More Reads

Hey-oh, read-peeps!
'Kay, so, more to discuss today. ;P

Good, but I wouldn't punch a child

to steal the last copy from them:

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

This book is extremely well written and well developed. The imagery of it is stunning, and the portrayal of its teenaged characters when it comes to that fancy word “verisimilitude” being thrown around is spot on. That said, there was something just a little bit lacking… a little bit… I don’t know. It gave me that feeling where, when finished, I felt like things had gone somewhere I hadn’t expected them to, but in an overly optimistic way. In other words, if you’re expecting something awful to happen by the end of the book, take a deep breath, only a few awful things happen. Is that a spoiler? Meh. Sorry. No, but really. This book is so well written that I thought some like crazy awesome gut-wrenching moment was going to occur at the end of the book. I don’t know if I’m just a hard person to wrench in the gut area, but um… I didn’t feel like I’d been emotionally bulldozed. (FYI: I like being emotionally bulldozed. I find it refreshing.) That factor aside, this book is brilliant, along with everything it entitles. If you’re a fan of magical powers, time traveling, and travelling in general, this book should be right up your alley. It’s got a timeless appeal (har de har har, that’s a joke you’ll get once you’ve started to read it) that some books can just never seem to master. Also, judging by the way the story ends, this book may have a sequel to follow it up. If that intrigues you, pick it up. It’s a winner in my book. :)

I seriously wasted my time reading this.
What is wrong with me? Ashamed:

Glimmerglass by Jenna Black

Alright, so I’m not gonna lie, I read past this book. I read the second book in the series, Shadowspell. However, I can’t even remember if I read the third book, Sirensong, which, readers, is frankly sad. That means this series, of all the series I’ve read, can’t even keep me interested. Damn. I’m pretty sure I read that third book, but jeez. Nope. Can’t remember a thing. Okay, let me give you the rundown. Glimmerglass is the first book in the Faeriewalker Series. It follows a girl, Dana, who is easy to get along with, especially because you feel for her, what with her alchie mom and absent father. She ends up traveling to meet her father after her mother thoroughly embarrasses the crap out of her at a voice recital. Her father, a mysterious figure, lives in a place called Avalon. In Avalon, the fey and humans live together (AU, weird but understood). Also in Avalon, Dana finds out she’s a Faeriewalker, which is supposed to be some crazy big deal but which I also got pretty much nothing out of. Then Dana meets like 3659326653+ love interests, and the plotline turns into a reverse harem. Only mangas can get away with reverse harems, and that’s because, unless they’re awesome funny like Ouran High School Host Club, they’re emotion porn. Just saying. Tis the truth.

Reverse harem example: Ouran, and its awesomeness.

Sparknotes version of my feedback: don’t read this series. It turns into garbage. Am I calling reverse harems garbage? Yes. Don’t get mad about it. I just admitted to reading one of them, which implies I’ve read more than one. Me. Emotion porn. :O

I thought this was going to be waaaaay better,
but it's still pretty dope, I guess:

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Alright, this book is old. I know! Leave me alone about it! ANYWAY, let me talk about it since I’ve read it recently. Cool world. Cool way of incorporating magic into it. Sabriel is kind of a badass, although I think I liked her cat, Mogget, more than anything. Something about cats that can talk because they’re really demons who have been tethered to a specific form, ideally imprisoned with collars I imagine obnoxious bells attached to, is pretty suhweet. This book is dark. I like the darkness; I also like that the story is about a daughter, not a son, searching for her father rather than her mother (who’s dead anyway, but so what, props to the author for originality). The whole necromancer thing and the bells Sabriel uses to control the dead are my favorite aspects of the book. I also really like how I can follow the map with the story. Usually, I don’t pay that much attention to maps to be honest. That said, here I go being picky again, there was something lacking. I think maybe the romance was too little then all at once and unbelievable? Also, I don’t think there needed to be romance for this book to work. Yes, I know the other books in this series follow the children of Sabriel, so romance IS necessary to see how the idea of having children occurred to her, etc., but so what. Being picky means I expect quality the whole way through. I felt like everything else was so fleshed out it made Sabriel’s relationship with the person she fell in love with seem incomprehensible. I think it might have had something to do with the author being unfamiliar with the romance genre. I dunno. Therefore, I say, “Nice job, Mr. Nix, but I think you can do better.” And maybe he does in the later books?

ZOMGAHDS, luv:

Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

I really dig this series. Sci-fi at its highest points, I’d say. Girl in named Aria lives in a dome-like community where people never go outside, seeing as it’s breeding grounds for Aether, which equals radiation and death. Anyway in her dome community, called Reverie, she (the majority of the time) lives in a virtual world called the Realms. In the Realms, you can be whatever you want to be, go wherever you want to go, do whatever you want to do. Think MMORPG, but, like, with whatever you want. They have a saying concerning the Realms: better than real life. Yeah, well, Aria, a fan of them herself, gets kicked out of them and of Reverie after she causes an accident with one of Reverie’s political leaders’ sons. Enter Peregrine, a.k.a. Perry. Outside of Aria’s dome, people like him, people who can stand the outside world’s brutal air, are barbarians, monsters with special powers, like heightened hearing and smell. Aria, when she’s thrown to the elements, runs into Perry, and by chance, they end up reluctantly allying with one another when they find they both are heading to the same place, but for different reasons. Perry’s nephew has been kidnapped by scientists Aria might know, seeing as she’s trying to find a way to reach her mother, who is a scientist herself. Crazy stuff happens. Great plot. Great world building. Great characterization. Great character development. This series has it all—war, love, disease, a magic of sorts, technology, and oomph. Love it, and would recommend it to any sci-fi nerd, especially if you’re into books like Feed or even a fangirl/fanboy of video games, salivating for the day they become virtual. 1^st book in series. 2^nd book is out and just as awesome. :D

A little exasperating, but I'm still here
and will be there for the next one:

The Selection by Kiera Cass

Sci-fi. About a world in which people are broken up by numbers. They number you based on your upbringing/profession, much akin to a caste system. In this book, set roughly 300 years in the future, there is an established monarchy. Prince Maxon, a 1, (and very Prince Charming, I would say, wiggling my eyebrows) arranges a competition where girls of all numbers/castes, compete for his hand in marriage. Think The Bachelor if it included a prince girls were competing for instead of some wealthy schmuck. Also, everything is a little more high tension, thanks to class/number ranking disputes. Also! I guess it’s reminiscent of The Hunger Games, though they're competing for a change of status and their future lives in the sense of how they’ll play out afterwards rather than dying horrible deaths during the competition. Main character, America Singer (Awesome name, right?), rank of not so awesome 7, is “selected” for the competition. Prior to competing, she’s not really wanted to do so, seeing as she’s already in love with someone else, someone with a lower rank than her, which makes him rather undesirable because, by marrying him, her caste number will drop down. The dude’s name is Aspen. America doesn’t care, and she’s willing to sacrifice everything for him. That is, until he has apparently (or at least with the evidence given) been flirting up a storm with other girls. Then she’s totally cool with leaving her hometown and competing, because, surprise, even if she didn’t enter the competition herself, someone else did that for her. Since “the selection” can improve your ranking just by being publically televised in it, even if she has to shove her broken feelings in a corner and forget about them, she’s pretty cool about it. She gets to the castle, and makes it apparent that she’s more interested in becoming friends with the prince and helping him find the perfect bride, since she’s got a heart that’s been stomped on only too two days ago. The prince tells her that he’d like an ally like her. Then things get awkward because the reader realizes that he really likes her because she’s so different from the other girls, maybe even sees her offering of friendship as a challenge to win her recovering heart over. It’s even kind of working until the guy who broke her heart from the start (Remember him? Aspen?) enters the picture, obtaining a job as a palace guard. Writing? Not the best. Enjoyable? Yeah, I’ll admit it was. It’s kind of like the TV show it mimics. You watch the show, telling yourself you could be doing other things, but somehow you can’t look away. It’s the drama of it all. It’s damn addicting. This book is similar to that, only I’d say the drama goes a little over the top when her old fling shows back up to compete for her affections again. I, frankly, find his character stale and over-possessive. You had your chance, guy. You effed up. This girl deserves a prince, and I think she should have one. Alright. Let’s wrap this up. The love triangle can become exceedingly annoying in this, word of warning. If you’re like me, you’re like, “Drop the guy named after a freaking tree. Too little too late. Maxon for the win.” However, the whole caste system thing and the relationships between the girls in the competition I find I genuinely enjoyed. Apparently the CW is working on a show for this? Cool? 2^nd book comes out soon.

Alright. More to come soon! Thanks for reading!

(In general and in reference to my blog...)

Tootles, and till next time!

-Alex

Book Party Time!

Hello, readers!

Okay. So we’re gonna do something a little different here. I’m going to talk about a bunch of books I’ve read a while back and, basically, categorize them by how I felt when I finished them. It’ll be fun. Promise. If you have further questions about any of the books, please make a comment, and I’ll answer you. Okay… On your mark. Ready. Set. Go.

If you haven’t read these books, you’re failing at being a YA reader:

Allie Condie's Matched

This was completely different from what I thought it’d be. I think it was the writing style that really surprised me. I thought it was going to be all giddy giggles and hearts missing beats, but it wasn’t. Honestly, the way the characters fell for each other was very underwhelming. However, I loved that. I felt it was a nice dystopian attempt. And personally, I think it was a success. The writing, let's go back to that, was lovely and thoughtful and vivid. I’ll eventually read the whole series once it costs less on my Nook. Anyway, the book’s about a future world in which people are matched up to other people based on whether or not the government thinks they’ll be a good couple. The main character in this book, duh, falls in love with someone she and will never be matched to. The book’s about government revolt, which I love like cupcakes. I mean, who doesn't? And I mean that about both. No one should dictate who we fall in love or end up with. The way this book explores that notion made me feel more passionately about the notion itself than I have in some time. 

Moira Young's Blood Red Road

Genius. Young is amaaaazazing. This book is about two twins (a boy and girl), set in the way distant messed up dead world future, who get separated when one of them (the boy) is kidnapped. In simpler terms, the girl twin, Saba, has to venture off with her kid sister, whom she hates, to find her male brother, Lugh. In the mean time, Saba gets captured and then forced into being a cagefighter. Yeah. It’s kinda badass. The only drawback to this book would be that if you’re not a friend of “dialect,” the writing may not be your cup of tea. Personally, I LOATHE dialect, but this book was like a pack of Red Bull, and I loves the Red Bull and the wingage it so grants meez. What’s dialect, you say? Ever read Huckleberry Finn? "I never knew that missin somebody could hurt, I says. But it does. Deep inside. Like it's in my bones. We ain't never bin apart till now. Never. I dunno how to be without him. It's like... I ain't nuthin." Dialect pretty much, at least in this book, is being told the story from a present tense backwoods redneck’s perspective. I luv it. Makes me feel simultaneously smart and yet country. Also, the second book is out. Also, it's intensely spectacular. ;P

Shannon Hale's Goose Girl

This book is one of those books that really makes an impact on you as a reader. It’s a retelling of “The Goose Girl,” if you are unfamiliar with the book itself. If you are unfamiliar with “The Goose Girl” as a Grimm story, it’s about a princess sent off to marry a prince only to have her waiting-maid and everyone in cahoots with the B turn on her. They all pretend the princess is a peasant when they get to the kingdom (even forcing her into peasant’s clothing), and the waiting-maid poses as a false princess (now wearing the true princess’ garb). This results in the princess having to gain a job; the job she obtains is that of a goose girl. Alright! So basically from there, the princess tries to find a way to prove her identity. Of course, others laugh at her, as they think the real princess is on the thrown. In Hale’s story, she does a very good job incorporating the elements within the Grimm version. The way she fleshes out the story, really making it more… real, I guess… totally works. I’d recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It's a book that's about more than romance. It's about personal pride and the relationships that bind us to others.

This book was cute… better than I expected it to be:

Jackson Pearce's As You Wish

This was cute. Would I read it again? Meh. Would I tell everyone I know to try it? Not on my life. That doesn’t make me deny the fact that it was enjoyable to read. I mean, if someone’s all about genies, sure. I’ll recommend it. Cause that’s what this book is about. Genies. A girl gets one and wants to use him to get the men/love/recognition in her life she thinks she deserves, until she falls for the genie herself. Also, on a side note, there’s more depth to the story, involving the death of the main character’s brother, as well as the fact that she’s in love with her best friend… who’s uber gay and has turned her down before the start of the story. Also, when you fall in love with a genie, it's not as easy as, "I wish we could be together forever." There's his feelings to consider, which we actually get to see, as this book alternates perspectives. Yay, Pearce!

Guilty Pleasure reads:           

Aprilynne Pike's Wings

I don’t think it was like the best thing I’ve ever read, but yeah, I liked it. The romance to me was a little too dramatic and girly, but it wasn’t too over the top like in some YA out there. This book is about faeries. Woot. Yay, fey! However, it’s kinda interesting, because the faeries are more like an alternate species of human, instead having cells akin to a plant. I thought that was super original, and I applaud Pike for her creativity. Anyway, the main character, who’s just transferred to a new school, something that can be hard enough for a person, wakes up with a freaking bloom on her back like a bulbasaur. She, along with the help of her dreamy new bf, try to figure out what it is. Obviously, they don't think plant bulbs and the fey have anything in common, at least at first. In the meantime, she also meets another dreamy guy, this time of the plant/faerie variety. He tries to reach out to her, but she’s not sure if she should trust him or not.

Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers Series

These are addicting in the way that you don’t want to admit out loud. It’s funny. My boyfriend read about them somewhere and was like, “Oh God, this is the crap that’s making teens underwhelmed with boys if they’re not fighting over them.” To that I was, meekly, like, “Well, that’s a little judgmental. I mean, come on, you haven’t even read them.” Which was the blatant sign that I had shamefully read all of the books that had been released in this series in the span of three days. Yeahhh, at the time, there were six. Anyway, the books are about a girl named Kaylee Cavanaugh who can sense when someone around her is about to die. Freaky, no? In time, she figures out this is because she is a bean sidhe, a.k.a. (for those of us who speak english and although it's never mentioned in the books, oddly) a living, breathing banshee. She meets a boy named Nash, also a bean sidhe, though his powers, being male, differ. The story unfolds from there. Nash’s brother, Tod (my faaaaaav), becomes important in subsequent books, though I won’t tell why even though it’s meg awesome. If you hate books where you go from completely loving to ardently hating a character, I don’t know if this series will be your thing. However, it’s amazeballs, especially when the books explore the fact that bean sidhe are not the only supernatural beings in the world. Bum, bum, bummmm. :O (Book one is called My Soul to Take.)

This book had a lot of hype, but I think it failed to deliver:

Kiersten White's Paranormalcy

This book is the starting book in a series that already has a second book, Supernaturally, out. (Etc., etc. for the other books.) White has been one of those new go-to popular names in the YA genre when teens are looking to let the supernatural into their lives. Her books and her characters have been most commonly compared to the good old 90’s TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As a fan of both Buffy and Angel, I think this comparison stands true. However, I don’t think this book was as good as Buffy. Also, I think the book (let’s not let comparisons cloud our jugement) was a little too cliché for my tastes. Maybe the word I’m looking for isn’t “cliché”? Maybe it’s “childish”? :/ It’s about a girl named Evie who works for a top secret government agency that monitors the supernatural. In addition to carrying around a pretty cool blinged-out pink taser, Evie has the kickass power to see through the supernatural and their various disguises, which helps her to spot them out in a crowd. She can see their true faces, which aren't always as pretty as their plastered-on human appearances imply. However, when her agency takes in one supernatural, a supe with no true face though he has a human form, things get kind of chaotic. Evie, after bonding a bit with the odd boy, starts to question whether or not she’s working for her agency on her own accord, or whether she’s like a pet to them, which they keep on a leash and order to attack others when wanted. Also, she kinda gets the hots for the supe her agency captures. Stuff goes down. I just thought the stuff that went down may be more enjoyable to a younger audience. Maybe if you're reading YA at the age of 11 to 14, you'll like this book more. A more mature audience is probably going to feel a little like the material is written for someone younger. It's very reminiscent of the Artemis Fowl books. If you like those, you'll probably dig this.

This book sucked more than a baby sucks on a pacifier:

Carrie Jones’ Need

Oh my God, kill me. I HAAAAAATED this book. Seriously. I couldn’t stand another minute of it. There are very few series that I start where I’m like, “Well, I sure as hell am not going to read the second book!” This was one of them. DIS-AP-POINT-INGGGG. I started it out, and I truly enjoyed the way it was written. Something about the way it was paced I just totally clicked with. So I bought it. TRICK! Once I bought it, it was like all the characters and the plot (and even the beautiful pacing) went off the deep end, spiraling off into a portion of deep space I will only refer to as Totally Bogus. UGH. Was anybody who read this bothered with the fact that faeries are called pixies and they have something to do with Norse mythology? Okay, let me be the enlightened person I should be here. Yay, Jones, you did your homework. Yes, some faerie lore dates back to the Nords, what with their frost giants and dark elves and whatnot, but shit. Pixies? Where the HELL did you get that word from? Just think about it. Pixies…. Norse myth. Something about those two words together is making the sky fall or at least Loki poke Balder in the gut, going, “Ha! And that’s a joke I didn’t even partake in!” UGH. Freaking “pixies.” *Slams head against wall repeatedly* Main character Zara White moves to a town in Maine where she is to live with her step-grandmother after her stepfather dies. While in town, she finds she is being pursued by a really creepy pixie king who apparently wants her goods because she’s apparently part-pixie and her dad was a big name in the world of their kind. Also, somehow werewolves enter the picture, alongside the valkyrie and OTHER pixie kings (less creepy, more dreamy if you can pass over a boring personality for looks). WTF. That’s all I have left to say. W…T…F. >:/

Okay! That’s it for today! Hope you enjoyed this, because I’m going to be doing it AT LEAST one more time. After that, it’ll be back to normal reviews, at least for a while. I just needed to get these all off my chest. Some were suffocating me; some could have stayed there forever. *Shrugs*

Till next time! :D

The Juliet Spell and Failing to Cast a Spell

Reviewing today: Douglas Rees' The Juliet Spell.

Here’s the intriguing-looking cover.

Cherish it while you can, ‘cause I’m about to rip the book's spine in half before I throw it maliciously into a raging bonfire.

This book made me angry. It’s one of those books that makes all YA authors look like they’re trying to write down to teens to get a book published. Not only was the whole old language “thee” and “thou” thing a bit insulting, but the main character was just weak as an individual, which was disappointing. The first chapter I was okay with. I actually liked our leading female, Miranda. After that? Not so much. This book and its characters (minus like one person) are dumb. D-U-M-B. Harsh critic time.

I really hate reading a book and being disappointed. Nothing irks me more than when I pay money for something and have to physically force myself to read it. I download a lot of samples on my Nook, and if they seem good enough after 20-40 pages, buy them. This book’s sample tricked me. I mean, sure, I knew I was about to go on a Shakespeare stereotyping rampage, but I thought it might be unique enough that I’d smile along the way. No smiling. All frowns.

It’s angering to me to even give this book the time of day and summarize it so you readers out there can consider whether or not you want to pick it up. (Don’t. It will burn your hands. It will give you a disease.) Anyway! I guess we must do what we must. Here goes my vague and probably rude summary. Sorry, Rees, you had it coming.

Miranda has always wanted to fill the same shoes as her mother, a former actress who was always chosen to play Juliet. It’s her chance now, as her school is putting on a production of Romeo and Juliet. Unfortunately, Miranda’s theater teacher chooses boobs over talent, and doesn’t give Miranda, deserving of it, the part. In order to see if she can change her fate and role, Miranda casts a spell (like an evil witch, because that totally makes you a more likable person), a fame spell, to see if she can get the recognition in the school play she believes she deserves. However, her spell kinda really backfires. Instead of her obtaining fame, she obtains a famous celebrity standing on top of her coffee table: Renn Fest garbed Edmund. I know, you’re thinking, “Who the hell is he?” He’s the one and only Shakespeare’s younger brother.

Basically, Miranda figures she can use what she gets to her advantage as much as possible. She asks Edmund for tips in acting as well as questions about his brother’s ultimate vision. Problem? Edmund kinda hates his brother. Other problem? Miranda is kinda falling for Edmund as he helps her. It’s all rather trite and been done. The only original thing to it is, I guess, the fact that we’re pretending Shakespeare had a brother.

Fluff. Fluff. Fluff, fluffity, fluff. I’M GAGGING ON A SHEEP HERE. Seriously, that’s all this book is. It’s cute, condescending-to-your-intelligence fluff.

UGH. I don’t even care that it’s clever that all the characters have names from at least one play in Shakespeare’s cannon. I don’t even care that we’re juggling multiple characters in the book, characters the author seemed to really put some thought into. I can’t, because I’m that insulted. For reals. No joke.

The only redeeming thing about this book is, in the end, it kind of goes somewhere you maybe half of your time reading it expected. And yes, that ending is something that will make the reader satisfied. I can honestly say that, while I hated Edmund’s Middle English shout outs to the Renaissance, his decisions and how they affected the plot were at least a fraction refreshing as well. Thank you, Edmund for being the jerk we didn’t think the author was going to let you be. You made me happy with the way things turned out. Also, you allowed for a somewhat deeper message to the text: You can’t always get what you want. And if you can’t get it, work with what you’ve got. Similar to how I worked with this review to actually give the author some ounce of creative credit, right?

Was that too mean? Ouch. But really. This is almost as bad as that My Boyfriend Merlin book I just absolutely refused to finish. Alright, since I guess everybody gets a gold star at least for effort…

Overall rating?

 

Fiction or Literature?

100% Fiction, 0% Literature (Just goes to show that pulling from literary figures doesn’t always make what you create a work of lit on its own.)

Good or Bad?

1% Good, 99% Bad (Yeah, I know that's mean, but hey. It's my opinion.)

The end. Rant done.

Girly Squee Time

Today we’ll be discussing…

Alley Carter's Gallagher Girls Series!

Above: Fancy boxed set picture.

OMIGAHD. Let’s be super girly! I LOVE Alley Carter. Seriously, she can be my BFF. We’ll hang out and paint our nails, and I’ll make her make up some super hot fantasy spy BF for me while we’re at it. Jeeeeeez. Seriously, though. This is the kind of Girly Lit that makes me proud to say that sometimes, yes, I enjoy acting like a twelve year old, so what? Carter, I’m reading you any day. So let’s move on. How about talking about the books on their own?

Alright, so basically this series is about a girl named Cameron the Chameleon who goes to an all girl’s (pretend you don’t hear me whispering this last part) top secret school for spies. Cameron, Cammie, Cam, she’s good at, like her nickname implies, blending in. I mean, come on, wouldn’t you try to blend in if your mom ran the school as its headmistress? Duh.

Anyway! One day Cammie finds herself outside the spy school (the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, btdubs, if you wanted to know). Outside the school’s grounds (in Roseville, Virginia), she finds there’s a boy who, unlike most people, she can’t seem to blend into a crowd with. He sees her, and she realizes she might be wanting to see more of him, too. However, though since he’s a perfectly average Joe (emphasis on the prefect), it’s kinda really crazy forbidden for her to date, let alone date someone who knows diddly squat about spy stuffs. As a spy herself and the daughter of the school’s headmistress, how’s that going to work out? This first book leads us on to find out such.

Book One:

Book Two:

Book Three:

Book Four:

Aren't those covers with all their plaid just adorable?

Okay, yay! This is my favorite part! Don’t continue reading this entry if you don’t like teeny, tiny spoilers. But if you’re okay with knowing a little more, read on. I promise I’m not ruining the series, just maybe a little of the first book, but not really. Okay, so yeah… what I kind of summarized before? That’s not what this series is about (at least altogether) AT ALL.

Later in the series, more boys are introduced into the story. Spy boys. *Cough, Zach, cough, cough, squeal.* (Is it weird when I reread this to edit it I heard a pig squeal? Maybe I should have said “squee” instead? Whatevs.) The first book really just involves Cammie and her friends and a boy who’s just kind of a boring local (unless in future books Carter goes crazy on us with plot twists, which I wouldn’t altogether hate ;P).

Life gets more complicated for Cammie, especially when she’s faced with the harsh reality that being a spy isn’t all about super cool techie gadgets and knowing a thousand different languages. Life and death are the only two things a spy can be sure of. Family, love, trust, things we normies take for granted, well, for the most part that is, those are things—for spies—that are to be questioned constantly.

In short, life for a teenaged girl is tough. There’s boys to deal with, friends to make, other girls to hate. For Cammie? Gahd, life is just SO MUCH harder, which sucks for her for the most part, but is great for us avid readers who like to inhale the pain of another. At least she gets spy stuff. And spy friends. And spy friends with benefits.

Overall rating?

Fiction or Literature?

95% Fiction, 5% Literature

Good or Bad?

100% Good, 0% Bad (Although, it pains me to say the first book in more like only 85% Good… Some of it is too cliché, childish, predictable, lacking in the wow factor. Persevere! The next few books are ornately decorated cakes to a fat kid!)

Will this be the most life-changing series you’ve ever picked up to read? No. Absolutely not. Will you flip page to page in a crazed I-want-to-be-a-super-spy haze. Um, duh.

Read it. They’re fun, good, and worth it. Plus, you know you’ve secretly always wanted to live the life of a spy. :P

Fangirl Time

Okay, readers, I’m back.


Yes, I’ve been bad. Yes, I’ve broken my New Year’s resolution already. Man, I suck at New Year’s resolutions. The only one I ever succeeded in keeping was a “no caffeine for four months,” which was the stupidest resolution I could have made, seeing as it just resulted in killer migraines and me gaining 15 pounds. Ugh. Who cares if caffeine is a drug? It’s awesome. Yes, kids, I did just become a bad role model. Whatever. Point is: I’m back! I’m back and ready to review! :P

Today we’re talking about Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices series, namely the first book (The Clockwork Angel)… since I don’t want to give away any spoilers in the second book (The Clockwork Prince), which is, quite frankly, amazingsauce. Yes. Amazingsauce.

If you have yet to read and/or hear anything about/by Cassandra Clare, at this moment, please slap yourself, palm flat, in the face. I’ve mentioned her before. So if you’ve read prior posts by me before, STOP! Don’t slap yourself! Unless it’s too late, in which case I say, “Sorry, but maybe you should pay closer attention.” :)

Seriously, though. Cassie (what we huge, dorky fans call her as if we know her on a personal level) is ah-maaaaa-zing. (That’s read in a singsong voice, FWI.) She’s like… the chocolate-iced cake to my inner fat kid. She’s the plump, red cherry to the top of my library sundae. She is the maple syrup on top of my Belgian waffles because waffles trump pancakes any day, no competition. And yes… it has occurred to me that I may be a little hungry. However, I’m always even MORE hungry for any witty words this author has to add to my collection of YA books.

Cassie started out publishing what is called her Mortal Instruments series. This series is about a society called Shadowhunters and a girl who gets tangled up with them when it becomes apparent she’s somehow connected to their crazy, magic-filled world. These Shadowhunters hunt demons for a living. Pretty cool? Um, duh.


Well, anyway, Cassie’s Infernal Devices series is set in the same world, the world filled with Shadowhunters, demons, vampires, warlocks, and other things that go bump in the night. There’s just one difference. (I mean, minus the plot and characters and the overall way the story flows.) The Mortal Instruments series is set in the now. The Infernal Devices? The Victorian era.

Woot, woot, period piece, here we come! FINALLY, I’m reviewing something set in the past (Princess Academy aside, seeing as that might not even be set on the planet of Earth)! Okay, but seriously. Let’s start getting down to the nitty gritty. :D

The Mortal Instruments series is awesome. It’s hilarious. The characters are great. There’s conflict and kickass battle scenes and at the same time, hello, there’s some good old sexy romance, tastefully done, of course. It’s the whole package. Tons of people love it. Pretty much every book has been on the New York Times Bestsellers. That said— UGH!— The Infernal Devices series is BETTER. First of all, not only is it cool how this second series she’s written interweaves with the families and traditions of the first, it’s phenomenal how the second one comes off as completely different. In a good way.

When authors write same-world books where they branch off with different characters, let’s just face it, sometimes they drop the ball. May I give an example? It'd be my pleasure. Here we go. I love Kelley Armstrong to death, but the Darkness Rising trilogy just doesn’t quite measure up to Darkest Powers trilogy (at least not yet, by the way, read that first series if you haven’t, it’s epic). The Darkest Powers has more action, more character development, and more overall originality. This is the pit many authors fall into. Cassandra Clare doesn’t fall in the precarious hole like so many before her. She laughs at the hole, inconspicuously steals a cement truck, pours cement in the hole, it dries, then she smiles the hole in the metaphorical face.

I liked Cassie’s first series. Okay, that’s an understatement, I loved it. Okay, since I’m obviously laying it on the line here, YES, I WAS OBSESSED WITH THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS AND RECOMMENDED IT TO EVERYONE AND, YES, I WAS OFFENDED IF THEY NEVER READ IT BECAUSE, YES, I’VE BEEN TO THREE SIGNINGS OF CASSIE’S AND HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO TELL HER OR APPPARENTLY ANYONE ELSE WHO’S MY FRIEND AND SAYS “YEAH, SURE, I’LL READ IT” BUT NEVER DOES JUST HOW AWESOME SHE IS BECAUSE I'M TOO ENAMORED BY HER. Ahem, yeah. I’m a little bit of a fan. So what?

The Infernal Devices centers around an American girl named Tessa Gray who, after the death of her grandmother, has no other choice but to move to England to live with her brother, Nathaniel. However, when Tessa makes her way to England, she is kidnapped by two women named the Dark Sisters who lock her away in a room in a brothel, telling her that soon she will have nothing to fear, she’ll be married to a man called the Magister. THANK GOD, however, Tessa is discovered by a group of Shadowhunters and saved, taken back to their home, for she has no other. However, as the Dark Sisters reveal to Tessa, she has more to worry about than not just having a home. There is something locked away in Tessa, a magical power that allows her to transform into others, a power no one has heard of before. Under the watch of the Shadowhunters, Tessa frets as to where her brother has been taken, what this power is inside her. Add in a dash of two attractive boys her age, one with a deadly disease that eats at him, James Carstairs, another with a reckless streak that will probably end up getting him murdered, William Herondale, and Tessa, well, she’s got a whole story surrounding her. Tessa strives to uncover the secrets of this new world around her and also the secrets inside herself all while she and the Shadowhunters try with all they can to figure out who this mysterious Magister is and why he’s attempting to obtain Tessa. Also, spoiler alert, though not really, seeing as the titles The Clockwork Angel and The Clockwork Prince suggest it, this series is a tinge on the side of steampunk. ;)

Never heard of the term?

UGH. And that’s like not even really getting into the characters. Let me be short about this: Cassandra Clare knows how to mold characters. They’re funny or rash or haunted or calculated. She does it all, really.

While I wouldn’t call Clare’s work “literature” per se, I would call it totally freaking worthwhile. Also, it’s kind of clever how she ties in different quotes in Victorian literature into the titles of each chapter. I’m a sucker for Vic Lit. I almost (and still contemplate it later on in life) decided to go to grad school to become a Victorian Lit professor.

Cassie, as far as the era itself goes, nails it. After all, we have to talk about that. What’s the word? Verisimilitude? Believability? Um, yeah, covered. The images of a foggy, dank, Victorian London are spot on. Also, Cassie really gives the reader a sense of place. It’s like not only do we get a series set in Victorian era London, we truly learn about it. The characters teach us if not just the imagery within the books. And it’s not all tell, it’s show.

Let’s see. I’m going to put in a few choice quotes from the book just to draw you guys in. Then I’m going to shut up after once again telling you to read this series.

“The Sisters vanished entirely then, and Aunt Harriet was standing over Tessa, her face flushed with fever as it had been during the terrible illness that had killed her. She looked at Tessa with great sadness. "I tried," she said. "I tried to love you. But it isn't easy to love a child that isn't human in the least...." 

"Not human?" said an unfamiliar female voice. "Well, if she isn't human, Enoch, what is she?" The voice sharpened in impatience. "What do you mean, you don't know? Everyone's something. This girl can't be nothing at all....” 

Jem shook his head. "You bit de Quincey," he said. "You fool. He's a VAMPIRE."

"I had no choice," said Will. "He was choking me."

"I know," Jem said. "But really, Will, AGAIN?”

“Whatever you are physically... male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy— all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.”

“You know," Gabriel said, "there was once a time I thought we could be friends, Will."

"There was a time I thought I was a ferret," Will said, "but that turned out to be the opium haze.”

“Well, she's not responding to my advances," he observed more brightly than he felt, "so she must be dead."

"Or she's a woman of good taste and sense.”

I know these quotes don’t have much of Tessa in them, but she’s really a great heroine. She’s sheltered enough to be like any other gender-challenged Victorian woman, and yet, throughout the series, she discovers, though she may be a lady, sometimes ladies don’t have to sit in the corner, playing the piano and looking pretty.

Rating?

Fiction or Literature?

80% Fiction, 20% Literature

Good or Bad?

100% Good, 0% Bad

READ THIS SERIES! (I told you I’d say it again.) NOW!!! (Preferably. Don't be like my lying friends.)

Until next time readers,

Alex :D