In My Mailbox (1)

Dear Blog,

my first In My Mailbox.  I'm supposed to tell you it's hosted by The Story Siren so, well, it's hosted by The Story Siren.  I can't believe that I've been blogging for about five years and I've only just discovered what memes are (memes, e.g IMM=on a certain day each week you write a post on that topic)

Ironically I didn't actually get any books "in my mailbox".  Neither did I get any "in the post", as I say.  Though they're both the same thing I got neither.  But I did get:

FROM THE LIBRARY
PhD: Phantasy Degree by Hee-Joon Son
A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd
Alice in Love & War by Ann Turnbull
Big Woo! by Susie Day
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

BOUGHT
from the Prospect Hospice charity shop.  The total price for all 3 books was only about £1.50.  Dissapointingly, 2 of them were in the  20p box and had "20 PENCE" scrawled across the front.

Dear America? Dear World?

Dear Blog,
I write you today on the subject that is the relaunch of the Dear America series.  I have been rummaging around in the blogosphere a little more and I came across an idea that is pure awesomeness:  Why just Dear America?  Why not Dear World?

I found two blog entries on this subject: Here  and  here.  But my blog entry about this subject may not work because, well, I live in the UK, which has it's own equivalent of Dear America, which is My Story (which I talked about in my entry Why I Dislike the My Story relaunch).  And the two blog entries talk about My Story , Dear Canada, and My Australian Story being more available to readers of Dear America (The equivalent to these in New Zealand is called My Story as well).  And the two links are about making them more available to Americans.  No matter.

I've been reading My Story and Dear America for years, and I've just started reading Dear Canada as well.  Yes, as you may have guessed I love historical fiction in diary form muchly.  

I think the whole idea: Dear World I mean, would be quite interesting. Yes, yes.  Historical journals from every corner of the Earth.  YES! YES! YES!  But I don't think that Dear World is such a good title.  Dear Canada  is translated into French as Cher Journal (Dear Diary).   That has more of a ring to it.

Anyway.  It would be a good idea, since D.A spin-offs are written in Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France and Mexico as well.  It'd be various books from all such series' rolled into one, perhaps.  I know I'd buy it.

It'd be something for Scholastic to think about.
I better go.  My sister wants to use the computer *sigh*. Oh well.

Covers=Beautiful

Dear Blog,
I don't know if anybody else does a post where they post their favourite book covers on a regular basis.  If they do, I'M SORRY and I do not mean to steal your idea.  But I am a relative newbie to the book blogosphere and I have yet to explore it all.
Either way. I thought once a month or so I'd post my favourite book covers, why I like them, reccomend the book, share them with the world or some such things.  And of course categorize them.  Cheesy covers, blue covers, spotty covers, covers with models, minimalist covers, etc. etc.  I thought I'd start with some truly beautiful/pretty/gorgeous covers. 
So.  Let it begin.  But first: Presume that all these mentioned are given their UK covers.  Because I live there, they're generally (and slightly obviously) the covers I get.

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen-and anything else by Sarah Dessen.  I love her covers just because of, well, their sort of simplicity at a first look, but when you look closer, you see they're bursting with stuff that relates to the book.  And more often than not the books are just as wonderful.  Though the formula is sort of similar in all her books (girl+boy+life changing summer=pretty much anything by Miss Dessen (except Dreamland, in which case it's girl+boy+abusive relationship), it's good fun.  It's nice to read a romance novel without vampires and creepy things lurking round every corner (I'll rant about urban fantasy later).  This is the first of her books I read and I loved it.  I read it in about two days.

River Secrets by Shannon Hale- again I mean pretty much anything in the Books of Bayern series (anyone know how many books are going to come out?).   This is the one I'm reading right now (and I'll do a review of later), but also the only one I could get a good picture of.  But no image on a blog does this justice.  The Books of Bayern covers are undoubtedly my favourite covers of any book.  They're so wonderful you want to put off reading them and just keep them in pristine condition.  It's been over 2 years since I read Enna Burning. but for one of those aforementioned 2 years I was travelling Europe so I guess it didn't count.  Anyway. 

The Ghost's Child by Sonya Hartnett-They say you should never judge a book by it's cover.  Alas, despite my best intentions more often than not that's what I do.  But what are covers there for?  To pull us in and make us interested.  Exactly.  The publishers are just begging you to judge their book covers.  Well, this is the one book in today's list that you should not judge by its cover.  Despite the beautiful covers and illustrations inside, the story itself isn't good.  At all.  I suppose my main problem with it is the main character, Maddy.  She travels the world for the first five pages and then pines after Feather for the next 200 odd.

Cyrano by Geraline McCaughrean- is based on the famous French play.  I prefer to say "based on" than "adaptation" because more often than not adaptations are lame versions for kids, like a yummy freshly squeezed orange juice diluted with too much water.   I'm familiar with two covers for this, and both are equally wonderful.  This is one of them *points to shown cover*.  And the book is truly worthy of it.  Despite the short-ness, Cyrano  will make you laugh, cry, and reccomend it to everyone you know.  In that order. I've been meaning to read the play for a while, but in truth, it's one thing to read the script and another to see actors performing it in front of you.

   

The Declaration by Gemma Malley=a truly amazing dystopic novel.  The cover does it justice.  It has a certain stark beauty about it.  I would ramble for ages about it, but my little sister wants to use the computer now.  Alas.  I better go then.  All for now.

Review: Gone

Dear Blog,

Today's review is for Gone by Michael Grant.  I've spent  many many late nights reading it.

Summary (from Goodreads): In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. GONE. Except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not one single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened.
Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.
It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else...

Review: First things first: I much prefer the UK cover (the one I've posted), to the US one. I generally prefer UK covers. Not just because I live there, but because often I just think they're better, is all.

Second things second: Take seriously the 12+ rating and WARNING: CONTAINS SCENES OF VIOLENCE AND CRUELTY sticker on the back (again don't know if that's on the US cover).  Either way, do not misinterpret it.  It's the most graphic book I've read in ages.  Even Persepolis isn't that graphic, and that's a graphic novel about growing up during the Iranian Revolution.  If  they make it into a film (which it would be the purest awesome if they did), I should expect to recreate the true horror of the book,it would have to be a 15.  I certainly think the age rating on the back ought to be 14+.  Some parts of it are very gruesome, very graphic, very creepy and very, very disturbing.

I can't remember which newspaper said that if Stephen King had written Lord of the Flies, then Gone would be it.  I've read Lord of the Flies and I also read that part of The Green Mile where Edward Delacroix's execution goes wrong and he's fried like an egg.  I wish I hadn't.  Oh well, I was 11 and curious about the dark world of horror fiction.  What more can I say?  Either way, that quote completely nailed it and that's how I would describe it to somebody who asked what it was about. 

Although it's so gripping you would want to stay up all night reading, I'd suggest you don't.  Last night I was reading it and I kept looking around my bedroom to check everything was in its right place.  Perhaps it's just me being a wuss because despite my slightly creepy love for end-of-the-world apocalypse fiction, this is almost a horror novel and I read very little of that.  Or perhaps it was just the contrast between Gone and the book I read right before that, Strawberry Marshmallow (Ichigo Mashimaro) 3, a.k.a the cutest, fluffiest, silliest manga in the history of the world.

The book, for all its size, is set over the point of 299 hours and 54 minutes, so there's always something going on.  It drives me round the bend when books say "weeks passed", or "months passed".  In that sense, *Gone* is brief and gets right to the point.

Most likely my only complaint is that I wish you found out more about the FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone, the name the kids give to their world-without-adults). Why's it there?  How long will it be there? Is there any way out? What was giving the kids powers? (I assumed it was something to do with nuclear radiation or something but isn't really explained) Who (or what) exactly is The Darkness?  What exactly was Little Pete's connection to the FAYZ? I read the scene where that question comes into the equation three or four times but it still didn't make much sense.  I can't say much more about that because it is a major spoiler that gives much away.  If you can make sense of it. Either way, it seemed to ask more questions that it answered, but it's going to be a 6-book series and no doubt more and more will be revealed about it as the series goes on. The second and third books *Lies* and *Hunger*, are out already in the US (alas *Lies has only just been released in the UK).  As soon as they're out in the library I'll definitely be reading them.

Rating: 4.5

Review: The Sweet Far Thing

Dear Blog,
well then. The conclusion to the Gemma Doyle trilogy. The Sweet Far Thing.
This epic tome is 820 pages long and if ever I wanted to take it anywhere with me I had to use my mother's old Fat Face shoulder bag, which is smallish on the outside but within is like a TARDIS and fits about 5 or 6 books/journals/notepads in it. Carrying so many books no doubt does untold damage to my spine, but it's worth it to have a novel or three at hand.

Summary (which I pinched from Amazon. No copyright infringement intended, bla bla bla, but I'm going to town in an hour and time is of the essence):
It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Having bound the wild, dark magic of the realms to her, Gemma has forged unlikely and unsuspected new alliances both with the headstrong Felicity and timid Ann, Kartik, the exotic young man whose companionship is forbidden, and the fearsome creatures of the realms. Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test those bonds. As her friendship with Felicity and Ann faces its gravest trial, and with the Order grappling for control of the realms, Gemma is compelled to decide once and for all which path she is meant to take. Pulled forward by fate, the destiny Gemma faces threatens to set chaos loose, not only in the realms, but also upon the rigid Victorian society whose rules Gemma has both defied and followed. Where does Gemma really belong? And will she, can she, survive?

Review: First things first-it is a brilliant (albeit tragic) (though I knew what happened already because somebody wrote a major spoiler in their review on Goodreads and didn't mark it as a spoiler post) ending to a brilliant trilogy. Every plot thread is neatly tied up.
There are a couple of flaws, alas. But many good things to balance it out. To every, "hmmph" there is a "yay!" So here they are.
Hmmph It doesn't need to be 800 pages long. Very little happens for the first 700 pages or so. Which is tricky because those 700 pages are important in a way. You find out more about the Order, the Rakshana, discover sinister secrets, etc. etc. But despite these important things, it could be at least 200 pages shorter.
Yay! When it does get going, it's so gripping your fingers hurt from, well, gripping the page so tight. And the edges of the pages are damp from your sweating hands. I stayed up til gone midnight many many nights reading it.
Hmmph it is a little predictable what happens to Pippa. We all knew she was going to turn into an evil power-crazy demonic creature. She reminds me of Cate Blanchett in the latest Indiana Jones (but minus the cringingly bad Russian accent): "It is me! I am the chosen one! The power is mine! Mwahaha!"
Yay! this isn't really a "yay!", but it is the balance to the previous "hmmph": I suppose if she had been brought back or at least hadn't turned into a creepy demon, it would have been a bit, "oh." But interestingly enough **SLIGHT SPOILER**, being a demon wasn't actually her ultimate demise.
Hmmph It's set in 1896. But the main characters all talk like they were from a much more modern era. Not the 21st century perhaps...but still, more recent than the time.
Yay! the few references to high society in the day were quite interesting and added the period backdrop, to remind you what century you were in after lesbianism, drug addictions, rebellious attitudes to religion and other such issues. Scandal, debutantes, balls, exclusive gentlemen's clubs, etc. remind you where you are. If you want any more, I suggest you seek out The Luxe sequence. 400 pages of, as all the critics say, The OC but with bigger frocks and more dashing boys. There are 4 books so far. That's 1,160 pages of gossip in 1899! Personally I'm not fussed on all this but it added some era detail.
Hmmph The ending was a bit sudden and "oh. Ok then." Though I accepted it, it seemed sort of rushed.
Yay! What characters survived the climax met their futures and everything was resolved. As I said at the start, everything was perfectly tied up without it seemingly overly easy.

Additional thoughts: a prequel. yes! yes! yes! Set 25 years before, perhaps alternating point of views between Gemma's mother, Sarah Rees Toome, Mrs Nightwing & all others concerned. What a sock-rocking fanfic that'd make. Bagsy me! Either way, Libba Bray ought to write it. If she isn't already.
Another Additional Thought: despite the many "hmmphs" I have mentioned, perhaps I've only thought these over because I'm writing a review. As you're reading, you throw all these "hmmph" moments aside and follow the plot like Alice follows the white rabbit down his hole. You're too sucked in to stand back and think, "hmm, that's a little annoying." Why complain about the modern dialogue and stuff when Gemma is facing her most dangerous trial yet, the Order and the Rakshana are closing in around her trying to steal the magic, and she needs to uncover the truth about the Tree of All Souls?!

Rating: 4. Not as good I suppose as the first two, but still AN ABSOLUTE MUST for everybody who enjoyed aforementioned first two.