Review: Saigami, Volume 1: Re(Birth) by Flame

By Seny (Andrea Otília Vörös)

Available now from Saturday AM

Review copy

Saigami comes from Saturday AM, which has been publishing webcomics online for ten years and recently moved into publishing physical copies of their most popular titles. I like Saturday AM's efforts to build up a diverse portfolio of artists from all over the world, but don't love their marketing of being the world's most diverse manga company. Yes, most manga isn't diverse because it is literally Japanese comics. But manga has been influencing creators around the world for decades now, so I think there is room for OEM (Original English-language Manga). However, I can't recommend Saturday AM as a publisher because there has been controversy about them paying artists.

Saigami starts in our world, where Ayami is a high-school girl with an absent father, a mother who is usually at work or drinking, and a house full of trash. She's struggling, and even her old refuge in books is starting to fail. Then, she gets a mysterious letter from her father, goes to meet him, and falls into a fantasy world where people called 'saigami' have elemental powers (and some even have dragons!). It's a pretty standard isekai setup delivered without much flair. There's a lot of exposition, both before and after Ayami ends up in another world, and certain things get brushed over without a thought. (If Ayami's father is a big mystery to her, why does she instantly know the letter is from him? Why isn't she curious about why her father's letter led her to a mysterious land?)

Once in another land, Ayami quickly meets two boys about her age: the friendly and well-connected Sean and the hostile outcast Reyji. They're both broad types with little sense of an inner life. Ayami gets to go on an important journey with them, even though she's utterly unqualified, as Reyji points out. Of course, as is obvious, Ayami turns out to be a saigami.

The story is fairly predictable and I wasn't drawn in my the characters. The art is okay. The backgrounds are quite nice, there is decent flow between panels, and I can understand what is happening easily. The character designs are consistent, but plain and somewhat amateur, with little variation in faces. Saigami reads like what it is: an OEM by someone who likes manga. Its inspirations are clear, but it doesn't really have a spark to make it stand out, despite its heroine's fiery powers.

Review: Get in Trouble: Stories

By Kelly Link
Available now from (Penguin) Random House
Review copy

GET IN TROUBLE: STORIES is a collection of nine stories by Kelly Link, who is perhaps best known for her short stories (beyond even her skills as an anthologist and small publisher).  I'd read two of the stories: "The New Boyfriend" in MONSTROUS AFFECTIONS and "Secret Identity" in Geektastic.  Neither were my favorite story in either anthology.

I feel like GET IN TROUBLE leans hard on the Kelly Link formula.  Her mix of the ordinary and fantastic is nearly unmatched, but much of this collection feels like she's resting on her laurels.  GET IN TROUBLE opens promisingly with "The Summer People," a sharply drawn tale that carefully breaks down both an Appalachian town and an aging estate full of fae.  It hints at danger and dark fates while also focusing on the blooming friendship between two teen girls. 

The second story, "I Can See Right Through You," killed all momentum to me.  It is set through the point of view of the demon lover, an aging movie star who once played a vampire going to see the woman who played his love again.  There's hints of good stuff in the story, but the conceit of calling him the demon lover through the whole story drove me nuts.  Although the story has a pretty juicy payoff, it's not as good as an actual incubus showing up to make the repetitive epithet worth it.

My two favorite stories after "The Summer People" were the final two in the collection.  "Two Houses" takes the classic plot of a bunch of people telling ghost stories to each other and takes it to a predictably meta but chilling place.  I love a good creepy intelligent computer.  "Light" is a story that takes place in a world where most people have a normal shadow, but some have no or two.  It focuses on the main character Lindsey, recently divorced and a recovering alcoholic, and her gay brother who has moved back in with her.  The setting of the story keeps revealing new strange details of this world (perhaps too much for one short story), but it goes down smooth and with no lingering unpleasantness.

I like Link's worth, but GET IN TROUBLE is not an essential collection.  If you're a fan, go ahead and get this one from the library.  Otherwise, stick to the first story (and maybe the last two).

Review: Exquisite Captive

Book one of the Dark Caravan cycle
By Heather Demetrios
Available now from Balzer+Bray (HarperCollins)
Review copy

I was intrigued by EXQUISITE CAPTIVE: a princess in exile, sold a slave and joining the rebellion.  I found the execution quite uneven, however.  It takes quite awhile for the story to get really rolling, for instance.

I think the slow pace in the beginning came from my disconnect from Nalia.  She's spent three years in slavery, the exact fate the lower caste djinni rebelled against Nalia's caste to escape.  She says it has changed her point of view, yet she still treats the lower castes as beneath her.  And I just never saw a difference between her voice and the generic YA heroine voice.  She likes tooling around in her Maserati and pondering her attractions.  She does flash back to the horrors of the genocide, but the tone was just so light when her master Malek wasn't in the scene.  Sometimes even then.  It felt easy at times to forget that Nalia is enslaved and has been for years, which is somewhat horrifying.

Then there's the issue of Nalia seducing Malek to gain her freedom and join Raif, the leader of the rebellion.  I am fine with Nalia taking advantage of the man who owns her and wants to rape her.  But at times she worries about feeling something genuine for him and I just can't.  I know Stockholm Syndrome is a thing and he's sometimes nice to her (to try to get her to sleep with him, because he's just nice enough he won't do it by force), but it's not what I want to read nor what I expected to read.  I am so tired of YA love triangles, and I definitely don't need a book about a girl who is torn between a boy who wants to help free her (to get what he wants) and the man who owns her.

What does work in EXQUISITE CAPTIVE is the growing danger to Nalia from the Ifrit, the caste that took over.  They've found out she's alive and sent out a crazed assassin.  He is genuinely scary (albeit reminiscent of Buffalo Bill), and his search leads to a thrilling showdown.  The growing prominence of that storyline is part of why the end of the book works so well.  There's also the set up of two rivals chasing after a McGuffin for book two.

Personally, I don't think I'll be back for book two.  EXQUISITE CAPTIVE finally caught my attention at the end, but the slog to that point was a bit much.

Review: Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend

First in the Broken Hearts & Revenge series
By Katie Finn
Available now from Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Review copy
Read my review of Since You've Been Gone

It is hard to believe that Katie Finn and Morgan Matson are the same person.  BROKEN HEARTS, FENCES AND OTHER THINGS TO MEND starts out promising, with a strong narrative voice from a young girl getting over heartbreak.  But things go off the rails with a plot that is way too drawn out and requires the heroine to act like an absolute idiot.

Gemma ruined several lives when she was 11.  I found what she did suitably devastating for a dark past secret, but found it unbelievable that none of the adults in the situation spoke enough to each other to figure out what was actually happening.  Now, Gemma has run in to two figures from that summer: her old best friend, Hallie, and her brother.  Luckily, Gemma is carrying a cup labeled "Sophie" so they don't realize it's her.

Gemma is determined to make amends, and she's also falling for Josh.  Their relationship is really sweet, and their conversations about past relationship traumas make their connection something believable and more than physical.  At the same time, bad things keep happening to Gemma.  It absolutely can't be because of an extremely obvious twist.  Seriously, Gemma may not be the smartest, but she's smart enough to put two and two together, so it's frustrating that she doesn't.

(And I will eat my hat if Hallie and Josh's mother isn't the author of the ersatz Twilight novel.)

Basically, BROKEN HEARTS, FENCES AND OTHER THINGS TO MEND wastes good character work and a terrific summer romance on a glacial, silly plot.  I somewhat want to finish the trilogy to see Gemma grow up, but I doubt I will.  This was a fairly frustrating reading experience.

(However, if you are interested in reading it yourself, Macmillan started a readalong yesterday, so now is a good time.)

Review: Undone

By Cat Clarke
Available May 6, 2014 from Sourcebooks Fire
Review copy

British author Cat Clarke's latest novel is about Jem Halliday, who has been in love with her gay best friend for awhile.  Even if she didn't have that crush, he's the most important person in her life.  They've been friends through thick and then, and his sunny disposition helps her keep her chin up.  Of course, that's how things were.

Kai killed himself after someone emailed a pornographic video to the whole school, outing him in the worst way possible.  (I felt kind of weird about the fact that this storyline was clearly inspired by the real-life suicide of Tyler Clementi, but there was no author's note or afterward talking about the real case.)  Jem doesn't know how she's going to survive without him, when Kai's sister gives her twelve letters: one per month, written by Kai before he killed himself.  That's when Jem decides to track down whoever made the video and uploaded it and get revenge.

The first half of UNDONE flew by.  Clarke has a compulsively readable style, and Jem's emotions were raw and real.  She was angry, hurt, and confused by the things that started making her feel happy.  But then the book slowed down and the conclusion went totally off the rails.  (For those who read it: I'm not mad about the ending.  It's the climax that's really messy.)

The revenge storyline should drive UNDONE, but it feels half baked.  None of Jem's schemes are particularly clever, nor are they particularly brutal.  (I like to see people get their revenge thoroughly.)  Then there's the fact that she decides to base her entire course of revenge on an anonymous note. That's . . . convenient.  There is literally no investigation into who did the crime, she just believes this note.

It's sad that the plot is such a shaggy mess, because Jem is the best kind of unlikeable character.  She's lashing out, and she has an impressive steely reserve.  She has an interesting emotional arc.  She's confused by her own instincts and ignores the ways she's grown and changes on her own.  And her grief is pitch perfect.  There's also some interesting commentary on popularity.

There are seeds of a good story in UNDONE, but I can't really recommend it.  The climax makes me want to bang my head into a table until I pass out.  I'll stick to Clarke's other books.

If you are LGBTQ* and struggling with thoughts of suicide, please contact the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386.

Review: When the World was Flat (and we were in love)

By Ingrid Jonach
Available now from Strange Chemistry (Angry Robot)
Review copy

I was psyched to read this book.  I mean, just say the title aloud and marvel at it.  WHEN THE WORLD WAS FLAT (and we were in love).  That's poetry.  Through in the fact that it was standalone sci-fi and I was lining up to read it.  But somewhere along the way, I fell out of love with this book.

I love that YA blurs genre lines and blends tropes together in new ways.  But WHEN THE WORLD WAS FLAT is never quite convincing as a romance or as a work of science fiction.  In the beginning, there's a nice sense of dread.  Protagonist Lillie can't sleep, haunted by creepy dreams that are getting worse.  Around forty percent in, nothing more unexplainable has happened than strange dreams and deja vu.  Then, suddenly everything gets explained.  In fact, it all gets so explained that even shivers and the human imagination are no mystery.  And yet, there's still quite a bit of book to go.  What crazy parallel universe hijinks will fill that space?  Not much.

As for the romance, Lillie is drawn by new guy Tom (much like the other girls in school).  But she really thinks there's something there, despite the fact that the dude is withdrawn from everybody and completely hot and cold to Lillie.  But not to worry, because it all gets explained.  And they aren't just in love because they're soul mates, they're also in love because Lillie has a sense of humor.  No, it isn't much more convincing in context.  I was expecting some major swoon,  but there is zero spark to this romance.

Going back to those creepy, haunting dreams . . . they're perhaps the biggest disappointment.  They seem to foreshadow a showdown, one that never comes.  Honestly, WHEN THE WORLD WAS FLAT is brimming with potential.  I particularly liked Lillie's relationship with her best friends at the beginning.  Sylv and Jo are very different from Lillie and each other, but none of them are suited to the popular crowd, and they're used to each others' foibles.  At the same time, they're also the best at poking each others' soft spots.  Friendships being tested, dreams coming true, and then it all becomes bogged down in a boy with the personality of wet paper.

Ingrid Jonach is a competent writer, but WHEN THE WORLD WAS FLAT has serious pacing issues and a lack of real action and suspense.  Her female characters are varied and flawed, particularly in their propensity to insecure teen girl slut-shaming.  I'd be interested in seeing what she's doing a couple of novels from now, because she seems to have some nifty ideas.  Unfortunately, WHEN THE WORLD WAS FLAT falls flat (and I'm not in love).

Review: Strange Fates

Nyx Fortuna (Book 1)
By Marlene Perez
Available now from Orbit (Hachette)

STRANGE FATES is the first book in a new adult urban fantasy trilogy to be followed by DARK DESCENT (later this year) and FORTUNE'S FAVOR (early 2014).  I love reading about the Fates, I've heard fantastic things about Marlene Perez's young adult books, and I was excited by a trilogy that would be published within the year instead of stretched out over three years.  Plus, the ebook was at a bargain price.  Unfortunately STRANGE FATES was not everything I'd hoped for.

It wasn't all bad.  The world Perez created is fascinating.  There are four houses of power, and Nyx Fortuna belongs to the strongest: the House of Fate.  That's not a good thing for him, because his mother was the fourth Fate, murdered by her sisters and forgotten.  He wants revenge and then he wants to die himself.  But the remaining Fates are up to something fishy and a missing scientist might be the key to it all.

The biggest problem with STRANGE FATES was Elizabeth.  When Nyx meets her, he knows that she's a liar and using him for her own mysterious ends.  She does nothing but confirm this impression.  For some reason, he decides to begin a relationship with her anyway.  He falls for her soon enough, despite the fact that Elizabeth shows no qualities other than being a manipulative liar and does everything she can to betray his inexplicable trust and on top of everything else he's apparently never fallen in love before in his long life.  There is no character-based reason for Nyx to be in love and it's this hollow core at the center of his motivation.  His friendship with Willow, a murderous naiad, isn't much more developed.  But Perez clearly has the skills to show people getting to know and like each other, considering how Nyx and Talbot's relationship grows closer as they work and hang together.

The second biggest problem is that Nyx seems to change his priorities part of the way through the novel without much explanation.  He's very clear about his desire to kill the Fates and determined to get revenge for the first half of the novel, but then when things start falling into place to destroy the Fates he does the exact opposite of jumping at his chance.  I am all for Perez throwing some nuance into the relationship and broadening Nyx's perspective, but I was honestly baffled by most of Nyx's decisions in the second half of STRANGE FATES.

There is a lot of talent behind STRANGE FATES.  Perez created a nifty world and a great main character.  She has an interesting take on mythology and immortality.  But the execution isn't there at all.  The romance is mind-bogglingly bad and Nyx goes against the entirety of his characterization for the tiniest, least-convincing reason.  I kind of want to read the second to see if Perez manages to save her world, but STRANGE FATES started strong and finished very weak.

Review: What We Saw At Night

First in a series
By Jacquelyn Mitchard
Available now from Soho Teen
Review copy

Allie Kim and her friend Rob take up Parkour in order to keep up with Juliet, the other kid their age in town with Xeroderma Pigmentosum.   One night, they see something suspicious in an apartment.  Then Allie sees it again, and the other two have only her word to go on.

WHAT WE SAW AT NIGHT is gripping.  The potential murders often fade into the background of Allie's relationships, but so much of her life is driven by Rob and Juliet that its understandable.  Without them, she's close to alone in the night.  And if there is a murderer, then that's when you want your friends by your side.

I liked the characters and how their relationships developed.  Allie and Rob tend to follow Juliet's lead, since she's more worldly and bolder.  But there's something wrong beneath the surface, driving her wild actions, as Allie begins to discover.  And while Allie might crush on Rob since he's the main guy in her life, he's definitely a crushable sort.  He's reliable, trusts Allie to take care of herself, and has a car.  (Big deal when you can't drive, a significant other with a car.)

But there were a couple of things that bothered me about WHAT WE SAW AT NIGHT.  Why is there so little night life?  The three kids are often alone in the night.  But their town is supposedly the center of XP research.  There's a hospital people move from all over the world to go to.  Allie refers to an older XP guy who died and there are other patients in the hospital when she goes for a check up.  There are also references to medical trials, which need a decent number of patients for significance.  I'd assume there are at least twenty-five to fifty people with XP in the town.  Why are none of them ever out at night?  They can't go out in day without great difficulty and staying in all night every night would probably drive them nuts.  And if the town's main industry is this research, why aren't there shops open at night?  I don't just accept that it's a small town.  I live in a small town.  The tattoo parlor is open late and the farmers wake up early.

The other thing is the ending.  I expect many people will complain about the ending.  That's because it sucks.  Just when things are getting really good, the story suddenly spins its wheels for a chapter then ends.  There's no resolution.  Not to the mystery, not to the relationships, not to Allie's character growth, nothing.  I don't even want to read the next book, WE LOST IN THE DARK, because WHAT WE SAW AT NIGHT's ending is so lame.  It's not a cliffhanger; there's not enough momentum for that.

WHAT WE SAW AT NIGHT has an excellent beginning, an interesting protagonist, and the XP and Parkour add some nifty atmosphere to what could be a standard mystery.  But as it goes on the plot gets ridiculous and hard to follow until it just ends.  It's disappointing and I had very high hopes for this book. 

Review: Underworld

Book Two of the Abandon series
By Meg Cabot
Available now from Point (Scholastic)
Review copy

I adore Meg Cabot.  Many of her books, both YA and adult, have a special place on my shelf.  But when I finished ABANDON, I was disappointed.  It's interpretation of the Persephone myth was dodgy and the plot kind of weak.

UNDERWORLD opens where ABANDON left off, with Pierce now willingly in the underworld having escaped her Fury-possessed grandmother with John.  Pierce almost immediately starts waxing Persephone.  Now, I'll give Cabot props for tackling a tough myth.  But instead of facing the undertone of rape in the original myth she sweeps it under the rug.  UNDERWORLD does get slightly more points for its handling of the original by acknowledging that Pierce doesn't know much more than the Disneyfied version despite how much she waxes on about it.  Both John and Mr. Smith, the cemetery sexton on Isla Huesos, correct her impressions of the myth throughout the story.

Honestly, I only pushed through the beginning of UNDERWORLD because of how much I like Cabot.  Usually I can read one of her books in about half an hour.  It's impossible to know how long I took on the first eighty or so pages because I kept putting the book down from boredom.  The plot finally kicks into gear when Pierce and John go back to the Isla Huesos to save her cousin Alex since she received a premonition of him trapped and terrified.  At the same time, there's the dark secret of Jack's past to uncover.

While UNDERWORLD had an actual plot that kept me entertained, it felt a bit pointless in the end.  (And, mild spoilers, everyone is very blase that a guy who is your average jerk transitions to straight-up murdering someone.)  Jack's past: not that dark.  To be very general, he tried to do a good thing and bad things happened, but nothing worse than if he hadn't acted.  Alex acts completely differently than he did in ABANDON, turning into an obstinate twit just to cause conflict.  Kayla, the best character in the series, shows up far too briefly.

I suppose UNDERWORLD is supposed to be carried by John and Pierce's romance.  But I'm just not feeling it.  Pierce reacts to everything before thinking.  She's tempestuous, but seems more overwhelmed by her confusion than passion.  John, meanwhile, just doesn't do it for me like most of Cabot's heroes.  He's overprotective in a bad way and uncommunicative.  Pierce might have less emotional whiplash if he'd just talk to her instead of making abrupt revelations that affect her entire life.

UNDERWORLD was a significant improvement over ABANDON.  But this series just ain't working for me.

Review: Keep Holding On

By Susane Colasanti
Available now from Viking (Penguin)
Review copy

The core of KEEP HOLDING ON on is solid.  Noelle is being bullied because she eats and wears the wrong things because she's poor.  She needs an adult to get involved or to find a way to stand up herself to stop the bullies.  Reading about the bullying is pretty brutal and you can tell why Noelle is reluctant to trust people.

Meanwhile, the only thing she really enjoys is making out with Matt and hanging with her best friend Sherae.  But Matt keeps her secret and Sherae has her own boy problems.  (I feel like Sherae's issue, which is serious, gets glossed over in favor of Noelle's issues. KEEP HOLDING ON is a very short book that could've been much bigger to cover its ambitions.)

The central romance isn't really there.  Noelle starts the book crushing on Julian, and he's clearly into her, but she thinks she isn't good enough for him.  That's basically it for their interaction until Noelle is ready to give Julian a chance.  The romance is a way to keep track of Noelle's character growth rather than a plot in its own right.

But my biggest problem with the book is Noelle herself.  "I qualify for free lunch, but there's no way I'd subject myself to that kind of humiliation[,]" she says (4, ARC).  But people make fun of her anyway, for eating things like a lettuce sandwich or a mayo and mustard sandwich that clearly indicate she has nothing else to bring.  "I try to hide my sad sandwich under the table.  That just makes them laugh harder (5)."  If she's already humiliated by her lunches, then the free lunch isn't a big deal.

But it's one of the repeated complaints she makes about and to her mother.  "Do you realize I have to make mayonnaise and mustard sandwiches for lunch?  Do you have any idea how humiliating that is? (159)"  No, she doesn't have to eat that for lunch.  Her mother doesn't buy lunch stuff because she gets free lunch.  Not to mention the federal free lunch program includes breakfast.  Noelle could be eating two good meals a day.  And the stuff she complains about at home - spaghetti with prepackaged garlic bread, McDonald's, hot dogs and frozen fries - are the same things many people without much money eat.  Yes, it's low in fruits and vegetables, but it's what's cheap and easy to put on the table after working all day.  Poor people tend to be bigger because the food they have access to has poor nutrition.

Perhaps this really annoyed me because I attended a school far less affluent than Noelle's.  For many of my friends, the free breakfast and lunch was their food for the day.  If they got hungry at night, they'd have to do something like heat up a can of tomato sauce.  But Noelle has actual meals in front of her and acts like its a huge imposition to eat prepackaged garlic bread.

I could maybe ignore this, but Noelle also annoys me because she acts hypocritically.  Noelle's other big complaint is that no one ever steps in to stop the bullying.  She's been isolated from her peers and understands that that is one of the bullies' most powerful weapons.  Yet, Noelle repeatedly sees her friend Ali bullied and not only doesn't step in, she rebuffs Ali's gestures of further friendship to avoid being tainted by association.

I don't expect a high school character to be perfect, especially not one who has had her self-esteem beaten down.  But Noelle's constant complaints, when she was manufacturing one of her biggest problems, were kind of hard to take.  I was happy that things got better for her, but I was also happy the book was over so that I could get out of her head.  Noelle might not grate on someone else the way she did me.  And, as I said at the beginning, the central message of KEEP HOLDING ON is solid.  I think teens struggling with being bullied will connect with the story.

Review: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

By Seth Grahame-Smith
Available now from Grand Central Publishing; Review copy



I'm not often this torn about a book.

On one hand, ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER has a lot going for it. I enjoy the meta, that a vampire sent Seth Grahame-Smith Lincoln's diaries. I admire how well Grahame-Smith managed to replicate the tone of a history text - somewhat dry, but hints that the author is having lots of fun. (I would, however, be over the moon for footnotes.) Grahame-Smith makes up most of Lincoln's backstory wholesale, but says it quite convincingly. I'll also admit that the bloody mayhem is fairly fun too. On the other hand, Grahame-Smith failed to absorb me into his world.

Perhaps it was because of the academic tone. Perhaps it was the use of history I'm familiar with. Whatever it was, I could not stop reading critically after Lincoln's encounter with a slave market.

The Civil War is a rough time to write about. People still feel strongly about it, especially since racism is alive and well. The depiction of racism in pop culture is important. (See: Racialicious.)

Lincoln is pretty horrified by how the slaves are treated. But he only vows to end slavery once he realizes the slaves help sustain America's vampire population. It made me uncomfortable, especially since human rights' violations convinced the real Lincoln slavery needed to be ended. I disliked that ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER made vampires the tipping point, the impetus for the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War. I felt like it cheapened many of the real reasons the nation went to war against itself.

I had fun reading ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, mostly. But I'm not looking to be made uncomfortable by my popcorn reading. Although, my medieval lit professor, a classmate, and myself noticed an odd thing about Grahame-Smith's writing: it's enjoyable enough while you're reading, but it doesn't really compel you to pick the book up after you set it down. I ended up reading ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER in sporadic chunks.