Sadie Hawkins Sunday Review #20: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Between, Book 1

Author: April Genevieve Tucholke
Pages: 368
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Read: June 23-27, 2013
Source: ARC from publisher for review
Recommended by: Ashleigh Paige of Birth of a New Witch

Description from Goodreads:
You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…

Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town…until River West comes along. River rents the guesthouse behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more? Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery...who makes you want to kiss back. Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.

Blending faded decadence and the thrilling dread of gothic horror, April Genevieve Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeously told as it is terrifying—a debut to watch.

First Sentence: "'You stop fearing the Devil when you're holding his hand.'"

Review:
Sometimes I'm that guy. You know, the one who reads a book that trusted friends, ones I usually agree with, were super impressed by and ends up unenthused. The blurb for Devil (since I can't be bothered to type all of that out over and over) did give me pause, what with the focus on River coming to town. The whole thing suggests instalove, but early reviews were promising and an ARC arrived, so damn the blurb and full speed ahead! Well, turns out I should have listened to my first instincts, because both the romance and a plot twist bothered me. Be warned that this review contains spoilers, since that was the only way I could explain why I feel the way I do.

In no way do I think Devil is a bad book, and there was even a brief time where I thought a 3.5 rating was coming for it. Tucholke excels especially at the horror aspects. Pretty much everything that happens ranges from eerie to mindfuck to terrifying. The concept and execution of River's deal was done incredibly well. Tucholke also manages to pull off so many surprises, which upped the intensity. If you're really into horror, then I think Devil will probably be worth your time.

The other aspect that I really enjoyed was the atmosphere. As with most gothic novels, there's a sort of place out of time feel to it. Though set in the modern world, Violet's little town and her house seem caught in the past. The most popular town activity is watching old movies. Violet listens to her grandmother's music and wears her grandmother's clothing, as a way of connecting. Violet's been so alone since her grandmother Freddie died, unable to connect with her brother, who she loves but who also irritates her with the way he treats girls. Tucholke sets the scene well, with the spooky giant house, the sleepy town disconnected in some way from modernity, and the slower pace of life. Tucholke's writing fits the narrative well, though it isn't a style that especially speaks to me.

The characters all felt pretty flat to me too, though that could be due to Vi's impaired mental state. The only one I really connected to was Neely, who was for me the most likable in a flawed and strange bunch. The portrayal of Sunshine upset me especially, as she never actually DOES anything, except hook up with Luke, Violet's brother, even though she knows he's seeing another girl too. Sunshine gets called a 'whore,' beat up, terrified and all sorts of things, but the reader never gets a sense that there's anything more than that to her. She's shown as entirely vacuous and vain, living solely to hook up with any willing guy. All of the characters seem pretty similarly one note, but Sunshine was the most distressing.

One of the aspects I didn't care for, as it so often is, is the romance between River and Violet. Now, as the blurb suggests, Violet's instalove for him does have a reason behind it, so, though painful, that's legit. He can mess with her mind somehow and create these feelings in her, which speaks strongly to abusive relationships and could send a powerful message. Unfortunately, I didn't get a real sense of the change he wrought in her, since the book opens pretty much with his arrival, so I never really got a sense of Violet as a person, because I knew her so briefly before her every thought became suspect. I can see where Tucholke put in clues to the brainwashing effect, like how Vi's initial analysis of River's appearance differed greatly once her mind started clouding, but it wasn't quite enough to help me differentiate regular Vi from River's Vi.

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE
For a while there, though, once Vi realized what was going on, everything was great, in the sense that it was creepy and everyone knew that their relationship was unhealthy. I was totally on board with that. However, the kiss of death for the romance came when, mind clear, Violet still wants River. Girl, NO. She knows that he lied to her, that he messed with her mind, and that he nearly compelled her to have sex with him, but she still thinks she might be in love with him? THAT I am not okay with. At all. I mean, maybe it's going to be yet another twist of her mind being tampered with, but that would be a bit much.

During the point where I thought I was going to give Devil 3.5 stars, Vi was skeptical of River and trying to fight his affect on her. She also was learning just how much of a creep he was. River has killed people. Tons of them. I thought that was awesome, and I was looking forward to her taking him out. Well, turns out that River's innocent, at least of some of it. SURPRISE TWIST! An insane half-brother with similar powers has been stalking River and framing him for evil deeds in Vi's town! No. So much no to this. It's overly convenient for one thing and it comes across as a way to excuse River for the things he's done, which is, frankly, bullshit. Though some parts of Devil were fantastic, I just could not enjoy it personally. To me, River does not belong as a love interest but a villain, and everything felt forced in such a way as to not put him in that role.

As I said, early review of Devil have been really positive and there were things I liked, but, as a whole, I really do not see the appeal. Whatever made this magic for others was not there for me.

Rating: 1/5

Favorite Quote: "'I wish people would spread a Faustian rumor about me.' I leaned over and knocked Sunshine's hand out of Luke's hair. 'A Faustian myth,' I repeated. 'It's so much more interesting than just being that nouveau-poor blond girl who lives in a big house with nobody but her jackass brother with pecs bigger than his brain. Sunshine, if I ever disappear, please tell people that I ran after the Devil, trying to get my soul back.'"

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Up Next:

The next Sadie Hawkins Sunday book will be Cold Steel by Kate Elliott, the final book in the Spiritwalker trilogy. Nafiza of Bibliophilic Monologues suggested I get my butt in gear and finish this series, and I'm thrilled to do so, because it has one of my favorite ships ever. Cat and Vai foreverrrrrrr.

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

Review: Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters

Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters

Author: Suzanne Weyn
Pages: 247
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: YA Books Central for Review

Description from Goodreads:
A new generation is creating a monster....

Giselle and Ingrid are the twin daughters of Doctor Victor Frankenstein, but they are very different people, and when they inherit his castle in the Orkney Islands, Giselle dreams of holding parties and inviting society -- but Ingrid is fascinated by her father's forbidden experiments.

First Sentence: "What unbearable guilt!"

Review:
No matter my opinions on the source material, I cannot resist retellings. I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in high school, and I loathed pretty much every bit of it. Perhaps I might be able to appreciate its wordiness and lack of action more now, but, at the time, it was torture. Suzanne Weyn's novel picks up some time after Frankenstein concludes, following his daughters, in a very different kind of story.

Where Frankenstein consists of a lot of endless descriptions and foliage, Weyn substitutes the castle and mysterious murders to create the gothic feeling of the original. Weyn also does a good job of simulating the language of the time. It's a bit stilted occasionally, but largely well done. The narration switches between Giselle's and Ingrid's journal entries, and the two narratives are kept distinct by the entirely different interests held by the two girls.

The major theme in Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters, as with Frankenstein, is that of madness. With the two Frankenstein girls, Weyn highlights two different kinds of madness, with the most obvious being the madness of obsession in scientific discovery. The desire for knowledge, to know whether something can be done without considering whether it should be done, runs through Ingrid, the smart twin, just as it ran through Victor.

Though much of Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters moved at a pretty sedate pace, again akin to the original, the ending is quite shocking. The first half focused largely on romance, and it seemed less a retelling and more a historical romance with a needless reference to Shelley's creations. In the second half, Weyn really sells it, and the shift is startling in a good way. I did not expect her to end things quite as she did, and it's nice to be surprised by a book.

Unfortunately, the novel has a major flaw in my opinion. Though I do not think it is Weyn's intention to do so, I do not like the treatment of female characters in the novel. Besides Giselle and Ingrid, there is only one other female character who gets a line. The girls are on this isolated island, but meet multiple attractive men. Yet, somehow, they do not meet any women. I do not like the message this sends that aside from our heroines, females really are not important. Though perhaps I should be grateful that the two girls are the only ones to receive any sort of character development; all those multitudes of men are flat as pancakes.

The only other woman to have a voice is Mary Shelley. Weyn has done what so many retellers like to do: brought the author into her story. This is, actually, one of my least favorite literary devices. An author chooses to retell a story, most likely because of a great respect and admiration of the original work and its creator. Generally, the author is brought in as a character to be inspired by the scenes he/she witnesses, and to then go on and write their famous work. Am I the only one who finds this incredibly insulting to the original author, diminishing the power of their imagination to that of a chronicler?

Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters is a quick read that becomes progressively darker as the pages fly by. This will be a good read for those who appreciate gothic narratives, but don't want to wade through 400 pages of dense prose.

Rating: 2.5/5

Favorite Quote: "I read and read without ever being bored as long as there is daylight."

Review: The Sweetest Dark

The Sweetest Dark

Author: Shana Abé
Pages: 352
Publisher: Bantam
Publication Date: April 2, 2013
Source: Random House via Edelweiss

Description from Goodreads:
For fans of Lauren Kate and Libba Bray, The Sweetest Dark is filled with thrilling romance, exciting adventure, and ancient magic. Shana Abé brilliantly captures the drama of post-Victorian England, while unfolding a passionate love story that defies time.

“With every fiber of my being, I yearned to be normal. To glide through my days at Iverson without incident. But I’d have to face the fact that my life was about to unfold in a very, very different way than I’d ever envisioned. Normal would become forever out of reach.”

Lora Jones has always known that she’s different. On the outside, she appears to be an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl. Yet Lora’s been keeping a heartful of secrets: She hears songs that no one else can hear, dreams vividly of smoke and flight, and lives with a mysterious voice inside her that insists she’s far more than what she seems.

England, 1915. Raised in an orphanage in a rough corner of London, Lora quickly learns to hide her unique abilities and avoid attention. Then, much to her surprise, she is selected as the new charity student at Iverson, an elite boarding school on England’s southern coast. Iverson’s eerie, gothic castle is like nothing Lora has ever seen. And the two boys she meets there will open her eyes and forever change her destiny.

Jesse is the school’s groundskeeper—a beautiful boy who recognizes Lora for who and what she truly is. Armand is a darkly handsome and arrogant aristocrat who harbors a few closely guarded secrets of his own. Both hold the answers to her past. One is the key to her future. And both will aim to win her heart. As danger descends upon Iverson, Lora must harness the powers she’s only just begun to understand, or else lose everything she dearly loves.

Filled with lush atmosphere, thrilling romance, and ancient magic, The Sweetest Dark brilliantly captures a rich historical era while unfolding an enchanting love story that defies time.

First Sentence: "Are your eyes truly open?"

Review:
This book sounded so completely awesome, right up my alley. Historical fiction and paranormal? Sign me up. Well, I did sign me up and I read it and here we are with me trying to put a handle on just how I feel about The Sweetest Dark. It definitely falls into the category of really weird books. Parts I really enjoyed, and parts I loathed, while others I just didn't care about. Ultimately, I feel like Abé tried to do to many things, and the book came out a bit of an awkward mishmash.

I loved the beginning, and, had the book continued in that vein, I would have been so happy. The prologue is seriously creepy and establishes a gothic tone. Abé writes gothic so well! Whenever she went into a section like that, such as the ones describing the castle and the school, I just ate it up, though I do want to prevent her from ever again using the word 'velveteen' to describe nature. Unfortunately these moments were all too brief once the paranormal plot line got going.

Eleanore, or Lora, our heroine has had a rough life. Raised in an orphanage, she garnered the wrong kind of attention by mentioning the songs and voices she can hear in her head. This gets her institutionalized for a time, with shock therapy and everything. Voices finally quieted, she is released and sent to a prestigious school in the north, away from the bombs falling in London as World War I has just kicked off.

As already intimated, I liked the bits at the school quite a bit, but that really just wasn't the focus at all, sadly. She doesn't attend a class until over a hundred pages into it, and only goes to 4 or so of them as far as the reader knows. Another thing we don't learn until a fair way through the book: what Lora's deal is, what kind of paranormal creature she is. Spoiler: she's not crazy, or, if she is, it's a collective delusion.

The big reveal of the truth of Lora's dreams and oddness is likely supposed to shock and awe. My response: an eyeroll. The whole thing, while admittedly fairly original, is completely ridiculous. I didn't see it coming, because I don't like this mythology she's gone with. When it comes to this bit, you'll probably either love it or you won't. Oh, also, her secret results in her spending a lot of time naked with boys, which resulted in more eyerolling, although props for her not being insanely embarrassed or flirty as a result; she covers up when she can but doesn't freak out, which is admirable.

The love triangle, though, I loathed wholeheartedly. For one thing, it's one of those super pathetic love triangles where the heroine will obviously never choose the second guy, but, thanks to paranormalness, he can't help but love her. Actually, both of the guys will always love her because of her paranormal nature, which I don't find especially romantic; they don't love her, so much as what she is.

Bachelor #1 is Jesse, the purportedly mute carriage driver for the school. She hears symphonies when they touch and they promptly fall in instalove. In the carriage on the way to the school, she's wrapped up in blankets. After she goes into the school, he SMELLS THEM. *shudders* He also comes into her room while she's sleeping on the first night to leave her an orange in proper YA stalker style, though, to be fair, she does tell him not to come in anymore. STILL. I found Jesse so incredibly bland and just did not care about him one whit.

The doomed party of the love triangle, Armande, has wealth on his side. The son of the local Duke, his interest opens doors for Eleanore, making it possible for her to attend more events than classes. Armande was more interesting than Jesse, not that that's difficult. What I did enjoy about his character is how snarky Eleanore is with him. All of her best moments are when she tells him off. However, I couldn't like him for two reasons. First, before she arrived he had a flirtation going with Chloe, a snotty girl that he later admits he cannot stand. Why spend time with her if you hate her? Playboy much? Second, and I admit this is a completely superficial reason, he likes to be called Mandy. Sorry, but the only man who can pull off that name is this one:

At the end, I had some hopes that Abé would take the plot somewhere original and recover the romance bits a smidge. She actually did sort of, but ruined it all with a completely lame epilogue. Rarely are epilogues used correctly. *headdesk*

In the end, I didn't like this much, but  it did show promise in some areas. I just wish this had been a little more Wildthorn, a little less your average paranormal romance.

Rating: 2/5

Favorite Quote: Not my favorite, but my favorite non-descriptive quote. Those were really long and probably not interesting to a lot of people.

"'Is that why you came?'
   'No, I came because I simply can't get enough of people looking down their noses at me. The girls at school are getting frightfully lax about it.'
   'Are they? How remiss of them. We're taught from the cradle how to look down our noses, you know, we rich sons of birches. Perhaps Westcliffe's curriculum is a tad too liberal these days.'"

Review: Dark Companion

Dark Companion

Author: Marta Acosta
Pages: 356
Publisher: Tor
Source: Own

Description from Goodreads:
Orphaned at the age of six, Jane Williams has grown up in a series of foster homes, learning to survive in the shadows of life. Through hard work and determination, she manages to win a scholarship to the exclusive Birch Grove Academy. There, for the first time, Jane finds herself accepted by a group of friends. She even starts tutoring the headmistress’s gorgeous son, Lucien. Things seem too good to be true.

They are.

The more she learns about Birch Grove’s recent past, the more Jane comes to suspect that there is something sinister going on. Why did the wife of a popular teacher kill herself? What happened to the former scholarship student, whose place Jane took? Why does Lucien’s brother, Jack, seem to dislike her so much?

As Jane begins to piece together the answers to the puzzle, she must find out why she was brought to Birch Grove—and what she would risk to stay there….

First Sentence: "On the night that I die, a storm rages, and the thin glass of the cheap windows shudders as if beaten by fists, and the wind howls like someone calling come away, come away."

Review:
Initially, I wasn't sure if I was going to read Dark Companion. I watched the reviews for it roll in, and they varied so much as to puzzle me exceedingly. Gothic fiction has not traditionally been my favorite genre, so I was hesitant. However, it was obviously meant to be since I won a giveaway for it. Well, I am glad that I did, because I ended up really enjoying this particular reading experience.

From reviews that I've read, I know that some readers found much of this book quite boring, but that was not the case for me. So long as the writing is beautiful and the characters vibrant, a slow pace does not put me off a novel the slightest bit. Acosta's writing really resonated with me, striking a perfect gothic tone that matched the quotes from classics included at the beginning of each chapter while also maintaining a modern flair.

The only thing I wasn't a huge fan of in the writing was some of the slang, which I felt went too far and entered the realm of the absurd. If there was a name that could be made into a swear word, that happened, like with these: Charlotte becomes harlot, Pritchard becomes Bitchard, and Helmsdale becomes Hellsdale. Thankfully, this trailed off as the book continued but it was really overused at first. Acosta also came up with other lingo for these characters, like using coitus as a swear word, going so far even to change OMFG into OMCG. I get it, but am not amused.

Jane also speaks and thinks in a very particular manner, using as many pretentious words as she can. This will likely alienate some readers, but I liked it, because, well, I'm a snob like that. Plus, Jane does that as a method of studying, which fits her perfectly, because she do desperately wants to escape her tragic past (group home, scars, best friend in prostitution, other best friend dead of meningitis).

Jane, through her own determination and hard work, manages to obtain a scholarship to the fancy schmancy Birch Grove Academy for Girls, which helps her obtain emancipation as well so that she can escape the horrid group home in which she was living. She leaves Hellsdale and heads to Greenwood for school. At first, everything seems to good to be true. No, really. This school would not exist. She gets there and the headmistress Mrs. Radcliffe (nice reference btws) shows her to her PERSONAL COTTAGE to live in BY HERSELF and takes her shopping to BUY HER ALL OF THE CLOTHES. No school would do this; she would at least have to share the cottage with one other girl. It had a full kitchen and everything! Also, Jane went back to the mall later, returned a bunch of clothes, and got money back. Why let Radcliffe by those clothes for her if she didn't want them? That was weird to me.

In case you're concerned about the fact that Jane's going to a girl's school, because that means there are limited sexy boy options, don't worry. Conveniently, Mrs. Radcliffe just happens to have two hot sons, one a junior like Jane, Lucian aka Lucky, and one two years older, Jack. As you may have guessed, a hot mess of a love triangle ensues. A lot of the things that happened in the love triangle-y part upset me, mostly because Lucian was a little shit and Jane's self-esteem issues make me want to shake some sense into her. Still, Acosta did manage to wrap things up nicely and she does write fabulous kissing scenes.

Several of her characters really mattered to me. Jane, dear plain, outspoken Jane, mousie Jane. I could not help but see her as a sort of Jane Eyre figure, with her unloved childhood, her fear that no one shall ever care for her, her vast intelligence, her determination, her strength in a crisis, and her stern perception of her own qualities. Needless to say, I loved her most of the time. Jack, of course, is scruffy and adorable, if, admittedly, a bit frustrating at times. Mary Violet, or MV, turned out to be a surprise favorite of mine, with her love for anything violet, even to the detriment of her grades when she refuses to turn in papers in anything but her trademark violet ink, and her ridiculous explanations for what foreign phrases mean. Though somewhat annoying, MV is a true friend, and I love finding those in YA novels.

The paranormal elements in Dark Companion are blessedly minor. They are important, yes, but they don't take over the story. In fact, the story feels as though it's mostly set in the natural world, a bit more magical realism than straight up fantasy. Not only that, but she did some really cool things with the paranormal bits she used, putting nice spins on some overused ideas.

The conclusion, admittedly, is not as strong as it perhaps should have been. It feels a bit rushed and overly optimistic, pairing characters up like the ark's about to sail. I didn't mark down for this rather cheesy conclusion, though, because of all of the Shakespeare references woven throughout. The ending just tells you that Dark Companion is a comedy, not a tragedy. I'm a sucker for Shakespeare references.

Though not a perfect read, I thoroughly delighted in every bit of Dark Companion. This is a good read for those who appreciate literary references and a gothic feel.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote:

"'You know, I've always hated those stories about princes and princesses with some extraordinary ability, special because they're born special.'
   'Like me?' He smiled wickedly, making me laugh a little.
   'I didn't see how those were happy stories, because life has given princes and princesses enough unearned advantages. I'd rather believe that anyone can accomplish remarkable things when she really tries. Maybe her accomplishments will never be recognized, but simply loving and caring for someone else, that's miraculous to me.'"

In the Dark of the Night - Christopher Lloyd

The Replacement

Author: Brenna Yovanoff
Genre: fantasy, young adult
Pages: 343
ARC Acquired From: Penguin booth at ALA 2010

Brief Summary:
Mackie is not like the rest of the kids at his high school. In fact, Mackie is not really Mackie at all; he is the replacement put into Mackie's crib when Mackie was stolen away by the dark forces in the town. Most of the replacements do not survive, sickly to begin with and unlovable with their sharp teeth and black eyes. Mackie's sister Emma kept him alive with her love for him. He constantly has to guard the secret of his origins and do his best to hide his idiosyncracies, like the fact that metal, including the iron in blood, makes him sick and that his skin blisters if he enters consecrated ground. Even with his sister's love, Mackie's health is starting to get worse; he's dying. On top of that, he's falling for the sister of a stolen girl and the only way to win her heart and save her sister is to face the truth of what he is.

Review:
This was one of the books Penguin was really excited about and promoting like crazy at ALA, along with Eternal Ones, which I already reviewed. This book proved to be disappointing as well. The plot was certainly interesting, not one I have encountered before, although I think similar stories may exist. Yovanoff does manage to achieve a fairly gothic feel in some parts, although it is very difficult to make a high school party feel gothic, so it does not work perfectly everywhere.

As may have already become apparent, one of the things most important for me when reading a novel are the characters. I want them to feel real and have a good picture of them in my head. Good characters should feel, for example, like friends I will miss when the book is over or enemies I will love to hate all the way through. I know I make this complaint a lot, but the characters in The Replacement just did not make me feel anything. Character descriptions were somewhat sparse and other than Mackie, we get little idea of what the others are like beyond one or two qualities. And Mackie is hard to relate to, because Yovanoff wanted to make him feel unearthly, a bit unhuman, a bit disconnected. She achieves that, but it meant that I felt a bit bored all the way through. When the characters were in danger, I just didn't care, which I see as a bad thing.

Mackie falls in love with Tate or so we, the readers, are to believe. Honestly, when he first confessed, I was confused, because, approximately five pages before, he was just freaked out by her. If you want to have a romance in your book, you need to sell it, rather than just saying that they are in love now. Poof! Magic eternal love commenced!

I recommend this for gothic fans or Maggie Stiefvater fans. Stiefvater is apparently friends with the author and recommends the book highly, saying that she" loved this eerie and beautiful story of ugly things." There, a contrasting opinion to mine. I welcome differing opinions, because, really, that's what makes people so interesting, right?