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Yzabel / March 22, 2013

Review: Something Strange and Deadly

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

There’s something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia…

Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about.
Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she’s just read in the newspaper:
The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.
And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor… from her brother.

Review:

Balancing between 3 and 4 stars here.

I found the book fast-paced enough to my liking, as well as convincing in terms of mores: Elanor’s mother is concerned about keeping up appearances, about her daughter snagging off a rich husband to save the family from ruin… all things that fit, in my opinion, with matters related to societies with a strong bent on social classes. The book reads fast, too, and I regularly wanted to pick it up again. Not to mention that necromancy is one of those kinds of magic that I always enjoy reading about.

On the other hand, and while I consider myself a pretty clueless reader whose disbelief is easily suspended, I found that too many things were predictable early in the story. Well-tied together, granted, but predictable, to the point that sometimes I just wanted to tell the character what an idiot she was for not understanding the clues left everywhere. Also, this book falls in my own personal catgegory of “how is it steampunk?”. Steampunk is easy to render in illustrations, but not so much in words, and slapping off a few contraptions, goggles and some engine in an exhibition isn’t enough for me to justify the label. This may be merely a personal pet peeve, but I still believe that too many authors, publishers and readers don’t understand what exactly lies behind “steampunk”. It’s much more complex than that.

However, I’ll probably still pick the next installment. Eleanor as a character wasn’t of the wimpy kind, showed willpower and abilities to think and act for herself, and to uphold her decisions, no matter the outcome. The ending left me wanting to know what’s going to happen next.

Yzabel / March 19, 2013

Review: Dearly, Departed

Dearly, Departed: A Zombie Novel by Lia Habel

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

CAN A PROPER YOUNG VICTORIAN LADY FIND TRUE LOVE IN THE ARMS OF A DASHING ZOMBIE?

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the mores of an antique era. Sixteen-year-old Nora Dearly is far more interested in her country’s political unrest than in silly debutante balls. But the death of her beloved parents leaves Nora at the mercy of a social-climbing aunt who plans to marry off her niece for money. To Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses. Now she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting a fatal virus that raises the dead. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and thoroughly deceased. But like the rest of his special undead unit, Bram has been enabled by luck and modern science to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

Review:

This is one of those books I’m having a hard time rating.

On the plus side:
– Zombies. A couple of years ago, I wasn’t really interested in those, but other stories I read since then made this theme more interesting. Here, I liked that some of them were given a chance, and were able to prove that they could still remain “humane” in many ways (sometimes even more than some of the living).
– Girls take matters into hands. Not always from the beginning, but they quickly learn to. Nora could’ve been much more of a crybaby, given her circumstances, yet she didn’t let herself sink. Pamela, too, grew to be more likeable. And Chas. How I loved spunky, mouth-running Chas.
– World-building. Granted, if we dig deeper into it, its bases are probably flawed, but no more than those of a lot of other dystopian/sci-fi stories. I’d say they’re more believale than in, say, the Hunger Games, because the rest of the world is at least mentioned.
– There’s an airship. ‘Nuff said. A certain scene involving it and a church holds a special value to me, due to personal reasons.
– Quirky and crazy engineers, whose names I quite liked, by the way.
– Neo-victorian society, with reasons for customs to revert to those of what was perceived as a “Golden Age”—and said customs indeed correspond the Victorian ones (courtship, dress code, and a lot of tiny details too).
– There’s a parasol involved in killing a zombie.
– Actually, parasols come with different lights to indicate the status of a lady: married, unmarried… and those who prefer women to men, too. Now that’s one of those tiny little ideas I like.

On the minus side:
– Once again, the “steampunk” label is applied to a world that in my opinion is not so much steampunk in the end. Sure, they use coal, but reconciliating this with more modern technology (the local equivalent of iPads, holograms, data chips…) was a little hard. Too often I feel that books get labelled as “steampunk” because it’s a fad, and this is getting annoying.
– The villains felt too cartoonesque at times.
– Some of the point of views weren’t so useful. I don’t mind juggling five POVs—I can juggle 20 if they’re properly written. But at least two of them weren’t justified. I’m not sure about the third one, since it also gives us on what’s happening meanwhile, in the city. Also, at some point the POVs tended to become hard to distinguish from each other. I’d be reading Pamela’s, and then suddenly I wouldn’t know anymore whose “voice” it was, if it was Pam’s or Nora’s.
– Not enough of New London to my taste.

Probably a 3.5 stars on my scale, but I’m not sure I should up it to 4. So 3 it’ll be for the time being. I will probably pick up the next volume, though.

Yzabel / January 13, 2013

Review: Who is Audrey Wickersham?

Who is Audrey Wickersham? by Sara Shrieves

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

I know everything that’s happened is my fault. I try to tell myself that it’s okay, I never wanted a normal life to begin with. But then I think about who’s been hurt, and I wish that I could go back to the beginning. Back to when I was just a nobody wandering the halls of my high school, alone and unnoticed. Back to when I was completely oblivious to what killing somebody felt like.

You have to understand though, I had no choice.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #63 in the We ♥ YA Books! group, in exchange for an honest review.)

This novel was a fast and funny read as far as I’m concerned; I wouldn’t put it in my all-time favourites, but it definitely made me smile more than once, for its main character and her quirks first. Audrey’s misfortune is absolutely appaling, yet she has somewhat of a humorous way of telling about it, when her attitude could’ve been much more angst-ridden (and thus probably more difficult to stand in the long run—that may be because I’m myself the kinf of person who’s cry for five minutes, then throw in bad jokes all the time just to deflect the fear and pain). She’s also determined to take things into her own hands (even though this leads her to other mishaps), and not to let other people only try to figure out a solution.

Another thing I appreciated is the role played by her father: in a lot of novels, the protagonist’s parents often get shoved out of the way very quickly, and the teenagers left to their own devices. Here, her father is clearly part of the plot, with a fierce desire to help and protect, proving his love for his daughter by the simple fact that, for starters, he’s not rejecting her. And let’s not forget Bruce, who I absolutely loved for his own quirks.

What may or may not undo this book for a lot of readers, I think, is its ‘over the top/cheesy slash movie’ feeling—in that either you like such tropes, or you don’t. I’m usually at ease with those, especially when they’re used on purpose, which seems to be the case here; but I suppose this would deter other people from enjoying this story. There was also Kirk’s matter: the characters suffers, in my opinion, from being introduced too fast for who he is, and he would be more enjoyable if the reader could get to know him better before that.

I originally gave 3 stars to this novel, but truly, it was more like 3.5, and now that I’m writing this review, I’ve decided to up it to 4. It *was* a very entertaining story, and I like the author’s take on zombies and on how they come to be created.

Yzabel / August 24, 2012

Review: Taste

Taste by Kate Evangelista

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

At Barinkoff Academy, there’s only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has other plans. When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn’t realize until it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the more she is plunging them all into a centuries old feud.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #32 in the We ♥ YA Books! group, in exchange for an honest review.)

Alright, first, I appreciated that there weren’t any vampires in this book. This might not ring a bell to every reader, far from it, but the “prestigious academy with day students and night students” is something I had already read about in a manga (Vampire Knight); it would’ve been too bad if “Taste” had been about ‘mere’ vampires in that regard, and I much preferred the flesh-eating approach than the bloodsucking one. One good point for Kate Evangelista here.

This book was a nice read, compelling and well-paced enough for me to read it in a breeze. I especially liked its take on ‘zombies’: not undead, brain-eating monsters, but a civilisation of flesh-consuming human-looking beings, with thoughts and feelings of their own, but who had to turn away from their natural food sources due to specific reasons, and whose survival is quite the conundrum now. Their laws and way of living had a tight, enclosed feeling that mirrored the abstinence they had to inflict upon themselves, and of course it made sense that sooner or later, all of this would rot and fester, and lead to conflict. The scientific twist brought in all that was also a nice add-on: not too complex for a non-scientific to understand, but believable.

I liked the male cast overall. Demitri’s and Luka’s classical archetypes opposition worked well, and their hidden pains gave them depth; Dray was touching in his own ways, with his mad scientist antics walking hand in hand with deep love and caring for his people, and a genuine desire to help; and Darius’s personality seriously made me grin, especially after a certain description Phoenix made of him. What I appreciated less was the love triangle: the two boys seemed to have equal chances at getting the girl, but Luka’s interest felt somewhat forced—he gave more vibes of ‘naturally a good friend’ than ‘love interest’.

On the other hand, I really, really didn’t like Phoenix. At all. I found her tremendously annoying, whiny, bitchy, and not so clever for someone supposed to have a high IQ/study at a prestigious academy for talented youth. Granted, she was brave… although I often wondered if this was bravery or sheer stupidity on her part. Her childish reactions spelled ‘catastrophe in the making’ from beginning to end; it’s a wonder she managed to stay alive at all (poor Demitri and Luka, such a piece of hard work keeping her safe must have been for you two!). This is too bad, because if not for her character, I’d likely have rated this book higher (for now, it’s more of a 3.5/5 for me).

Yzabel / August 23, 2012

Review: Cold Kiss

Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Be careful what you wish for. . .

When Wren’s boyfriend, Danny, died, Wren decided that what she wanted—what she had to do—was to bring Danny back. And so, in a heartbroken fury, armed with dark incantations and a secret power, she did.

But the Danny who returns isn’t the boy Wren fell in love with, and she must hide him away while her life unravels around her. Then Gabriel transfers to her school and somehow he knows what she has done—and he wants to help make things right.

But Wren alone must undo what she has wrought—even if it means breaking her heart all over again.

Review:

To be honest, this book surprised me, because it wasn’t what I expected when I picked it. I’m not actually sure what I expected; the usual ingredients in a YA paranormal romance novel, I suppose, some of which are present (witchcraft, zombies, a kind of ‘love triangle’…). Then I found out that what matters here isn’t the plot itself, which is quite pared down in itself. Reading and also writing stories that tend to be heavy plot-wise, sometimes I tend to forget that there are other, powerful elements that can carry a story to its end. Feelings are one of those. And “Cold Kiss” is definitely ripe with feelings.

The novel revolves around Wren, a young witch (although she’s only called that once, I think) who had to deal with finding her first real love, Danny, only to lose him barely a few months later. Heart-broken, grief-stricken, she didn’t think it through so much when she took the fateful decision of bringing Danny back from the dead; only what she brought back was only ‘mostly’ Danny. As a living boy, he used to be sweet; he used to love her with all his soul and give his all for her. As a dead one… no matter how Wren wants to convince herself that he’s still ‘her’ Danny, something’s wrong, definitely wrong. And the time is soon to come when she must face the consequences of what she’s done.

In any other story, I think Wren would have been a whiny, childish, self-centered protagonist, that I probably would have found annoying at best; however, Amy Garvey managed to made her all this, with the added bonus that we actually understand why she acts the way she does, and are driven to wonder, “wouldn’t I react just the same way?” I wanted to be angry at her for brushing Gabriel’s help away—but in truth, were I still 17, wouldn’t I also try to fix my mistakes by myself, and snap off in the process? Wouldn’t I be angry at my mother for never explaining me anything, thus unexpectedly leading me to commit a mistake I might have not considered if I had been warned about it before? If given the opportunity to bring back my beloved from the dead, wouldn’t I desperately want to do it, so broken that I just wouldn’t be able to think about the unwanted consequences? This is the kind of questions I want to ask myself when reading such a story, and the latter indeed hit home with those.

The story in itself was fairly simple: no convoluted plot, nothing that can’t be predicted easily enough from the start. This said, I wouldn’t have it any other way, for what makes the strength of this book is the way the author deals with her characters. Throughout the novel, they were all caught in their own web of conflicted feelings, often stemming from their sadness and frustration—and love. Wren’s love for Danny, and her sadness at knowing that everything was different. Wren’s friends, feeling betrayed, made either fretful or angered by their worry. Growing estrangement between Wren and her mother. Above all, the constant despair; the ticking clock; the certainty that the outcome cannot be a nice happily-ever-after ending; and Wren’s dread at knowing what she has to do, being determined to repair her mistake, trying to make amends, yet also fearing having her heart broken again…

Danny, the undead boyfriend, was frightening in his own way. So pale, so cold, so silent—so disturbing. No need for a gory, brain-eating zombie description to make him creepy. Yet at the same time, he was also a tragic figure (in that he was made tragic by someone else’s hubris and fault), a boy lost in a world he couldn’t understand anymore, because he couldn’t exist in it the way he used to. I tried to imagine what it must have been for such a character: locked in a room all day long, with no one to talk to, only his broken thoughts to keep him company, not even knowing that he was actually dead… And this was just dreadful.

The only think I was somewhat hesitant about was Gabriel’s presence. He seemed a little too intent to help with such a mess, when he indeed barely knew Wren—I was two inches of sighing “insta-love” (not something that I like a lot in books in general, I must say). The story may have worked just as well without him, although in that case, it would probably have been shorter, too. He’s not an unlikeable character, far from it; but he also didn’t feel indispensable to me.

Yzabel / June 25, 2012

Review: Feed (Newsflesh #1)

Feed by Mira Grant

My rating: [rating=5]

I read this book one year ago, but never wrote a review, for want of time to do so. Then, a couple of months ago, I posted one on Goodreads. Since it’s a book I really liked, and whose next installments I definitely plan on reading, I now find it appropriate to leave my review here as well.

I’m no fan of ‘regular’ zombie flicks or stories. If it’s only about gore and killing zombies, it usually doesn’t keep my interest up for long. I am more entertained already when there is something else in it. In this book, I found something that I hadn’t thought of at first, but loved reading about: the analysis of how society would go on. How it would get organized. Security matters. Limiting gatherings. Making sure you’re not contaminated. The developing role of internet and blogging to spread the ‘real’ news. Politics. How the virus was born and got to spread—no mad scientist, no ugly plan to kill the whole human race: merely an accident, and unfortunate circumstances.

For me, this book was an exercise in world building. It could’ve been boring, as many works of that type are (unfortunately). It wasn’t at all. Not only the depiction of society got me hooked, but I found the main characters really enjoyable. Their strength, their selflessness, the way they go about their business, their relationships—all of those made me feel close to them (so close that while I saw the end approaching for Buffy and George, I couldn’t bear it). The book also has just the right amount of ‘politics’ for me: I am mildly interested in it, but not too much, and I found the balance just right enough for me.

Granted, the story has its flaws. I was a little disappointed at the ‘villain’, for instance. And some information seems more like info-dumping, and could probably have been introduced differently; however, the “blogging approach” makes it somehow quite logical, and it wasn’t jarring in my opinion.

I admit I’m far, very far from having read a lot of “zombie stories”, so maybe my advice would be more qualified if I had more reading experience in that domain. As of now, the book does deserve my personal 5-stars rating. I enjoyed thoroughly, it entertained me for long hours, and all in all, it’s really what I ask from such a novel.