Review: Fan Art

By Sarah Tregay
Illustrated by Melissa DeJesus
Available now from Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins)
Review copy

Jamie is a senior in high school, and pretty popular due to being nice and reasonably good looking.  He's in band, and art, and part of the student literary magazine - not the coolest activities, but he's made some great friends.  His best friend of all is Mason, but there is some trouble in paradise.  Namely, Jamie is in love with Mason, but afraid to come out because he can't handle losing his best friend.  Jamie is also busy going out with his lesbian friend Eden to help her with her religious parents and trying to get a LGBTQ-themed comic into the literary magazine despite the editor's objections.

FAN ART is a cute contemporary that will appeal to fans of LGBTQ romance.  Between each chapter are poems that various characters submit to the magazine, which reveal other parts of the story.  I really enjoyed these interludes, although some felt too sophisticated for the characters supposedly writing them.  The central comic is also pretty cute, although a bit oddly paced - Jamie's passion for it does seem a bit over the top even though it does speak to him personally.

I felt that FAN ART had some issues delivering the romance.  Mason is much more of a cipher than Jamie, partially because his point of view is only briefly glimpsed and partly because Jamie avoids him for a great deal of the book.  By the end, I found Mason's motives somewhat confusing.  I was also put off by the fact that all of Jamie's friends 'ship' him with Mason.  The book does make the point that such actions can have consequences when done with friends instead of fictional characters.  It still felt so intrusive and made me wish Jamie told them off quickly instead of getting embarrassed that someone thought he was gay.

I liked FAN ART well enough.  It's definitely a popcorn novel, but there's nothing wrong with that.  I just had really high hopes for this one because I loved the literary magazine angle.  I suspect FAN ART will find an appreciative audience despite its flaws.

Review: Thorn Jack

The First Night and Nothing novel
By Katherine Harbour
Available now from Harper Voyager (HarperCollins)
Review copy

Finn Sullivan and her father move to the small town where he grew up in the wake of her older sister's suicide.  There, Finn attends college and makes two good friends, Sylvie and Christie.  She's finding the rhythm of life again.  Then she meets gorgeous Jack Fata at a concert.  The Fatas are beautiful, strange, and scary - soon Finn, Sylvie, and Christie are in over their heads.  They must be clever to save themselves.  But Finn doesn't just want to save herself; she wants to save Jack as well.

I felt that THORN JACK started slowly.  For one thing, the college sounds nothing like a college and it really bothered me.  It's called HallowHeart.  What kind of name is that?  It's even a college with a phys ed requirement.  Plus, Finn and her friends all live at home and generally seem more like high schoolers than college students.  I don't think it would've changed the story to put them in high school, and several little things would've made more sense.

I did enjoy being slowly pulled into the mythology of the Night and Nothing series.  It's fairly traditional, as THORN JACK is based on the Tam Lin ballad.  But it incorporates a few non-Celtic traditions and has its own spin on things.  I also liked that the danger to the main characters felt very real.  They mostly survive because the Fatas have plans for them, although they do a little better once they learn how to protect themselves and to fight (with poetry).

Katherine Harbour is a debut novelist, but she has strong control over her language.  THORN JACK is very lush and lovely, although she repeats some of her best images until they become almost meaningless.  Generally, however, the beautiful imagery enhances the horror elements. 

If you're familiar with Tam Lin, you know where everything is headed in THORN JACK.  But Harbour makes the story worth reading.  Finn is a heroine who is somewhat foolhardy, but also loyal, determined, and inventive.  Jack may be dangerous, but he's protective of Finn.  (For a moment, it did look like THORN JACK was headed for the TWILIGHT mode.)  Finn's best friends are great additions to the story.  I am eager to read the next two books in the Night and Nothing series and to learn more about the wolf-eyed man.

Review: Summoned

Book One of Redemption's Heir
By Anne M. Pillsworth
Available now from Tor Teen (Macmillan)
Review copy

Fascinated by the Cthulhu Mythos, Sean Wyndham goes with his best friend to an occult bookshop to find a book about the mythology.  While there, he discovers a strange ad from hundreds of years ago asking for an apprentice - to apply by email.  When he answers, he's given a ritual as a test.  But Sean messes it up and unleashes a predator upon his town - one that only he can banish.

At first, SUMMONED annoyed me.  I think the Cthulhu stuff is great fun, but I really dislike it when authors treat it as something that was around before Lovecraft.  For some reason trying to force it into reality like that gives me unpleasant thoughts of Scientology.  And, well, I thought Sean was super dumb for getting involved with a guy who got his power through Nyarlathotep.  I mean, you don't have to read that much to know that's a power you don't want to get involved with.

But then Sean actually summoned the Servitor, and I got sucked into SUMMONED.  The ensuing adventure involves blood, insanity, stores that aren't really there, monsters that aren't really there, and monsters that are unfortunately actually there.  There are lots of grade-A horror scenes in this novel, no "for YA" disclaimer needed.  (I will note that I am not particularly sensitive to violence towards animals, but there was a scene that I found very upsetting.)

I appreciated that Sean had an involved, concerned father.  It was a convincingly close father-son relationship that still got the father out of the way long enough to allow bad things to happen.  I also liked that SUMMONED splits the point of view between Sean and a twenty-something woman who is also discovering her own power.  There were a few too many secondary characters for all of them to get much development, but there is time for that given sequels are on their way.

As I read, I even started to enjoy the conceit that the Mythos was real and something that Lovecraft had actually experience before writing it down.  Plus, debut author Anne M. Pillsworth's homage was expertly done.  You don't need to be familiar with Lovecraft's stories to enjoy SUMMONED, but I felt that she got to the heart of the terror wonderfully.

SUMMONED is a terrific little horror adventure.  I'm excited to know that more books about Sean are on their way, but gratified that SUMMONED stands just fine on its own.

Guest Post by Zoraida Córdova: ON SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

I really love big casts. I love it when there isn’t just one hero. This makes sense since my favorite show is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I think it’s important to give a hero a good support system. I picked three of my favorite supporting characters from The Vicious Deep Trilogy.

Marty McKay: Marty is a character that transitions through all of my books. He’s an all around peace keeper and messanger for a society called The Thorne Hill Alliance. The Alliance is consisted of the magical creatures in the tri-state area. When Marty joins up with Tristan, he’s not supposed to be as involved as he gets. His involvement doesn’t start until there is a new king. But he’s very much still young (relatively for supernatural types), and he loves some merman tail, and of course wants to protect Coney Island, he stands behind Tristan.

AND HE NEVER TAKES OFF HIS CAP.

Penny: Penny is one of my favorites because she’s a normal young mom. She’s got a kid who is a genetic freak (he has a real turtle shell on his back) and she herself has fingers that can shift into tentacles. She is one of the Landlocked of the Sea Court. Her mother was banished to shore and gave Penny up for adoption. It wasn’t till she was in her teens that she realized where she came from, and found the support of other Landlocked in Brooklyn. She’s a baker and waitress at a cupcake shop, but when it comes time to defend her home, she gets right in it. She has one of my favorite scenes in The Savage Blue. In The Vast & Brutal Sea, her loyalty to Tristan still remains. 

(When I saw this image on Tumblr, THIS IS HOW I PICTURE HER HANDS. ONLY HER HANDS. Penny has hair and a tan.)

Arion: Arion is a merman who is magically bound as the masthead, and Captain, of a ship. His job as long as there is a king, is to carry out his father’s punishment. His father was a traitor and rebel who aligned himself with the Silver Mermaid during her first attempt to steal the throne. Despite Arion’s fierce loyalty to the throne, he was forced to carry out his father’s sentence. It’s part of the Sea Court’s traditions that makes Tristan extremely uncomfortable, as it should. Arion was a dragon slayer during the war with the dragons, and his reward became a punishment instead. Arion is one of my favorite because he’s named after one of my best friends from high school. When I write his dialogue, I can hear his baritone voice. In The Vast & Brutal Sea, I had to cut some of his backstory for pacing, but hopefully I’ll write his a short story one day.

Want to know more about other characters in the books? Shoot me an e-mail at zoraidawrites@gmail.com, or ask in the comments! Catch up on other blog tour stops at www.zoraidacordova.com

Review: The Vast and Brutal Sea

Book three of The Vicious Deep
By Zoraida Córdova
Available now from Sourcebooks Fire
Review copy
Read my reviews of THE VICIOUS DEEP and of THE SAVAGE BLUE

Tristan Hart has been through a lot since he learned that he was a merman and a candidate for the throne.  But now his girlfriend Layla has been kidnapped and he's been betrayed by two of his closest allies.  Shortly after THE VAST AND BRUTAL SEA begins, things get even worse for Tristan and his companions.  But he's still determined to defeat his aunt Nieve, save the sea, and keep his promises.

I love this trilogy so very much.  I think it is the best of the many mermaid books and series that have come out in the last several years.  Much of that rests on Tristan's shoulders.  He's come a long way from the shallow teen boy he was before the series began.  He's humble, overmatched, and still determined to do his best by his people.

The diverse supporting cast (in nationality and sexuality) is terrific too, including the new additions to the cast.  I'm sorry that the ongoing war means some of them must die. The Vicious Deep series might have a male protagonist, but it has never shied away from including a variety of well-rounded female characters.  THE VAST AND BRUTAL SEA also fills out antagonist Nieve's painful past.  She needs to be defeated, but one can understand how she came to make her choices.

THE VAST AND BRUTAL SEA is a stunning conclusion to a series that ranges through the wild ocean, abandoned magic isles, and Coney Island.  It's also the story of choice for anyone who wants to see a melee involving vampires, giant turtles, merrows, and demigods.  It is a final battle to be remembered.  I am sad to part ways with these characters, but I look forward to whatever Zoraida Cordóva writes next.

Be sure to come back later today for a guest blog by Zoraida.