Review: Martyr

Book one of The Hunted
By A.R. Kahler
Available now from Spencer Hill Press
Review copy

I've heard good things about A.R. Kahler's Immortal Circus series.  (After all, what isn't to like about books set in circuses where strange things happen?)  But I have so much to read that it's hard to go back and catch up on a series.  So when I saw that he had a new book out in a different series, I decided to give it a try.

MARTYR is set in a post-apocalyptic war.  Some people have magic powers granted through the use of spheres.  Some of these people worship a dark goddess and managed to unleash a plague of various types of zombies on humanity.  Tenn is a Hunter, one of the people with magic left to fight the monsters.  The Hunters aren't widely liked, since they're viewed as somewhat responsible.  (And, oh yes, it's the magic people who can turn into monsters or create more.)

Still, Tenn and the other Hunters do their best.  But when Tenn's magic acts up on a routine patrol, he finds himself being pursued by Tomás, an incubus, and other members of the Kin (that is, the people who unleashed the monsters).  Between the pursuit and his suddenly out of control powers, Tenn is in way over his head.  The only people he has to rely on are his boyfriend and the twins (two other Hunters), but they might not be powerful enough to survive Tenn's new enemies.

I found MARTYR very thrilling.  It's a chase story, which keeps up the momentum.  I thought that Tenn's emotional state was well conveyed.  He's in a time of turmoil and grief, and his powers force him to dwell on his most unpleasant memories.  I did find the worldbuilding a bit confusing at times, since it was very similar to our world except for the spheres.  Where the spheres always a thing?  When were they discovered?  What is going on outside of the US?  How far do the monsters spread?

MARTYR is a fun dark YA story, with potential to become something better as the sequels deepen the world.  I liked the main characters quite a bit, so I'm eager to see their future adventures.  There's also plenty of answers to be found about why Tenn is so important.

Review: The Wrenchies

By Farel Dalrymple
Available now from First Second (Macmillan)
Review copy

There are two brothers who kill a shadow and find an amulet.  One of those brothers grows up to write a comic called The Wrenchies.  There's a world where shadowmen have killed almost everyone, and the best fighters who oppose them are a group of young'uns called The Wrenchies who read a comic called The Wrenchies.  Then there's young Hollis, who reads a comic called The Wrenchies and then falls into the world of The Wrenchies.  Confused?  Welcome to THE WRENCHIES.

Honestly, I feel like I should read THE WRENCHIES again to better sort how things fall into place as the novel progresses.  At the same time, I haven't, because I don't really desire to read it again.

Farel Dalrymple's art is well suited to the world of THE WRENCHIES, fading and decaying and under siege.  I do wish there was some variation in style to help keep separate worlds apart visually.  At the same time, that works for how the layers and locations of the story blend together.  But really, I just found that I didn't like the art much.  There was something off-putting about it to me, although it was so close to what I usually like.  There is a deliberate ugliness, but not one that worked for me.  Plus, I found all the red noses distracting.

As for the story itself, it will appeal to fans of post-apocalyptic literature.  There are a lot of characters to keep straight, and it can be hard to remember who has died.  I definitely felt like I never had a great grasp on Hollis's age.  His looks told me one thing, but his behavior and voice made me peg him as younger.  (I definitely liked him better when I decided he was younger than I first thought, although I felt weird about him being the questing hero in a gory story that in some ways boils down to drug addicts vs. zombies.)  I feel like the book could've spent more time developing Sherwood as well, since Sherwood drives most of the plot, even if he isn't the one of a heroic quest.

THE WRENCHIES just never grabbed me, although it was full of ideas I found intriguing.  It's wonderfully layered and complex, but not interesting enough for me to really try to unpack what lies beyond the surface.  I'm just not the right audience for this graphic novel.

Review: The Forever Song

Book three of the Blood of Eden trilogy
By Julie Kagawa
Available now from Harlequin Teen
Review copy
Read my reviews of The Eternity Cure, The Iron Daughter, and Grim

Julie Kagawa brings her Blood of Eden trilogy to a fitting conclusion, full of action, grief, love, and sacrifice.  Somehow, when I started the book, I thought Kagawa would instantly find a loophole to make the ending of THE ETERNITY CURE all better.  But she doesn't, and heroine Allie has give up struggling with her vampiric nature in her despair.

Allie, along with her mentor Kanin and brother Jackal, are traveling to stop mad vampire Sarren before he can make it to Eden and unleash a virus to kill all humans and vampires.  Unfortunately for them, Sarren is mad like a fox.  I truly enjoy the quasi-familial relationship that the three share, so it was nice to spend quite a bit of time with them on their journey.  It's also interesting to see how three people can pursue the same course while motivated for such different reasons.

I really didn't like Kagawa's faerie series (I quit halfway through the second book), so it's kind of amazing to me how much I loved this trilogy.  I thought it mixed post-apocalyptic fiction with vampire lore very well, creating something that played with the tropes of both without being the same old same old.  The strong characterization and relationships are also a highlight.  The romance is front and center (this is a Harlequin imprint), but it's certainly not the only relationship explored.

I definitely would read THE IMMORTAL RULES and THE ETERNITY CURE before diving into THE FOREVER SONG.  It doesn't spend any time explaining what is happening to new readers.  It is entirely focused on moving the story forward to the conclusion.  I think this trilogy finishes strong, for those who have been waiting for the reaction to the final book to start.  The science is terrible, but I can forgive that in a vampire book.  Especially in a vampire road-trip trilogy.

Review: Love in the Time of Global Warming

By Francesca Lia Block
Available now from Henry Holt & Co. BFYR (Macmillan)
Review copy
Read my review of The Elementals

Sometimes I love Francesca Lia Block's novels.  Sometimes I don't.  LOVE IN THE TIME OF GLOBAL WARMING definitely falls on the love side.  This is a retelling of The Odyssey, set in modern-day California.  There's a major earthquake, then giant cyclops start roaming and eating people.

Like most of Block's work, the story is told in a dreamy style.  I thought it really worked in this case, since Pen's story is something of a fairytale or fable.  She's a girl on her own, hunting for her family, especially her little brother, Venice.  Along the way she makes several allies and discovers how little she knew about herself or her talents.

The cast is fantastic.  There are few characters, but they're diverse in color, sexuality, and personality.  Hex, Ezra, and Ash all bring something to the quest, although they aren't all fighters.  And of course everything centers around Pen, who is just wonderful.  She's willing to believe in the best of people, even at the end of the world.

I didn't like that The Odyssey was still a story in Pen's world, and that two of the characters read and reference it throughout.  It felt a bit too on the nose, especially since the story is followed fairly closely.  At the same time, it's a story I love, and this magical realism take is enchanting.  Block twists it into something just as fantastical, yet thoroughly modern.

Macmillan has made the first five chapters available for free online (just search for them), which is good, because it gives you a chance to try Block's style.  If it's not for you, it's not for you.  But if you can fall into it, it's a real treat.

Review: World After

Book Two of Penryn & the End of Days
By Susan Ee
Available now from Skyscape (Amazon Publishing)
Review copy

I kept hearing good things about ANGELFALL, so I bought myself a copy.  Then I let it molder on my Kindle for awhile because I didn't really know what it was about or anything. That was only a good decision inasmuch as it meant when I read ANGELFALL I didn't have long to wait before reading WORLD AFTER.

Penryn & the End of Days is set in the world were an angelic apocalypse is happening.  The humans are majorly outclassed and dying out fast.  But, as Penryn discovered, the angels don't have much more clue what's going on.  But Penryn's real focus is on her family - crazy mom who is out of meds, sister who has been experimented on - and Raffe, her unlikely ally.  Penryn's just one of my absolute favorite characters.  She uses her head, but let's herself be guided by her heart.  And I love the way Susan Ee writes her fights - always thinking, always analyzing how she might be able to take down a bigger, stronger opponent.

I also love Raffe, so I was a little sad that there's less of him in WORLD AFTER.  Ee does come up with an ingenious way to involve him in the action and help Penryn gain the abilities she needs to reach her goals at the same time.  And when Raffe and Penryn reunite, it is so delicious and worth it.  The tension between the two of them catches fire and keeps smoldering.

But really, the focus of WORLD AFTER isn't romance.  It's horror, what with all the crazy monsters running around and the humans sometimes not acting much better than the monsters.  It's a survival story, and sometimes the people who survive are the hardest and coldest.  But it's also a tale of connection, and how the bonds people make with each other inspire heroism and offer the ability for humans to thrive.

I enjoyed the continued, slow build of just what is happening.  Penryn stumbles upon bits and pieces of angelic plans, and the more she learns, the more the enormity of what's going on falls into place.  At the same time, it offers hope.  If Penryn knows what she's up against, maybe she can stop it.  Her, Paige, her mom, and Raffe, possibly the most rag-tag army ever.

ANGELFALL and WORLD AFTER are just sheer fun, despite their dark subject matter.  There's something about this series that makes me giddy and excited.  I can't wait for book three - I sure hope it comes faster than WORLD AFTER did!  (ANGELFALL came out in 2011.  I mean, two years isn't that long, but it seems like most series release a book a year nowadays.)

Review: The Farm

By Emily McKay
Available now from Berkley (Penguin)
Review copy courtesy of Krystal of Live to Read

THE FARM starts on the campus of The University of North Texas*, but it's no longer a college.  It's, well, a farm.  Teenagers are divided into three groups: Greens, Breeders, and Collabs.  They're all trying to survive the Ticks, who live outside the electrified fence surrounding the school.  The Ticks feed on human blood, and they like teenagers best.  Lily and her twin sister are about to age out.

Thus, Lily and Mel plan to escape.  There are two major complications.  Lily's old crush Carter shows up out of the blue, eager to reconnect, and Mel's barely functioning in the farm, whereas before the Ticks she could communicate fairly well despite her autism.  And even more unfortunately for the girls, their lives will only get more complicated after they escape.

Lily tended to rub me the wrong way.  She's sometimes good with tactics and strategy, other times horrible with them.  She'll create a very smart, well-reasoned plan one moment and then stupidly charge into danger the next.  Oftentimes things would've gone much more smoothly if she trusted other people's skills.  And I didn't like the way she treated Mel.  Wanting to protect your sister is noble.  Referring to her as your burden, not so much.  I loved when one of the supposed-to-be-less-sympathetic characters tried to convince Lily that Mel was her own person and responsible for her own decisions.  And I really hated the ending, where Lily overrides a very important decision that Mel makes.  Yes, Mel has autism, but she's not incompetent.

But aside from never really getting into Lily's journey, I enjoyed THE FARM.  (I take it back - I also didn't like that Carter's sections are written in third person while Lily and Mel's are written in first.  It served no purpose and I found it distracting.)  The adventure plot is excellent, with lots of suspense and occasional gruesomeness.  The take on vampire lore was very original.  I'd been getting kind of bored of vampire books, but THE FARM and BLACK CITY prove that there are many interesting interpretations of the genre still to be written.

I suspect many readers will love THE FARM.  It's got romance and horror, a road trip, and it blends fantasy and post-apocalyptic elements in an intriguing way.  (And fantastic post-apocalyptic definitely seems like a growing genre to me.  I've reviewed several books that fit that description lately.)  And I would've loved it if Lily didn't annoy me so much.  I don't think we were supposed to entirely agree with her treatment of Mel, considering Emily McKay does have a character say something about it, but it really bugged me instead of seeming like a loving sisterly relationship.  While I'd also dislike her being perfect all the time, I found it hard to believe that a person whose goal is getting herself and her sister to safety kept putting herself in unnecessarily dangerous situations.  But I need to stop talking about that because you probably don't believe me when I say I though the book was fun now.

 *I assume.  A university in North Texas associated with green?  It's not a liberal arts university as described, but a research university; however, everything else fits.

Review: Elemental

By Antony John
Available now from Dial (Penguin)
Review copy

Thomas lives on an island of fifteen people.  Everyone has a power, known as an element, aside from Thomas.  Then the Guardians are kidnapped during a sudden storm, leaving Thomas and the other kids to escape the pirates on their own.  As they struggle to keep themselves safe, they begin to discover all the secrets the adults kept.

It took me awhile to figure out ELEMENTAL was set in the future, despite that being mentioned in the very first line printed on the back of my ARC.  Clearly I didn't read what the book was about before diving in.  I enjoyed trying to piece together what happened to the world, curious about the plague that left behind only a few people who had magical powers.

Some of ELEMENTAL was pretty predictable.  Obviously Thomas actually does have a special ability.  (I'll admit to not entirely understanding how his ability worked, but that might be because Thomas didn't entirely get it himself.)  I found the love triangle tolerable, mostly because both Alice and Rose are sixteen too, and their only other romantic option is Thomas's older brother who is also a bit of an outcast because he predicts people's deaths.  There just aren't enough available guys to prevent the love triangle.  It's also pretty low key.  The kids' focus is on getting their families back and getting away from the pirates, not making out.  Rose and Alice's competition just provides a bit of tension within the group.

I thought ELEMENTAL was a standalone fantasy, so I was a bit disappointed by the obvious lead in to a sequel at the end.  ELEMENTAL does contain a complete adventure, but many of the big questions remain unanswered at the end of the book.  That's fine if there are going to be more books, but it wasn't what I expected when I started.

I found ELEMENTAL mildly diverting, but I was never absorbed into the world Antony John has created.  It was fun enough, but I'm not driven to read the possible sequel to get answers and see what Thomas and the others do now that they know more about their world.  I think the novel just felt kind of shallow.  There was no spark that made me love these characters or this world.

Review: Black City

Book One of the Black City Chronicles
By Elizabeth Richards
Available now from Putnam (Penguin)
Review copy
Part of the Fall 2012 Breathless Reads Campaign

I watch True Blood an entire season at a time.  My dad Tivos the episodes for me, then I watch them all when I go to visit him. Thus instead of watching season five this summer, I watched it shortly before reading BLACK CITY.  One of the points made repeatedly was the humans outnumbered vampires enough to destroy them all if it came to war, even though the vampires are stronger and faster.  Then I read BLACK CITY, where the vampires (called Darklings) are all living in a ghetto, having been defeated and quarantined by the humans. 

How do you keep the Darklings to stay quietly behind a wall?  How do you keep them fed, since it wouldn't be well received to let a defeated people starve to death?  What do you do about the plague racing through the population?  What do you do about the children of half-human, half-Darkling heritage?  These are all questions the heavily religion-influenced government would prefer the population not think about.

Ash Fisher has to think about it because he's a twin blood, living with his human father and letting humans get high on the drug that is his blood because there's no other way he can make money.  Natalie Buchanan has to think about it because she's the daughter of the Emissary, the head of the local government who is struggling for control with Purian Rose, local religious leader.  They also have to think about it because they fall in love - and human and Darkling relationships are illegal.

I must praise Elizabeth Richards for putting both vampires and a love triangle in her debut and doing something very different with them.  Seriously, this is one very inventive twist on the love triangle and I can't wait to see how it plays out in PHOENIX and other subsequent installments of the Black City Chronicles.  And her vampires have an interesting mythology.  They have their own legends, funeral rites, and other culture.  They're willing to do tough things in order to endure and eventually overcome.  Richards also throws in some genetic manipulation via mad science, and ya'll know I'm always up for mad science.

BLACK CITY is a fast-paced, and indeed breathless, read.  I fell in love with the story from the first chapter, where Ash's meeting with a client goes very wrong.  And I didn't fall out of love at any point.  I'm intrigued by the world Richards has created and want Ash and Natalie to make it, even if I do have to laugh at some of their more dramatic gestures of love.  BLACK CITY is an intense, original novel and I cannot wait to get my hands on the sequel.  I have to know what happens!

Review: Poison Princess

Book One of the Arcana Chronicles
By Kresley Cole
Available now from Simon & Schuster
Review copy

I love Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark paranormal romance series.  I think I've reviewed every single one.  Thus I was super excited to find out that Cole was going to write a young adult series.  The Arcana Chronicles combines urban fantasy and post-apocalyptic fiction in a compelling, menacing blend.

The book begins when Evie Greene meets Arthur, a man with bad intentions, nearly a year after the Flash.  He pretends to be kind, asking for her story of survival.  Thus POISON PRINCESS flashes back, and Evie tells what happened to her from the last week before the Flash to when she showed up on Arthur's doorstep.

Evie always knew that the Flash was going to happen, but she didn't know that she knew.  She returned to school after spending the summer in a mental institution due to her apocalyptic hallucinations.  She pretended to be her normal rich girl self despite her attraction to one of the new Cajun students.  Then the Flash happened, slowly forcing Evie to understand her powers.

Now, Evie is hard to like at the beginning of POISON PRINCESS.  Her actions are understandable, but she's a mean girl.  But as she puts the pieces of her life together, she becomes more likeable.  She also joins up with Jack Deveaux, the aforementioned Cajun and a fellow survivor.  Together they travel toward Evie's grandmother, who should have some answers about what happened.  The only way Evie can get Jack to escort her is by promising to tell him her secrets.  But her secrets put Jack in grave danger.

There's a lot of set-up in POISON PRINCESS.  There are action and romance scenes to keep things moving, but the vast majority of the book is a way to explain what the Arcana are and what rules they have to follow.  It's important exposition, but I'll be happy when Evie and her cohorts can really let loose in the second book.  (At least, I hope they let loose in the second book.)

Cole doesn't underestimate teen readers.  This isn't her adult work sanitized for a younger audience.  POISON PRINCESS is plenty gory and sexy.  (Okay, it doesn't have the steamy and frequent sex scenes of her romance novels, but it does have sexual tension.)  But the genre blending she uses in the Arcana Chronicles works very well in the young adult format.  POISON PRINCESS is a book that will appeal to teens as well as her existing adult fanbase.

So saddle up for a road trip through a devastated United States populated by bloodsucking fiends and people willing to do anything to survive.  It's gonna be a magical, violent ride.

Review: This Is Not a Test

By Courtney Summers
Available now from St. Martin's Griffin
Review copy

Courtney Summers has earned awards and critical acclaim, but her books haven't quite made it to the bestseller lists.  She's the kind of writer who gets full artistic and technical marks, but I've never fallen in love with her work.  It's easy to love her writing, but her main characters like to keep the world at arm's distance, including the reader.  However, I fell in love with THIS IS NOT A TEST and I think it is the book that could make Summers a bestseller.

What makes THIS IS NOT A TEST so different?  Zombies.

(Don't even pretend you don't like zombies.)

The greatest strength of THIS IS NOT A TEST is the characterization.  Sloane, the narrator, and five other teenagers are holed up in their high school during the zombie apocalypse.  It took the group one week and two deaths to make it from the beginning of the apocalypse to the school.  Those two deaths were Grace and Trace's parents.  They blame Cary Chen,  the leader of the group and strongest survivor.  Rhys Moreno is sticking by Cary.  Harrison, the freshman no one knows, isn't much good for anything but crying.  The older kids treat him like a pawn.  But Sloane remains apart from the in-fighting.  Sloane Price, our heroine, was rather inconveniently interrupted by the zombie apocalypse, you see.  She planned to commit suicide.

Sloane is ready to clock out.  Ironically, it makes her an almost perfect survivor (aside from that pesky death wish).  She takes the crazy things happening inside and doesn't freak out when things go wrong.  And things go wrong, indeed.  Six people who don't trust each other trapped in one building?

THIS IS NOT A TEST is a harrowing, yet fast read.  I couldn't put it down.  I think it took me an hour, maybe an hour and a half total, because I could not wait to know what happened next.  I wanted Sloane and the others to somehow find a way to overcome.  This is not a story where the humans are indistinguishable from the zombies.  The teens have a better nature and they often appeal to it.  (Not that their baser natures don't get in some hits.)  There are reasons to like and dislike all six, but I personally didn't want any of them to die.  (Note to soft-hearted readers: this is a zombie book.)

I couldn't not love THIS IS NOT A TEST.  It's the perfect blend of literary and genre fiction.  One moment the characters are running for their lives; the next they're talking about their feelings.  It's a meditation on guilt and responsibility and truth and being horny.  If you like books with intense, creepy atmosphere and a slightly crazy, suicidal narrator then this is the book for you.

But oh, I think I hate Summers a little for the ending.  That's what happens when you give someone your heart.

Review: For Darkness Shows the Stars

By Diana Peterfreund
Available now from Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins)
Review copy

FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS came onto my radar when I read Angie's brilliant review of it.  At TLA I was touring the HarperCollins Children's Books booths and said something extremely eloquent like, "Oh, this one!  The PERSUASION update!  I read a great review of it."  The very nice woman telling me about the books responded in the best way possible.  "Let me get you a copy."  (Publishing people rock.  I probably don't need to tell you that, but it's true.)  Angie's glowing review was the correct response to FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS.  I'm not sure my review will be as persuasive or as lovely as hers, but one can hope.

I adore Jane Austen and PERSUASION is one of her best novels.  It was her last completed novel and shows the progress she'd made as a writer since NORTHANGER ABBEY.  It has an elegance and maturity her other novels lack.  Plus, Anne Elliot's transformation is breathtaking.  PERSUASION is as much a novel about Anne rediscovering her vitality as it is her relationship with Captain Wentworth. 

Diana Peterfreund takes the essentials from PERSUASION and makes them her own.  I'm surprised by how many plot points she was able to use, considering how different the post-apocalyptic FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS is from its inspiration.  Most importantly, she understands what made the relationship of Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth a great romance.  You pierce my soul. 

Elliot North and Malakai Wentworth are lovers who part on bad terms, only to be reunited four years later.  Wentworth behaves badly, but I still loved him because Elliot's love imbues every line of text.  She knows everything that's wonderful about him and can see it shining through his cold facade.  Her love hurts.  Her duty hurts.  But she accepts the choices she made and moves on, because there are more important things to worry about.

Elliot is a Luddite, the second daughter of Baron North and the one who really runs the North's farm.  Her father and older sister are more interested in keeping up appearances than working.  Elliot knows that she is responsible for keeping the Reduced clothed, fed, and safe.  The North's financial woes and her friendship with her tenants keep Elliot's mind open to the future and new possibilities.

Kai is a second-generation Post.  Unlike the Reduced, he is as intelligent and capable as a Luddite.  Tired of being treated like a second-class citizen he strikes out on his own - and Elliot does not go with him.  Now he has returned, handsome, successful, and rich.  But he's not the boy he was when he left.

I'd tell you more about the Luddites, Reduced, and Posts, but part of the pleasure of FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS is figuring out how the world works.  With the rise in popularity of the dystopia, so many future worlds feel like quick sketches designed to shock.  The world Peterfreund creates is detailed, coherent, and complex.  Luddite society may be oppressive, but it has its moments of beauty.  And 'oppressive' is a key word.  Peterfreund's tale is about social justice as much as it is romance.  It's a powerful and intriguing blend, resulting in a book that makes you think as well as feel.

Without question, FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS is one of the best books of the year.  It delivers everything it promises.  There are complicated characters, a touch of mystery, beautiful descriptions, betrayals and redemption . . . I can barely resist picking it up and reading it again immediately.  FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS is the kind of book that leaves you in a daze afterwards, still lost in the story even though you've stopped turning pages.