposed to a world where all the animals just talk to each other and it's a normal thing), are not my favourite.  They can come across as silly if they're not done right.  But Taggle is done right.  He's very obviously a cat, from his mannerisms to his turns of phrase.  He's probably my favourite character in the whole book... and since I'm not a cat person at all, that's saying something.

The Russian-like setting and incorporation of magic remind me a little of Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone... but after reading both, I feel that Plain Kate is by far the better book.  The villain is much more nuanced and complex, with understandable motivations, and I found myself not knowing whether to hate him or feel sorry for him.

It's all a matter of taste...

There's really not much I disliked about this book... except for the synopsis.  It barely tells us anything about what the book is really about.  Had I known it was such a good story with such unforgettable characters, I wouldn't have put it off for so long.  I hate to think that people might have passed this book by simply because of the less-than-engaging synopsis.

Let's get technical...

Aside from a few tiny grammatical mistakes (some of which might have been merely typos), this was a very well-written book.  I don't have many complaints.

The verdict...

I wish I had read this book back when I purchased it.  It's one of the best books I've read so far this year.  I highly recommend it!

Quotable moment:

He smiled at her. "Do you know what happens to witches, Plain Kate? Have you seen the fires?"

The sour smell from the smokehouse suddenly seemed stronger. "Over a few fish?" Plain Kate tried a laugh; it came out tight.

"Well," said Linay with a bow, "there might be more."

"Go away. Or I'll set my cat on you."

And he went away. But not very far.

Premise: 4/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Pace: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Editing: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 5/5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 ladybugs


Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Books That Would Be On My Syllabus If I Taught X 101

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is Top Ten Books That Would Be On My Syllabus If I Taught X 101.  For X, I'm going to go with Canadian-set stories.  Living next door to the U.S.A., we often get overshadowed and overlooked... and we end up reading all these stories set just across the border.  So it's awesome to find a book that's actually set in Canada.  Even better still is finding one that's set in a place you're familiar with (which, let's face it, isn't always guaranteed; Canada is a big country)!  So here are some of the awesome books with Canadian settings that I've read over the years.

Top Ten Books That Would Be On My Syllabus If I Taught Canadian-Set Stories 101:

Awake and Dreaming
by Kit Pearson

This author's books appear on this list twice.  This one in particular takes place in my part of the country (and includes ferry travel), so it was quite fun to read.  (It also incorporates some fantasy elements, unlike some of the other books on this list which are historical fiction.)

Free as a Bird
by Gina McMurchy-Barber

This book also has a local Canadian setting (in New Westminster, British Columbia), and though it takes place in the past, it's not so far in the past that it's completely unfamiliar.  Just thinking about the main character getting lost and ending up in certain parts of the city makes me shudder!

The Hidden World
by Alison Baird

I read this book before I read one of my all-time favourite YA trilogies, Willowmere Chronicles (which is by the same author).  I really enjoyed it.  Finding books set in Newfoundland that aren't historical novels seems to be a tricky thing to do... so this fantasy was a pleasant find!

Jane of Lantern Hill
by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Actually, any of L. M. Montgomery's books could be on this list.  Many are set on Prince Edward Island, which gives her books a unique setting and flavour that you don't really find anywhere else.  Jane of Lantern Hill is set in both Toronto, Ontario as well as on Prince Edward Island... so it's got a double dose of Canada!

The Lake and the Library
by S. M. Beiko

This is one of my more recent reads, and while it isn't the most well-written book of the bunch, it has a different setting (a small town in Manitoba) and it incorporates a unique fantasy element that will appeal to book lovers.

My Book of Life by Angel
by Martine Leavitt

This one is a historical verse novel about a fairly recent time.  It takes place in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver during the time when serial killer Robert Pickton was prowling the streets.  When the police swooped down on his pig farm in 2002, they found the remains of multiple missing women, many of whom were sex-trade workers.  This book is about a teenage prostitute who lived in the area where Pickton was finding his victims.  It's not a huge part of the story, but it still provides some creepy undertones and underscores the dangers that girls like Angel have to face.

The Sky is Falling
by Kit Pearson

This is actually the first of a trilogy about a sister and brother who are sent to Toronto, Canada from England during World War Two.  These are sort of coming-of-age stories, with Norah and Gavin growing up far from their parents.

That Scatterbrain Booky
by Bernice Thurman Hunter

This is the first book of another historical trilogy, also set in Toronto, but during the Great Depression years.  I read the books many years ago, but I remember the stories being charming and the characters likable.

White Fang
by Jack London

A few years back, I read a number of classics, including White Fang and The Call of the Wild by Jack London.  Both books portray the stereotypical idea of Canada as the "Great White North".  But they're still interesting, even for Canadian readers... most of whom are probably as unfamiliar with the setting of these books as non-Canadians!

Yarrow
by Charles de Lint

This book is set in Ottawa, Canada.  Not that I remember that in particular.  What I do remember is the wonderful fantasy world that de Lint created.  The author usually does a good job of combining myths and legends with our present-day world to create fascinating stories and unique characters.


What are some of your favourite stories set in your country?


Saturday, August 22, 2015

New to the TBR Pile (38)



Borrowed from the library:
A Monster Calls
by Patrick Ness
inspired by Siobhan Dowd

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.

But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...

This monster, though, is something different. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth.

Patrick Ness spins a tale from the final story idea of Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself. Darkly mischievous and painfully funny, A Monster Calls is an extraordinarily moving novel about coming to terms with loss from two of our finest writers for young adults.


What's new to your TBR pile this week?  Let me know in the comments!

Friday, August 21, 2015

Review - A Monster Calls (DNF)

A Monster Calls
by Patrick Ness
inspired by an idea by Siobhan Dowd
Date: 2011
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 224
Format: e-book
Source: library

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.

But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming....

This monster, though, is something different. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth.

Patrick Ness spins a tale from the final story idea of Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself. Darkly mischievous and painfully funny, A Monster Calls is an extraordinarily moving novel about coming to terms with loss from two of our finest writers for young adults.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I don't get it.  I just don't get it.  I don't get all the adulation, the awards, and the gushing over Ness's writing.  It's confusing at times, it's inconsistent, it tries too hard, and some of it is not even correct.

When I read More Than This, I really didn't like it.  I thought the writing was weak and the story derivative.  I also noticed that even some hard-core Ness fans didn't like that book, so I assumed it wasn't a very good representation of his work.  Taking that into account, I decided to try A Monster Calls.  After the second instance of completely impossible dialogue tagging, I'd had enough.  No matter how hard you try, you can't shrug or frown your speech!  Every time I read a mistake like that (because those are mistakes; don't try to tell me it's a "stylistic choice", unless you're trying to style yourself as an ignoramus) I can almost feel my blood pressure rise.  Yes, I'm a stickler for good grammar and proper punctuation.  Is it really too much to ask that our writers value those same things?

This book is also annoying in that we've got a British author trying to cater to American readers but only going halfway.  So we have Conor sleeping on the "settee" but leaning on the "hood" of a car.  Pick a country and stick with it; if young readers can't figure out what the "bonnet" of a car is from the context, there's always Google.

So, in the final analysis, the reasons why I didn't finish A Monster Calls are as follows:
  • incorrect dialogue tags
  • confusion about the book's setting
  • boredom
  • I want to spend my time on something I'm actually enjoying

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Review - The Time Keeper

The Time Keeper
by Mitch Albom
Date: 2012
Publisher: Hyperion
Reading level: A
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 224
Format: e-book
Source: library

In this fable, the first man on earth to count the hours becomes Father Time.

The inventor of the world's first clock is punished for trying to measure God's greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time.

He returns to our world - now dominated by the hour-counting he so innocently began - and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I thought this book sounded like a quick, interesting read with a unique premise.  While I did enjoy some of the aspects of the story, I didn't like others.  Much of my opinion about this book is subjective, though; I'm sure some people will like it for the same reasons that I disliked it.

Please, dear author, I want some more...

I can honestly say that I've never read a book that features Father Time as a character.  So that piqued my interest in the first place.  I did enjoy the fable aspect -- even though it did make the story seem a little too simplistic at times -- and I do appreciate what Albom was trying to do here.  Unfortunately, the execution of the idea in this case means that some people will love the book and others might feel a bit alienated.

It's all a matter of taste...

I suppose it's my own fault for not realizing that this is, basically, Christian fiction.  I'm not a Christian, and most of the Christian fiction I've read has left me cold.  I can't really relate to where the author is coming from, and I get a little annoyed by the implication that a certain way of thinking is the only way.  This book is especially guilty of that.  From the punishment of Dor for simply being intellectually curious to the deterministic ideas about God's plan for each life to the judgmental attitudes about suicide, the story is steeped in certain religious ideas that can be fairly off-putting to someone who doesn't share the same faith.  I was especially annoyed with the whole discussion of suicide.  One character attempts it and it's implied that they really didn't have a reason because other people have it so much worse.  This sort of judgment really bothers me because it shows a lack of empathy and compassion; just because one person in a difficult situation can handle it doesn't mean that another person in a different difficult situation can.  Then we end up minimizing the problems of others.  So that really bothered me.

The other issue I have is with the plot itself.  I don't understand why Dor was "punished" (it's apparently not a punishment to lock someone in a cave by themselves for six thousand years and let them listen to people's anguished cries; it's a "blessing").  The book says Dor sought to control time.  As far as I can tell, he only sought to measure it.  Nobody human can control time, so punishing Dor for something that he wouldn't be able to do in the first place seems like a really cruel thing to do.  Also, why was he the only one punished?  Everyone who came after measured time, and they got away with it (this part of the story was also not explained very well; Dor was exiled away from civilization, so how he somehow taught the whole rest of the world how to count the hours is beyond me).  I mean, I'm all for fantasy and fables, but they have to make sense.

Let's get technical...

The story is written in simple language, and it seems relatively polished.  (Although, I may just be saying that because I've recently read quite a few self-published books that haven't been edited very well at all.)  However, Albom does phrase things in a confusing way sometimes.  There were a few points in the book where I just didn't understand a sentence at all!

The verdict...

If you enjoy reading Christian fiction, you might get some enjoyment out of this book.  However, if you don't, you might find some of the same things as problematic as I did.  With some of the plot holes fixed, this would have been a stronger book... but I'm still not sure if I would have liked it.  Christian fiction just doesn't seem to be my thing.

Quotable moment:

There are as many expressions with "time" as there are minutes in a day.

But once, there was no word for it at all. Because no one was counting.

Then Dor began.

And everything changed.

Premise: 3/5
Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5
Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 ladybugs


Saturday, August 15, 2015

New to the TBR Pile (37)



Borrowed from the library:
The Time Keeper
by Mitch Albom

In this fable, the first man on earth to count the hours becomes Father Time.

The inventor of the world's first clock is punished for trying to measure God's greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time.

He returns to our world - now dominated by the hour-counting he so innocently began - and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so.


What's new to your TBR pile this week?  Let me know in the comments!

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Review - Freak of Nature

Freak of Nature
(IFICS #1)
by Julia Crane
Date: 2013
Publisher: Valknut Press
Reading level: NA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 284
Format: e-book
Source: Amazon.ca

Donate Body to Science. Check.

When seventeen-year-old Kaitlyn checked the box, she never suspected she’d have her life–and her body–stolen from her. She awakens one day in a secret laboratory to discover that her body is now half-robot and is forced to hide her own secret: that she still has human emotions and a human mind. If the scientists who made her find out, they’ll erase what remains of who she was.

Kaitlyn finds an unlikely ally in Lucas, a handsome, brilliant scientist who can’t get over the guilt he feels knowing she was once a vibrant, beautiful young woman. He never expected a science project to affect him the way she does. As he tries to help her rediscover her past, he finds himself falling for the brave girl struggling to find her place and acceptance between the human and computer worlds.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I have no idea how to review this book without being mean.  After slogging through nearly three hundred pages, I'm cranky and exhausted.  I feel like I wasted my time, and I feel disrespected as a reader.  This book never should have been published.  Had I paid any money for it, this review likely would have been full of swearing; as it is, I'm having a hard time trying to stay polite.

Please, dear author, I want some more...

There is absolutely nothing I like about this book.  I didn't go into it thinking I was going to hate it; the synopsis is somewhat intriguing, after all.  But the actual story only vaguely resembles what we were promised, so it was a huge disappointment.

It's all a matter of taste...

I have no idea where to start when describing what's wrong with this book.  (Maybe the title?  How is a robot a "freak of nature"?)  It has fairly high ratings on Goodreads, so some people must like it.  But if you're like me and you want decent writing that's been properly edited, three-dimensional characters, consistency, and an actual plot... well, you're going to be disappointed.  There isn't even a climax!  Well, I guess if there's no plot it's kind of hard to have a climax...

None of the characters are engaging.  They're all emotionally stunted, even though the cyborg girl is the only one who's supposed to be.  None of them are particularly realistic, and some of the dialogue is laughably bad.  The villains turn out not to be villains (at least, they're so easily dealt with that they aren't any sort of a threat).  Kaitlyn is apparently so beautiful that any man who sees her wants to rape her; she's threatened with sexual assault no less than three times during the course of the story... including the final time, when it's decided that she doesn't understand the rules of society because she tries to defend herself.  What the hell?!

We spend most of the novel believing Kaitlyn is seventeen, and she hangs around with a fourteen-year-old girl... leading to the assumption that this is a young adult novel.  But then we're hit with an actual sex scene, thrown in during the male love interest's point-of-view chapter (which seems an odd choice).  It feels out of place in the book, since the writing style is so juvenile.  It also made me really uncomfortable, since Kaitlyn comes across as so naive and childlike that it was like watching a little kid beg an adult for sex... and then have him give it to her.

The science is awful and makes no sense.  Somehow, Kaitlyn's memories are stripped away and put onto a hard drive.  How this is done is never explained.  Then we're supposed to believe that she has feelings, even though her emotions are just... off.  She can eat, but doesn't have to... and yet it's never explained how she stays alive.  What's nourishing her human cells?  What's keeping her machinery going?  We're told that her heart was replaced with an artificial one, but then her heart is mentioned multiple times in very human ways, as if the author forgot that she no longer had one.  The use of the word "sensors" drove me to distraction.  Sensors, by definition, sense... but in this book, they do all sorts of other things, too, like regulate bodily functions.  (The author has some brainwave-measuring "sensors" sending currents of electricity buzzing through the main character's head, though, so I suspect she just doesn't understand what a "sensor" is.)  There's also the question of why anyone would do what they did.  The IFICS (which is an acronym for nothing; it's simply "sci-fi" backwards, which the author seems to think is really clever) seems to have wanted an unfeeling killing machine.  So why didn't they just build a robot?  Why go to all the trouble of procuring a dead body (though she wasn't actually dead, which is a huge plot hole; how can you donate your body to science if you're just in a coma?) and removing its memories and emotions if you could just build a robot in the first place?  And why is a seventeen-year-old girl allowed to sign her life away to a top-secret organization?  (Parents played zero role in this book.  Kaitlyn could have gone back to hers, but she thinks it's kinder to let them think she's dead.  Yeah... I could not connect with this girl at all.)

And then there's the style.  It's simplistic and unsophisticated, confused (and confusing) in places, and prone to jarring jumps through time.  There are also weird info-dumps that slow the story (what story there is) to a crawl.  The whole thing with Kaitlyn loading her gun had me gritting my teeth.  (see quote below)  The author used over a hundred words to say what she could have said with four: "She loaded the gun."  I haven't been this annoyed by info-dumping since Jenny Davidson's perseverating ramblings about dynamite in The Explosionist.

Let's get technical...

I am absolutely appalled at the writing and editing in this book.  For most of the time I was reading it, I thought that the author had just published a first draft... without beta readers, without editors, without even reading it over herself after jotting it down.  I suspected that I would spend more time reading the book than was put into writing it.  But in the acknowledgments, she thanks beta readers and an editing service!  Really?  As a reader, I find such shoddy work insulting; if you want people to spend time reading your book, you should at least spend some time making sure it's the best it can be.  There are grammar errors and more punctuation mistakes than I can count.  Verb tenses are all over the place.  The characters' names aren't consistent.  The text obviously wasn't even run through a spell-checking program; there are outright spelling mistakes that nobody caught.  I'm tempted to call BS on the claim that this book was seen by anyone other than the author before it was published, but I don't know for sure.  Just be forewarned.

The verdict...

My Kindle edition is a mass of highlighted passages and notes... and none of them are for anything good.  I basically did what Crane's editor should have done in the first place, and corrected the text as I went.  Readers shouldn't have to do that.  My advice to Crane: slow down, take your time, and make sure your books are edited properly before you put them out there and ask for money.

Quotable moment:

Automatically, Kaitlyn removed her pistol from its holster and locked the slide to the rear. She quickly checked the chamber to ensure it was empty, then removed a full magazine from the carrier on her left hip, inserting it into the pistol, the motion so smooth and practiced it felt natural. With a flick of her thumb, the slide slammed forward, loading a round into the chamber of the pistol. She then conducted a 'press check,' reaching underneath the pistol, pinching the slide, and moving it to the rear just enough to see that a round was actually in the chamber. Seeing the brass, she released the slide and holstered her weapon.

Premise: 1/5
Plot: 0/5
Characters: 0/5
Pace: 0/5
Writing: 0/5
Editing: 0/5
Originality: 0/5
Enjoyment: 0/5

Overall Rating: 0.13 out of 5 ladybugs


Saturday, August 8, 2015

New to the TBR Pile (36)



Freebie from Amazon.ca:
A Horse Called September
by Anne Digby

The moving story of a passionate friendship between two girls growing up together on an isolated Devon farm in the 1970s, the break-up of that friendship -- and the horse that changed their lives forever.

Bought from Amazon.ca:
Awaken (Awaken #1)
by Katie Kacvinsky

Maddie lives in a world where everything is done on the computer. Whether it’s to go to school or on a date, people don’t venture out of their home. There’s really no need. For the most part, Maddie’s okay with the solitary, digital life—until she meets Justin. Justin likes being with people. He enjoys the physical closeness of face-to-face interactions. People aren’t meant to be alone, he tells her.

Suddenly, Maddie feels something awakening inside her—a feeling that maybe there is a different, better way to live. But with society and her parents telling her otherwise, Maddie is going to have to learn to stand up for herself if she wants to change the path her life is taking.

In this not-so-brave new world, two young people struggle to carve out their own space.

We All Looked Up
by Tommy Wallach

Before the asteroid we let ourselves be defined by labels: The athlete, the outcast, the slacker, the overachiever.

But then we all looked up and everything changed.

They said it would be here in two months. That gave us two months to leave our labels behind. Two months to become something bigger than what we'd been, something that would last even after the end.

Two months to really live.

Wonder Show
by Hannah Barnaby

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step inside Mosco’s Traveling Wonder Show, a menagerie of human curiosities and misfits guaranteed to astound and amaze! But perhaps the strangest act of Mosco’s display is Portia Remini, a normal among the freaks, on the run from McGreavy’s Home for Wayward Girls, where Mister watches and waits. He said he would always find Portia, that she could never leave. Free at last, Portia begins a new life on the bally, seeking answers about her father’s disappearance. Will she find him before Mister finds her? It’s a story for the ages, and like everyone who enters the Wonder Show, Portia will never be the same.


What's new to your TBR pile this week?  Let me know in the comments!

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Fairytale Retellings I've Read

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is Top Ten Fairytale Retellings I've Read.  I chose to participate in a fairytale retelling challenge this year, so I got to read more of this type of book than I otherwise might have.  Still, most of the books on this list are older favourites that I read years ago.

Top Ten Fairytale Retellings I've Read:

Beastkeeper
by Cat Hellisen
inspired by "Beauty and the Beast"

This is a bit of a different take on the old story, with a young girl as the main character and a family that's plagued by a multi-generational curse.

Beastly
by Alex Flinn
inspired by "Beauty and the Beast"

While this isn't necessarily the best "Beauty and the Beast" retelling I've ever read, it's one of the more unique ones since it's told from the beast's point of view.  The modern-day setting also makes it a bit different from some of the other books in this category.

Beauty
by Robin McKinley
inspired by "Beauty and the Beast"

I read this book years ago, and it remained one of my favourite retellings of this story for a long time.  It's a fairly standard retelling, set in an old-fashioned fantasy world and populated by magical characters.

The Book of Lost Things
by John Connolly
inspired by various fairytales

While this book does incorporate many beloved stories, it is definitely not for children!  It's dark and scary and pretty gory in places.  It could also be argued that, in addition to drawing from old fairytales, this book also uses a plot device that makes it similar to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Cruel Beauty
by Rosamund Hodge
inspired by "Beauty and the Beast" and various Greek myths

When I sat down to read this book, I wasn't expecting to find so many Greco-Roman influences!  But I really enjoyed that aspect of the story; it helped to flesh out the unique setting and make it even more interesting.

Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
inspired by "Cinderella"

If you've only ever seen the movie, you don't know what you're missing!  Pretty much the only similarities between the book and the movie are the characters' names and the nature of Ella's curse.  I enjoy both the book and the movie; they're so different, they can't really be compared.

Fire and Hemlock
by Diana Wynne Jones
inspired by "Tam Lin" and "Thomas the Rhymer"

This is one of my all-time favourite novels, and it probably incorporates the most obscure fairytales (on this list, anyway).  I like many of Diana Wynne Jones's novels, but this one will always hold a special place in my heart.

A Tale of Two Castles
by Gail Carson Levine
inspired by "Puss in Boots"

To be honest, I don't really know where the whole "Puss in Boots" thing comes from.  But this is a good story in any case, full of fun and fantasy.  This author really knows how to make fairytales new and interesting for young readers.

Tiger Moon
by Antonia Michaelis
inspired by "Scheherazade"

While this one is not a straight retelling of "Scheherazade", it does have some similarities, particularly with the framing device used for the story.  This book might be my favourite young adult novel ever!

The Wide-Awake Princess
by E. D. Baker
inspired by various fairytales

There are a few books out there that incorporate multiple fairytales, but this is one of the better ones I've read.  The author manages to seamlessly combine tales such as "Sleeping Beauty", "The Princess and the Pea", "Beauty and the Beast", and "The Frog Prince" to create a fun story with likeable and relatable characters.


What are some of your favourite fairytale retellings?


Saturday, August 1, 2015

Review - Eye Sore

Eye Sore
by Melanie Jackson
Date: 2015
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Reading level: MG
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 144
Format: e-book
Source: library

The last thing Chaz wants is to spend his summer working on his father’s Eye, a Ferris wheel with glass-bottomed gondolas set up to view scenic North Vancouver. For one thing, Chaz would prefer to pursue his own passion: dance in the style of the late, great Gene Kelly. More important, Chaz suffers from vertigo, and even the thought of the Eye makes him want to lose his lunch. But when a crowd of angry protestors and a mysterious vandal threaten his father’s dream, and the family’s livelihood, Chaz is forced to overcome his own fears to help out.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Drawn in by the cute cover, small page count, and local setting, I thought I'd give this book a try.  I've read some pretty good middle-grade contemporaries in the past, and I hoped this would be another one.  It wasn't.

Please, dear author, I want some more...

I've only read a handful of books that are set in the Lower Mainland (an area of southwestern British Columbia that encompasses Vancouver and the various cities that surround it).  It's always fun to read about familiar settings. It would have been even more fun if this particular North Vancouver was one I actually recognized.

It's all a matter of taste...

The main problem with this book is that it's aimed at middle graders... but it actually reads like it's for much younger kids.  All the characters are silly cardboard cutouts.  I couldn't care about any of them.  I didn't care that Chaz's father thought Chaz's dreams of becoming a dancer made him a loser... because we were only told this, not shown it.  The villains were especially ridiculous.  One had the last name of Bilk; guess what he did in the story?  (I mean, I like it when character names match the characters, but this was just a little too obvious.)  Another villain gives a huge infodump near the end that makes him sound like one of the bad guys from Scooby-Doo.  And everything is so simplified, to the point that it's a bit insulting.  I guess we're all so stupid here that we won't even press charges against someone who physically assaults us, just because the attacker basically throws up his hands and says, "You can't prove a thing!"  Oh, well.  That makes it okay, then.

Chaz himself comes across as really young.  Not too young to fall in instalove with a girl (I think they were holding hands on their second or third meeting, after barely any interaction) but young enough to dance his way through his problems (literally) while saying stuff like, "Pow-ditty-pow-pow!"  Also, he didn't really have vertigo.  For most of the book, the way his problem is presented makes it sound more like simple motion sickness combined with a fear of heights... not the uncontrollable spinning sensation that's a hallmark of vertigo.  When he finally does seem to experience real vertigo, it's overshadowed by yet another stupid plot point: he actually opens one of the gondola cars from the inside to shout at someone on the ground; apparently, there are no safety features on those things... so it won't be long until Chaz's father is sued by the parents of some brat who opens the door and plummets to his death.  And then, magically, the vertigo is gone... presumably because Chaz faced his fear.  That's just insulting to anyone who suffers from actual disorders of the inner ear who can't just make it all go away with a little courage.

A few attempts were made to inject some elements of mystery into the story, but these ended up being silly as well.  The whole thing with the "screams" coming from the Bilks' house?  Yeah... I'm not buying it.  Neither did I believe that the "bird-watcher" was anything other than a villain, from the moment he stepped on the page.  It was all so obvious.

Let's get technical...

Goodreads states that the author lives in California.  As I was reading the book, I was thinking, "No kidding!"  There seemed to be so many inaccuracies.  First of all, everybody is white.  There's no racial diversity in this book at all... and if you've ever been to this area, you'd know that's a problem.  (Whites are actually the minority now -- 46% in 2011 -- but this book doesn't reflect that.)  You wouldn't be able to look down on ski hills from the base of Grouse Mountain, even from the top of a Ferris wheel.  The villagers wouldn't be up in arms after one negative editorial in a local newspaper, especially if Chaz's father had gone through all the community consultations and legal paperwork for the Eye, as he claimed he had.  The book also gives the impression that the area is more like a small town where everyone knows each other's business than a small part of a very busy and crowded urban sprawl.  (Business is decimated because of one article in a North Vancouver paper?  One that people in the other nearby cities wouldn't even read?  Yeah, right.)  And the comment about the property values not going up, but in fact "softening", just had me rolling my eyes.  Skyrocketing property values is a huge issue in this area; you'd be hard-pressed to find a local who doesn't know that it's getting harder and harder to afford to live here, mainly because most of your income ends up going to housing.  I assumed that all of these inaccuracies were just the result of a non-local author who hadn't done her research.  But then, in the back of the book itself, it's stated that Jackson lives in Vancouver!  That just makes all of these problems worse, because if she lives here, she should know better.

The verdict...

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.  While younger readers might not notice the condescending and juvenile tone to the writing, the inaccurate portrayal of the setting is problematic and not a very good representation of the Lower Mainland.

Quotable moment:

"Go on," I said. "I'll close up. Nobody's going to come in this weather. And I have to find Dad. It's..."

It's life or death, I almost said. But that was too corny. Or was it? The Eye was Dad's dream. And dreams were what you lived for.

Premise: 2/5
Plot: 1/5
Characters: 0/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing: 1/5
Editing: 2/5
Originality: 2/5
Enjoyment: 0/5

Overall Rating: 1.38 out of 5 ladybugs


New to the TBR Pile (35)



Borrowed from the library:
Eye Sore
by Melanie Jackson

The last thing Chaz wants is to spend his summer working on his father’s Eye, a Ferris wheel with glass-bottomed gondolas set up to view scenic North Vancouver. For one thing, Chaz would prefer to pursue his own passion: dance in the style of the late, great Gene Kelly. More important, Chaz suffers from vertigo, and even the thought of the Eye makes him want to lose his lunch. But when a crowd of angry protestors and a mysterious vandal threaten his father’s dream, and the family’s livelihood, Chaz is forced to overcome his own fears to help out.

Bought from Amazon.ca:
Vicious (Vicious #1)
by V. E. Schwab

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?


What's new to your TBR pile this week?  Let me know in the comments!