A Novel Novel: Princess Academy

Hello, readers!

Up until now, I've only gone into discussions on book series. In the YA world, it isn't hard to get stuck on trilogies and sagas. That's why, today, I'm going to discuss a novel. This novel is Shannon Hale's Princess Academy. Take in mind the text that reads "THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER."

I need to admit, though I just finished this book today, I'm a little late on boarding the Princess Bus. This book has been around for quite some time. It reached the public's shelves in 2006.

There is something about the word "princess" that always strikes me as childish and overtly girly. That's probably why I saw this book multiple times in various stores and scoffed at it, snubbing it for the word girl's gloat around when they're little in the title. For whatever reason I was at a resale bookstore and decided, "One buck, I'll take it," I'm glad. Princess Academy was not a book about naive school girls battling one another to win the favor of their kingdom's prince. I'm ashamed I ever thought that. This book, which I finished in one day, was something else entirely. It should NOT have been marked $1.

The plot of this book revolves around a girl named Miri, who starts the book out at fourteen. In her tiny village, she feels weak and unwanted, for instead of mining the quarries like every other teenager her age or younger, she tends to the chores of her house, oftentimes alone. However, when a messenger of the king visits her small village, everything Miri has ever done becomes inconsequential. Miri's life changes from a life of goat-herding to a life of text books and court manners. She, along with the other eligible girls of her village, are to be bred up to parr so that, in a year, when the prince comes to choose his new wife, he is not left disappointed. Miri must learn not only the art of being a lady but also to read and write if she wants to become princess. Up against twenty other girls, she must shine above, especially when it becomes clear there are more challenges than becoming a proper lady that come along...

This book was AWESOME.

Hale knows how to write like no other. She's got that fairy tale quality to her writing that other authors never can accomplish. The setting she chooses, in the mountains, is breathtaking. You are not seeing the mountains in your head. You are on the mountain crags yourself, sucking in the thin air. The imagery, as a whole, is stunning. There are scenes so vivid that you find yourself longing to be a character to feel the mountain breeze. And while we're mentioning Hale's characters... all of them are fleshed out to a point that's phenomenal. None are flat. All are round. All are changing. All make sense. Hale is remarkable. This story is not about girls competing for a prince, it's about girls competing to find themselves.

The amount of folklore and culture is so rich in this story it makes the reader want to live where Miri lives. We want to put the book aside, sing mountain songs around a fire. Also, there is a conflict between social classes, the lowlanders versus the highlanders, that even the readers is a part of. Both struggle and acceptance are things the reader comes to terms with. Through the characters, the wealth of them, but mostly Miri, we get this. Characters must prevail over prejudice, but they must also stand up for themselves. Miri, as a character, is so strong. She's amazing. She's every girl, and who every girl wants to be.

This is a book that reminds me why I always go back to reread Ella Enchanted and Howl's Moving Castle. In fact, when I go back to rereread those books, I'm going to go back to rereading this book, too. Can we go back to the part where I said Hale's writing was beautiful? GOSH.

Rating?

Fiction or Literature?
0% Fiction, 100% Literature

Good or Bad?
100% Good

Read it. Take it in. Smile. Wait a year. Read it again. Smile. It's that good. It's a book to remember.

Till next time,
Alex

The Iron Gates to this Series are Quick to Closing; Hop in While You Can

Hello, readers!

Today I'm talking about another series that has also come to an end... at least, sort of. The author of these books has admitted she will be branching off to write more books using other characters within the series, namely borrowing the central character's little brother, but that's ALL the author's admitted to. :/

Say hello to breakout author Julie Kagawa's The Iron Fey Series.

They say, "Hello right back." :D

Feeling a little overwhelmed? Six books? Isn't that a bit much? Well, let me appease your reading minds. Only three are from the main protagonist's perspective, making them the true books of the series' trilogy. Two of these books are novellas, and Kagawa mentioned reading the last book and novellas can be more than optional. I'm going to go into more detail on this, so hang tight, readers. Trust me. The series is well worth it.

The first three books we're going to talk about are these pretty covers right here:

These three covers, books The Iron King, The Iron Daughter, and The Iron King, represent the true "Iron Fey Trilogy." They tell a story of a girl named Meghan Chase who finds herself on a chase of her own when her little brother is kidnapped by something that goes bump in the night. Meghan is determined to get her brother back when she discovers the very real bumps hiding in her normal, mortal life are things she thought only existed in fairy tales—faeries—and those faeries aren't a hair as nice as they look in children's story books. Meghan must join together with the one person she thought was her friend, not her personal guardian and no way in hell the real to life troublemaker Puck.

Meghan soon uncovers there are darker secrets to her past and birth that she never knew. Traveling into Faery, she also uncovers that those secrets make her a valuable pawn in a war between fey she never knew existed. Meghan, illegitimate daughter of the Summer King Oberon, is hunted down by many, loathed by all. It's no surprise, with only the help of trickster Puck, an untrustworthy cat named Grimalkin, and the aid of an icy but pact-bound winter fey prince called Ash, that Meghan can begin to hope to track her brother down. Together, willingly or unwillingly, they must fight against a force that even the vicious fey of Faery cringe at.

That's how the series starts. Important things not mentioned? Ash and Puck have a history. It's not all unicorns and rainbows. Also, they find themselves drawn to Meghan, whether they want to be or not. Meghan has a missing father, the one who raised her when she was young, not Oberon. He disappeared when she was six, and she wonders if his disappearance may be like the disappearance of her brother.

Now, as mentioned before, the trilogy stands on its own. However, Kagawa did publish two novellas in case readers needed their Puck/Ash/Grim fix. I promise, readers, you do. :)

These are the two novellas, Winter's Passage and Summer's Crossing. BOTH ARE FREE FOR DOWNLOAD AT THIS WEBSITE. That's right, free, free as in: "you don't have to buy them."

Winter's Passage takes place after the second book in the trilogy. Summer's Crossing takes place after the third book in the trilogy, and it's told from Puck's perspective. These two books are TOTALLY OPTIONAL. However, if you read them, you will LEARN THINGS THAT BECOME IMPORTANT IN LATER BOOKS. However, again, those things WILL BE SUMMARIZED OR TALKED ABOUT IN THE NORMAL-SIZED BOOKS FOR THE READER'S SAKE.

Now that that's said... let's move on.

Kagawa, as she mentions in an interview in the last of her currently written books, The Iron Knight, wanted her story to end with the story of The Iron Queen. However, her publicist didn't exactly think her ending should sway that way. She encouraged her for a different conclusion, and so we thank her.

Not only do we get more awesome feyness, like in the novella Summer's Crossing, we get another perspective. Though it pains me to say it because I hate telling authors they're wrong about how they want to end something, I think, we DO get an ending that is more satisfying with the fourth normal-sized book. High five, publicist. Hello, The Iron Knight, all told from a certain winter prince's frosty and emotionally conflicted POV. ;)

Here's the front with the prince:

Here's the back with the trickster:

There's no Meghan 85% of it... just good old doses of Ash, Puck, Grimalkin, and some VERY notable others. *Waggles eyebrows*

I'll admit I was
Team

for the majority of the series.
This book, however, made me
Team

Don't disrespect. Pokemon will never get old. ;P

I found out about Julie Kagawa back in my sophomore year of college. At that time, only the first two books had been published. I started the series off not really expecting much depth from the characters. I figured the story would have it's predictable ups and downs, that I would be able to trace them. "Oh, it's about some girl torn between the love of two faeries while stuck in the plot of Labyrinth? Whatever." I was wrong.

Kagawa's books are ANYTHING but predictable. I mean, sure. You can kind of guess where the romance side of the story is going, but there's so much more to them besides romance. Meghan Chase is one of the most proactive female characters I've seen in a good long while. Even though she's just human or half-fey or whatever you want to deem her, she's amazing. She's the powerhouse every girl her age wants to be. She doesn't start out this way, either. The best part about this series is that we get to see her become one.

Overall rating (since this post is becoming a little long)?

Fiction or literature?
Fiction 95%, Literature 5%

Good or bad?
100% Good

Readers, this series is fun. It's fun and full of conflict of the heart and mind and body. Besides that? *Shrug* That doesn't mean you shouldn't read it. Read it. Not everything has to be literary for it to be readable. This series may stray from the pack we call literature, but sometimes we don't need the pack. We need just a pinch of fantasy. The Iron Fey Series has this. It will give you the magical. It will give you adventure.

Till next time,
Alex

What I'm Favoring Today

Hello, readers!

Hokie dokie, as I said before, I'll be reading weekly and talking about books as I complete them. However, seeing as this isn't the first week I've ever read a book, I'm going to also talk about books I have read, because some of the books I have read should also be read by you guys. ;P

Today I'm going to recommend a series that has actually been completed. Many of you have probably already read it. For those of you who haven't... say hello to:

The Hunger Games trilogy is a dystopian series written by the very gutsy writer Suzanne Collins. The easiest way to sum up the series? Gladiator meets the 31st Century.

Starting out, the story follows Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old girl living in the poorest district of the country Panem. Due to prior government revolt, the leaders of Panem (which used to be the U.S., as the reader later infers) ensure their power by, each year, showing just what they can do to the country's children. Each year, the government owned districts are expected to choose one boy and one girl, age 12 to 18, to compete in Panem's Hunger Games, and though they're called "games," they are far from it. The games, in reality, are a competition between the boys and girls of each district, a competition that, ultimately, is a battle to the death. When Katniss' sister, Prim, is chosen to be a competitor in the annual Hunger Games at only 12, Katniss, being the caring sister that she is, volunteers herself instead. Venturing off to face death, be it hers or one the 23 contesting others, Katniss must fight to survive. She must watch out for who she trusts. She must watch out for those she cares for. Most of all, however, she must watch out for herself.

This movie trailer wraps up the summary pretty nicely...

Thaaaat's right! There WILL be a movie. Now you HAVE to read it. After all, when it comes out, you don't want to be the only friend who doesn't know exactly what's going on. :)

This series, to me, deals with SOOOOO much. There's love, there's hate, there's war, there's anarchy, there's everything. BTW, the summary I gave? That's only like the first 80 pages of the first book. If I gave anything else away, well... it just wouldn't be fair. Let's just say, there's a lot of gore, there's a lot of death, but there's also a very well-thought-out triangle. ;P

When it comes to literary skill, triangles aside, Collins does an amazing job writing this story in a present tense first person, which I think is very bold. So many books out there are written in the past. The present makes everything fast-paced and immediate, doing the thrilling story wonders.

Death and oppression and revolt and mistrust are things that are prominent throughout the series. Though they seem heavy and at some times overwhelming, these themes are what really make Collins' story note-worthy. You want to cry for her characters. Sometimes, you want to throw the book across the room. Not only is the plot always twisting and moving and keeping the reader on the tip of their seat, the writing itself is top-notch.

So... getting down to the nitty gritty... what's the rating?

Fiction or literature?
25% Fiction, 75% Literature

Good or bad?
100% Good

This is a series that leaves you thinking months after the books are put down. Go out and buy it!

Till next time readers,
Alex

An Introduction

Hello all,

My name is Alex Kelley, and I've made this blog (arrogant though it seems) in order to help out those of you who have problems looking for a good book. I, myself, found this to be a problem when I was first getting into the "Reading Scene." That's why I'm here. I wish someone had made a blog to help ME out.

My genre of choice, though I'll confess to reading almost anything, is Young Adult literature. As both a writer of it and a person wanting to get into the publishing industry involving it, you could say I'm a bit of a fan. Or you could be truthful. Yes, I have a Peter Pan complex.

There's something about YA lit that dives into the inescapable reality of accepting maturity. I guess this dive into leaving behind adolescence is an obsession of mine. All children, except one, grow up. Thank you, J.M. Barrie.

Whether a character is growing up by learning what it means to care about more than themselves, understanding sexuality, or discovering what it means to move on, YA lit is there to lead the reader along.

YA lit comes in all shapes and sizes—short stories, poetry, individual novels, book series. YA lit is for young readers out there, helping them to cope with problems they might face in the real world. However, YA lit isn't just for the young. It's for everyone.

Young Adult literature is oftentimes, let's be honest, straight up laughed at. However, I believe the people who laugh at it are wrong to judge. Many a book aimed at a younger audience has more than a love triangle, high school drama, and an angsty comment or eighty. That's why I'm here. I'm here to tell you what YA is great to read and what YA is... not so much.

It would be untruthful to say that all YA literature is truly literature. Some of it isn't. There is a difference between literature and fiction, and that difference will always stand. On a weekly basis, I will read as often as I can, and I will report to you, readers, what books are not just works of fiction, but what books are also literature. It is not wrong to step away from deep, life-changing stories for a brush with a juicy mystery or love story. That is why, not only will I separate literature from fiction, I will separate good fiction from bad.

Hope to see you around readers,
Alex ;)