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Yzabel / August 6, 2012

Review: Vengeance of the Wolf

Vengeance of the Wolf by Solitaire Parke

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

Detective John Yardley and FBI agent Frank Williams are on a quest. They are determined to stop a manipulative, unknown mass murderer, whose targets seem to be specific politicians in a bizarre and maniacal killing spree…one that draws them into a world of dreams and nightmares beyond their wildest imaginations. Awaiting them are unbelievable terrors, chilling twists and turns, and a scope of destruction that they would never have believed possible.

Review:

(Book provided through Read It & Reap in the Shut Up & Read group, in exchange for an honest review.)

3.5/5 stars. I might have given it a 4, only it was frustrating in some aspects.

I was drawn to this book by the concept of dreams and nightmares, which is something that usually catches my interest, and I indeed found the method of killing quite interesting as well as thrilling. Troubling as this may be, seeing the killer in action, the way he picked at his victims and toyed with them, the way he thought, was just as interesting. The chilling feeling I got out of those scenes was reinforced by the descriptions, which were detailed enough to allow me to easily picture places and dreamscape. The ‘bad guy’ is clearly pretty deranged here; there was something almost touching to the reason behind his killing spree—a tiny spark that could’ve died quickly, that might even have seemed laughable to many people, yet blossomed instead into something terrifying, served by means beyond normal human scope. (The nursery rhymes quoted at the beginning of each chapter made me feel this even more strongly: they’re definitely reminiscent of something child-like, with an added creepy edge.)

All the characters had their part to play in the plot, with more or less spotlight, of course. Although it took me some time to get a real liking to Yardley and Williams, they are interesting personae, with spunk and potential, along with willpower and resiliency (how many people would’ve gone on trying to put an end to such an eluding case?). There were a few moments when I was confused at whose point of view I was following (in instances where “IT” and “the man” appeared); otherwise, the dates, places and POVs were clear and evident.

Overall, I had a good time reading this story, and wanted to know how it went from beginning to end (the epilogue was chilly, by the way—it screams for a catastrophe in the making, really). However, I remained frustrated at some things that I wished would have been more elaborated on. For instance, Celeste and her family (there’s something mysterious here, and I was hoping to learn more); the exact mechanism of the killer’s abilities; or Anthony’s motives and involvement, that were partly explained only, in my opinion. I think I’d have enjoyed the novel more if those loose ends had been tied. Last but not least, I managed to guess who the killer was fairly early; once I had it in my head, my hypothesis kept on being validated regularly. I’d have wanted that mystery to last longer.

Yzabel / August 4, 2012

Review: Sweet Blood Of Mine

Sweet Blood of Mine by John Corwin

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

From Mega Nerd to Super Stud.

Justin Case and women do not mix. Man boobs, a love of Kings and Castles, and being tight with the “nerd” crowd certainly don’t win him any points either. After rescuing Katie, his crush, it turns out she might not be the girl he thought she was, while Elyssa, the school’s Goth Girl, turns out to be more. Can high school get any more confusing?

Determined to improve himself, he joins a gym and meets a sexy girl that just oozes a “come hither, Justin” vibe. Until she attacks him in the parking lot, and Justin realizes she’s no ordinary girl but a being with supernatural speed and strength. After a narrow escape and an excruciating migraine headache, he wakes up with supernatural abilities all his own: speed, strength, and the ability to seduce every woman he sees.

While that might sound like the perfect combo for any hormonal teen, Justin is a hopeless romantic who wants his first time to be special. Is that too much to ask for? But he doesn’t know what he is or how to stop his carnal urges. One thing is clear: If he doesn’t find answers there are other more sinister supernaturals who would like nothing better than to make him their eternal plaything and do far worse than kill him.

Review:

I admit it took me some time to wrap my mind around the idea of a protagonist called ‘Justin Case’… yes, yes, I know, it’s a pun, I’m just not too fond of puns on characters’ names. Anyway, I managed to get over it after a while, and since I had never read anything by John Corwin before, I had no strong bias towards this book, which is always a good thing. Besides, the plot summary seemed interesting, and I always like to see male perspectives in such stories.

There were moments I smiled and chuckled, because the author’s packed his story with references to various ‘geeky’ elements—and I’m a glutton for cameos of all sorts. (I’m positive I even saw a Wheel of Time reference in there, about one of the very things that made me roll my eyes at the original books.) This all fits pretty well with the ‘nerd hero’ theme, and I appreciated that John Corwin made him think and react along such lines, because I feel it’s precisely the kind of comparisons and thoughts that’d come to Justin’s mind. And although there were moments, too, when Justin veered a little too much on self-pitying (I guess it’s no wonder, given what a train wreck his life has become), fortunately he regularly catches himself up and decides to act and keep his head high (and his sense of humour going) no matter what.

I enjoyed a lot of the characters, even secondary ones. The boys from the Goth gang, who even when things got tight in their group still stuck with Justin and didn’t just stop talking to him (which is something that could’ve happened in ‘high school politics’, from what I’ve already witnessed in real life). Elyssa, who was able to hold out her hand to someone who’s been trampled on, and to do it again in spite of the odds, and let’s not forget that she’s quite badass. Stacey, too, with her quirks and manners, not so much the evil character she could become, and pretty touching in her own ways. Well, alright, I didn’t care much for the average pupils at school (Katie and her friends were annoying), but this is probably on purpose—this is not where Justin’s true friends are meant to be.

I also liked the Overworld developed here. At the end of this first installment, we are far from knowing everything about it, but enough already has been revealed for readers to realize that there is strong support underneath to carry the plot. Vampires, for instance, aren’t just here looking cool, they have their own society, with their own politics and dissenssions. Same goes for sorcerers, and, I’m sure, other supernatural factions.

However, there are a couple of things I liked less in the book were, first, that the story seemed to drag a little around the middle—the hardest part in every book, in my opinion. It picked up again in the last third, and the end was great, but that middle part wasn’t so fun to read. The second thing was some aspects of the ‘nerd community’, and the corruption going on with football at school. It seemed to me like there was too much of a collection of clichés (fat geeks, rejected at school, you can’t be popular if you play LARPs, etc), and the teachers’ and administration’s attitude towards Justin and his friends was bordering on unbelievable (at least, the way it was shown made it appear so; I don’t doubt that such biases do exist in many places, though).

Other than that, I really enjoyed “Sweet Blood of Mine”, and will likely pick up the next novel in line.

Yzabel / August 2, 2012

Review: Dreams Of Darkness

Dreams of Darkness by Barry James

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

Jordan Hanson was having a bad day. His girlfriend was acting distant, his cat had run off, his car was leaking oil, there was something screwy with the electrical system in his new house, and to top it all off he got caught in a storm. By the end of the day, though, Jordan would have given anything to get his old life back. Or any life at all, for that matter. Even an undead existence in which he was not about to be used as a tool to end the world would have been better than nothing….

Review:

I had a hard time deciding on what to write in this review. I’ve been editing my stars from 3 to 2, from 2 to 3… I really have no idea. It’s not a bad book. It contains a lot of things that I liked, yet at the same time, it still didn’t cut it for me in the end. I would’ve given it a 2.5/5, but for want of such flexibility in the marks here, I will leave it at 2. Although what “didn’t cut it for me” is way more subjective than through any fault of the novel itself, I feel it also plays a part in one’s enjoyment of a book, and as such, I can’t really leave it out of my review.

There’s quite an amount of pros in favour of “Dreams of Darkness”. The author created a believable mythos for his world, one that is detailed and well-explained, and that flows together believably. The descriptions are very vivid, making it extremely easy to picture what’s happening; same goes for the action scenes. In fact, I’m positive this novel would make a great movie or mini-TV series. It is quite a ‘visual’ story—and a graphic one, too, in its depiction of the horrors that are the demons, their actions, and the people that command them! (This is not a negative point, by the way. I thought it was clear from the start that there would be gory aspects to it, and they didn’t shock me; on the contrary, given the themes tackled in it, they were logical and expected.) The story deals with interesting questions, namely Jordan’s humanity (can he remain sane and human enough, in spite of what he is?), whether one’s nature will necessarily determine one’s destiny, or the influence of power on one’s psyche. Also, the plot is complex, yet not confusing, and the characters appropriate to its development.

So why did I write that the book didn’t do it for me in the end? That’s the tricky part: I still have no precise idea why. I think it had to do with the writing, that I felt was a little ‘dry’, but not in terms of description of details—it was more a feeling than anything else. My rational mind was satisfied, but not my emotional one, if I may say so. I couldn’t really root for the characters, for instance, as if there was a very thin, invisible wall between them and me. It took me too much time to finish this book, too, when I actually had plenty of time to do so; I kept on putting it down, thinking it wasn’t for me; the parts between the action scenes dragged a little, too (the background information regularly given by some of the characters sometimes felt too much like info-dumping, which didn’t help). However, at the same time, I kept going back to it, because, let’s be honest, I still wanted to know how the story would go on. The last quarter or so of the book got me in for good; unfortunately, this came too late in my reading.

Yzabel / July 25, 2012

Review: A Strange Fire

A Strange Fire by L.H. Cosway

My rating: [rating=4]

(Book provided through ARR #24 in the We ♥ YA Books! group, in exchange for an honest review.)

After years of abuse at the hands of her father, 17-year-old Florence Vaine is suddenly sent to live in Chesterport with her grandmother, a kind woman who may at last give her the affection and life she never had before. And her life sure hasn’t been easy, between her constant fear of her father, the stammer that afflicts her as soon as is in stressful situations, and her strange, unexplained power that allows her to see people’s emotions through their auras. Although Flo meets nice people who may become friends, she also finds herself the target of bullying because of her speech impediment. One student, Frank, immediately stands for her, attracting her attention: for his aura, as well as that of her brothers, are of a fiery kind Flo has never seen before.

Such a beginning had me a little scared : a girl arriving in a new, small town in which she doesn’t know anyone, but is from the start attracted towards the band of mysterious, different yet gorgeous pupils who always keep to themselves, have various rumours floating around them, and to whom there is clearly much more than meets the eye. This could have been the beginning of another “Twilight” (a novel I didn’t like). Fortunately for “A Strange Fire”, it wasn’t the case at all. First because Frank is nothing creepy like Edward Cullen, and is on the contrary a very sweet boy whose odd reputation hides an otherwise brave and nice persona; as the story unfolds, so does the relationship between Flo and him, in a believable way—he is attracted to her, but respects her reactions and feelings, and doesn’t force himself upon her, instead doing his best to win her friendship and trust first. His brothers, in spite of who they all really are, seemed to be good people overall, doing their best to live with what had been imposed to them from their birth.

As for Florence, I think she was portrayed in a realistic way, considering her powers, personality and past life. She’s a young woman, still a girl in some aspects, who has suffered a lot of abuse. She’s mature enough to realize how fearful this has made her, and to acknowledge how difficult it has made things for her; at the same time, she still struggles with the resulting lack of self-esteem, her need for medication, her wariness regarding people in general. During the story, she tries to overcome those hurdles, and this in turn helps her growing, getting stronger. It’s too bad that the ending couldn’t be the happy-ever-after one she would have deserved, but at the same time, I feel it was appropriate: now that she has her newly found inner strength and power, she can probably face and come to terms with what awaits her, and not just turn her back on it and run away.

There were a couple of things that left me wanting, though. I wish we would have seen or learnt more about some of the characters: Ross, for instance, who was a little bland compared to Frank and Alex; or Caroline,who was exactly the kind of nice friend Flo had always needed… but after a while, this budding friendship seemed to have retreated in the background. Also, the overall plot with the witches may have benefitted from being a tad bit more present. And what was revealed about the true nature of Frank and his family was weird—actually, it’s probably how it was introduced and explained that felt a little off.

Regardless of those few gripes, “A Strange Fire” is a book I thoroughly enjoyed, and would recommend. It was my first foray into L.H. Cosway’s works, but likely not the last one.

Yzabel / July 25, 2012

Review: The Christmas Throwaway

The Christmas Throwaway by R.J. Scott

My rating: [rating=3]

Count on me to read season-themed stories at the exact opposite time of the year. I’m just like that. On the other hand, past midnight was still a good moment to give in to the sudden urge.

Short of his 18th birthday, Zach is thrown out of his home by his father after years of abuse, for the ‘crimes’ of being gay and not wanting to follow the career path said father has always laid out for him. As he finds shelter on a bench in a churchyard, dreaming of the perfect Christmas he never had, he is woken up by police officer Ben Hamilton, who decides to bring him home and shelter him, at least until he’s an adult in the eyes of the law. Zach is welcomed by Ben’s family, particularly his caring mother and spunky little sister, and slowly comes to realize that there may still be something ahead for him—that the dreams he had discarded could still come true someday. Far from the dire straits of his life on the streets, he can now face his fears, heal from his wounds, psychological and physical, and think about how to help his own little sister, who still lives his abusive father. All the while, Ben and his family and friends are here to help him and provide him with support, until the feelings between both men finally blossom for good.

I found “The Christmas Throwaway” to be a lovely story. Probably not too close to reality (unfortunately: there are such young people thrown in the streets in such circumstances, and our world could sure do with more gentle people like Ben and his family), and a little too sweet to my usual taste, but I didn’t really care about that in the end, which means suspension of disbelief worked well enough nonetheless. Anyway, what I wanted when I picked this ebook was a Christmas story (the whole ‘Christmas spirit’ and ‘Christmas miracle’), and it was exactly that. Zach was an adorable young man, nice and polite, who had been kicked so much that he was left with little to no self-confidence, and seeing him rebuild that little by little, thanks to the presence of friendly fellow human beings, was a very positive sight; I couldn’t help but root for this character no matter what. Ben did what so few people would (as evidenced by his brother’s initial reaction of instant wariness), and remained throughout the story a strong shoulder on which Zach could lean; at the same time, he also behaved very responsibly, refusing to take advantage on Zach’s frailty to get into his pants.

The one thing I really regret about this novel was its second part, which felt rushed and too short. The first part deals with the Christmas days themselves, and shows us how Zach gradually manages to open up and feel at ease with this nexw ‘family’ of his. But the rest of the book dealt with what happens over the span of the next two years—Ben clearly waiting for Zach to sort his problems before making a definite move—until finally getting to the part where both men can be fully together, physically as well. To be honest, by this point, I had mostly forgotten about any potential sex scene, because the emotional side was so cute and enjoyable that I wanted to see more of it. I think this story would have benefitted from more development here, giving the reader more time to see Ben and Zach’s relationship evolve once Zach had started not only rebuilding himself, but also making progress in his new life.

Yzabel / July 24, 2012

Review: Unraveling

Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she’s opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn’t possible, she knows—with every fiber of her being—that Ben has somehow brought her back to life.

But her revival, and Ben’s possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI agent father’s files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what’s right in front of her: Everything that’s happened—the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben’s sudden appearance in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she’s going to need to uncover Ben’s secrets—and keep from falling in love with him in the process.

Review:

An overall enjoyable novel, that I finished quite fast, considering its length, because I really wanted to see the events unfold. Thus I can say I liked it, and probably liked it enough to pick another book by this author someday.

The writing was quite flowing, and Janelle as a main character was interesting to follow: not the average, powerless heroine who gets carried around by whatever happens, but someone who tries to act, to take matters into her own hands, and is both aware of and frustrated at when things force her to react rather than act directly. What’s more, although she’s been going through several harsh experiences, her death being only the latest, she does her best to keep strong and not give up. This is the kind of protagonist I like. The plot and setting reminded me of some of my favourite shows, such as The X-Files and Fringe, with elements I tend to gravitate towards—FBI agents facing difficult cases, suspicions of bio-terrorism, characters not knowing anymore who’s their foe and who they can still trust… Those are the things that got me hooked.

However, the reason why I’m only giving three stars to “Unraveling” is that, as I was reading along, I couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling that something was wrong. At first, I couldn’t place my finger on it, and this left me confused for a good part of the story. Then at last (and upon some more reflecting, now that I’m done with the book), it dawned on me: to me, it felt like the author was trying too much. Trying too much to elicit responses from the reader; to cram as many elements as possible within 400-something pages; to make Janelle too strong, too, in a way. For instance, early enough we learn that a couple of years ago, while at a party, Janelle woke up at the back of a car with her pants half-torn, and had never been able to piece that part together; we are of course left with the impression that she was raped, and this is evidently the effect sought after… but considering all the other hard events Janelle has to face in the story, I wondered: “Isn’t this just a bit too much? Isn’t there already enough going on? Do I really need that to be convinced that, alright, she’s a girl who had to become strong?” I don’t think so.

Besides, although I can’t exactly explain why, the turning point (the big revelation about Ben & Co, and what the countdown is about) didn’t have me squealing, but rather felt as slightly off. I’m not sure if the cause was the pseudo-scientific explanations, or the way it was all brought out. The second half of the book was full to the brim, when a lighter string of events would already have done the job well enough. In the end, I wasn’t sure anymore about who or what to root for, whose death I should regret or not, or if I cared or not about some of the characters, nor if I had properly understood everything. (I’m also still unsure of what to do with the relationship between Kate and Janelle. For the whole story, I thought something would happen, some discussion, some revelation… and then, nothing. I was a little disappointed, and wondered if those scenes involving Kate were really important.)

“Unraveling” had me spend a good time, and was mostly interesting. I just wish it hadn’t been so full, and that some plot points had been better exploited (or discarded as a whole, since they didn’t bring that much to the story).

Yzabel / July 20, 2012

Review: The Pledge

The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

My rating: [rating=1]

Having been studying linguistics for years, and being interested in whatever is related to the concept of language in general, I was naturally drawn towards this book. A dystopian society divided in classes (castes, rather) through the means of languages, or rather of lackthereof, for the lowest ones? Of course I was bound to perk my ears, manner of speaking. I wanted to see what the author would do with such an idea.

Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed.

I did find a few redeemable things in “The Pledge”. Events that flowed one into each other, for instance. A fast-paced plot in the second part. And a definitely evil and cunning opponent, who would resort to any means to keep on ruling, because it’s what she’s always done, and what both people and other rulers expect from a country’s leader—in order to hold society together. I like evil characters with a definite agenda. It was clear from the beginning that Sabara would be a bitch, and she didn’t disappoint me.

Then came the problems, which turned to be too many for me to enjoy the book.

The role of language, first: why, why, why wasn’t it exploited as much as it could have been? There would have been so many interesting issues to develop here, so many possibilities, beyond the evident aspect of “being able to understand what the others can’t”. Granted, it was presented here as a means to divide people and keep them in their respective castes; however, this was only, in my opinion, a very basic use of the potential destructive functions of language (getting rid of abstract concepts so that people wouldn’t be able to express and rally around them anymore, for instance), and it’s a shame the author didn’t go further with those.

The plot was highly predictable. From the very first chapter, the one with the Queen, I sensed where this would be leading to, and what kind of final confrontation I could expect. Since I don’t consider myself a particularly keen reader (I can never find the culprit in mystery novels), it must mean it was really easy to foresee. Worst was the world depicted in the novel. However great and plausible the idea of language as control, the world itself didn’t seem very logical to me, continuously poising between dystopia and fantasy, as if the author herself couldn’t choose what she wanted to write about. Although it does have a dystopian atmosphere, its roots were very unclear; the names of long-gone cities suggest that Ludania was built on the ruins of the USA, yet what led to its current state jarred too much with such origins. How come a matrilinear monarchy came to replace the former governments, not only in this country, but everywhere in the world? How come people remembered the failure of a ‘democratic revolution’, but not democracy would have been in place even before the monarchy? (And really, historically-speaking, the USA are one of the last countries I’d expect to see veering towards such a type of government. It doesn’t add up.) The powers, too: every Queen is supposed to have some kind of power or powers—Sabara’s hint more at magic, even, than at ‘mere’ psychic powers. How did those appear? Creating a skewed society isn’t enough, in my opinion, to make a good dystopia; here it would have been more useful for the author to simply create her own fantasy world.

As for the characters, I never felt any connection with them. Charlie was only special because of her power, not because of her personality. I felt like all she did throughout the story was to let herself be carried by events, never taking any real decision, nor having any real goal (save for ‘protect my sister’) that would contribute to move the plot forward. I could see no reason why Max, the ‘mysterious boy’, would be attracted to her with such intensity, and the whole romance moved way too fast. At least Angelina had that mysterious side of never opening her mouth to speak, so it was a cause for mild wonder. But Charlie? I was never interested in her, from beginning to end. The other characters weren’t that interesting either, too predictable in their roles and behaviours; I didn’t even understand what Sydney’s role was supposed to be, because whether she was here or not, it didn’t change anything—was she here to show only what pure and kind a soul Charlie is?

I did finish “The Pledge”, and managed not to give up along the way; only I found mysef skimming rather than reading (which is why I read it so fast, come to think of it), and this is a dead-ringer that such a book didn’t amount to much to me.

Yzabel / July 19, 2012

Review: Mockingjay

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My rating: [rating=3]

This is another book I’m not sure how to rate. I’ve given it three stars, as an average mark, but it’d be probably closer to 2.5, if I wanted to be really judgmental (which I’m not going to be, because I still went on reading it quickly, a usual sign that all in all, the story hooked me).

I really, really liked its setting, the backdrop of war depicted in it, with all its ambiguities and varying moral mileage. Maybe those are themes a harsh for a YA novel, but they still gave me the full feeling of a dystopian world here. The Capitol’s depiction as “the side on which the bad guys are on” was clearly tempered by the fact that the rebels’ thought processes aren’t so pure either. Overruling a tyrannical government? Sure, but such a feat won’t come without sacrifices, nor without having to think like your enemies to anticipate their actions… and the fine line between ‘thinking like’ and ‘acting like’ is a fragile one, rather easy to cross. Some characters did cross it—some who appeared above that at first, too. Others remained true to themselves, yet never got out of it unscarred either. The overall atmosphere was quite a desperate one, with its gruesome lot of realistic and no-nonsense situations, diverging opinions, tension-inducing plans, and intensity. Perhaps a little too much sometimes.

There’s also a couple of characters (not always the main ones) whose evolution I liked seeing. Peeta seemed to grow a backbone at last, be more fierce, and show himself as someone who could be dangerous on his own, not only a human shield for Katniss. It came with a price, of course, yet it was interesting to see him go through what befell him—in spite of his (believable) pleas for death, in the end, he was the true survivor. Same goes in my opinion for Johanna (ah, snarky, unpleasant Johanna—I don’t even know how I came to like her, but I do) and Finnick, for coming in the open about what was really going on between the scenes. Finnkic, who got me quite scared at some point, alright, since his path was mirroring Katniss’s so much.

And that’s the part where the author lost me: Katniss’s evolution. She used to be so strong, so active, such a decision-maker. In “Mockingjay”, she’s a mere hull of herself, wallowing in self-pitying, shutting down to the rest of the world, uncaring about what’s going to happen. Alright, she went through many hardships, and those would be painful to anyone, especially a 17-to-18-year-old girl, but… but did we really need to read about this for 300 pages? So she was more of a pawn, a symbol than anything else—but couldn’t she take it into her hands again, and shape the tide actively? Instead, it took quite some time before she accepted to become the Mockinjay, and once she embraced that state, it didn’t last for long: I felt that it was really all for show, that she didn’t really care inside, and if she didn’t, well, why should I? I can’t even blame it on president Snow attempting to break her through Peeta; it looked like she was actively breaking herself, too. The other problem with her, too, was that she remained confined to the background or the sides of the war (the “getting knocked down and waking up in the hospital” moments quickly started to grate on my nerves). I wanted to see her IN the main action! Not telling me about it after seeing it on the news or hearing it from other characters or whatever. This changed in the second half with the Capitol mission, yet even then, she got to see the final battle from the background (and was once again knocked out, thus being shut out of this battle… and I the reader was deprived of another important scene).

And Gale. What the hell, Gale? Did Collins so wanted to put you out of the picture that she had to make you so annoying in this book? Why not killing you off, then? It would’ve been more useful. Poor Gale. I liked him in the previous novels, liked what a stronghold he could be for Katniss to go back to. However, I was under the impression that they shunned each other too much here, that they weren’t even trying… and that the final choice in the love triangle was made from the start. There’s no point in building a triangle then, right?

Finally, I didn’t know how to stand regarding the bleak feeling pervading the book. On the one hand, it greatly contributed to carrying across the author’s message about the futility of wars, and how humans do repeat the errors of the past. On the other hand, was it really necessary to enforce it through the rushed death of certain characters? People die, well, fine, I get it. But killing off Finnick and Primrose in such ways was just meaningless for the first, and way too fast for the other (not to mention that it would have had more impact on us readers too if we had got to know and see her more before that…).

To conclude: excellent setting and narrative conclusion to this trilogy, but poor execution (no pun intended) regarding a few of the characters, including, unfortunately, some of the really major ones.

Yzabel / July 18, 2012

Review: Catching Fire

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

My rating: [rating=4]

Before I started reading the Hunger Games trilogy, a lot of people warned me about the second and third books not being on par with the first one. However, now that I’m done with “Catching Fire”, I feel it’s not really the case for me. This novel was different, and didn’t deal with exactly what one might have expected at first, but in the end, I found it just as enjoyable as the first one.

I appreciated the issues it tackled: the soured homecoming; how nothing could ever be the same again in spite of victory; how victory itself proved to be a form of defeat, as if whatever the Hunger Games’ issues, nothing good could ever be got out of them—something we readers were already aware of, and that was imprinted even more severely on the characters here. For me, this second volume was full of a constant underlying tension slowly spiralling up towards a final intense momentum.

I don’t think the 75th Hunger Games came too late in the book (although I would have appreciated to see a little more of Katniss’s and Peeta’s reaction about the Quarter Quell announcement), because I’m not sure I would’ve enjoyed a story that would have been ‘only’ about such games again. The first half was much useful in distillating the right atmosphere of fear, doubts and ill omens about what would happen; while the revelations at the end, about what was really going on and who was involved, provided a note of hope… yet one that could easily be turned into despair again. I felt that “Catching Fire” was continuously poising on a very narrow line here, just like a rope-walker would do: between hope and its loss; between spreading fire and how it could just as well end up in cold, useless embers; between courage and fear; threats and responding to them; potential friends and potential enemies, and the uncertainty about who was what. I think this greatly contributed, in my eyes, to the intensity of this second part of the trilogy.

But—there is a but—I wasn’t too thrilled about the love triangle aspect here. Perhaps because the two boys appear to be a little too similar? I was annoyed at Katniss’s inability to choose, to realize who she really loves, but really, choosing in such circumstances is just so hard. It would probably have been more interesting if Gale and Peeta had been more contrasted characters.

Yzabel / July 13, 2012

Review: It’s Not All Black And White

It’s Not All Black and White: Multiracial Youth Speak Out by St. Stephen’s Community House

My rating: [rating=4]

(Book got through NetGalley.)

“It’s Not All Black And White” is a collection of interviews, short essays and poems from a number of people of mixed origins, and dealing with their feelings and personal experiences regarding the question of ‘race’ for them. The book features such texts from youths, but also a few from older people, allowing its readers to get a wider view of what being of such origins is, and used to be a few decades ago. Its layout is very differenciated from one page to the other, which is nice on the eye for starters, yet also goes well with its themes of difference and of not always being accepted for who we are—many different pages, however gathered all in the same book, as if to show that in the end, we can all be together in harmony. (Maybe this is just personal interpretation on my part; still, I think that whether intentional or not, this layout is quite appropriate.)

I wanted to read this collection at first because I thought it would contain interesting material to read with my pupils in class, material that would also concern some of them. I wasn’t disappointed. Such a book can definitely be used for educational purposes, and that its contents offer a positive outlook on what being multiracial means, as well as answers or at least reflections for those young people who would be struggling with their identity and where to place themselves. It sends them the message that “you are not alone”, and this to me seems to be one of its most important aspects. It is also an eye-opener in many regards, for those of us who are not confronted to such issues, yet would like to understand what they entail. I so agree with some of the participants, that sometimes even well-meaning, innocent-sounding sentences can still be hurtful, in that they contribute to setting people apart.