Review: The Apprentices

The Apprentices
The Apothecary, Book 2

Author: Maile Meloy
Pages: 432
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Read: June 4-6, 2013
Source: Publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
Two years have passed since Janie Scott last saw Benjamin Burrows, the mysterious apothecary’s defiant son who stole her heart. On the other side of the world, Benjamin and his father are treating the sick and wounded in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam. But Benjamin has also been experimenting with a magical new formula that allows him to communicate with Janie across the globe. When Benjamin discovers that she's in trouble, he calls on their friend Pip for help. The three friends are thrown into a desperate chase around the world to find one another, while unraveling the mystery of what threatens them all.

Acclaimed author Maile Meloy seamlessly weaves together magic and adventure in this breathtaking sequel with stunning illustrations by Ian Schoenherr.

Previous Book in Series:
1: The Apothecary

First Sentence: "The space between the stone library of Grayson Academy and the red brick science building created a ferocious wind tunnel, in any decent wind."

Review:

Oh, the joys of an unsolicited ARC that turns out to be the sequel to a book you enjoyed. Prior to the arrival of this book on my doorstep, I had no idea that there would be a sequel to The Apothecary, nor did I have a specific hankering for one. However, since I did like the first, I was excited to discover what would transpire in this installment. Well, lucky me, The Apprentices is an even better read than The Apothecary, maturer in plot, writing and characterization.

Where The Apothecary was very much a middle grade novel, clearly skewing to a younger audience, The Apprentices could really have been published for either middle graders or young adults. Two years have passed since the ending of The Apothecary, bringing Janie from fourteen years old to sixteen. Janie, Benjamin, and Pip have all grown up in the gap between the two novels, still their charming selves but a bit wiser.

Despite the maturer tone, The Apprentices retains the  magic of The Apothecary. Once again, evil forces are at work, attempting to do evil things involving atomic bombs and it's up to the apothecary, his son Benjamin, and Benjamin's friends to save the day. Using a book called the Pharmacopoeia, they can create potions that make the improbable possible. For example, they can become birds, much like in The Sword in the Stone.

On top of that, The Apprentices is also historical fiction. In the first book, Janie's parents had moved to England to escape the Red Scare, as they worked in the entertainment industry. The Cold War is still going strong in The Apprentices. In fact, Meloy even touches on tensions in Vietnam, China and North Korea. I love how she weaves the historical elements in, without beating the reader over the head with them.

Meloy's characters are a lot of fun. Janie is brilliant and determined, more concerned with figuring out how to desalinate water than boys. Though she does have fond memories of Benjamin, who left her alone for two years, and another potential suitor in the handsom Raffaello, romance stuff really isn't at the top of her mind. In fact, Benjamin actually spends more of his time thinking about her, worrying that she might have found another boy in his absence. He, too, is incredibly clever, becoming the heir to his father in apothecral (this does not appear to be a word, but I shall make it so) talents.

Pip doesn't spend much time on screen (on page?) in The Apprentices, but he still manages to steal the show. Now a television star in England, he's got a posher accent than before, but he's still the same short, cheeky lad. Enlisted to go find and save Janie in America, he gets cheap passage on a cruise ship in exchange for keeping the daughters of the wealthy entertained. The contacts he makes turn out to be hilarious plot points. No one can resist Pip's exuberant charm.

If you enjoyed The Apothecary, you will not want to miss Meloy's follow up, which exceeds its predecessor, a rarity in sequels. There's action, a bit of romance, history and humor. The Apprentices is a great read for children, teens and adults alike.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote: "'Your capacity to be bored is the stuff of legend.'"

Sadie Hawkins Sunday Review #14: Tatiana and Alexander

Tatiana and Alexander
Tatiana and Alexander, Book 2

Author: Paullina Simons
Pages: 576
Publisher: Avon
Read: May 17-20, 2013 
Source: Gifted
Recommended by: Lisa V.

Description from Goodreads:
The epic saga of love and war continues--the heart-stopping sequel to Paullina Simons's beloved international bestseller The Bronze Horseman.

Tatiana is eighteen years old, pregnant, and widowed when she escapes war-torn Leningrad to find a new life in America. But the ghosts of her past do not rest easily. She becomes consumed by the belief that her husband, Red Army officer Alexander Belov, is still alive and needs her desperately.

Meanwhile, oceans and continents away in the Soviet Union, Alexander barely escapes execution, and is forced to lead a battalion of soldiers considered expendable by the Soviet high command. Yet Alexander is determined to take his men through the ruins of Europe in one last desperate bid to escape Stalin's death machine and somehow find his way to Tatiana once again.

Previous Book in Series:
1: The Bronze Horseman

First Sentence: "Alexander Barrington stood in front of the mirror and adjusted his red Cub Scout tie."

Review:
Tatiana and Alexander did actually turn out to be a much stronger read for me than its predecessor, The Bronze Horseman. Rarely does a sequel improve upon the first book, so yay for that. While I slogged through book one, this one I read over the course of just a couple of days. Simons' trilogy takes a turn for the historical, rather than the romantic, which is just what I was wanting from this series from the start.

Of course, the reason I like this one so much better than The Bronze Horseman is that Tatiana and Alexander are kept apart for the bulk of it. Only in the last 100 pages are they together again, aside from some brief flashbacks that catch the reader up on the events of the first book (and, no, it's not in the least frustrating that an 800 page book can be summed up in a few quick flashbacks). My issues with Tatiana and Alexander's relationship were and are threefold: the idiotic love triangle (which is a non-issue now, but still taints my opinion of the two), the age difference (which isn't really all that large, but Tatiana was not mature for her age), and the way Alexander bosses Tatiana around. I'm sure his bossiness is typically Russian, and it's also what he witnessed from his parents, but I still think he's a dick, even if society taught him to behave that way.

However, as I said, they're hardly together in this one and that's a blessing, unless what you loved about book one was the romance, not the part about the siege; in that case, better luck with book three. Simons totally goes for a dramatic irony thing, with the reader knowing that he's alive and Tatiana believing Alexander died. Will she move on? Will she commit suicide out of despair, leaving her son an orphan? Sadly, the latter was much closer to transpiring. Yeah, I knew her husband was alive and that they would be reunited, but I kept hoping she would move on anyway, what with not shipping them in the slightest.

Aside from them, though, I pretty much loved everything else. Simons writes well, aside from her tendency to get all gooshy with the romance stuff. Where the story in The Bronze Horseman was entirely linear, Tatiana and Alexander jumps through time, from Tatiana to Alexander. We learn more about Alexander's childhood and follow him from his faked death until their reunion. Since the lovers are parted, the focus is on historical events, not melodrama.

Warning: This paragraph has spoilers:
With Alexander, Simons is able to cover torture sessions and the way the Soviets try to garner confessions, in which every option is a trap. From there, Alexander moves to a penal brigade, and the reader gets to witness just how poorly managed the Soviet forces were, sending men out to die senselessly. Later, Alexander fights along the front line with Germany, poorly armed and with the NKGB waiting behind to shoot him and his men should they retreat. Forced to surrender or die, his men are then sent to a concentration camp (Sachsenhausen) for having dared to let the enemy win. All of these things are true to the Soviet experience in WWII, and Simons does a good job depicting the bleakness.

With only one book left in this saga, I'm hoping for more historical fiction, but suspect that The Summer Garden will be romance, romance, romance. At any rate, with this one, I'm glad I've read the series, and tentatively excited to continue.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote:

"'Does Hitler value your life?' asked Tatiana.
     'More than Stalin would. Hitler tries to heal us so he can send us back to the front, but Stalin doesn't even bother. He lets his men die and then sends fourteen-year-olds to the front. And then they die.'"

---

Up Next:

The next Sadie Hawkins Sunday book will be Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma! I've been curious to try Suma's books for ages, so thank you to Jenni of Alluring Reads for suggesting it. I can only hope I love it as much as Jenni did!

Want to tell me what to read? Fill out the following form with a suggestion! For more details, check this post.

That's What Makes the World Go Round - from The Sword and the Stone

The Apothecary

Author: Maile Meloy
Illustrator: Ian Schoenherr
Pages: 353
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
Source: Received from Penguin at BEA

Description from Goodreads:
It’s 1952 and the Scott family has just moved from Los Angeles to London. Here, fourteen-year-old Janie meets a mysterious apothecary and his son, Benjamin Burrows—a fascinating boy who’s not afraid to stand up to authority and dreams of becoming a spy. When Benjamin’s father is kidnapped, Janie and Benjamin must uncover the secrets of the apothecary’s sacred book, the Pharmacopoeia, in order to find him, all while keeping it out of the hands of their enemies—Russian spies in possession of nuclear weapons. Discovering and testing potions they never believed could exist, Janie and Benjamin embark on a dangerous race to save the apothecary and prevent impending disaster.

First Sentence: "I was seven and living in Los Angeles when Japan surrendered at the end of World War II, and my first vivid memories are of how happy and excited everyone was."

Review:
I'd noticed The Apothecary, but it wasn't particularly on my radar. However, I certainly wasn't going to pass it up when I saw Meloy's short signing line just where I happened to be at BEA. I'm glad I did pick up a copy. The Apothecary is a thoroughly fun and silly middle grade novel, and even has some history lessons.

I straight up love history, so I was all about the Cold War aspects of the story. Spying and atomic bomb testing? Sign me up. This definitely doesn't read like a text book, though, so don't worry about that. If anything, The Apothecary is more designed to educate younger readers on the horrors of atomic warfare without actually scaring the pants off of them. I definitely thought it was awesome that Janie and her parents had to move at the beginning because of the Red Scare moving through the entertainment industry. 

What I liked best about The Apothecary definitely also formed a weakness in the story, ironically enough. I loved the scenes surrounding the use of the different alchemical recipes. The very best scenes of the book to me deal with the quintessential awkwardness of being 14, and the magic/science definitely highlights that. For example, one of my very favorite scenes occurs when Benjamin and Janie test out a truth serum on one another to make sure it works. Of course, they dare each other to say who they fancy. While that may not be surprising, it's totally what would happen and the scene just resounds with teenage discomfort.

However, I felt like the potions and powders were a bit too...easy, I guess. Have a problem? The Pharmacopoeia (Alchemical book) has something for it! What was perhaps more frustrating was that, except for one particular spell (or whatever you want to call it), the potions and stuff were already ready made. It just seemed kind of lame. I wanted the kids to do more, to have to work more to get going. It felt like most of the book was just the kids discovering new awesome thing after new awesome thing. It just felt too convenient to me.

While I did really like Meloy's writing, I felt like her characterization needed work. I really liked most of the characters actually, but I never felt especially connected to Janie, which is unfortunate, since you see from her perspective. I guess I just had trouble getting a handle on who she was, other than a brave girl who likes adventures. I just don't feel like I know anything about her interests. Pip totally stole the show. He is such a perfect rapscallion!

All told, I definitely thought this was a wonderful read. It's worth perusing especially to see the gorgeous illustrations by Schoenherr. He did a marvelous job, and I always anticipated new chapters because I knew I'd get to see a new picture!

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote: "It’s safe to say I was not graceful about the move to London. I was not witty, patient, adaptable Jane Austen. And if I was anything like Katharine Hepburn, it was in the scenes where she’s being a giant pest."

"You must set your sights upon the heights 
Don't be a mediocrity 
Don't just wait and trust to fate 
And say, that's how it's meant to be 
It's up to you how far you go 
If you don't try you'll never know 
And so my lad as I've explained 
Nothing ventured, nothing gained 

You see my boy it's nature's way 
Upon the weak the strong ones prey 
The human life it's also true 
The strong will try to conquer you 
And that is what you must expect 
Unless you use your intellect 
Brains and brawn, weak and strong 
That's what makes the world go round "

The Red - Chevelle

Superman: Red Son

Author: Mark Millar
Genre: alternative history
Pages: 148
Publisher: DC Comics

I enjoy comic books, although I have not read many of the classics. At least not yet. Superman is one of my least favorite superheroes; he is a boring do-gooder with a lame disguise. For this alternative history, I was willing to give Superman a chance.

For any history lover, this is a must read. The idea of a Soviet Superman is incredibly interesting from a Cold War perspective. I wish we had read this for my Soviet Union class in undergrad (only sort of kidding). I took this in to work today and showed one of my coworkers. He is in his upper 40s or so and was absolutely astounded and horrified at the thought of a Soviet Superman. Having been such an American icon, this is a really amazing reimagination.

The historical goodies in here are just delightful. For example, Superman's Soviet emblem or the propaganda posters. The absolute corruption of absolute power is certainly in evidence too. Watching Superman transition from goody two shoes into the heir of Stalin is remarkable, but believably accomplished.

I loved this, except for one thing: the ending. It's a bit open-ended, so I am not one hundred percent sure I hated the ending, but I am definitely annoyed by it. There must have been a better way to conclude the story.

A quick, wonderful, thought-provoking read set in the Cold War era. (Can you tell us where the nuclear wessels are?)

"So lay down, the threat is real,
When his sight goes red again.
Seeing red again,
Seeing red again."