Review: Everneath

Everneath
Everneath, Book 1

Author: Brodi Ashton
Pages: 370
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Source: Own

Description from Goodreads:
Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she's returned--to her old life, her family, her boyfriend--before she's banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance--and the one person she loves more than anything. But there's just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's queen.

"Everneath" is a captivating story of love, loss, and immortality from debut author Brodi Ashton.

First Sentence: "History books call it the Underworld."

Review:

Obviously, I have been wanting to read Everneath for most of this year. I say obviously, because who could resist this cover? Certainly not me. However, I feared Everneath might turn out to be a crushing disappointment, since pretty dress covers have lured me into many traps in the past. In case you had similar concerns, lay them to rest. Everneath has incredible world building, compelling characters, and solid writing.

The Persephone myth has inspired numerous authors, but those attempts at a young adult retelling which I have read have been ill-considered to say the least. Both of the other two YA adaptions I've read, Abandon by Meg Cabot and The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter, involved an intense immediate attraction for the Hades figure. A big part of why these attempts failed is this perversion of the myth, trying to forge an immediate romantic connection between Persephone and a misunderstood version of Hades. Well, sorry, but that just does not fly. One of the main elements of the Persephone myth is that she is taken and that she is kept. If right from the beginning she kind of wants to hang out in the Underworld, the author's kind of missing the point.

All of that lead up is to say that I think Brodi Ashton hit the nail on the head with the Persephone myth. Of course, she put a lot of twists on things, but a lot more of the core of the myth remained. Though Nikki doesn't hate Cole, who is not Hades but one of the Everliving who lives in the Everneath, she does not trust him either. He did take her there and he did keep her through the months, with her having no say once she let him in a little bit. Cole has a proper amount of darkness to fill this role, and Nikki begins with a sort of weakness I identify with Persephone.

Actually, I loved just about every single thing that Brodi Ashton did with her reworking of the myths. Instead of the Underworld, we have the Everneath, a land populated by the Everliving, humans who have found the secret to eternal life, and Shades, ghosty type things. The Everliving survive by feeding off of the emotions of humans on Earth, but have to bring a particular human to the Everneath every hundred years to Feed. This human is a Forfeit, and once they've completed their service, they are buried in the Tunnels to power the Everneath. It's a wee bit confusing, but mostly just creepy and awesome. Ashton puts a fascinating and unique twist on not just the myth of Persephone, but also that of Orpheus and even incorporates mythologies outside of Greek too.

Nikki, Cole and Jack are the only characters to receive any real attention, but, thankfully, Ashton does a marvelous job with them. Nikki very much has her own way of being, and feels quite real. She is not the most sympathetic heroine, quite passive and depressed much of the time, but she has a core strength, one that she's slowly finding. Seeing her slowly unfold, like a flower after a long winter beautifully matches the arc of the tale. Because of her coldness, I did have some trouble emotionally connecting with her, but I very much appreciated her as a character.

With the listing of Cole and Jack, you might be worried about yet another love triangle, and I do suspect things are heading that way. In Everneath, though, I hardly felt the romance as a main part of the plot. Much of the time, Nikki is too drained of emotion to feel anything. She doesn't trust Cole and is unsure what she wants from her ex, Jack. Their interactions are complicated, and all of the emotions are well established and believable. The closest comparison for the romantic arc in this book is definitely Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.

My only real complaint is that I would have liked even more of the stellar world building. During the dramatic opening scene, Nikki declares her desire to go to the surface, Shades fly at her, and then she wakes up in a convenience store. Yes, this is dramatic, but it made no sense. Then, all of a sudden, she seems to know the terms of her sentence up above, but, if some of the things she knows are explained to her, I missed them. I want to know every single thing about this world, and I feel like sometimes some information was kept back from me.

If you enjoy original takes on mythology, Everneath is most definitely worth your time. From what I hear, the second book, Everbound improves on the beginning established here, so I most definitely recommend that you give this one a try.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote: "'Remembering is easy. It's forgetting that's hard.'"

Review: Small Medium at Large

Small Medium at Large

Author: Joanne Levy
Pages: 208
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Source: Gifted by author (Thanks, Joanne!)

Description from Goodreads:
After she’s hit by lightning at a wedding, twelve-year-old Lilah Bloom develops a new talent: she can hear dead people. Among them, there’s her overopinionated Bubby Dora; a prissy fashion designer; and an approval-seeking clown who livens up a séance. With Bubby Dora leading the way, these and other sweetly imperfect ghosts haunt Lilah through seventh grade, and help her face her one big fear: talking to—and possibly going to the seventh-grade dance with—her crush, Andrew Finkel.

First Sentence: "Despite the suffocating mid-May hear and the nonbreathable fabric of my lavender polyester dress, it was shaping up to be a very good day."

Review:

GUYS, Small Medium at Large is every bit as frickin' adorable as the puntastic title implies, and I am so happy to be able to say that. I had extremely high hopes for Joanne Levy's debut, since we've bonded over Twitter, but experience has shown that just because I love an author, I won't necessarily be impressed by their novels. Thankfully, Joanne's was a little ray of middle grade sunshine that made me say "AWWWW" out loud multiple times.

From the very beginning, I knew I would love this, because Lilah has such a great, optimistic voice, perfect for a middle grade narrator. As the book begins, Lilah's the bridesmaid as her mother marries her new step-father, Stan. In most books, this would be where we hear about the evil step-parent or sadness over the divorce, but Lilah is nothing but supportive of her parents finding happiness. Even better, both of her parents are involved and loving.

While standing outside the reception hall, Lilah leans against a metal pole while trying to scrape some crud off her shoe and gets struck by lightning. She wakes up in the hospital with all three concerned parental units (mom and step-father having delayed their honeymoon), apparently no worse for the wear. Well, except that now she can hear her Bubby (her dead grandmother) talking to her.

Turns out, the lightning strike scrambled her brain and now she can hear dead people, but not see them, which is probably for the best. It's like The Sixth Sense, only hilarious and adorable instead of creepy. These sassy ghosts do what sassy ghosts do best: impart lots of advice of varying quantities of usefulness, and also ask for help of their own. Lilah, being the sweet, caring girl she is, takes this all relatively in stride and does her best to help everyone that comes her way, with the occasionally bumbling assistance of her best friend, and future band-mate, Alex.

What made this feel so essentially middle grade was Lilah's reaction to all of this. She has so much less skepticism in the face of the phenomenon and much less fear of other people's reactions. Where a teen or adult would keep this information on the down low, Lilah tells person after person, because she's honest and wants to help. An older person might devise a clever way around telling how they know what they do, but that's just not Lilah's style. It was adorable, especially one particular scene where Lilah tries to convince her crush, Andrew Finkle, that his dead father was speaking to her. Oh, also amusing was Lilah's inability to avoid responding to the ghosts, such that she ends up getting caught talking to herself a lot.

Lilah's interactions with others, both ghost and human alike, are where the book really shines. She takes such good care of her father, urging him (at Bubby's request) to start dating again. Her interactions with Andrew are totally accurate to middle school flirting in their sweet awkwardness. Bubby and Ms. Lafontaine stole the show with their sassy advice to Lilah, as well as their occasional shock at twelve-year-olds these days, who want to get kissed at the seventh grade dance (shocking!). 

If you love adorable middle grade stories or know some middle graders who do, Small Medium at Large is an excellent choice, sure to delight a younger reader even more than it did me.

Rating: 4.5/5

Favorite Quote: "'Andrew! Wait!' I yelled as a last chance. 'I know about your underwear!'"

Review: Touching the Surface

Touching the Surface

Author: Kimberly Sabatini
Pages: 352
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: October 30, 2012
Source: Publisher for review via YA Books Central

Description from Goodreads:
Experience the afterlife in this lyrical, paranormal debut novel that will send your heart soaring.

When Elliot finds herself dead for the third time, she knows she must have messed up, big-time. She doesn’t remember how she landed in the afterlife again, but she knows this is her last chance to get things right.

Elliot just wants to move on, but first she will be forced to face her past and delve into the painful memories she’d rather keep buried. Memories of people she’s hurt, people she’s betrayed…and people she’s killed.

As she pieces together the secrets and mistakes of her past, Elliot must find a way to earn the forgiveness of the person she’s hurt most, and reveal the truth about herself to the two boys she loves…even if it means losing them both forever.

First Sentence: "My body smacked the water."

Review:

One of my very favorite subgenres of fiction deals with stories about the afterlife. I spend a rather indecent amount of time considering what life after death might consist of and my only completed work of fiction dealt with that topic. Touching the Surface has been on my radar because of its subject matter, its beautiful cover (which looks like the work of my friend Annie and fits the book perfectly), and the author's participation in the Apocalypsies. As ever when embarking upon a book with high hopes, I dreaded disappointment, but instead found a beautiful, quirky, emotional, clever, sweet, dark, magical read.

Sabatini's vision of the afterlife enthralled my imagination completely. She combines familiar concepts into something fresh and compelling. The concept of reincarnation has always called to me far more than most religious ideas, so I loved that Sabatini included that. She also put her own spin on it with the idea that, on a soul's third failure to reach some sort of enlightenment and whatever next step that brings, the soul's memories are wiped. This forces delving, a slow recapturing of the previous life's memories that allows for deeper reflection and analysis, removing preconceptions and errors kept in ordinary memory. Delving is also a group experience, not just a personal one, so that others can try to help the Third Timers figure out what has kept them from moving on.

Another fascinating element of this is the bodiless nature of the characters. They are all technically embodied throughout the book, but they have not always worn that body. In her first life, Elliot and her best friend Julia were twin brothers named Arty and Jim. The souls simply continue to wear the body and use the name of their last life until they reenter the stream to a new one. The souls can idenitfy one another by their scent that remains constant from body to body. Though she occasionally comments on appearances, the personality obviously factors in much more in how others seem to her.

The other main delightful quirk about the afterlife is the ability to manifest the mind's landscape physically. Thoughts can be created, from a lake to a mountain to a book the soul wants to read. Within the Obmil, this afterlife, the body cannot be injured and seems to have so much power. Not gonna lie, I would want to stay there and would try to get my friends to stay too. Of course, when you have a bad day, you literally will be stuck in a storm cloud of your own devising, but that's a small price to pay for the perks.

Alright, now that I'm done fangirling over the world building, I should probably discuss the plot a bit, shouldn't I? At the outset, I was a bit concerned that the book was heading for a stereotypical romance plot line: a rift between two best friends, a beautiful boy she feels inextricably drawn to (Oliver), a hot, angry boy who also seems to be part of her past (Trevor), and a love square between the four. Thankfully, this got cleared up pretty quickly and the characters did what was right for them, rather than conforming to tropes. Though the emotions become intense alarmingly quickly, it helped set the scene and conveyed the confusion Elliot felt being confronted with people who remembered her that she could not yet recall.

Elliot is a great character. She doesn't kick butt. She's sometimes weak. She's selfish, and sometimes a bully. All of that makes her who she is, and, even at her worst, I still felt for her and got her motivations. She manages to feel utterly real, especially in her struggle to find a sense of self, and her blithe unawareness of how she can steamroll others. Elliot wants to move on, hates having come back as a Third Timer, but she fears delving into her memories. Obviously, death in one's teen years doesn't signify a happy story.

The book alternates between the fantasy lanscape of Obmil and flashbacks to the characters' memories of their previous lives. This allows Sabatini to confront both gritty real life issues and psychological struggles. The flashbacks also explain why the characters feel the way they do about one another in the beginning, often for reasons even they don't know. This storytelling method adds a lot of tension to the tale and kept me flipping pages.

I dearly love Trevor. Oliver may be the nice one, though he shows some darker moods too (which I like), but I always have been drawn to the moody ones. Watching Trevor open up is delightful and he definitely puts hummingbirds in my stomach, let me tell you. What I love best is the way he changes the slogan on his t-shirt to match his emotions, generally with a smartass comment.

Ending books about the afterlife is generally pretty tricky, more so than with other genres perhaps. Sabatini's ending worked perfectly, I felt. I didn't anticipate quite the direction it would go in, and I really appreciated that. Nothing's wrapped up exactly, but it feels complete.

Kimberly Sabatini's debut blew me away and I know Touching the Surface is a book that I will be rereading. For a book with similar themes that does some wholly different things, check out Level 2 by fellow Apocalypsie Lenore Appelhans.

Rating: 4.5/5

Favorite Quote:

"'Damn it, Elliot, do you ever make kissing easy?' he said, cupping his nose.
   'Maybe you should learn not to be such a tease and get to it a little quicker,' I shot back.
   'So, I've got to get to the kissing before you start thinking too hard about something else?'
   'Something like that,' I said, reaching to check his nose. He winced.
   'You'll heal in a minute,' I said with a smirk."

Review: Stealing Parker

Stealing Parker
Hundred Oaks, Book 2

Author: Miranda Kenneally
Pages: 242
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Source: Sourcebooks at BEA

Description from Goodreads:
Red-hot author Miranda Kenneally hits one out of the park in this return to Catching Jordan's Hundred Oaks High.

After a scandal rocks their conservative small town, 17-year-old Parker Shelton goes overboard trying to prove that she won't turn out like her mother: a lesbian. The all-star third-baseman quits the softball team, drops 20 pounds and starts making out with guys--a lot. But hitting on the hot new assistant baseball coach might be taking it a step too far...especially when he starts flirting back.

First Sentence: "Bubblegum pink is the nail polish of the day."

Review:
After I read Catching Jordan last week, I was so excited to dive into Kenneally's next book, Stealing Parker. I am so glad I had a copy of this from BEA, so I didn't have to wait around for a copy to show up for me from the library! Miranda Kenneally's books are just so much fun. If you like sporty contemporaries with happy endings, you have to read these. Most of my reads are a little bit more depressing or fantastical, and these make for a refreshing break.

There are a ton of commonalities between Stealing Parker and Catching Jordan, and I don't just mean the sports. Both girls have a similar love triangle dynamic going, though their reactions to it differ somewhat. Also, both get their feelings out by writing, a strange similarity I felt. Jordan writes poems as a way of getting a handle on her feelings, and Parker writes letters to God, which, unsurprisingly, I wasn't a huge fan of.

Parker's faith is actually a huge theme of the book, one which is handled with tact. Parker's family attends one of those big pompous, holier-than-thou churches, which puts members down if they do anything that doesn't fit their definition of Christian. For example, they've been gossiping about Parker's family ever since Parker's mom left her father to live life as a lesbian. Their church clearly just drains the happiness from Parker, and brings so much self-hatred into her life. However, the book isn't anti-faith either, as she attends another church, which is friendly and uplifting. Basically, the message is to not get yourself stuck in an unhealthy environment or with false friends.

The reason I'm rating Stealing Parker just a little bit lower, though it was still an awesome read, is that I just didn't like Parker as much as I liked Jordan. Parker's reaction to the gossip about her mother and the intimations that she too might be a lesbian, because she's muscular and plays softball, isn't one that I can fathom. She decides to prove that she's straight by losing thirty pounds and making out with any guy that's interested. She doesn't go any further, but that's not really the issue. Clearly all of this tonsil hockey isn't making her feel better, so she really shouldn't be doing it.

In her latest endeavor to make bad choices, Parker decides to go after the baseball coach, a 23 year old guy just starting on his first job out of grad school. Brian Hoffman seems like the perfect guy, and she thinks she has a chance. Well, guess what? Teachers that date their students? Creepers. I just wanted to grab Parker and shake her back and forth. I also couldn't stand that she, just like Jordan, continues in an unhealthy relationship even when she's not really into it anymore. Save yourself some heartbreak and run away, girl! Still, I feel I must emphasize that all of her stupid choices came off as believable teenage acting-out, but that didn't make me any less uncomfortable!

As with Catching Jordan, what really makes this such an incredibly delightful book are the well-drawn characters. Kenneally has a knack for writing authentic friendships, down to the stupid nicknames and inside jokes. I just love how real the bonds are between the characters, even the painful ones, like with Laura and Parker. I've had some Lauras in my past, and Kenneally got that just right.

Miranda Kenneally's books are so incredibly enjoyable. Plus, I love the way these books are sort of a series, in that they're set at the same school and characters from the previous books show up. I loved getting to hang out with Jordan and Sam just a little bit! I will be eagerly anticipating the next installment, Things I Can't Forget.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote:

"'I don't even get why he likes me.' Why anybody likes me.
   He clucks his tongue. 'You're your own person. You wear what you want and don't bother with people who annoy you. Everyone wants to be like that.'"

Review: Scorch

Scorch
Croak, Book 2

Author: Gina Damico
Pages: 332
Publisher: Graphia
Source: Publisher at BEA

Description from Goodreads:
Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby is a teenage grim reaper with the bizarre ability to damn souls. That makes her pretty scary, even to fellow Grims. But after inadvertently transferring her ability to Zara, a murderous outlaw, Lex is a pariah in Croak, the little town she calls home.

To escape the townspeople’s wrath, she and her friends embark on a wild road trip to DeMyse. Though this sparkling desert oasis is full of luxuries and amusements, it feels like a prison to Lex. Her best chance at escape would be to stop Zara once and for all—but how can she do that from DeMyse, where the Grims seem mysteriously oblivious to Zara’s killing spree?

First Sentence: "Carl Scutner wondered, for a brief moment, what it would feel like to punt his wife off a cliff."

Series:
1: Croak (review|Goodreads)
2: Scorch

Review:
Gina Damico's Croak ranks as one of the funniest books I've ever read. She has this great, dark, absurdist sense of humor that I cannot get enough of. She has a way of making even the weirdest things sound believable. As such, Scorch was one of my most anticipated books and I was lucky enough to get an ARC at BEA. While, I didn't fall quite as in love with Scorch, though I cannot put my finger on quite why, it's still a wonderful sequel, hilarious and satisfying.

Something I had forgotten about the end of Croak was that someone died. Oh, my memory. Anyway, it surprised me all over again. Take that to heart, guys. Gina Damico's book may rank as humor first, but don't forget the dark part. She kills off and damages beloved characters when you're least expecting it and in ways you never could have anticipated. A lot of YA authors cringe away from things like that, even when turning their hands to dystopias, but not so Damico. This lends a darker, more serious feel to what, on the surface, appear to be lighthearded comedies about grim reapers.

Are you worried now about who will be killed? You should be, because Damico's characters are wonderful and just bursting with life. They're all, almost to a Grim, sarcastic, intelligent and people that I want to be friends with. All of our old favorites are back: Lex, Ferbus, Elysia, Driggs, Mort, and more, but there are also a few wonderful new characters added into the mix.

Lex, of course, is our indomitable heroine. She's clever, violent, and has a powerful sense of justice. She doesn't love easily, but, when she does, she will stop at nothing to protect the people she loves. Lex seems a bit softened by her time spent among good friends who understand her, but she definitely has not lost her hard edge just because she's happy with a boyfriend. Never will this girl stop being a powerhouse.

Driggs, her boyfriend, is just as charmingly rumpled as he was in the first book. Lex and Driggs are a bit of a disgusting couple, though that may be due to the gross-out descriptions of their make out sessions (Damico's not going for swoons here). The two of them spend pretty much all of their time together, and are surprisingly lovey-dovey and open about their feelings. I would be totally icked out by them, but they're just so weird and perfect for each other that I can't help but wish them the best. Rather than being stereotypes of perfection, they're just these two strange people who seem to be belong together.

Ferbus and Elysia continue to do their snarky banter back and forth. He grumps about completely everything. She has all of the perk and love of parties of Pinkie Pie. The new additions to the group, two new Juniors, I was initially skeptical of, but I came to love them just as much as the rest of the crew. Pip and Bang are step siblings. Pip talks constantly and drives Ferbus batty. Bang doesn't talk at all, instead communicating via arm gestures. These too seem obnoxious at first, but turn out to be every bit as capable and endearingly kooky as most Croakers.

The plot of Scorch follows Zara's reign of terror, as she Damns innocent people left and right, demanding that Lex and her gang fork over The Wrong Book, which contains the secrets to unmaking the world as they know it. Unfortunately, Lex isn't sure where or how to get the book, and most of Croak blames her for everything that's going on. Croak used to be idyllic, but not so much anymore.

The Croak series can best be compared to the television show Dead Like Me, sharing the quirky, dark humor as well as subject matter. If you, like me, love shows like Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies, you NEED to read Gina Damico, because she wrote these for oddballs like us, and there are more coming!

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote: "'Here's the thing,' he said, his face strained. 'It's just that I've been treading really carefully around you and this whole Cordy thing all day, just like Mort told me to. And I had to make sure you saw her and were okay with it and got home safe — again, just like Mort told me to. And as much as I'd love to continue exploring the implications of Damning roadkill, the truth is' — he plunged his hands into his hair until it stuck up even more than usual — 'you've been back here in my presence for two agonizing hours now, and if we don't properly make out soon, I'm going to hurl myself off the roof.'"

Review + Giveaway: Fair Coin

Fair Coin
Coin, Book 1

Author: E.C. Myers
Pages: 288
Publisher: Pyr
Source: Gifted ARC

Description from Goodreads:
Sixteen-year-old Ephraim Scott is horrified when he comes home from school and finds his mother unconscious at the kitchen table, clutching a bottle of pills. The reason for her suicide attempt is even more disturbing: she thought she’d identified Ephraim’s body at the hospital that day.

Among his dead double’s belongings, Ephraim finds a strange coin—a coin that grants wishes when he flips it. With a flick of his thumb, he can turn his alcoholic mother into a model parent and catch the eye of the girl he’s liked since second grade. But the coin doesn’t always change things for the better. And a bad flip can destroy other people’s lives as easily as it rebuilds his own.

The coin could give Ephraim everything he’s ever wanted—if he learns to control its power before his luck runs out.

First Sentence: "Ephraim found his mother slumped over the kitchen table, her right hand curled around a half-empty bottle of vodka."

Review:
Who wouldn't want a magic coin that would grant wishes? I mean, even though pop culture (Fair Coin included) tells me that such things are not to be trusted, I would still be ALL over that. Ephraim uses this mysterious coin he finds liberally and largely unquestioningly, like a kid devouring the entire Halloween candy haul in one sitting, unconcerned with the inevitable consequences. While there is nothing new about the magic wish plot line, there's something very compelling about it, thus why it lingers in our collective imaginations. Even knowing the risks, how many humans would be able to resist the temptation to change everything with a thought?

The first half of Fair Coin was a bit slow-going. I liked Myers' writing, but I was hoping for more from the concept and characters. Well, let me just say that the book really takes off in the second half, which I'll talk about later on, as that bit might be somewhat spoilerific. For now, I want to talk about the characters, which may be somewhat complicated, since after every wish the same people are a bit different.

Ephraim, our hero, really is not very heroic, especially early on. Sure, I just talked about how I would totally go gaga for a magic coin and make the most of it, but Ephraim makes wishes like they're about to go out of style. Where some people might have a natural, healthy skepticism about this object and how beneficial and trustworthy it is, Ephraim just sort of assumes that it will grant his wishes and everything will be awesome. He also has very little conscience about some of the things that he wishes, totally willing to mess with others for his own gain at first.  It even takes him a surprisingly long time to start worrying even after he notices changes unrelated to his wishes occurring. He came across as selfish and naive. By the end, though, he was showing more promise and thoughtfulness, thank goodness. Besides, that attitude might actually be more realistic than the logical responses I would hope to see.

Nathan, Ephraim's best friend, is simply awful. I don't like the guy in any of his iterations, and he is one of the characters who changes the most from wish to wish. Whether he's popular or a nerd, he creeps me out, and I think Ephraim's affection for Nathan is one of my issues with him as an MC. Nathan is a character straight out of a manga: the nerdy, awkward perv who takes photos of all of the girls chests and butts slyly on his phone camera. If you don't read manga, just believe me that that character shows up quite a bit. I've never encountered anyone like that in school here, and so he just comes off as a major sleaze, especially since he wants to date both of the hot twins.Yes, there are hot twins, Mary and Shelley. I love their names, though; they make me chuckle.

The other character you need to know about is Jena, the object of Ephraim's romantic desires. She, too, I have issues with, because she really just did not seem like a real person to me. In theory, I should love Jena Kim. She's Asian, dreams of being a librarian (awesome, but good luck to her finding a job), loves to read, and is a big nerd. However, she's a bit too much the nerdy boy's fantasy; she's ALL of the things a nerd would dream of packed into one person, and it just feels like too much to be real. For example, at a morning assembly, she receives awards for 'National Honor Society, Science Scholar, Math Scholar,' and, not only that, everyone cheers for her, including wolf whistles from the football team. This girl, who wears glasses and constantly switches up the frames, who works in the library for fun, who participates voluntarily in Quiz Bowl, is one of the most popular and attractive girls in school. Maybe this happened in your school, but mine had a pretty clear divide between the nerds and the popular people.

I will say that the characterization strengthened in the second half as well, although there's still room to grow. I found myself much more interested in their problems by the end than I was at the beginning. Possibly, this is all a result of Ephraim's growth, as he learns how little changes in a person can make a big distinction, thus better understanding those around him and appreciating what makes them unique and beloved.

Alright, now with that aside, I want to talk a little bit about the second half of the book. Just a little. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION, as this will include some spoilers, although these comments would not have been for me. I either heard along the way or just suspected the plot was going sort of in this direction.

Fair Coin's second half reminds me heavily of Sliders, a television show from the 90s that I thought was awesome in its nerdiness. The mechanics, of course, are quite different, but the alternate universe jumping is so cool. I love that and I love how that makes anything possible. The mechanism by which this occurs still confuses me, but Myers has set this up convincingly enough that I'm willing to roll with the flow. Plus, more might be explained in Quantum Coin.

Everything wraps up neatly at the end of Fair Coin, so I'm certainly curious to know where the story will be heading in the next installment. Though Fair Coin did not grab me immediately, I was ultimately satisfied and glad to have gotten the chance to read it. For those who might be struggling a bit at first, if you enjoy thought-provoking science fiction reads, I would urge you to press on for the shift in the second half of the book.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote: "'Calm down, Ephraim. You seem really certain of what's possible and what's impossible, for a guy who's trying to convince me he has a magic wishing coin.'"

Giveaway:
Rules are simple. US only, since I'm shipping, and fill out the Rafflecopter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: When the Sea Is Rising Red

When the Sea Is Rising Red

Author: Cat Hellisen
Pages: 296
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux BFYR
Source: Library

Description from Goodreads:
After seventeen-year-old Felicita’s dearest friend, Ilven, kills herself to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita chooses freedom over privilege. She fakes her own death and leaves her sheltered life as one of Pelimburg’s magical elite behind. Living in the slums, scrubbing dishes for a living, she falls for charismatic Dash while also becoming fascinated with vampire Jannik. Then something shocking washes up on the beach: Ilven's death has called out of the sea a dangerous, wild magic. Felicita must decide whether her loyalties lie with the family she abandoned . . . or with those who would twist this dark power to destroy Pelimburg's caste system, and the whole city along with it.

First Sentence: "She's not here."

Review:
When the Sea Is Rising Red is a beautiful, surprising little gem of a book. From the cover, I expected a zombie book (I think because it reminds me of the Carrie Ryan covers), which this was not at all. Instead, Hellisen's tale is paranormal, but not in a way that I have particularly seen before. Unlike with most books, I had pretty much no clue what was going to happen at any point, not because there weren't hints, but because Hellisen didn't send her characters down the usual roads.

At first, the society of Pelimburg was strange and confusing. Finding my footing took time. There are a fair number of terms to learn and a caste system to understand. The humans have their divisions, the High Lammers and the low, the haves and the have-nots. Making matters more complicated, there are also paranormal creatures living amongst the humans: selkies, vampires, boggerts, unicorns. Thrown together like this, the book could have felt thrown together, a paranormal mish-mash, as many books end up feeling. This one didn't though. This society felt real and complex, and like it needed to be just the way Hellisen wrote it.

In this world, magic is a tangible thing. I completely loved Hellisen's take on magic, both on its power and its destructive capabilities. Though the books aren't too similar otherwise, if you enjoy the magic in this tale, you should definitely also try Indigo Springs. The High Lammers have taken the power for themselves, keeping the scriv (which makes the magic possible) to themselves. There are three different powers: War-Singers (who can manipulate air), Readers (who see the future), and Saints (who can read auras).

Felicita comes from a High Lammer family and is a War-Singer. All of her power and intelligence matter not, however, since women are useful only for alliances in this patriarchal society. Felicita's life changes utterly after her very best friend commits suicide (The Leap) to escape an arranged marriage. With a similarly despised marriage of her own imminent, Felicita fakes her own death and escapes to hide amidst the Hobs, the Low people.

As a heroine, Felicita has many admirable qualities to go along side her numerable flaws. She has my respect for, no matter how low she gets, continuing to fight for her independence any way she can. On the street with no skills to help her in this life, she takes a menial job washing tea cups, but she does it without complaint. Her biggest weak point is her addiction to scriv, which she craves. Pretty much all of her worst choices she makes out of a desire for more.

While there is romance here, it is not remotely like what you'll generally find and it is not the star of the show. Even now, I'm not sure how to feel about what happened. There are no clear answers. Like in real life, the relationships are messy, complicated. My favorite couple without a doubt was Lils and Nala; they are just so freaking sweet together and good for one another.

When the Sea Is Rising Red takes well-thumbed subjects and makes them feel entirely new, weaving a dark, atmospheric magical world.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote:

"I'm better than them. Better than Owen, than Canroth Piers. They can never really control me because they cannot bridle my thoughts.
   It works. I'm calm again. Let Piers and Owen make the wedding arrangements, just don't expect the bride to be there like a dog called to heel. I'll choose my own Gris-damned husband, thank you. If I even want one, and I'm not exactly certain of that. I want life on my own terms, not on the dictates of tradition and of haggling over power and land.
   I will never let myself be caught like that—any marriage I make will be my own. A choice. A free one."

Maybe Sprout Wings - The Mountain Goats

Above

Author: Leah Bobet
Pages: 368
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Publication Date: April 1, 2012
Source: Library

Description from Goodreads:
Matthew has loved Ariel from the moment he found her in the tunnels, her bee’s wings falling away. They live in Safe, an underground refuge for those fleeing the city Above—like Whisper, who speaks to ghosts, and Jack Flash, who can shoot lightning from his fingers.

But one terrifying night, an old enemy invades Safe with an army of shadows, and only Matthew, Ariel, and a few friends escape Above. As Matthew unravels the mystery of Safe’s history and the shadows’ attack, he realizes he must find a way to remake his home—not just for himself, but for Ariel, who needs him more than ever before.

First Sentence: "My last supply duty before Sanctuary Night, I get home and Atticus is waiting."

Review:
What on this crazy, polluted planet did I just read? Seriously, I just finished reading this and I have no freaking clue. If this book were a person, it would likely end up in a straitjacket, trapped in the sorts of institutions many of its characters have been at one point or another. Mix together One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Dust Girl, and I think you've got something that roughly approximates Above.

The world depicted herein does have interesting features. For example, there are people with powers, like Jack and his lightning hands. Others are part animal, like Matthew and his scales. Some of these Freaks, those that aren't normal, have formed a community, hidden beneath the earth in tunnels, safe from the doctors and the institutions. They call their community Safe, and Atticus is their leader.

This basic premise could have made an outstanding book, but it didn't. The lack of explanation caused me to get stuck in questioning mode, unable to suspend disbelief. So far as I noticed, there was never once any sort of description of HOW society came to be this way. People don't just suddenly get born with lion feet for no reason. I'm not even asking for much. Just give me something! Really, I would have been a bit more positive towards the book had their been just a sentence telling me that these changes were the result of drugs, chemicals in the food, pollution, SOMETHING.

The character of Ariel, pictured on the book's cover, proved to be another insurmountable obstacle for me as a reader. While I can easily accept some of the curses (or so they call them) that the people of Safe possess, like wielding lightning or speaking with ghosts, I had major difficulty with the animal hybrids. Still, I could accept to some degree at least Atticus' claw hands and Matthew's dad's lion feet. Fine. Ariel, though, I could not fathom. You see, she is not precisely as pictured. She looks completely normal sometimes, entirely human. However, she can TURN INTO A BEE. Her ability differs from everyone else's greatly, and I couldn't deal with the whole conservation of matter issues. Sure, I've read books where I wasn't bothered by things like that (Harry Potter, for example), but this aspect just seemed out of place within Bobet's own world. Why was Ariel so unique?

Matthew is a meh main character, which is unfortunate, especially considering that I still found him to be the most interesting character. Everyone feels flat and I don't get a sense of any real emotion anywhere, even in the scenes that I know were meant to be gut-wrenching. Perhaps this stems from the way Bobet chose to tell the story, as Matthew's autobiography, thus creating a sense of removal from those moments?

Matthew has a momentous crush on Ariel, although it's never put into those terms. I will give the romance credit for not being remotely like any other YA romances. However, that does not make me ship them any more. Again, it's hard to root for them when I have no sense of who they really are. Ariel, especially, does not seem to much care for anyone and would probably be best off alone.

The writing teetered on the edge of dialect but, except for one brief section, remained normal enough that I didn't want to stab my eyes out with one of my stiletto heels. Her long (mostly about forty pages) chapters made my eyes cross. I was constantly flipping ahead to see how many pages of the chapter remained, and the answer was usually too many. Additionally, I did not care for the Tales told at the end of each chapter, a brief story of how some of the key characters came to be in Safe. The characters chosen seemed entirely arbitrary, with some important ones having been skipped and some we never even meet getting a section. Many of these didn't add to the book for me at all. I feel like it would have been stronger to integrate them into the rest of the text.

There were some ideas in Above that I really liked, some shining possibility from amidst the weirdness. I really wish that Bobet hadn't made this a paranormal. As an issues book set in a dystopian future with a crackdown on crazy people (like The Glimpse), this could have been so powerful. The paranormal elements detracted from the serious themes, like the abuse Ariel has suffered and the inhumane treatments perpetrated by the Whitecoats.

About all I can say having finished Above is that I didn't completely hate it. However, I have so little positive to say that I cannot even rate it a meh. Some readers surely exist who can appreciate Bobet's vision, but I am not that reader.

Favorite Quote:

"Jimmy was big and broad; all the better for keeping her papa away. Jimmy was seldom smiling; well, it mattered more when he smiled just for her. And Jimmy had a place down in the city, lock and key secure between her and the world, and nobody looking in or telling where she'd gone.
   This is the way the Tale goes, that it's good for a while. That there's someone to hold you at dusk and a quiet space to stay, someone to careful, careful drag you back from the nightmares and glittering cut-sharp edges of your smashed-up broken nerve.
   It good short of forever.
   It gets real bad. It gets bad in ways you know on you skin, and this time you picked it. You didn't look close enough, so this time it's just you to blame. So it's bad on back and shoes in hand to tiptoe late-night out the door, and no time for somewhere to run to; no time to wait for the real thing. There's only time to go.
   There's running and running 'til you can't outrun your skin."

"I thought of old friends
the one's who'd gone missing
Said all their names three times
Phantoms in the early dark
Canaries in the mines

Ghosts and clouds
And nameless things
Squint your eyes and hope real hard
Maybe sprout wings"

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

A Hazy Shade of Winter - Simon & Garfunkel

Crewel
Crewel World, Book 1

Author: Gennifer Albin
Pages: 357
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux BFYR
Publication Date: October 16, 2012
Source: Macmillan at BEA

Description from Goodreads:
Incapable. Awkward. Artless.

That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: she wants to fail.

Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to embroider the very fabric of life. But if controlling what people eat, where they live and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested.

Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and wove a moment at testing, and they’re coming for her—tonight.

Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her Dad’s stupid jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.

Because once you become a Spinster, there’s no turning back.

First Sentence: "They came in the night."

Review:
Oh dear. I seem to be in a bad string of reads, where all the ones I've been looking forward to turn out to be utter disappointments. Crewel has a beautiful cover and a unique plot line, but I did not connect with it emotionally at all. The romance aspects particularly lost me. For other readers, I am sure this will be a great read, particularly those who read for world building over character.

The very best part of Crewel is, without a doubt, the world building. Adelice lives in Arras, a mysterious fantasy land. The Guild runs Arras in conjunction with Spinsters, so named because they are not allowed to wed. At 16, girls are tested to see if they have the skills to become a Spinster, a weaver of the threads that compose Arras, the tapestry of life. Those that are chosen never get to go home again. Those that aren't have two years to wed and begin their adult lives.

The concept of a woven world really kind of blew my mind. Really, it's a lot like the internet in that, on the surface, I get it, but the more I think about it the less I understand. The descriptions of the weaving and the threads are lovely, as is Albin's writing. Towards the end, I had some suspension of disbelief issues, but I still would rate this as one of the most unique worlds I've encountered.

So far as dystopian-ness goes, Crewel certainly qualifies. Arras is one hell of a creepy place. For one thing, there's the whole forcing women to do certain things: become a Spinster, wed, and all sorts of other misogynistic rules. Women always seem to get the short end of the stick in dystopias; I should go read Herland or Nomansland. Even more than the dystopians aspects to the daily life, the government, both the Guild side and the Spinster side is seriously suspect. Both seem far to apt to make people disappear, if you get my drift.

Despite all of that being seriously cool, I just did not care. Adelice (what kind of name is that anyway) really doesn't seem to have that much of a personality. We start with the dramatic removal of her to be a Spinster, no visions of her on a normal day. All I really feel like I know about her is that a) she's a skilled weaver b) she loves her family and c) she likes boys. None of this really let me know anything about who she is. What I do pick up from that last one really doesn't make me think kindly of her either.

The worst aspect of the book, imo, is the love triangle. Of course, love triangles are dangerous, because, when done wrong, they make the reader want to *headdesk* all over the place. Well, this one did not work for me, probably partially because I really didn't care if the heroine found happiness. Not only that, but I don't have much more interest in either of the guys involved in the triangle. I suspect that I'm supposed to ship her with Jost (these names!), and he is the 'better' guy, but meh. Erik (what did he do to get a normal name?) probably would be my choice if I had to pick one, just because he seems like the underdog. The moment I entirely gave up on this was this: at the end of one chapter, Adelice makes out with one of the guys, then, in the next chapter, she finds out the other guy had a romantic past and got jealous. *throws up hands* And, of course, anytime she seems close to making a decision, based on syrupy protestations of needing to be with one of the guys, she'll suddenly start thinking maybe she's not so sure.

The most interesting characters were not the main ones. Loricel is my personal favorite. She's clever, kooky and has shades of grey to her personality. Maela and Cormac make stellar villains, of different kinds and powers. I definitely want to throw both of them across Arras. Cormac seriously creeps the hell out of me, which is a good sign in a villain.

Crewel was not the book for me, and I don't plan to continue with this series, unless I see reviews that convince me otherwise by other people who felt meh about this one. Will you like it? Maybe. If you read more for world building than for characters, you could potentially love Crewel.

Favorite Quote: "If there's one thing the Coventry has taught me, it's that lying always serves someone's purpose."

"Hang on to your hopes, my friend.
That's an easy thing to say but if your hopes should pass away,
It's simply pretend, that you can build them again.
Look around, the grass is high, the fields are ripe,
It's the springtime of my life.
Oh, seasons change with scenery,
Weaving time in a tapestry,
Won't you stop and remember me?"

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

Hell - Squirrel Nut Zippers

Velveteen

Author: Daniel Marks
Pages: 447
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Publication Date: October 9, 2012
Source: Won from A Good Addiction

Description from Goodreads:
Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem.

The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind.

Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days.

It’ll be brutal... and awesome.

But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she’s willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.

Velveteen can’t help herself when it comes to breaking rules... or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her.

First Sentence: "When Velveteen Monroe pictured Bonesaw's house—and she did, more often that could be considered healthy—blood striped the paint a muddy reddish-brown, internal organs floated in jars of formaldehyde, and great big taxidermy crows leered from branches that twisted from the wall like palsied arms."

Review:
Velveteen is another novel with a whole lot of hype surrounding its release. The premise sounds so insane and creepy that this should come as no surprise. A dystopia about the dead? Serial killers? Purgatory? Strong heroine? That's all kinds of awesome, right? Well, I definitely think so.

My first recommendation is not to come into Velveteen looking for a dystopia. There really isn't anything particularly dystopian here, although I do see some definite possibility for there to be a big reveal of evil government at work later in the series. This could have been a huge disappointment, because obviously I love dystopias, but the whole of the story was so delightfully fresh and funny that I wasn't particularly bothered.

On Twitter, I've seen people tweeting Daniel Marks as they read through this book. They commented how grossed out they were and how horrified. Well, I really didn't have any moments where I was overwhelmed by the ick or horror factors. Maybe I just have a strong stomach, but I doubt it, since I can't watch a horror movie without hiding through pretty much all of it. There are gross things that happen, but they're no worse than what I've encountered in all the zombie novels I've read. So, basically, if you don't often read macabre things, Velveteen might freak you out, but, otherwise, I wouldn't worry unduly.

Actually, more than anything else, I thought Velveteen was hilarious. Humor of course is very subjective. I suspect most readers will either love or hate Velveteen, depending on whether you think Daniel Marks' humor is funny or obnoxious. For me, it totally worked. If you're concerned, you might want to watch some of Marks' vlogs and see if you like his style.

The description of the novel makes a big deal about Velvet's desire for revenge against her murderer, Bonesaw. While this certainly is a plot point, it's actually a fairly minor plot arc, important to the story, but definitely not the focus of Marks' grisly tale. Still, he definitely wove this arc perfectly into the larger tale.

The focus of the novel is, instead, on the tensions within Purgatory. There is a revolution happening in Purgatory. The Departurists believe that the powers that be within Purgatory are preventing them from moving on and unfairly keeping them from the daylight (aka the world of the living). The revolutionaries are somehow causing bigger and bigger cracks to form in Purgatory, by trapping souls in daylight and causing shadowquakes. The world building on this Purgatory was crazy cool for sure.

Within Purgatory, there are jobs, ranging just as widely, although differently, from those in our world. Our heroine, Velvet, has one of the best jobs, as a salvager team leader. Scavengers enter daylight to save trapped souls, putting an end to shadowquakes and protecting Purgatory. This gives them a rare chance to travel to daylight and is also just really cool, since you need special abilities to do it. Teams consist of four: one body thief, who takes over the body of a living human temporarily, one undertaker, who takes over a dead body and becomes a zombie, and two poltergeists, who stay ghosty but have a natural power to move things in that form. Velvet and her team are the best and they love what they do. On one of their missions, they rescue Nick, aka love interest.

Now, we must talk about Velveteen. She is an amazing heroine, assuming you like them sarcastic, closed-off, and a bit violent. Thankfully, I do. If you're sick of all of the wimpy, clutsy, obedient heroines that can't do anything but moan about boys, you will love Velvet, as she is the antithesis of all things Bella. Similar heroines are Lex from Croak or Ashline from Wildefire. Velvet has a smart mouth and is quick to resort to physical violence. Just to give you an idea of the kind of girl we'll dealing with: she dressed up as Alex from A Clockwork Orange at one point. She felt real to me, and she read like a female.

Her romance with Nick also totally worked. There was definitely instalust, but Velvet is not the kind of girl to mistake that for love. She initially thinks he looks like and probably is an asshole. There's lots of kissing, because she's not the kind of girl who is against having a little fun. Though Nick and Velvet's relationship does progress fairly quickly emotionally, there's a natural flow to it. The two really do have a rapport. They have real conversations, develop little inside jokes, and have awesome witty banter. Their chemistry is fantastic.

So yeah, I thought this was a fantastic ride, entertaining and funny from beginning to end. I definitely anticipate Marks' next macabre tale!

Favorite Quote:

"'So, you're ready then, Quentin?' Velvet asked, gearing up. 'Sigmund Freud here has cured your panic attacks in one session.'
   'Aw. Come on.,' Nick wrapped his arm around Quentin's shoulder as they walked. 'Fear of rejection is the killer of many romantic teen scenarios. It's the scourge of adolescence. All I told him is to embrace the possibility that Shandie won't like him and go for it anyway. She is, after all, pretty hot.'
   'Yeah.' Quentin beamed. 'What's the worst that could happen?'
   She could tell you to eat shit and die, Velvet thought, but kept her mouth shut.
   But it was Nick who said, right after, 'She could tell him to eat shit and die, right? Words. Just words. That kind of stuff never lasts. People are fickle; they may laugh at you and stuff, but they always move on to the next tragedy as soon as it happens. In the end, it's more about Quentin than it is the girl. It's about courage. The act of talking to her. Exposing himself.'
   Logan busted up laughing.
   Nick rolled his eyes and crammed his hands into his back pockets. 'Not that way I mean, being vulnerable with her. That's what's gonna make you a man. It's going to kill that fear and bury it as deep as the bodies he thieves are kept.'"

"In the afterlife
You could be headed for the serious strife
Now you make the scene all day
But tomorrow there'll be hell to pay"

Out from Under - Incubus

Stormdancer
The Lotus War, Book 1

Author: Jay Kristoff
Pages: 313
Publisher:Thomas Dunne Books
Publication Date: September 18, 2012
Source: ARC from St. Martin's Press

Description from Goodreads:
A DYING LAND
The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; an island nation once rich in tradition and myth, now decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, the land is choked with toxic pollution, and the great spirit animals that once roamed its wilds have departed forever.

AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST
The hunters of Shima's imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary creature, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows the beasts have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death.

A HIDDEN GIFT
Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a talent that if discovered, would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun’s hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he’d rather see her dead than help her.

But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire.

First Sentence: "As the iron war club scythed toward her head, Yukiko couldn't help wishing she'd listened to her father."

Review:
Holy epicness Batman. Stormdancer is, perhaps, the most talked about book of this summer, and, having now finished, I can tell you that all of that anticipation and expectation is well-deserved. However, Stormdancer is also not what I was expecting. Not at ALL. Partly, this was my fault, but partly this was because of the way books are marketed.

What I didn't find in Stormdancer was the sort of Joss Whedon-esque humor that I was anticipating from communicating with Jay on Twitter and Goodreads. There is humor of a sort, but that's not a driving force by any means. That was my incorrect expectation. I was also expecting, from the way this book was marketed, a young adult dystopia about Yukiko. Well, sorry, guys, but that's not what this book is.

Jay Kristoff actually wrote an incredibly insightful post that got me thinking about the distinctions between young adult fiction and adult fiction, and how, much of the time, the lines are entirely arbitrary. In fact, there have been several books recently that I never would have guessed were 'young adult, and this most definitely falls into that category. I wonder whether some readers will be disappointed and dislike this book because it's so unlike most of the other novels published under that unclear heading.

Although Yukiko is undoubtedly the heroine of our piece, Stormdancer is definitively not just about her. Told in third person, the narrative does not even follow her alone. Many important characters left their teens behind years before. This book does not tackle issues that face a teenage girl. The scope of Stormdancer is broad, and I think that, were this not a dystopia and were YA not so popular, this book would be marketed as epic fantasy, where I personally feel it belongs (if we feel the need to push labels onto our books).

Moving on from that rant, let's actually talk about Stormdancer. You may have noticed that this book (or at least the ARC version) is but 313 pages. Don't let this fool you. Stormdancer is not a short book. The ARC is larger than a traditional trade paperback, the font is not large, and the margins are small. Published in an ordinary fashion, Stormdancer would probably be somewhere from 500-700 pages. If published the same way Divergent was, it would be IMMENSE.

All of those words to read are not a struggle, though, or were not for me. Jay Kristoff can write. His language is ornate and complex, with some of the best diction I've seen from a modern writer, yet all quite natural. Seriously, this man is a genius.

The best part of the book, most definitely, is the world building. Jay Kristoff has built a truly epic world, a steampunk Japan full of demons and fantastic creatures. A young, merciless shogun, Yoritomo, rules as tyrant over Shima, allowing the country to fall to ruin. In this steampunk world, machines run on lotus (think opium...only with the ability to power machinery and to pollute the environment). The mass of the populace is dying from the lotus, breathing the smoke of the polluted air into their lungs. Shima's soldiers (Iron Samurai) and priests (The Guild) are encased in metalwork, safe from the environment.

Set within this dying world, addicted, one way or another, to lotus, Masaru, Yoritomo's master hunter, receives orders to capture and deliver to the shogun an arashitora, a thunder tiger (half eagle, half tiger, as seen on the cover). Though they are believed to be extinct, Masaru and his crew, including Yukiko, set out on the fruitless search. What could, in a lesser book, be the whole of the first volume, this quest takes only the first third or so of the novel. Once they find the arashitora, Buruu, that is when the book really (pardon the pun...or, actually, don't) took off.

At first, I was appreciating the language and the mastery of the world building, but I wasn't particularly involved yet. This is a big part of why I would call this epic fantasy: good epic fantasy takes some time, because there's so much that has to be set up since the world is so different. Once Yukiko and Buruu began to bond, I really became attached to their characters and caught up in their fates. Yukiko is, as the cover promises, a BADASS, with the all-caps completely necessary to convey the degree of her ability to be awesome. However, Buruu totally stole the show from her, I thought. He is definitely my favorite character, because he's funny and loyal and A FRACKING THUNDER TIGER! It does not get more hardcore than that.

The other characters are also fascinating, interesting in how unclear they are. I really don't know how to feel about most of them, unable to figure out whether they're trustworthy or not. Pretty much by the time you figure that out, it's too late. This is not a world where good and evil are always bathed in black and white, and both are generally bathed in red, either from blood or from lotus.

So yeah, Stormdancer is just as crazy cool and full of action and steampunkery (like chainkatanas...think chainsaw + katana and accept the fact that Kay Kristoff is better than you) as you could possibly want. I advise you not to get to hung up on what Stormdancer is, and just to sit back and enjoy the ride through the storms.

Favorite Quote...er, Scene: 

"'You forget where you are, Yukiko-chan,' Daichi waved his hand across the vista. 'The haunted valleys of the Iishi Mountains. Demons are as real as the trees or the sky to the children who grow up here.'
   'Then why do you stay?'
   'Long shadows. Dark nights. As far from the Shogun's throne as a man can be, and a thousand and one myths to keep superstitious eyes away.'
   'I thought oni were just that.' Yukiko looked at her hand, curling and uncurling her fingers. 'Stories to frighten the simple and the young.'
   'I am afraid not.'
   'Where do they come from?'
   Daichi blinked, as if he didn't quite understand the question.
   'From Yomi, of course.'
   'Yomi?' Her voice fairly dripped skepticism. 'The deepest hell?'
   'Hai.' His reply was flat. Iron. 'The deepest hell.'
   'But the old tales...' Yukiko shook her head. 'Even is they're true, the gate to Yomi was sealed shut. And the stormdancer Tora Takehiko gave his life to see that it would remain forever closed. My father used to tell us that story all the time.'
   'It was a great sacrifice,' Daichi nodded. 'But the cracks are big enough for the little ones to slip through.'
   'Cracks?'
   'The great boulder that the Maker God pushed into place over the Devil Gate is only stone. Stone breaks under enough force. Enough hate.'
   'So it's all true? The old stories? The myths my father told us at bedtime?'
   Daichi tilted his head and frowned, motioned toward Buruu.
   'You walked into this village with a thunder tiger beside you. You have slain demons with your own hands. Are the old myths really that hard to believe?
   'They wouldn't be myths otherwise, would they?'
   'Then have a care, Yukiko-chan,' Daichi smiled. 'Keeping the company of the last arashitora in Shima sounds like an excellent way to become a myth yourself.'

"To resist is to piss in the wind
Anyone who does will end up smelling
Knowing this, why do I defy?
Because my inner voice is yelling
There is a fist pressing against
Anyone who thinks something compelling
Our intuit we're taught to deny
And our soul we're told is for selling

Get out from under them
Resist and multiply
Get out from under precipice and see the sky
Get out from under them
Resist, unlearn, defy
Get out from under precipice and see the sky"

Colors of the Wind - from Pocahontas

Under the Never Sky
Under the Never Sky, Book 1

Author: Veronica Rossi
Pages: 374
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Won from I Am a Reader, Not a Writer

Description from Goodreads:
Since she'd been on the outside, she'd survived an Aether storm, she'd had a knife held to her throat, and she'd seen men murdered. This was worse.

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland - known as The Death Shop - are slim. If the cannibals don't get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She's been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He's wild - a savage - and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile - everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria's help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

First Sentence: "They called the world beyond the walls of the Pod 'the Death Shop.'"

Review:
When Under the Never Sky first came out, I was really excited, hoping to love it. I nearly ordered a copy for myself a couple of times, but, ultimately, decided against it. I feared this would be another disappointment, with a trap of a cover. For whatever reason, I was pretty sure this was going to be another instalove dystopia, but I'm glad to say that it's definitely not that.

Under the Never Sky is told in third person from the perspectives of Aria and Peregrine (aka Perry). Aria lives in Reverie, a Pod, safe from the aether outside. Most of her life is spent in the Realms, complex simulations that are thought to be even better than the real world. She has no issues with her life, except for her worries about being separated from her mother, a doctor working on a project in another Pod.

Having lost contact with her mother due to network issues for longer than usual, Aria decides to investigate. To do so, she befriends Soren, the son of a powerful man in Reverie, hoping to lure the information from him. Little does she know what a creep Steldor and his dad are. This first section made it difficult for me to relate to Aria, not so much because she found herself in a bad and stupid situation, but that she should have seen it coming. She has observed some weird behavior from him before, but did not think better of going somewhere with him. Not wise.

Peregrine, desperate and searching for a way to save his nephew's life, breaks into Reverie just in time to save Aria. Ultimately, though, this condemns both of them to expulsion from their respective homes, him from his tribe, The Tides, and her from the Pod. Even worse, a bit of tech he took from her brings Reverie's soldiers after him, during which attack they kidnap his nephew.

Gifted with night-vision and a crazy good sense of smell, Perry finds her, doomed for death in the desert and rescues her despite his loathing for her. Note: there's no instalove. They both hate one another for a good portion of the book. Real trust and affection are slow in coming. In fact, she thinks he's a monster, a savage, and he thinks she's useless, a mole. Circumstances require them to put their feelings aside and work together.

For the most part, I didn't particularly connect with Perry and Aria. With Aria especially, I just didn't really have a sense of her personality. Perhaps this stems from the fact that she wasn't a real person until she emerged from the pod and really got to experience life, but I found her very bland for roughly the first 3/4 of the book. Thankfully, a lot of the side characters grabbed my interest, particularly Roar.

What really caught my interest in Under the Never Sky were the powers possessed by folks on the Outside. These powers are essentially enhanced senses. Did they evolve? It's curious. I'm also really interested to know what's up with the aether. Is that from people having destroyed the environment? That's what I would guess, but I could be wrong.

While I was not blown away, I am definitely eager to read the next book, because I would like to learn more about this world and how it came to be this way. I also hope to see Aria really grow into a powerful heroine.

Favorite Quote: "She had no illusions about becoming a master knife fighter. This wasn't the Realms, where a thought delivered a result. But she also knew she'd given herself a better chance. And in life, at least in her new life, chances were the best she could hope for. They were like her rocks. Imperfect and surprising and maybe better in the long run than certainties. Chances, she thought, were life."

"You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
Now can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know ..."

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

Suddenly, Seymour - Ellen Greene & Rick Moranis

Incarnate
Newsoul, Book 1

Author: Jodi Meadows
Pages: 374
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: Library

Description from Goodreads:
New soul

Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

No soul

Even Ana's own mother thinks she's a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she'll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

Heart

Sam believes Ana's new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana's enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else's life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life.

First Sentence: "What is a soul, but a consciousness born and born again?"

Review:
Ever since Presenting Lenore first featured this book in a prior dystopian month, I have been incredibly curious about Incarnate. Denied on NetGalley, I did not find time to read this until now. What I was expecting and what I got were entirely different things. It really kind of amazes me how little I know about books that I somehow still manage to be excited for.

Yet again, I'm deeming this not really a dystopia. Sad day. With the popularity of the genre lots of books are getting mislabeled. Actually, if anything, this seems much more like a utopian society, though one fraught with some issues. There is some amount of corruption in their governing council, but I don't think they try to control their average citizens enough to make them dystopian, though from Ana's perspective maybe they are.

The world building in this novel is straight up crazy, which I don't necessarily mean in a bad way. It's just way odder than I was anticipating. For example, I had no clue that there were going to be dragons and sylphs in this. There was also reference to trolls and centaurs, so I imagine those will show up in later installments, because why mention them if they're not going to serve a purpose in the plot? Even weirder than that, though, is the city of Heart, which the people of this world found built and waiting for them, walls, homes, temple and everything just empty and ready for them. They didn't question it; they just moved in, thank Janan. WHAT?

In this world, apparently, precisely one million humans live. Each of these souls reincarnates upon death, coming back in a couple of years to a new form and a new biological body and family. Everyone in Heart has been alive for five thousand years at this point. All of them have been both men and women. New experiences are few; everyone knows everyone.

Then, everything changes. Ciana dies, but she is not reborn. Instead, Ana emerges into the world, a shiny newsoul. Everyone flips out, because they fear this spells the end of their lives. Despite the fact that Ana clearly has no control over her birth, everyone blames and hates her, especially her mother, Li, who takes her to live in a rural cottage to escape from judgment. Also, being far away enables Li to mentally and physically abuse Ana without anyone knowing.

At the outset of Incarnate, 18 year old Ana has finally run away from Li, determined to learn the truth about herself in Heart. Misled by her evil old bat of a mother, Ana goes the wrong way, is attacked by sylph and nearly drowns. Thankfully, Sam happens upon her and rescues her. They form a bond and she discovers, for the first time, that people are capable of treating her well, of caring about her.

Ana made a rather indifferent heroine for me. She comes across as fairly weak, definitely depending more on Sam than is probably healthy. Then again, she basically has imprinted on him forever, since he was the first person to ever be nice to her. I do appreciate that she is at least a little bit bothered by the gap in their ages and experience; that has at least been acknowledged. Pretty much the only quality that really endeared Ana to me was her love for music. Otherwise, she didn't really stand out, much less clever and fascinating than I think I was supposed to think.

For the most part, my difficulties with Ana stem from her self-hatred. I totally get why she feels that way and, believe me, I understand what that's like. She's been torn down all of her life, so it would be impossible for her to be otherwise. Still, it's painful and annoying to sit through so many chapters of her self-doubt. Even with Sam's insistence on her awesomeness, she continues to think of herself as a nosoul for ages.

Sam, though, I actually really do like. He saved the book for me. He's nice and dependable. Aside from falling for Ana, something he seemed hesitant to do, but, thankfully, didn't brood over, he is completely non-creepy. My mental picture of him is super attractive, but he declared himself not to be, which is interesting. I wonder how reliable Ana's portrayal of him really is, considering that she, again, is biased since he was the first person in her entire life to ever be kind to her or to tell her that she has value. Their relationship strikes me as VERY unhealthy in all sorts of ways, even though I like Sam and want him to be happy. Still, finding your sense of self-worth only because of a guy isn't exactly ideal, neither for Audrey and Seymour or for Ana and Sam.

Reading through what I've written so far, I can't see too many things that particularly bothered me about Incarnate. Still, I feel like there was something missing that I can't quite put my finger on. For me, this turned out to be an entertaining but not especially impressive read. The concept intrigues me greatly, but I didn't really bond with most of the characters or the execution of the idea.

Favorite Quote:

"'Seems to me you're in a unique position to be anything you want.'
   'I doubt that.'
   'You have the benefit of learning from others' experiences. You don't have to make the same mistakes we did in the beginning, or the ones we're still making.' He led Shaggy to the side of the road and looped the rope around a low cottonwood branch, leaving enough slack for the pony to nose around in the sparse foliage. 'And who you are isn't already cast in everyone's eyes. No one knows what to expect from you. Some would say society is in a rut. Stagnant. By virtue of being new, you have the power to shake us out of that.'"

"Suddenly Seymour
Is standin' beside me
He don't give me orders
He don't condescend
Suddenly Seymour
Is here to provide me
Sweet understanding
Seymour's my friend"

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.