Book Review: Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George

*This review contains some spoilers*

Turn-of-the-century Romania, dark family history, dashing gentleman, oh my! Society darlings Dacia Vreeholt and Louisa Neulander suddenly find themselves whisked away from New York City to Romania, promptly upon turning 17. The pair of cousins have been given no information about their lengthy trip besides the tight-lipped silence from Aunt Kate, their cold chaperone. Shrouded in mystery, the girls can't help but conjure up ideas of dashing, dark-lashed gentleman, European balls, and romantic carriage rides through the gorgeous streets of Bucharest. However, when their arrival is less than welcoming, Dacia and Louisa fear that their happy futures have all but disappeared. Their grandmother, Lady Ioana, informs them of a nefarious plot that involves treason against the crown, murder, and forced marriages. Without being given a choice in the matter, the cousins are swept into their families plan, all while discovering the dark, terrifying legacy that their ancestors have dropped into their laps. It's clear that monsters don't just live in fairy tales.

Dacia, usually strong and rebellious, grows terrified and sullen after learning her new destiny. While LouLou, normally reserved and soft-spoken, seems to find a new strength in her hidden gift. LouLou decides to use her family's plan against them to save the Romanian crown. Alongside two dashing gentlemen, both girls are led down a journey of self-discovery in order to gain control of their own destinies.

Book Review: Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Some books require a reader that will truly listen to the words on the page, instead of a reader that breezes through because they want to good story. Some require a closer reader, willing to look between the lines and pages for clues and revelations. This is one of those books.

Bone Gap is a multifaceted tale of love, survival, and identity. Told from several different perspectives, the story follows Finn O'Sullivan and his quest to discover what happened to the beautiful, mysterious Roza, who was kidnapped right before his eyes. The problem is that he cannot recall the kidnapper's face. However, he distinctly remembers how the attacker moved, the tone of his voice, and how he seemed to emanate a controlling power that paralyzed everything around them.

Finn looks to the people of Bone Gap for clues. Someone has to know the identity of the man who took Roza. Maybe they had information about Roza that he didn't understand. But as Finn looks to Bone Gap for evidence, he realizes that he is not the only one who can't see people clearly. Everyone has a theory; everyone takes things for face value, even though they are way off. The closer that Finn gets to discovering they mystery surrounding him, the town begins to change and show its gaps- people who don't quite make sense, hazy memories left unexplained, and corn that supposedly speaks to you. He realizes that these gaps hold the key to finding Roza and restoring the joy that she brought to their lives.

***

One of the reasons why Bone Gap was so striking to me was the way that the mythical and the contemporary are pieced together so seamlessly. The novel reads like realistic fiction until a few chapters in, when you begin to see allusions to mythology and the Underworld. Magical-realism can be a distraction, but I found that it enhanced the mystery and suspense of the overall plot. Additionally, Bone Gap is told from multiple perspectives and reveals how each character has a completely different view of the world around them.

Even though Finn is determined to find Roza, he has his own personal issues to confront; his brother has barely said a word to him since Roza's disappearance, and worse yet, the boys' mother left them when they were younger to pursue a life outside of family duty. Sean and Finn have plenty of experience with abandonment. Finn grows closer to Priscilla "Petey" Willis, the daughter of a beekeeper who prefers to keep company with bees instead of her peers. Petey and Finn develop an unlikely relationship due to their common "weirdness" and soon start meeting at night around a campfire while they eat s'mores and talk about their mutual oddities. I found their relationship to be the most compelling in the novel. Both Finn and Petey have their own demons to confront, but oddly enough, they help the other find their way through and resolve their conflicts.

The most compelling aspect of Laura Ruby's novel was how she portrayed her female characters. Unfortunately, so many YA authors get this wrong (unfortunate because so many YA authors are also female). I am failing to recall an instance where female characters were portrayed so genuinely before I read Bone Gap. These women struggle, face insecurities, and encounter trials, yet they understand their value are not going to be controlled. They discover themselves throughout the novel and remain determined to reinforce their worth to those around them. Ruby's theme centers around identity and how the "face" that we show the world is not the sum of who we are. Roza seemed to be utterly defined by her beauty by the man who kidnapped her and even by the people of Bone Gap; Roza's freedom is ripped from her hands because of a man wanting to possess her and her beauty. She refused to be seen as nothing more than an alluring "creature" and was determined to fight to rectify their views (literally!). She is desperate for someone to really see who she is, and not what her outward features imply. As we glimpse her past, we see her encounter abusive men who restrict her freedom and silence her voice. Her babcia (Grandma) admonishes her to search for those who will listen to her and truly see her. This, to me, reinforced the importance of women encouraging other women to tap into their strength and power as human beings. Roza understands her worth because her grandma consistently reinforced her equality. Despite the fact that she sometimes finds herself in situations where she is being controlled by a man, Roza never settles and finds an ally in Finn. He helps pull her out of this controlling landscape.

Bone Gap is a character-driven story that centers around the mystery of life and love; by turning things inside-out, we can sometimes see them more clearly. Through Finn's perspective, we see that identity is not derived from how people perceive us, but rather from something much deeper- our influence on the world around us and our capacity for self-understanding.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby is published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins. Review copy provided by the publisher. Release date: March 3rd, 2015. 

Book Review: Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre

I was supposed to die at 5:57 a.m.

Sometimes, things don't always go according to plan. At least, not for Edie Kramer, a suicidal teenage who has been pushed far past the breaking point by her peers.

At Blackbriar Academy... it wasn't ok to be ugly, weird, or different. I was all of the above. And not in the movie way, either, where the geek girl took down her hair and swapped her horn rims for contacts, then suddenly, she was a hottie. 

I will admit that this book caught my attention because I was initially able to identify with Edie. I was bullied and had a rough couple of years in middle school. I never struggled with suicidal thoughts, but I would have given anything to be accepted by those who deemed me unacceptable. I was dorky times a million, not pretty by any stretch of the imagination, and very insecure. In other words, I made a perfect target for those who had a more assertive, domineering personality than me.

I used to tell myself I could survive it- I quoted Nietzsche in my head and pretended I was a fearless heroine. Except I would quote Austen instead of Nietzsche.

Edie cannot take it anymore. She has planned her death and every contingency that could possibly occur. She's about to fling herself over the edge of a bridge, but a hand reaches out to stop her. It's not a concerned pedestrian, nor is it a friend or family member. Instead, looking back at her is a boy with a perfect, beautiful face. Kian Riley. In short, he offers her a chance to change everything- her looks, her future, and live with the power she never had. In exchange for three favors, Kian only requests that she also give three favors to the company that he works for. He informs her that her future is too important to the advancement of mankind, and offers to make her commitment worth her time. She agrees to do so.

Her first "wish" is to be beautiful. In order to pull this off, she must go away for a few months, so Kian pulls some strings and gets her into a summer science program that would require her to be away for the whole summer. There, he (literally) sculpts and molds her body and face, transforming her from overweight and mousy, giving her a perfect hourglass body, supermodel face, and flowing locks. (Yet somehow, he "embellished" off of what she already had so that people would still be able to tell it was her...). She learns how to be confident and make friends at the summer program, and returns to school at the end of the summer with a plan to exact her revenge. Meanwhile, she and Kian are falling deeply, madly, passionately in love with each other. It seems his creation is far too perfect, and he can't help but want to be with her.

Yet, as time passes, she realizes that the company that she owes favors to is far more dangerous than she ever imagined. She finds her control slipping slowly away as Kian informs her that there is yet another company that is trying to vie for her "potential." Edie must choose what is more important to her- exacting revenge but being a slave to a monster, or taking control of your own life without the promise of success or perfection. 

***

Right from the bat, I had a major problem with the entire premise of this book. An "ugly" brainiac gets a second chance at life- but only once she becomes perfectly beautiful...? Seriously? Is this what we are encouraging today's teens to believe? I kept hoping that the author would pull something substantive out of her hat, but it just never happened. 

 

Ann Aguirre had some serious potential here. I would have liked to see her expound on the ideas of not giving up, not ending your life, and not allowing the bullies to steal your power as a human being. As someone who can relate to the feeling of hopelessness at the hands of bullies, I was hoping for a powerful come-back story. Sadly, the book focuses on superficial beauty and a super-hot love interest as it's main storyline and solution to Edie's problem. Completely disappointing.

Additionally, I was bothered by Edie's very real hate for the people who bullied her:
"'I wish I didn't have it in me. But I look at Brittany . . . and I think, what would it take to break you? Would I have to mess up her face?' I couldn't believe I was saying that, because it was so ugly, and it made me sick, that I could still be this full of hate. I knew for the sake of my own mental health, I had to let it go. 
But I couldn't. Not yet."

She let them have power over her in such a deep way. She feels as though she has the upper hand due to her overwhelming beauty, but she's become ugly on the inside. Kian seemed to make her believe that he could make her beautiful on the outside AND take revenge on her bullies, but she just becomes another pawn in someone else's game. But I guess it's ok if you suddenly become beautiful...

Yet, as she starts to see her nemeses fall and experience the pain that she had, she realizes it's not that satisfying. Shocker! Not.

Also, the romance in this novel is worse than Twilight... From the crazy instalove with a stalker stranger, to realizing that she has zero reason to trust him (he watched her get bullied and did nothing to stop it), Edie conveniently lets all of that go because he has a beautiful face and plunges head first into decision-altering "love." 

 

"My fingers itched to touch the copper streaks in his hair, and despite my misgivings about his trustworthiness and his story, I wanted to hug him and then kiss the crap out of him." WHAT?

Literally, the rest of the book is her deciding whether or not she should trust Kian and moving closer towards the realization that her perfect beauty has cost her more than she bargained for.

All in all, it's just a bad mess of trust issues, a plot that lacks substance or reality, and a bunch of bad decisions made just to be beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen a character so obsessed with their external beauty since The Phantom of the Opera...

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars. 
  
Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre is published by Feiwel & Friends- and imprint of Macmillan. Review copy provided by the publisher. Release date:August 5th  2014. 

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

If you have been following the #IreadYA hashtag that has been trending on Twitter these past few days, you might have noticed many people tweeting about the shift in YA literature; many agreed that it has gone from from not-so-serious literature to hard-hitting, honest stuff that anyone can appreciate. I have been tweeting in agreement, because I, too, have noticed this shift. When I was a teen, I almost never read YA lit. I admit that I was hindered by the stigma that surrounded YA books. I had no interest in reading about vampires falling in love and zombies wreaking havoc on unsuspecting individuals. It just wasn't my thing.

Then I started working in libraries again, specifically with teens. My job required me to be familiar with teen/YA literature in its many shapes and forms. I am happy to announce that my perceptions were immediately changed and I realized that I had been missing out on some amazing reading!

Flash forward a year and I am a massive advocate for YA lit. It's within this area of literature that I have read some of the most moving, emotionally honest material I've ever laid eyes on. I have often heard friends slam YA fiction as sub-par or lacking in quality. I could not disagree more with these naysayers. Sure, YA fiction is just like anything else; it has its highs and lows, its successes and its failures. Yet, the more I read and discover YA fiction, the more enthusiastic I become about working with teens and teen literature. I feel as though I stepped into a world that expanding and growing at a rapid pace, and I love sharing the gems that I find whilst reading YA fiction. The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson is one such book.

A few weeks ago, my coworker engaged me in a conversation about this "new, amazing book" that she had just finished.
Her: So this book was awesome. I need you to read this book so that we can talk about it!
Me: What's it called? 
Her: The Kiss of Deception.
Me: *Pauses* Nah, I'm good. *shrugs and walks away*

I will be honest with you, I had no interest in reading about a deceptive kiss, a princess, yada yada yada. I had "romance novel!" shouting in my head. Again, not my thing.

A few days later, I've got the ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) in my hand and CANNOT put it down. The Kiss of Deception starts with a beautiful, cryptic tale that tells of destruction, misery, and a time that once was but is no more. Then, suddenly we're thrown into a disturbing scene in the land of Morrighan, where a young teen, Lia, is being "prepared" (literally) for her arranged wedding to the Prince of Dalbreck, a man that she's never met. According to her country's customs, princesses (or First Daughters) must undergo a "kavah" before their wedding ceremony; think a beautiful, Henna-like tattoo that is "drawn" on with very sharp knives. The priests who administer the kavah draw the coat of arms, wedding vows, and scrawling, beautiful artwork on her entire back with utter precision. Lia, meanwhile, is undergoing serious mental duress. As a First Daughter, Lia's marriage is supposed to bring about peace and strengthen the two nations against their mutual enemy. She knows in her very soul that she cannot go through with it and runs away at the last moment with her maidservant and friend, Pauline. The two flee to the neighboring country of Terravin and finds work in a tavern, where she believes she can live the rest of her life in secret and have the freedom that she's been longing for.

Lia's plan does not exactly pan out the way she had hoped. Her secrecy is disrupted when two men, Rafe and Kaden, show up at the tavern and their mysterious aura captures her attention. What she doesn't know is that both of these men have been looking for the AWOL princess and believe that she fits the profile. As she tries to break through their mysterious shell, they try to break through hers in hopes of revealing her true identity. In their attempts to draw each other out, Lia finds herself attracted to Rafe, the handsome, passionate farmhand from a neighboring town. Similarly, both Rafe and Kaden are falling for Lia; they are surprised and delighted by her self-confidence, strength, and unfaltering wit. The two remark on her severe divergence from the usual "royal" type. While it seems that there might be a love triangle developing, I assure you that it's not and therefore doesn't bog down plot with needless hemming and hawing. Lia begins to believe that a future with a man she loves because she loves him is within her reach.

Suddenly, her peaceful existence comes crashing down when she receives horrifying news of war brewing as a result of her fleeing her wedding with the Prince of Dalbreck. Since there is now a bounty on her head, she had unknowingly brought danger to the country that she left and the one she lives in now. Lia knows she must return to her former country and resume her arranged marriage with the Prince of Dalbreck. Yet, even that plan goes awry and Lia is kidnapped by someone she thought she trusted and begins on an epic journey with her kidnapper. (I cannot reveal major spoilers... you must read it!). It seems that everyone has an ulterior motive when it comes to Lia. What ensues next is an epic journey across vast desert with dangerous company, a gypsy caravan, tigers (oh my!), and a shocking bout of self-discovery. By the end, I had gone through just about every reaction and emotion one can possibly conjure whilst reading a novel.

There are so many complex layers within this book, it's almost impossible to write a review (so many feels!). Pearson has woven a plot that is so intricate and character driven, that it's easy to fall into her world head first. Lia is this strong female lead who actually wants to be married and have a family. I have grown used to YA females who reject traditional female roles and values and are these kick-ass assassins or warriors. Don't get me wrong, I love reading about that perspective. It's important to remind young readers that women don't fit into one role (or even two) and can and should pursue who they truly are. Lia's desire to marry on her own terms forces her to reject the deep-rooted tradition of her family and country. Her righteous indignation is solidly founded and the reader roots for her success.

Another exciting aspect about The Kiss of Deception is that the time period and setting are never explicitly stated. On the surface, it reads like a medieval fantasy, but if you look closely at the poems, tales, and songs that show up between chapters, she does offer clues as to what the setting may be. My co-workers and I have talked for hours on end about this, arguing over what the time period is and where it takes place. All in all, I won't go into specifics because the whole genius of The Kiss of Deception is that Mary E. Pearson leads you through this complex plot and world with revelation after revelation. It's truly an exciting ride that you have to experience yourself! 

In the end, what you walk away with is a seriously well-written story with unique characters who each have their own voice. The book is mostly told from Lia's perspective, but we also get small glimpses into the perspectives of Kaden and Rafe. Pearson plays on our conceptions of good and evil, our stereotypes, and the importance of self-discovery and love. This book, if written poorly, could have been a hot mess of jumbled character viewpoints and cryptic nonsense, but Pearson proves that she is a master writer, editor, and story teller. I implore you- come July, PLEASE read this book. 

 

Now excuse me while I sit down and read it again...

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson is published by Macmillan/Henry Holt and Company LLC, Books for Young Readers. Review copy provided by the publisher. Release date: July 2014