Taken by Storm, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

A vivid, wrenching, entirely worthy conclusion to an excellent trilogy.

Take everything we've seen from Ms. Barnes before in this series and mark it up by fifty percent - the violence, the emotional impact, the shocking plot twists - then reduce the size of the book by a fourth, and you'll have this speed-reading terror of a foil-bound trilogy-closer. (I'm going to be speaking about it as though it's the end of the the series; it has a definite ring of finality to it that I hope goes undisturbed, and from what I've heard on the author's site, it will.)



If anyone's reading this and doesn't know the first two books... click on the "shapeshifters" tag and find my reviews of them. Here we have Bryn, the human girl raised by a werewolf pack after the murder of her parents... Bryn, who has by this book grown up a good deal and taken her own very unique place in her raw, wild, and dangerous world.

I'm saying very little here, to avoid spoilers. Because trust me, for this book, you don't want'm. I was on the metaphorical edge of my seat the whole time. Suffice to say that a long-held question of mine was answered, one of Evan's predictions came true that I didn't believe would, and one of my predictions did as well. Two plot points that we both expected also occurred. Not that I'm saying this book is predictable - I was eeping the whole while.

There will almost certainly be a few points at which you will beg, "Don't let it end like this!"
Almost certainly a few to the tune of, "Is there honestly a way out of this?"
Wordless exclamations are also not inappropriate at many spots.

I'm not entirely positive what I think of Callum's prescience as a plot device. It may have annoyed me... I'm honestly not sure whether it did or not. On the other hand, it annoys other characters, too.

For those of you who read Hunger Games, you'll probably come to notice that Ms. Barnes has jumped on the "surprise chapter endings" bandwagon. I'm not un-sorry. But I did have to cover a few endings with my hand because my nervous eye has a tendency to jump ahead of my reading.

(I just turned on Handel's "Messiah" again. I think I did this writing the review of the first book, too. I detect a trend here?)

Age rec: This is going to stop all of nobody, but probably fifteen and up? And up? (chuckles nervously) Just for violence and some slightly disturbing scenes related to same. Unlike the previous two books, I found some parts of this one uncomfortable. Trust me - not because of the romance, so for any of you who worried that the third book would involve flagrant indecency, lay your minds at rest. [I am about to slightly qualify that last statement with a very indefinite and small spoiler that avoids naming names: One of the characters becomes pregnant while unmarried, but the fact alone is established onstage, without any indecent content in sight.]

Bottom line: The promise held out in the first two books is amply fulfilled and then some.

Two new MG/YA releases I read this week

Both of these books are fresh, new, well-written additions to the MG/YA shelves. I highly recommend the two of them.

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Cinder, by Marissa Meyer

I have my friend to thank for lending me this one... the same friend who convinced me to read The Perilous Gard, so you see I owe her a lot.
Cinder is ... a sci-fi retelling of Cinderella, set in New Beijing, far into the future. There's a Lunar colony (with a mind-controlling ruler), a bunch of neat technology, a lightly-written romance, a terrificly sad event that I still am trying to figure out how the plot could have worked without, and a mint of good writing.
Plus, the Cinderella character is a cyborg. Yes, I said a cyborg. And the whole thing works, yes, it works! Even though I guessed one of the twists, I didn't care. There were others I didn't. Also, I appreciated the Chinese culture references throughout the book. Though I've nothing against most of the futuristic novels out there, they seem to focus on the United States, and it was refreshing to see a different setting and society. One plot point seemed a little weak to me, but that's the only objection I could think of.
There's lots to love in this book.
Even though if you carry the book around without the dustjacket, you may get asked about the "Meyer" in metallic red type on the spine... (Had to explain to a pal of mine, no, not THAT Meyer!)

Age rec: Really, this could be MG. I can't recall anything that would stop me from giving it to a middle-schooler... no mature content, not even any swearing that I remember. The only problem would be some rather chilling descriptions of the letumosis plague hospital - and, of course, the nasty behavior of a few characters.

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Winterling, by Sarah Prineas

I got this one for fun from the local library. I'd read enough reviews to believe there was nothing really amazing on the plot front, but I'm glad I picked it up anyway. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it!

It's nothing too amazing on the surface... girl discovers her parents belonged to another world, finds gateway, enters, has adventures... but Sarah Prineas weaves the loveliest story together. The elements may sound cliched - an evil Lady who must be defeated, a land bound in winter, a tricky shapeshifter boy as companion to the heroine - but don't be deceived. Winterling is far more than the sum of its parts.

There's the imagery of the "dying crown" of leaves, of Fer's jacket, of the black feathers; the swift poetry of the Hunt's ride through the night; the strict rules of the land involving threes and oaths and bindings; the herbal magic, concrete and yet symbolic at the same time. The writing is simple and flowing.
For all that I thought the plot sounded cliched at first - its individual parts were not, though the main concept was... familiar. Yes, that's the word for Winterling: "familiar." But in a good way, like N. D. Wilson's Dandelion Fire felt familiar. Stories like that can be retold because they work.
And I haven't even gotten into all the neat stuff that makes this book special - the landscape descriptions, the moon reflection in the water, the subtle humor spread throughout - and the wolf guards! Those wolf guards! ...Words fail me.

Age rec: I would say MG and up. Nothing I can recall that would give any trouble.

Matched, by Ally Condie

How I found this book: Picked it up because I'd also just picked up Divergent by Veronica Roth, both of which being rec's from a friend of mine.

(Picture found on the author's website.)

I'm going to leave off the proper plot summary because it's really not the best part of the book - in fact, it could turn off some people who are tired of love triangles, enough so that they miss a really fine novel.

You may have heard that this book is a "rip-off of The Giver." I did certainly notice some similarities... For people who've read The Giver as their "first dystopia" just like I did, it's a little familiar. But then it's also very different. It's a teen vision, a girl's vision.

The world of Cassia's Society is almost a utopia - until one thinks about it. It's peaceful, beautiful, safe. No one has to worry about choices - or choosing wrong. Nearly all disease is gone, nearly all accidents. The food is perfectly portioned, the schedule of each person detailed, by the Officials. There's no obvious show of force or coercion. Even death is made a quiet, formal thing, when each citizen dies peacefully at precisely 80 years of age. 100 poems, 100 songs, 100 works of art are there - selected by the creators of the Society. There's no fear and no change.

Cassia's personal view of her quiet, pretty world changes twice in quick succession. First, when her "Match" - the person she's later going to be married to - turns out to be her friend Xander... but then a picture of another boy appears briefly inside the "match" information package. An Official assures her that this is merely a mistake, and that the boy whose picture she briefly saw is not even allowed to be Matched, as he is an Aberration. But he's also a boy who she's met before. Second, her grandfather turns 80 and dies painlessly as is usual in the Society - but he shows her a gift that ought not to even exist... a piece of paper with two poems that were not within the 100.

It's more than a "love triangle" when Cassia finds herself liking Ky - the Aberration - as well as Xander. It's a choice she's wavering in - between the simple childhood friend, the one she views as the Society's choice for her, and the odd boy who teaches her how to write her name and shows her the poems that he makes up. And she has allies in this "rebellion" that she chooses to make - the memory of her grandfather, and one of the poems that he gave her: Dylan Thomas's Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.

(I used to not like that poem, but now I do a good deal more. Perhaps whenever I read it, I will have a little mental picture of a girl in a green dress, holding a glint of gold in her hand.)

Cassia's not a brave revolutionary. She burns poems out of fear - but she loves the words that she feels driven to destroy. But she knows in the end what choices to make - and she is brave - tremendously brave.

I like that this book honors the connection between individuals. Cassia confides in her family members, and they in her. She loved her grandfather and honors his memory. She speaks the truth to Xander about her feelings for Ky, saying before she does - "I could love him. I do love him. And because I do, I have to tell him about Ky. I do not mind stealing from the Society. But I will not steal from Xander any longer. Even if it hurts, I have to tell him. Because either way, whichever life I build, has to be built on truth."

I had to include that last quote. It's one of the best lines I've read for a long time in a YA book. And, in a way, it captures what I see as the essential inside message of Matched - that life has to be built on truth, not just fact but truth.

---

It would be a quick step from there to speaking of the Truth Himself - a step that the Ms. Condie, however, doesn't choose to take. But for a modern YA dystopia novel - this one is on par with The Hunger Games as the most relevant, truth-filled one I've read yet.

In my opinion, the most chilling scene of the whole book is near the beginning. Cassia's father works on collecting artifacts for the Officials to review. Cassia goes to his worksite at one point. They're excavating an old library.

"The workers...suck up piles of papers with the incineration tubes. My father told us that right when they thought they had gone through everything, they found steel boxes of books buried down in the basement. Almost as though someone tried to hide and preserve the books against the future. My father and the other Restoration specialists have been through the boxes...they will incinerate all of it."
"...There are few piles of books left...the workers move from one to another... It's faster to incinerate individual pages instead of books, so they slice the books open, gutting them along the spines, preparing them for the tubes."
"...The books' backs are broken; their bones, thin and delicate, fall out. The workers shove them toward the incineration tube; they step on them. The bones crackle under their boots like leaves..."

Shudder.

Ms. Condie is an English teacher, according to her bio. I know that to her as well as to me, this is a terrible image.

---

Age rec - This could almost be upper MG and up. There's no swearing, nothing more than kissing in the romance. But, as in all dystopia novels, the premise is a good bit disturbing.
For ages 14 and up - go for it!
Especially rec'd for those who aren't quite up for the violence and emotion of The Hunger Games but want to read a wisely-handled novel of this sort.

Blood Red Road, by Moira Young

How I found this book: I don't know - one too many people on the blogworld talking about it? So I stuck it on the holdlist. I'm not quite sure why, to tell you the truth! But I'm ever so glad I did.

Book, in a nutshell:
Saba is relentlessly loyal to her twin brother Lugh. So when raiders take him, for reasons unknown to her at the time, and leave her father dead behind them, she goes off after him - along with her much younger sister Emmi. Her attempts to rid herself of the inconvenient Emmi fail, and her search for Lugh goes hardly better. After she ends up in the cage-fighting ring in Hopetown, she finds information about Lugh's captors - and a band of girls who might be able to save both her and him.
But there's more than a brother at stake in this wind-swept world.

I loved this book. It's a first-person narration, in dialect, without quotation marks - could have been a deal-breaker, but no - I actually liked it. Though the um, informal narration was a bit confusing at times. (If you thought that Katniss's narration in Hunger Games was annoying at all, don't even try this one.)
I love the way Saba's going after Lugh - I have got a brother, and I know what she means with the whole business. I love the developing relationship between her and her little sister, as they grow to understand each other better. I love that the little sister is a very good character in her own right - she does at least as much growing in this story as anyone else.

Most of all, unlike so many of the dystopian and post-apocolyptic books these days, this one's got hope. The world's messed up, but there are solutions, and people are effective to find them.

There is no such word as can't for this lot. Recapture kidnapped brother? Worth a try. Find your way across the desert? Why not. Dash into a burning building to save a friend? Let's go. Fight blind clawed lizards at night in a dry lakebed? Go for it. Escape from bondage in the cage fighting? Sounds likely to me. Find a new way on the spur of the moment when everything goes wrong? Can do. Change the shape of society? Might as well.

And, though the whole "magic-stone" thing is a little blatantly obvious - just a little - I approve of the obligatory love interest. For once, I actually can figure out what the protagonist sees in him!

Age rec: Unfortunately, there is a lot of strong language. A lot. And though there's nothing actually indecent, some hints. I might as well reassure readers, though - there wasn't anything that happened that offended me, so I'll save you the worries you might have at some points. It's not as "nice" as Chime but much "nicer" than Finnikin of the Rock: I would say fourteen, fifteen and up.

Bloodline Rising, by Katy Moran

I read some good reviews of this one, saw it on the shelf, and the rest took care of itself.

Book in a nutshell:
We have a mysterious first-person narrator, whose name we later learn is Cai. He calls himself the Ghost, and he is a thief in Constantinople. We learn slowly about his family, his life, his world - and then, through a jumble of catastrophes, he is taken on a slave ship to Dark Ages Britain. There he learns that there was a good deal more about his parents than they told him, and that his thieving talents may be due to a little more than natural caution...

I loved this book very much. I liked Cai - a very realistic person, not always sure what to do, not always positive what's the right thing. He second-guesses himself, regrets his past mistakes, and tries to do the best with where he ends up. I loved his ability to land on his feet wherever he found himself.

The front of the book calls this "a companion to Bloodline." I don't know much about Bloodline, but this is a strong enough tale on its own.
Can I also mention that I love the cover? I believe the scene is actually mentioned in the book, as well as being a symbolic sort of picture.

The plot is a little hard to follow at parts, and I advise people to try to keep track of who's who. Names get thrown around a good deal. I think it would have been easier if I knew more of the Dark Ages history Ms. Moran was alluding to... But it never made me stop reading, though I did have to go back and check who someone was.

This book is a bit of a mix-up, genre-wise: somewhat fantasy, somewhat political, somewhat just an adventure. There's a lot of Cai's introspection as well. I think it's YA, though I've seen it called MG: there's a lot of strong language, and violence at the end.

The writing style is cryingly beautiful in many places, and always skilled. Some quotes:

It is one of those nights when my city feels alive. The crowds surging through her streets are her blood, the jumble of buildings her ancient bones. It's quicker to go by the alleys, but I race up the Mese, anyway...

-----

But I will reach him first, and we'll get away - by sea, most likely. There's always some boatman willing to look the other way if the coin's enough. Oh, my beloved city. I cannot bear this; I cannot bear to see her, smell her, for the last time. I cannot bear to look on the lamplit windows, the shadows of the grapevines as they droop down from the rooftops to the streets, the great dome of Santa Sofia, mother of all churches. I am leaving the perfumiers' quarter, and the rich, rolling scent of rose oil, spikenard, cloves, ambergris, and lavender makes me want to weep because I am smelling it for the last time. Now I am running past a tavern, and the smash of broken cups, the roaring of drunken men, is my city's farewell song.

-------

One thing I know: I shall stay away from girl folk as long as I can. Trouble finds me quick enough as it is.

------

I gaze up at the skeins of fog silvered by the moon. It is full, round, and cold, so huge and far away, like a great silver dish. What a price she'd fetch if she were plucked from the night and sold. It is the same moon that shone on me when I was lord of the thieves, lord over the City of the Rising Moon.

---

I fondly love this book; I shall buy it someday, likely enough. I like books of non-circular traveling - I like books where the characters don't have infallible instincts - I like mysterious pasts slowly revealed. Also, I like covers that aren't a photograph of an odd-looking teenage female.

Is there a sequel? I'd be glad to travel with Cai for many a mile yet.

Age rec: Well, there's frequent swearing. A few mentions of nasty content, but nothing indecent shown onstage or anywhere near the stage. Very little romance, though there is a bit. I say 12 and up seems wise, though if parents give it a once-over they might try it with younger kids.

The Underland Chronicles, books 3-5, by Suzanne Collins

This review covers the final three of Suzanne Collins's Underland Chronicles: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, Gregor and the Marks of Secret, Gregor and the Code of Claw.

These books... must be bad for me... I read the three in a straight row, and completed the last at - it must have been 2 A. M. I picked them all out of the library because I hate waiting for a week to read the next book if I can just take all at once.

Anyone who has read the first two books in the series probably do not require a detailed plot summary. Anyone who has not ought to go read my reviews of book one or book two.
These three are the story of the war in the Underland... the ongoing war between the rats and the humans and seemingly everyone else. The Underland is a very unsettled place, as readers have likely gathered already.
Book 3, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, impressed me by being one of the first books that really deals with the mechanics of a kid who has "dual citizenship" in two worlds. Short version: his mom is very much against it, his dad is dubious, and his neighbor is beginning to wonder. But despite all these things Gregor and Boots (with their mom along this time) end up in the Underland once more.
And there's a new problem - a horrible plague that is infecting many creatures of the Underland - including some of Gregor's friends. Gregor and others decide their only hope is to follow another prophecy, deep into the jungle and into places they have hardly imagined...
Books 4 and 5 go on from there, describing the war that is rapidly unfolding beneath the ground, and Gregor's uncomfortably fast-growing part in it...

What do I think of these books? I can hardly say.
First, I do not know whether they are really middle-grade. Now, looking back, I say "this is horrible, they are giving this to little defenseless third-graders?" But realistically, I'm the person who's read Dragonriders of Pern at the age of nine. Kids are not terribly fragile creatures.
But these are still not for the sensitive child. They are, truly, books written by the author of The Hunger Games. This seems to be obvious, but... I had not expected Gregor to be so like Katniss by the end. {That is a spoiler, but I don't care. That is a spoiler, but it's one I think may as well be known.}

In the last book there were several places I wanted very much to cry. One, I actually became choked up. Granted, this was past midnight - but still.

Points of discussion:
"Let no good deed go unpunished." What do you think of that phrase? What does that make the deed - is it still good if bad things come of it? Did Gregor make the wrong choice regarding the Bane? Consequences - Gregor is trying to fix his "punished good deed" - but he still feels pity for the object of his vengeance.
Luxa/Gregor subplot deepens. Is this believable or healthy? I find it poignant to the point of being pitiful. Beautiful but sad.
Gregor's scars, both the physical and the mental/emotional. Adventuring is not all it's cracked up to be, the book seems to be saying. And it's true - drop an eleven-year-old in these situations and what can one expect to happen to him?

There's a particular chapter ending that breaks me up a little when I think about it. Especially when I remember Luxa's age. Lay off the twelve-year-olds, Ms. Collins!

{let me suffer for them. Let them be safe. I play with twelve-year-olds down the street, stick-swords and tag and hide-and-seek - I know them. Let them be safe. They deserve safe.}

This is a terribly rambling review, but then, I read them all late - and they do toy with one's emotions.

Some quotes:

The laundry room! While she collected detergent and stain remover from the closet, Gregor tried to think of an excuse for why he couldn't accompany her. He could hardly say, "Oh, I can't go down there because my mom is afraid a giant rat will jump out and drag me miles underground and eat me." If you thought about it, there was almost no good reason a person couldn't go to the laundry room. So he went.

(... Curse of the Warmbloods)
----

"Pic-a-nic! Pic-a-nic!" sang Boots, drumming on the back of Gregor's head with her scepter. The whole
princess costume thing had been a mistake. Next time he'd get her a coloring book.

(... Marks of Secret)
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Leave it to Howard to think to pack a first-aid kit. It had never even crossed Gregor's mind. Just another reason he was not doctor material.

(...Marks of Secret)
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"Slow, deep breaths," said Ripred, and Gregor knew Lizzie must have been having another panic attack. But why hadn't she come to him? Why had she gone to Ripred? "Want to try a few more math problems?" the rat asked.
"No," said Lizzie. "Just want to sit here."
Gregor didn't know what was stranger: to see Lizzie, who jumped at her own shadow, snuggled up against a giant rat, or to see the untouchable Ripred, who seemed to loathe almost everyone, who always slept alone even when other rats were available, comforting his little sister.

(... Code of Claw)
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"Maybe there's still some film in the camera," he said. There was. And since it was an instant camera, they could have the pictures right away. So he held the camera in front of them and they burned through the rest of the roll. For a few minutes, the world outside the museum seemed to go away, and they were just two twelve-year-olds goofing around like they were in a photo booth, making faces, laughing. But when Gregor said "Okay, last picture," something happened.

(...Code of Claw)

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Watch especially out for the paragraph that begins It wasn't much of a letter. Therein lies the part that made me cry almost.

These are dark books. In simple, no-frills language and bare-bones plotting, Ms. Collins makes a wonderful tale full of pain and sorrow and confusion - and love and sometimes even joy. Read them.
I would have eaten these up as a ten-year-old. But I think the ending would have bewildered me because I was a very happy child at that point and had not yet gotten old enough to understand that sometimes people could lose hope.

I had to read from Revelation and Isaiah before I could sleep right after these books. Here behind a link is the Bible verse that always comes to mind when I finish a Suzanne Collins series. I always spell HOPE in capitals when I write it out.

As per last review's complaint: Yes, at LONG LAST someone asks about what happens when people die. Unfortunately, the answer is... unsatisfactory to the extreme.

Age rec: Okay, these are still in the MG category. I would say ten and up. But they contain biological warfare, the attempted killing of an entire race, strong predjudice, unpleasant war, much violence, great danger, great sorrow, and great loss. Admittedly all these are handled well and appropriately. Still...
Be willing to talk with children afterwards, or at the least direct them towards a mature friend who has read the books as well.

Chime by Franny Billingsley

How I found this book: I saw many pre-release reviews and read the blurb on "coming out" lists. I fear I ignored it for a while, for two reasons: first, I have a character in one of my stories who shares a name with the protagonist, and this always annoys me a little... second, I thought it was a Ridiculous Romance. This is not a genre, but perhaps ought to be, since they seem to be kind of common. But somehow I changed my mind and put it on hold at the local library. {Book Aunt is partly to be thanked for my change of heart on the topic.}

More or less, this book is about:
A swamp. A town. A town by a swamp. A girl in the town, a girl with a slightly insane sister, a girl who had a stepmother who's now dead. A girl who believes she's a witch, that she's evil, that she's caused every calamity from her sister's accident to the fire in the library.
The town is called Swampsea, and the girl is Briony Larkin.
And then Elric shows up. Elric is new and different. Briony compares him to the electric light, a new phenomenon to her. He doesn't know about her wickedness, and he doesn't seem to care, oddly enough, when she tells him.
But it takes more than Elric to help when the railroad plans to drain the swamp, and the spirits who live in it exact revenge... even against Briony's sister Rose.
Life is as slippery and difficult to figure as the swamp is. Truth is hard to discover. Things aren't as they seem, and new obstacles are always rising in Briony's way...

This is an amazing book: puzzling, scintillating, sometimes maddening, often moving. Witty and skillful writing {no quotes here because I had to send it back to the library}, a tight and engaging plot, well-drawn characters, and high-stakes action make for a terrific and fast-paced read. I felt as though I were sharing the experiences with Briony the whole time, whether quashing through mud in the Swamp, not-watching a witch's hanging, sharing a garden party space with a very annoying young man, or standing in the courtroom on trial.
And yes, all those things do happen in this very packed, very engaging book.
Briony would deny that she's a sympathetic character, but I beg to differ. In her coy, difficult, timid/brave personality lies her greatness. Of course, her narrative helps a good deal as well. I am still trying to find adjectives for it... witty and intelligent, dark and joyful by turns, alternately cocky and vulnerable, sometimes guilty, sometimes brash. I got to liking her so much that I cheered at every little step forward she made. Her devotion to her sister is touching as well, even though she doesn't seem to really love her, only to feel obligated.
I recommend the interview with Franny Billingsley on The Enchanted Inkpot: http://enchantedinkpot.livejournal.com/85871.html

Age rec and other things: I would say thirteen as my absolute bottom limit. There are some veiled references to adult content that are not indecent, but I knew what was being talked about. {However, Elric at one point states his refusal to "go further" than a kiss, saying to the girl "I promised your father."} Also some rather gruesome interactions with a creature called the Dead Hand... more would be a spoiler, but let's just say it is nothing we would want to encounter. Some business with ghosts, some business with nasty people. And I'm not sure Ms. Billingsley holds a very reverent view of Christianity... our narrator doesn't, though "Bible Balls" are used to keep the spirits in the marsh away from people.

Bottom line: Read it. Amazing style and a very good plot. Adults should try it, teens should try it, boys and girls should both try it.