Sadie Hawkins Sunday Review #33: Across a Star-Swept Sea

Across a Star-Swept Sea
For Darkness Shows the Stars, Book 2

Author: Diana Peterfreund
Pages: 464
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: October 15, 2013
Read: September 2-5, 2013
Source: Gifted ARC - thanks, Lenore!
Recommended by: Christina of Christina Reads YA

Description from Goodreads:
Centuries after wars nearly destroyed civilization, the two islands of New Pacifica stand alone, a terraformed paradise where even the Reduction—the devastating brain disorder that sparked the wars—is a distant memory. Yet on the isle of Galatea, an uprising against the ruling aristocrats has turned deadly. The revolutionaries’ weapon is a drug that damages their enemies’ brains, and the only hope is rescue by a mysterious spy known as the Wild Poppy.

On the neighboring island of Albion, no one suspects that the Wild Poppy is actually famously frivolous aristocrat Persis Blake. The teenager uses her shallow, socialite trappings to hide her true purpose: her gossipy flutternotes are encrypted plans, her pampered sea mink is genetically engineered for spying, and her well-publicized new romance with handsome Galatean medic Justen Helo… is her most dangerous mission ever.

Though Persis is falling for Justen, she can’t risk showing him her true self, especially once she learns he’s hiding far more than simply his disenchantment with his country’s revolution and his undeniable attraction to the silly socialite he’s pretending to love. His darkest secret could plunge both islands into a new dark age, and Persis realizes that when it comes to Justen Helo, she’s not only risking her heart, she’s risking the world she’s sworn to protect.

In this thrilling adventure inspired by The Scarlet Pimpernel, Diana Peterfreund creates an exquisitely rendered world where nothing is as it seems and two teens with very different pasts fight for a future only they dare to imagine.

Previous Book in Series:
1: For Darkness Shows the Stars

First Sentence: "If the Wild Poppy dared return to Galatea, Citizen Cutler was ready."

Review:
There's a life lesson in this series for me. Much as I think I'm going to love the books that retell favorites, I'm probably actually going to prefer the ones that retell books I didn't like or that I haven't read. The latter is the case with The Scarlet Pimpernel, though I do have it on my shelves, along with a fifth of the other books I hope to read someday but haven't. Initially, I was a bit skeptical to a sequel to For Darkness Shows the Stars, but Peterfreund weaves Across a Star-Swept Sea into that world brilliantly, creating a read I found much more emotionally resonant.

Not being particularly familiar with The Scarlet Pimpernel, I cannot tell you with any degree of accuracy how well the retelling has been done, but I suspect quite well, as Peterfreund did a fantastic job with Persuasion. Even better, Peterfreund has done a gender swap and made The Wild Poppy. Persis Blake pretends to be an air-headed socialite so that no one suspect that she is in fact the most notorious spy in the kingdom.

Peterfreund really digs into gender roles and the absurdity thereof. In Across a Star-Swept Sea, three different cultures mingle, all with different gender roles for women. Even in Galatea, where women have been able to hold rank and rule for ages, everyone automatically assumes that The Wild Poppy is a man. Of course, this feeling that women cannot be so clever or powerful does make it easier for Persis to totally mess with their minds. I liked how, even though she makes use of the resources available to her, even if that means the assumption of her weakness or stupidity. Persis is a truly remarkable girl, intelligent, focused, resourceful, and a skilled actress.

The reason The Wild Poppy exists is to save Galatean nobles. In that country, the regs revolted and overthrew their leaders. However, they're not happy with equality; they want payback, and are punishing their leaders with Reduction. The world building is a bit complex and won't make much sense if you haven't first read For Darkness Shows the Stars, so I would really start there, even though this is marketed as a companion novel. Anyway, the pink pills simulate actual Reduction and remove a person's mental faculties, so that the regs can force the aristos to labor for them for a change. Medic Justen Helo, a symbol of the revolution because his grandmother Persistence Helo developed the cure to Reduction, fears that the new government has gone too far and seeks to escape to Albion. All of the medical stuff surrounding Reduction, both the sort that happened organically because we tampered to much with genes, and the created sort are entirely horrifying. Society, can we please not do this?

The plot runs largely more to intrigue than to daring rescues. In fact, she only goes on a couple of Poppy missions throughout the course of the novel, stuck instead at feigning a romance in her home country of Albion for most of the book. Romance is pretty central to the plot, not that I think the world building is neglected or anything, but it's key. Justen and Persis have this great hate to love thing going, and have the added complication of having to pretend to be a couple to explain why he's in Albion, since the Galateans don't know he no longer supports the actions of the Revolution. Basically, I ship this QUITE a bit. They have excellent banter, and it's fun to watch their feelings slowly change. Justen, of course, is in the difficult position of thinking Persis is an idiot, as she very much pretends to be.

However, much as I loved Persis and Justen, a couple of the secondary cast were wonderful too. Isla, the young leader of Albion is clever like Persis, and she has the cutest little romance going that she's not meant to. Watching her stop deferring to the old men in her council was super gratifying in patriarchal Albion. Tero and Andrine, the reg siblings, are fabulous. The show stealer, though, is Slipstream, aka Slippy, Persis' seamink. I picture him looking mostly like an otter. He's basically the cutest and also very useful. I would like a sea mink, though I doubt my cat would approve.

Across a Star-Swept Sea was pretty close to perfection for me, except for one thing: the hackneyed way that the novel resolved. Now, with a large aspect of Across a Star-Swept Sea being the romance, certain aspects of the ending are pretty much definite. Essentially, I was left feeling unsatisfied, because the romance aspects were left hanging. The book ends in what feels like the middle of the scene. No doubt this was done intentionally, but, as a reader, I am really tired of spending hundreds of pages getting emotionally attached to a particular couple but never getting that emotional payoff in the end.

On top of that, a very large plot point was left wholly unresolved. Without going into too much detail, there's a crossover with the plot from For Darkness Shows the Stars. We get to see those characters briefly, but they essentially don't serve any plot purpose that couldn't have been done more neatly with other characters. Yes, it's nice to show how the book's fit together, but that doesn't mean the characters can show up and have their plot entirely dropped.

Diana Peterfreund's follow-up to For Darkness Shows the Stars truly is best read as a sequel, and not a standalone, at least if you like to have all of the knowledge, like I do. Across a Star-Swept Sea is more light-hearted and romantic than its predecessor, with the same excellent writing and intriguing world building. Long as it is though, it did feel a bit abbreviated, though I still recommend it quite highly.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote:

"'You think they like you because you're soft on them. But all you're teaching them is that you're soft.'
     Now Isla did turn, and fixed Councilman Shift with her most royal glare. 'And if I let your insult pass unpunished, sir? What am I teaching you?'"

Don't Take My Word for It:
The Social Potato's word: "Is it really good? Hell to the YES." - 5 stars
Good Books and Good Wine's word: "this novel was a pure delight" - 5 stars
The Biased Bookie's word: "not a book you should read drowsy" - 4.5 stars

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Up Next:

The next Sadie Hawkins Sunday book will be If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch. This one was recommended by two separate people convinced I will love it, so *crosses fingers*

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

Review: The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die

Author: April Henry
Pages: 224
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Read: June 12-14, 2013
Source: ARC from publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
“Take her out back and finish her off.”

She doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know where she is, or why. All she knows when she comes to in a ransacked cabin is that there are two men arguing over whether or not to kill her.

And that she must run.

In her riveting style, April Henry crafts a nail-biting thriller involving murder, identity theft, and biological warfare. Follow Cady and Ty (her accidental savior turned companion), as they race against the clock to stay alive.

First Sentence: "I wake up."

Review:

This review is going to be uncharacteristically short for me, but the book itself is pretty short, so I suppose that's fitting. Since this is going to be one of those 3 star reviews that sort of reads like I didn't like the book, let me say this up front: I did like The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die. I'm not generally a big fan of thrillers, but I previously quite enjoyed Henry's Girl, Stolen, so I hoped that I would like this one just as much. Still, TGWWSTD was a fun, quick read overall.

In general, I would say that April Henry accomplishes what she set out to do in this book. TGWWSTD entertains. The plot moves along at a fast pace, and it's certainly never boring. The reader can't help but be curious and the pages flip by quickly. TGWWWSTD serves as the literary equivalent of a fairly mindless action movie, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The techniques Henry uses to accomplish this are quite standard thriller fare, which is why my enjoyment of this one boils down purely to the sheer entertainment factor. The main character has amnesia for much of the book, waking up in a cabin as two men prepare to kill her. Sure, amnesia happens, but it's over-employed in such action plots to up the danger level, since the MC doesn't have any idea where to go or who to trust.

Henry's writing consists of simple sentences and fragments. This style does create a sense of rushing headlong through the story. Thriller authors employ this method to create a feeling of urgency. While I do think it does work, I just generally prefer complex, more ornate writing. The combination of the writing, short chapters, and fast pace will likely make this an excellent choice for reluctant readers.

Most every chapter ends on a mini-cliffhanger, immediately resolved on the next page. Yet again, this technique does keep the reader moving through the novel at a fast clip. It's designed to make TGWWSTD a one sitting read, because you have to keep going to answer the lingering question from the last chapter. Effective, but trite.

While not thoroughly fleshed out, Henry's characters are sufficiently realistic for her purposes. Cady and Ty are likable enough that the reader does want them to win out over the bad guys. The skills that Cady possesses seem a bit convenient, though some are explained, like her ability to fight. What really feels unlikely is that Cady met Ty, a boy just this side of destitution, who is willing to miss class, endangering his dream of being an EMT, and work, risking putting him on the streets, to help save her from men with guns. Sure, he's nice, but, really, who's going to do that? I can see helping her when they first meet, but he's with her to the end, and I just don't see that. He also just happens to have the right amount of cash saved up so they can do what they need to do.

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die runs just 213 pages. With short chapters and a fast pace, it's an excellent choice when you want something you can read quickly for sheer entertainment value. Ultimately, though, it's not particularly memorable and I won't be revisiting it.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote: Didn't have one

Review: Violins of Autumn

Violins of Autumn

Author: Amy McAuley
Pages: 326
Publisher: Walker Children's
Source: Own

Description from Goodreads:
When the Germans begin bombing London in World War II, Betty is determined to do her part. Instead of running air raid drills like most girls her age, she lies about her age and trains to become a spy. Now known by her secret agent persona, Adele Blanchard, she finds herself parachuting over German-occupied France under the cover of darkness to join the secret Resistance movement. Prepared to die for her cause, Adele wasn’t expecting to make a new best friend in her fellow agent or fall for a handsome American pilot. With the brutality of war ever present, can Adele dare to dream of a future where the world is at peace and she is free to live and love of her own accord?

First Sentence: "The shackles binding my arms and legs to the chair scour my blistered skin to a bloody mash."

Review:
Violins of Autumn mines the fertile literary ground of World War II, which has a seemingly limitless number of stories to be told. The plot of Violins of Autumn follows the work of a teenage female spy in the months leading up to D-Day. While I did enjoy this novel, the timing of my reading was bad. Unfortunately, Violins of Autumn came out on the heels of another novel about a young female spy for the Brits who is captured and tortured, Code Name Verity, and I could not help comparing the two, which weakened my experience of VoA.

This novel begins, as so many do these days, with a brief into a climactic scene from the end of the novel. This technique has become exceedingly popular in YA fiction and, while it can and has been used to great effect in some cases, I maintain that it should be used sparingly. The right scene put at the beginning can create dramatic irony, keeping the reader on tenterhooks throughout the book to figure out what's going on or how the main character ended up in that situation. If this technique does not succeed, it comes off simply as a lame attempt to create additional drama, often having the adverse affect.

The opening dramatic snippet of Violins of Autumn depicts Adele's torture by the Nazis. Adele (though her real name is Betty, I prefer her spy name for her and will refer to her that way), we now know will be captured at some point, and, based on the ending of that concluding section, possibly die. Wow, really, prologue? You mean a spy might be tortured or even die? Can this be true? This felt like such an unnecessary ploy, as I already expect that sort of stuff to happen in a novel about a spy and I felt less interested knowing what was coming than if I had been waiting to find out. Plus, Code Name Verity also opens with torture, and that made comparing the two even more inevitable.

Where Violins of Autumn wins over Code Name Verity is readibility. The story is much less complicated, the characters simpler and it also doesn't make you want to weep for the rest of your life. For the reader that loved the idea of a teenage spy but could not get through Code Name Verity (and seriously no judgment for that since I nearly DNFed it too), Violins of Autumn is the book that you're looking for.

McAulay keeps the plot moving along at a steady pace. Missions and danger and Nazis abound. All of the action kept me turning the pages. While I didn't particularly connect with the characters, nor did I dislike them. Adele is capable and skilled with language, so that was awesome. She avoided making stupid mistake and proved herself much cleverer than a lot of the other spies we see in the book, though she does struggle to do so well. However, I did not care for the love triangle, which resolved in an annoying way. Adele is one of those 'I love them both in different ways' girls, which I just cannot stand. With constant possibility of death, I am all for enjoying oneself, but attraction and fear do not love make.

The ending of Violins of Autumn struck me as the weakest part of the book. I thought it too optimistic. In the chapters before the last two, some sad things happened: people died, torture, etc. Yet, in those last two concluding chapters the tone is one of unmitigated celebration. There is not one mention of the fallen comrades, and, while I don't think they should wallow, THIS JUST HAPPENED. I expected something a bit darker and more contemplative.

Looking back on my review, I see how most of my comments are negative. I want to stress that this isn't a bad book; I did enjoy it. The timing was just off. Had there been a year or two gone since I read Code Name Verity, which covers the same basic concept, I would have appreciated this much more. So, if you've read CNV, give yourself some time.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote: "My place in the world doesn't matter nearly as much as the people who open their hearts to me while I'm there. And wherever I am, as long as they're by my side, I'll be home."

Spy - The Seatbelts

The Coldest City

Author: Antony Johnston
Illustrator: Sam Hart
Pages: 172
eGalley Acquired from: Oni Press via NetGalley

Description from Goodreads:
November 1989. Communism is collapsing, and soon the Berlin Wall will come down with it. But before that happens there is one last bit of cloak & dagger to attend to. Two weeks ago, an undercover MI6 officer was killed in Berlin. He was carrying information from a source in the East — a list that allegedly contains the name of every espionage agent working in Berlin, on all sides. No list was found on his body. Now Lorraine Broughton, an experienced spy with no pre-existing ties to Berlin, has been sent into this powderkeg of social unrest, counter-espionage, defections gone bad and secret assassinations to bring back the list and save the lives of the British agents whose identities reside on it.

Review:
The history major in me could not pass up this particular graphic novel. Although the Cold War is not one of the time periods I especially gravitate towards, it is definitely a great era for spy drama, which is what The Coldest City is. There's as much drama, backstabbing and mystery as an episode of Alias. Well, maybe not quite that much, or quite that colorful, but still quite dramatic.

All of that drama, though, is told in a very detached style. Most of the story is told in flashbacks as Broughton, the female spy sent to Berlin to see what's going on after the death of an agent, gives her report to her superiors at MI6. The graphic novel really had a noir feeling I thought, which was only exacerbated by the black and white illustrations.

The artwork did not particularly appeal to me, although it did complement the atmosphere of the story. The images are very shadowed and obscured, rather like the truth. I appreciate them for that, but, aesthetically, they're not especially pleasing.

The one thing that I really felt made this graphic novel stand out was, for me personally, a big plus, but could, for another reader, be a serious detractor. Johnston does not just do all of the dialog in English; the language spoken by the character is the language on the page. This is not especially unique. What is unique is that there is rarely any translation offered. If you don't speak that language, it's all up to the context or an online translator for you. Most of the non-English parts were German, which, conveniently enough, is the other language I know, so I was fine and really enjoyed this. Had I not spoken that language, I think I might have been annoyed and frustrated, because the parts in German are not always simple and easy to derive from context.

All in all, I came away feeling rather meh about this one. The story didn't feel quite fleshed out enough for me to really feel wowed. However, I think it could have some definite appeal for fans of spy stories.

Rating: 2.5/5

Theme from Mansfield Park - Lesley Barber

Wrapped

Author: Jennifer Bradbury
Pages: 309
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Brief Summary:
Agnes is an incredibly brilliant girl. She can speak, read and write in ten different languages, some of which are self-taught. Unlike mos girls of the 1810s, she follows along with the political situation and is enthralled by what she learns. Even more telling of her intelligence and fine taste is her obsession with Jane Austen. Now 17, she faces her Debut into society and the rather surprisingly overt attentions of the most desirable bachelor, Lord Showalter. Agnes worries that her life will quickly become mundane as she settles into wifehood, but, thankfully, she finds a relic on a mummy, unlocking a mystery that could affect the outcome of the wars with Napoleon. To solve this mystery, she's going to have to turn up with a totally Darcy-ish hero. Clever girl.

Review:
So if you're me and you pick up a book and the heroine is reading, especially if she's reading Jane Austen, you're probably going to love most anything that comes next so long as it's halfway decent. Sure I suppressed a shudder (somewhat unsuccessfully) when I realized that the Austen book in question was the insufferable Mansfield Park, but later Agnes mostly quotes P&P and S&S, so I'll forgive her. So yeah, Austen lovers should check this out, because the constant Austen references will make you giddy.

For those who (for some crazy insane reason) do not like Jane Austen, the similarities are limited pretty much entirely to the references. The plot, characters and action are not remotely like those of an Austen novel. Caedmon is compared to Darcy in his first appearance, but really has nothing in common with him at all, except for his physical appearance as perceived by Agnes. As for Agnes, she is as sassy as an Austen heroine, but she pushes boundaries much more, what with her then deemed excessive education and propensity to crossdressing when she wants to leave the house unescorted, not to mention not having the good sense to fall in love with a wealthy man.

The story of Wrapped is altogether fun and silly. While the plot twists were completely unsurprising, I was still happy to see them come and quite excessively diverted by the story as a whole. Plus, the cover is completely delightful, even if it did make me expect a Beauty and the Beast reimagining for some reason I cannot explain.

Jennifer Bradbury has written an adorable period piece and I cannot wait to see what she'll do next!

On Her Majesty's Secret Service - John Barry Orchestra

Phoenix Rising
Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, Book 1
Author: Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris
Pages: 347
ARC Acquired From: Voyager, a HarperCollins imprint, via NetGalley
Brief Summary:
Agent Eliza Braun of the Ministry of Paranormal Occurrences was ordered to dispatch a captured ministry agent, Wellington Thornhill Books, archivist for the MPO. When she realized she could rescue him, she did, assuming the Ministry would be happy to have him back, since he had not broken under torture. For her trouble, she was demoted. To the archives. And made the partner of Agent Books. Braun's loves in life are bombs, guns and trouble, so cataloging does not exactly satisfy. This leads to the new goal of convincing Books to help her solve unsolved ministry cases, namely the one involving her formal partner, now in an insane asylum. Lucky for Eliza, she is going to find that librarians (archivists!) are far more resilient than she ever suspected.

Review:
So, here we have a steampunk book with an archivist as a main character. Can you say awesome? I know a few archivists myself, and some of them can be quite awful and, well, stereotypical. Thankfully, Books falls firmly into the realm of the fantastic archivists. He is concerned with the "preservation of the Empire" and of the ministry's artifacts and papers (291).

From the beginning, I identified more with Books than with the confident, flirty heroine. A librarian myself, his attempt to find a nonviolent solution, along with his nerdy love of books and research, seems the ideal method. Eliza, while a strong heroine, never really felt like a real person to me. She lacks background, except that she misses her homeland of New Zealand. All I really know about her is that she likes to make Books uncomfortable and to make things explode (likely those two things will combine at some point, but not in this book, the first in the series). Hopefully, some more character depth will be forthcoming.

Clever people that you are, you have likely noticed that Books is a fitting name for an archivist. This naming convention continues throughout, with many of the characters wearing fitting monikers. Like the rather brawny Miss Braun. Or the female assassin del Morte. I found these little elements amusing, along with most of the old timey language. Expect pages "full of rabble-rousers, Fabians, cut-throats and Dollymops" (133). Although there are some occasional slip ups in the use of the old fashioned words, such as referring to an event as grizzly, when the authors really meant grisly.

I will undoubtedly be venturing forth into later volumes about the escapades of Books and Braun. Phoenix Rising was quite entertaining and I hope book two will be even better. If you love reading about librarians with a few aces up their sleeves, explosions and strong women, you won't want to miss this amusing steampunk novel.