What I Read This Year

16 Jan

BOOK ONE: HDU, by India Lee

Amanda’s life sucks. After her lifelong best frenemy stole her boyfriend, she was forced to move back to her small hometown in Missouri with no job prospects and plenty of pitying looks from the town gossips. The only thing she actually has a good grip on is moderating HDU (How Dare U), an ONTD-esque gossip blog. After posting one too many angry screeds about hot douchebag actor Liam Brody, she recieves an out of the blue email from Liam, who’s looking to rehab his image. When Amanda suggests that he date a “normal” girl, guess who comes knocking?

HDU’s a fun, breezy read that’s made more fun if you’ve ever frequented Oh No They Didn’t. The way that Amanda and Liam’s relationship plays out on the posts to HDU read exactly like something you’d see on ONTD. The other celebrities and scandals are twisty and soapy. 

RECOMMENDED TO: ONTD regulars, people who miss Gossip Girl

BOOK TWO: The Diviners, by Libba Bray

It’s the Roaring Twenties, and Evie O’Neill has arrived in New York City after stirring up trouble in her Midwestern hometown. Evie, you see, has the ability to touch personal objects and get a read on the secrets of the owner of the object, and that ability is what made her parents ship her off to her Uncle Will, who is the owner and curator of the American Museum of Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult. But when a strange series of murders start happening in the city, Evie, her uncle, and their friends find themselves entangled in this web of mystery and must stop it before it brings about the apocalypse.

I’ve read all of Libba Bray’s novels, starting with A Great and Terrible Beauty, and was pleasantly surprised when she wrote two thoroughly modern books after the last Gemma Doyle book. The Diviners is a return to her historical paranormal/fantasy roots, and like the Gemma books, it’s the first book in a trilogy.

Which means that I was pleased when I got to the end (yay, there’s going to be more!) and distraught (but when is the more coming out?!) as well. The plot is well-paced, the characters intriguing (Evie is lovable and loathsome at the same time; I [heart] Theta and Memphis so much, and the reveal about Jericho made me shriek [SPOILERS—will elaborate if you want me to later]!), and some of the language and turns of phrase that are just gorgeous. Example:

“There is no greater power on this earth than story. ” Will paced the length of the room. “People think boundaries and borders build nations. Nonsense—words do. Stories. Myths. Lies. Promises. History.”

RECOMMENDED TO: fans of Supernatural, plucky heroines, and the musical Chicago.

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24 Jan

BOOK THREE: Destined, Jessie Harrell (three and a half stars)

I’ve been fascinated by the story of Eros and Psyche since sixth grade, when our English and social studies classes did units on ancient Greece (which culminated with Greek Night, when we all had to do some presentation involving an aspect of ancient Greek culture; my group did a skit called Medusa’s Hair Salon). I’ve read a few books/short stories with this myth as a basis, and even attempted to write my own during NaNoWriMo a few years back.

Destined was not one of the best of the adaptations.

Oh, it was an easy read, and cute. I liked Psyche’s personality. She had enough moxie that it wasn’t grating and didn’t read like faux girl power. However, I didn’t like the POV change—Psyche’s chapters are in first person; Eros’s in third. It disrupted the flow for me.

If you’re looking for a light, fluffy reading of the story, by all means go with this one. But if you’re left dissatisfied by Destined, I’ll suggest one of my favorite retellings: Cupid by Julius Lester. I read it at the start of last year, and it’s absolutely beautiful.

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24 Jan

BOOK TWO: Tempest Rising, Tracy Deebs (three and a half stars)

(Hi, still doing this!)

Mermaids were supposed to be the Next Hot Thing in the young adult genre after the vampire craze came to a head (remember how Stephenie Meyer was supposed to be writing that book about sirens?), but they were instead displaced by dystopian stories. (thank you, Hunger Games!)

Contrary to what the blurb on the book says, this is not a book that is only about a love story. Yes, it does play a part, but by and large it’s about Tempest coming into her own.

Simply judging by the ending, Tempest Rising is going to have a sequel. If it doesn’t, then the author’s just cruel. There’s some pretty interesting world building going on there, though. The story was okay, but the promise of another one has piqued my interest in it juuuust a little.

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23 Jan

BOOK ONE: The Leftovers, Tom Perotta (three stars)

I think I first heard about this book in Entertainment Weekly or on NPR last summer, and had been eager to read it all year.

During my first year of high school, my dad got super-into the “audio drama” version of the Left Behind series, and he would play the CDs/tapes in his car whenever we went places. I hated listening to them partially because I found it to be boring and because frankly, the idea of the Rapture freaks me out. People just disappearing out of nowhere? Even if you do believe in God/a spiritual force, that is seriously kind of frightening. The Leftovers deals with the dread and horror of witnessing large swaths of the population disappearing, and some interpret it to be the Rapture—like the group the Guilty Remnant. Except, well, the faithful aren’t the only ones to vanish.

I wasn’t riveted by the story, but not so much that I got bored enough to completely abandon the book. It felt really slow to me, and just as the Guilty Remnant started to get really creepy, the book was over. I wanted more of that gloominess and fright and less of the character study that I felt the book really was.

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