Review - Tuck Everlasting

Tuck Everlasting
by Natalie Babbitt
Date: 1974
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Reading level: MG
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 144
Format: e-book
Source: library

Doomed to - or blessed with - eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less a blessing than it might seem. Complications arise when Winnie is followed by a stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune...

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This book has been around longer than I have... and yet, I've only just gotten around to reading it now!  I'm surprised I didn't try it years ago, back when I was on a children's classics kick.

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

Tuck Everlasting reads like a good, old-fashioned, middle-grade novel from the days when authors didn't talk down to kids.  Even as an adult, I found there were a few words that I had to look up, and I actually like that.  Winnie may only be ten years old (not a teenager, like in the movie), but she comes across as intelligent and thoughtful... unlike other middle-grade protagonists I've read in recent years.

The plot is very simple, and the book is not that long at all.  (The edition I read was a 40th-anniversary edition, which included a foreword, an author interview, and a bunch of excerpts from some of the author's other books... which means that the actual story itself is a quick read.)  A lot of the already-small page count is taken up with absolutely lovely description that really gives a sense of time and place.

It's all a matter of taste...

My complaints with this book are few.  I was a little uncomfortable with Jesse, one of the Tuck family's immortal sons, who wanted Winnie to drink from the spring when she turned 17 so that they could run away together.  Perhaps it's just because I've read too many YA novels with hot, ancient immortals lusting after young women, but this sort of rubbed me the wrong way... even though I'm positive the author didn't have any questionable intent when she wrote Jesse the way she did.  He comes across as sweet and innocent, and there isn't actually anything sexually untoward.  So this issue is probably just my own bugaboo, a result of too many age-inappropriate relationships in the books I've read.

Let's get technical...

Aside from the author's love of -ly adjectives and a few comma splices, I thought this book was quite well written.  Some of the passages could be read over and over, just to savour the words.

The verdict...

This is an intelligent middle-grade fantasy that is suitable for all ages of readers.  Its tough questions about life and death and immortality will have you thinking long after you've finished the book.

Quotable moment:

In the end, however, it was the cows who were responsible for the wood's isolation, and the cows, through some wisdom they were not wise enough to know they possessed, were very wise indeed. If they had made their road through the wood instead of around it, then the people would have followed the road. The people would have noticed the giant ash tree at the center of the wood, and then, in time, they'd have noticed the little spring bubbling up among its roots in spite of the pebbles piled there to conceal it. And that would have been a disaster so immense that this weary old earth, owned or not to its fiery core, would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin.

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

Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Dreaming Anastasia

Dreaming Anastasia (Dreaming Anastasia #1)
by Joy Preble
Date: 2009
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 310
Format: paperback
Source: Indigo

What really happened to Anastasia Romanov?

Anastasia Romanov thought she would never feel more alone than when the gunfire started and her family began to fall around her. Surely the bullets would come for her next. But they didn't. Instead, two gnarled old hands reached for her. When she wakes up she discovers that she is in the ancient hut of the witch Baba Yaga, and that some things are worse than being dead.

In modern-day Chicago, Anne doesn't know much about Russian history. She is more concerned about getting into a good college--until the dreams start. She is somewhere else. She is someone else. And she is sharing a small room with a very old woman. The vivid dreams startle her, but not until a handsome stranger offers to explain them does she realize her life is going to change forever. She is the only one who can save Anastasia. But, Anastasia is having her own dreams…

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book, as I hadn't read many reviews of it, and I wasn't sure what the plot was about (other than the Romanov family, which is something that will catch my attention every time).

The story gets going quickly, so I thought I was in for an interesting read. Unfortunately, the momentum fizzled and died. I think that may have been because, ultimately, the plot was a little thin. The basic premise is that Anastasia Romanov didn't die back in 1918; she was rescued by Baba Yaga, a witch from Russian folklore, and has been living in her magical hut ever since. In the present, this "wicked hot" immortal guy named Ethan searches out Anne, a teenager living in Chicago, because she's the only one who can free Anastasia.

It's not bad as far as plots go, but it's pretty basic. After finishing the book, I feel like I missed a lot of the story. There could have been so much more included. Instead, we're treated to never-ending descriptions of Ethan's blue eyes. I'm not kidding. Pretty much every time Anne is narrating (the book switches between three points of view: Anne's, Ethan's, and Anastasia's), she has to mention Ethan's blue eyes. They're blue. They're very blue. They're ridiculously blue. Sometimes they're sky blue. Once, they're dark blue. They shimmer. They make Anne dizzy, they're so blue. After the first ten or so times, I wanted to shout, "His eyes are blue. We get it!" I thought for sure that his eye colour would somehow be relevant to the plot, since such a big deal was made about it. But no such luck. (I used the search feature on Amazon.com and found 32 references to blue eyes. Talk about overkill.)

The characterizations were mediocre. I thought Anne might turn out to be interesting; after all, she was given a hobby (ballet), which means she's already ahead of many other YA heroines. Unfortunately, the ballet was never really part of the plot. Ethan was promising, too, but he ultimately ended up being little more than a collection of character traits (blue eyes, shaggy brown hair, long fingers, smoker). The villains were underutilized, and I never really understood why they did what they did. Yes, the author explains it, but I didn't quite buy that explanation. Anastasia may have been the most interesting character in the whole book, but we don't get to see her in action until the end... and at that point, she becomes just as bland as the rest of them. Her letters to her family (which are interspersed throughout the rest of the text) are probably the best thing about the whole book. They helped build a character much better than the rest of the narration managed to do.

This is one of those YA romances with a supernatural, very old male lusting after a teenage girl. To the author's credit, she actually had Anne questioning this dynamic. Anne mentioned Ethan's maturity numerous times, even noting that having a relationship with him would be like dating her grandfather (or something to that effect). For some reason that's never really explained, Anne's trepidation disappears and this becomes a non-issue. I recall someone online once saying something to the effect of, "It doesn't matter how young you look... it's how many times you've been around the sun." In this case, when Anne is marveling at Ethan's ability to talk to her parents as an equal because he's just so darn mature, I would have hoped this would have given her a little more pause. Unfortunately, it seems that blue eyes win out over common sense.

The ending was disappointing, to say the least. I'm not someone who has to have a happy ending all the time. But I think an ending should have an impact. In this case, the ending was more like a lit firework that ended up being a dud. It flamed and fizzled... and ultimately went out. I was left wondering what the point of the whole story had been. The main character (which I assume was Anne) didn't really learn much. She was supposed to be the character who resolved the conflict, but, in the end, that job fell to someone else.

I did like the inclusion of the fairytale elements. I have only come across Baba Yaga once before (that I can recall) in fantasy literature that wasn't an actual folk tale. That book was Orson Scott Card's Enchantment, and Baba Yaga was used much more effectively in that story. Another thing I sort of liked in Dreaming Anastasia was the magic... but unfortunately, it reminded me of the "manifesting" stuff in Evermore. At least in this case it was considered actual magic; I just wish there had been more of it.

As for the writing... Well, I wasn't crazy about the whole style of the book. Three narrators just seemed like too many. I don't like present-tense narration, either. There were a few typos, but there were also a few mistakes that really bothered me. One was concerning genealogy. When trying to calculate the relationship between two people, there were two variations at different places in the story... resulting in either a great-great-granddaughter or a great-great-great-granddaughter. (Genealogy is a hobby of mine, so this kind of thing really irks me.) Another mistake was when Baba Yaga goes flying through the air and Anne says she's riding in a mortar. The exchange that follows makes it clear that Anne had no idea what a mortar was until Ethan explained it, even though she used the word. (This is one of the pitfalls of present-tense narration: your character is learning in real time, so slip-ups like this become more apparent.) Then there's the whole issue of whether or not Ethan will now set off metal detectors at the airport. Unless immortal bodies can dissolve bullets, he's carrying around quite a bit of metal. Is this not an issue? Or was it missed by the editor? The other mistake I noticed was in Anastasia's eye colour. On page 291, her eyes are said to be blue -- even bluer than Ethan's. But four pages later, her eyes are brown! I was pretty surprised at this mistake; surely someone who's as obsessed with eye colour as this author seems to be could keep the characters' eye colours straight.

All in all, it was an interesting diversion, but nothing I would want to read again or recommend to others. The ending was so ambiguous, that I'm left wondering if there will be a sequel. But this book didn't capture my attention enough to make me want to read any more about these characters.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Overall: 2.6 out of 5

How to Write Your Very Own Young Adult Paranormal Romance

Note: This is just for fun. I'm not doing this to attack any particular book or series. I just noticed a pattern and I thought it would be amusing to write a little bit about it.

How to Write Your Very Own Young Adult Paranormal Romance

1. Characters

Since most of your readers will be young women between the ages of 13 and 21, you'll want to have a protagonist in that age group. Make her about 18 or so; this way, the younger girls will have something to aspire to, and the older girls will have someone they can relate to. Your protagonist should either be a) beautiful, but unaware of her beauty; or b) beautiful and aware of it, but full of false modesty. In either case, your protagonist should have fairly low self-esteem. This will allow her to complain about her looks, inviting others to tell her how beautiful she really is. Your protagonist should be a normal human (as opposed to some sort of supernatural creature). If she is something other than human (or superhuman!), this must be withheld from the reader until the last couple of pages. Dropping hints is okay, but realize that your readers are probably going to figure it out long before you think they will. They're not stupid.

Now for the main character's love interest. He should be tall; this ensures that your protagonist will have to gaze up longingly into his eyes. He should have a good head of hair that can be described as "thick", "lustrous", or "flowing". These guys are never bald. Their eyes should have some noteworthy characteristic (and even if they're just plain ol' brown eyes, make sure you mention them as many times as possible). And in paranormal romance, this is the place for a supernatural creature. Whether you decide to make him a vampire, a werewolf, a shapeshifter, or an immortal, there are a few rules to keep in mind:

Paranormal creatures (especially hot, sexy ones) don't have bodily functions. They never go to the bathroom, even if they eat. Have you ever seen a werewolf have to excuse himself because his dinner of deer and/or wayward Boy Scout didn't agree with him? Of course not. This is because normal bodily functions are decidedly not sexy, so any mention of them should be avoided.

These guys always have a tragic past. Maybe they were beaten and abused as children. Maybe they lost the love of their life years (or decades... or centuries) earlier. Maybe they were turned into what they are against their will. In any case, they're now a wounded character. Milk this for all it's worth. Shows of sympathy from your protagonist (preferably involving gentle caresses where she brushes his flowing hair from his face) are a good way to do this. But remember... these guys don't want to talk about it. If you make them spill the beans too quickly, they might come across as... well, a little too girly for a leading man.

Don't worry about keeping to a particular set of creature traits, either. In today's fiction, you can get away with pretty much anything. Your vampire doesn't need to drink blood, sport fangs, and turn into a bat. One attribute is enough, and you can use the term "vampire" all you want. The same goes for werewolves, shapeshifters, immortals, fairies, selkies, mermaids, or any other paranormal creature. After all, you want to put your own spin on it, and you can't do that if you're hemmed in by conventions.

2. Plot

Whatever you do, don't come up with your own story! Stick with the tried-and-true. (There are no new ideas anyway, right?) The basic formula can be summed up in the following:

A hot new guy shows up at the local high school and seems to have eyes only for your protagonist. Your protagonist is both attracted and repelled by this mysterious teen hottie, who, of course, turns out to be some sort of supernatural creature. By the end of the story, they will be madly in love, and the girl will have been turned into one of her love interest's own kind.

The protagonist should vascillate between loving this paranormal cutie and wishing he would just go away. Don't forget, though: by the end of the book, she should have cycled back into loving him (if this hasn't happened, you need to add some more padding, some banal incident that will bring her back around).

Oh, and don't forget: all books in this genre must include a reference to Wuthering Heights. It's absolutely compulsory. The easiest way to do this (especially in young adult fiction) is to have the characters read the book in their high school English class. Then, let the dysfunctional relationship comparisons begin!

3. Writing Style

Write your book in the first person point of view (i.e., as if your main character is telling the story). You get bonus points if you write in the present tense. It just makes everything seem more immediate. With this point of view, the protagonist doesn't know any more than we do.

Make sure that your characters do strange things with their eyes. Have their eyes caress their lover's body, graze their surroundings, and bounce around the room. This adds an element of humour to the story, since such wording can be interpreted in a couple of ways. On a related note, break out your thesaurus when you're writing your speech attributions. Your characters should never "say" anything. They should murmur, whisper, screech, laugh, stammer, sigh, and shudder their words whenever possible. This helps give the reader an idea of how the character is feeling, and it cuts down on wordiness. Plus, it's fun for your reader to imagine what shuddered sentences actually sound like.

Finally, you'll want to create your own style and voice. An easy way to do this is to write incomplete sentences, repeatedly use that cool word you found in your dictionary and just had to incorporate, make up words, and use original punctuation. If you do these things, your readers will remember your book and your work will stand out.

!!!

Review - Blue Moon

Blue Moon (The Immortals #2)
by Alyson Noël
Date: 2009
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 284
Format: paperback
Source: Indigo

Just as Ever is learning everything she can about her new abilities as an immortal, initiated into the dark, seductive world by her beloved Damen, something terrible is happening to him. As Ever's powers are increasing, Damen's begin to fade after he is stricken by a mysterious illness that threatens his memory, his identity, his life.

Desperate to save him, Ever travels to the mystical dimension of Summerland, where she uncovers not only the secrets of Damen's past - the brutal, tortured history he hoped to keep hidden - but also an ancient text revealing the workings of time. With the approaching blue moon heralding her only window for travel, Ever is forced to decide between turning back the clock and saving her family from the accident that claimed them - or staying in the present and saving Damen, who grows weaker each day....

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I thought this book would never end. I really didn't enjoy it, for a number of reasons.
First of all, the similarities between this series and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series are just too conspicuous. Let's set aside for the moment that the titles of both of the second books are almost identical. But when Damen disappeared early on in the novel, I thought we were in for a repeat of New Moon. The plot did end up going in a different direction, though... until I realized that Blue Moon actually has some major plot similarities with Eclipse. And then I just wanted to throw the book out the window.

My second major issue was with the writing. I don't recall having as much of a problem with the writing in the first book (though I was not impressed with it, by any means). Here, though, the author seems to have forgotten the basic rules of grammar and composition. The sentence fragments had me wanting to scream. The author needed to join her clauses with a comma... not add a period and start a new sentence with an -ing verb. Maybe she was trying to establish a voice for the character, but for me, it didn't work. Every time I ran into this horrendous bit of writing, I'd get tripped up. And since Ever uses these fragments throughout the whole darn book, I was getting tripped up a lot. Maybe that's why it took so long for me to finish it. There was no flow. How can there be, when you're trying to figure out what the character's trying to say in every second sentence?

Another issue with the writing was more amusing than anything else. Alyson, the word you're looking for is "gaze"... not "eyes". When I see eyes grazing, raking, resting, and roaming, my mind conjures up strange images of freed eyeballs doing all kinds of things they really shouldn't be doing. How exactly do eyes rake something, anyway? That sounds painful.

My third issue was with the characters. I still can't figure out why Ever and Damen are in love. The minor characters are still stereotyped and flat. Ava is a walking contradiction (she was introduced as a sort of mentor, and then turns into a vapid, materialistic child in Summerland... and then she's forgotten about at the end of the book!). And Roman was just too melodramatic to be taken seriously. He really needed a moustache to twirl while he expounded on his plans during the climax.

I hated Evermore, but I'd read so many gushing reviews of Blue Moon that I thought I'd give it a shot. I hoped it would be better. Sadly, it was worse. I think I'll be skipping the next three books in this series; I'm not that much of a masochist.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 1/5
Writing: 0/5
Originality: 2/5

Overall: 1.4 out of 5