Book Review: The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

Title: The Girl With All the Gifts
Author: M.R. Carey
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Kindle
Content Alert: Swearing, violence

When we meet Melanie, we know she's a little girl who is living all alone in a cell. Every weekday she's strapped into a wheelchair and wheeled to a classroom in the basement of the bunker where she lives with a bunch of other kids. On weekends she's left alone for the entire time. Every so often one of the kids disappears permanently, and Melanie soon learns that she and the other kids are special-- they have been infected by the spores that turned most of the population into zombies, but for some reason they are still sentient-- sentient, and deadly.

Oh my gosh, I am not a fan of the zombie thriller. Ed has watched every single episode of The Walking Dead, and when the first season came to a close, I told him he would be going to Fort Benning without me. If I had known that the main characters of The Girl With All the Gifts would essentially be Michonne and one of her walker pets, I never would have downloaded the book. But I did, so I read it, and by the time I realized what Melanie was, I was too invested in her perspective to put it down. The first part of the story, where we learn what Melanie is and how lonely her life is, and the final few chapters, where we learn about her potential, completely redeemed what was otherwise just Rick, Michonne, that creepy scientist from the NIH, and some other disposable guy fighting off the other humans and the walkers. Carey does a lovely job showing the complications of various perspectives-- in their minds, all of these people had good reasons for their actions, which often came into conflict. The Girl With All the Gifts was not my cup of tea at all, but if it's yours, this one was done very well.

Book Review: Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Title: Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive #2)
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Enjoyment Rating: *****
Source: Digital Copy
Content Alert: Violence

An assassin is taking out the leaders of Roshar, and Kaladin is charged with protecting his king from meeting a similar fate. The world is on the brink of war from many fronts, and Shallan works her considerable skill to prevent the return of the Voidbringers.

While fans of The Way of Kings, fans of Sanderson, fans of high fantasy, fans of good writing will probably enjoy Words of Radiance, whenever I read a book with lots and lots of world building and hundreds of names to keep track of, I feel the same kind of panic that I feel when I go to see the symphony. I have an appreciation of the parts, but it doesn't move me-- I recognize that there is great writing, great description, great storytelling going on here, but I feel like I'm looking at it through a thick pane of glass-- it's hard for me to engage, like it's written in a different language. I can appreciate on an intellectual level that this book is undoubtedly the most skillfully crafted speculative novel this year, and likely the best novel of the Whitneys, but it's one that I appreciate distantly rather than embrace.

Book Review: This Darkness Light by Michaelbrent Collings

Title: This Darkness Light
Author: Michaelbrent Collings
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Digital Copy
Content Alert: violence and gore, swearing

John should be dead. He's been shot through the heart, then nearly assassinated again while recuperating in the hospital, when the killer left a trail of bodies in his wake. The only survivors are John and Serafina, who escape on a cross-country journey to outrun death. But gradually they realize that John is anything but normal, and death seems to be following them.

This Darkness Light is faced-paced and interesting. Collings knows how to move the action forward, and includes lots of minor characters and different voices in a way that allows readers to retain a sense of momentum in the novel. You know how a Dan Brown novel is almost impossible to put down, even when the reader recognizes that the story is totally implausible? This Darkness Light has a bit of the same quality. It reminded me quite a lot of Justin Cronin's The Passage, with many narrators and some characters who seem immune to worldwide apocalypse. The book is quite gory, but also pretty entertaining.

Book Review: The Accidental Apprentice by Anika Arrington

Title: The Accidental Apprentice (Accidental Magik #1)
Author: Anika Arrington
Enjoyment Rating: **
Source: Digital Copy
Content Alert: Some violence

Redzin the magician wants to prove himself to the king, but his access has been limited by his boss, the Baron von Dappenshien. When von Dappenshien finds himself on the wrong side of the law, Redzin relies on Tommy, a street urchin, to help him lie low. In exchange, Tommy becomes his apprentice.

Honestly, I had a really hard time with this book. I read about 50 pages, then got sidetracked by something else, and when I came back to it, I was completely lost. There are a lot of voices in the novel, multiple characters, even minor characters, narrate, all in first person, and I had a hard time keeping the characters straight. Furthermore, although the protagonist is an adult, this felt like a YA novel. Maybe it was something to do with the dialogue or the magical fantasy setting, but it felt more like a confusing Harry Potter with Dumbledore as the main protagonist.

Book Review: Pretty Little Dead Girls by Mercedes M. Yardley

Title: Pretty Little Dead Girls: A Tale of Murder and Whimsy
Author: Mercedes M. Yardley
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Digital Copy
Content Alert: Violence

This year the Whitney finalists in the speculative category included two novels by Mercedes M. Yardley. Her other novel, Nameless, was published first and therefore also eligible for the Best Novel by a New Author award. As I read both novels (and the rest of the books in the "new author" category), I kept lamenting that Pretty Little Dead Girls wasn't published first, because it was a thoroughly enjoyable novel.

Everyone knows that Bryony Adams is marked for murder. The people in the small desert town in which she grew up all knew that one day the desert would come out and claim her. But somehow, she lives. She lives through childhood and adolescence and college, and then moves to Seattle and starts her life. Whenever it seems like she might just be on the cusp of being murdered, someone else seems to step in to take her place.

The best thing about Pretty Little Dead Girls is the voice. Yardley writes in a third person "Dear Reader" voice reminiscent of Charles Dickens. I also really enjoyed the fact that although the book was in the speculative category and there was a degree of magic involved, the book really didn't feel like a speculative novel, since the action was based on relationships and characters. Speaking of characters, the serial killer who stalks Bryony in the second half of the novel is more interesting than the husband, whose backing out at the last minute seemed flimsy.

Book Review: Nameless by Mercedes M. Yardley

Title: Nameless: The Darkness Comes
Author: Mercedes M. Yardley
Enoyment Rating: **
Source: Digital Copy
Content Alert: violence, some mild language

In the room right in front of you, you may see humans, you may see no one. If Luna Masterson were with you, chances are good that she would see demons. For as long as she can remember, these demons have followed her everywhere, trying to get her to make choices to advance their demony agenda. As a result, Luna is prickly. The only people she's truly close to are her brother and his one-year-old daughter, and when that daughter goes missing, Luna won't stop until she's found her, no matter where the demons lead her.

Luna is a really engaging protagonist. She's very flawed but has a good heart, which makes her relatable. She's also funny, tough, and brave in her actions even if she's scared on the inside. She's also quick to judge and impulsive. I enjoyed her budding relationship with Reed Taylor (a guy who could see angels, and therefore an interesting foil), but didn't like the feeling that we were moving from one big action movie scene to the next. If this book were made into a movie, they'd have to have a big budget for demonic fight scenes-- Nameless is chock full of them.

Book Review: Heart of the Ocean by Heather B. Moore (Whitney Finalist 2013)

Title: Heart of the Ocean
Author: Heather B. Moore
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Digital Copy
This book would be rated: PG

This year's speculative category included one fantasy novel, three dystopian novels, and one historical/romance/thriller/ghost story, which is Heather B. Moore's Heart of the Ocean. Eliza Robinson is taking a break from the 1840s New York social scene after spurning a marriage proposal, and has come to stay with her Aunt Maeve in Maybrook, a Puritan village in Massachusetts. One day, while out walking on the shore, she hears the voice of a woman, directing her. When she tells Maeve about it, she seems unsurprised, and tells her that a young unmarried woman bore a child while living in the house, and died shortly thereafter. The spirit of this woman continues to speak to and guide Eliza after a tragic incident solidifies her ties to Maybrook.

When I read the books for the Whitneys, I take part in a discussion group with the other women at Segullah who are also reading. While most of them felt that Heart of the Ocean wasn't the strongest book in the category this year, due in part to the genre mixing, the lack of a tight story, and the unsympathetic male protagonist, I enjoyed it more than many of the others. I think that's in part because I'm not a huge fan of the genre, and Heart of the Ocean felt less "speculative" than the others and more like a dark, gothic romance.

Book Review: The Witnesses by Stephanie Black (Whitney Finalist 2013)

Title: The Witnesses
Author: Stephanie Black
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Digital Copy
This book would be rated: PG-13 for violence

Since I spent yesterday comparing everything I've read to Frozen, I'm going to keep going down that vein and compare The Witnesses to Tangled. Remember how Mother Gothel would do anything and everything to be able to stay young? Well, replace Gothel with Amanda Ryce, the ninety-four-year-old president of New America (and a few henchmen in political power), and replace Rapunzel with the entire populace of her country, and you basically have the story of The Witnesses. When this story opens, which is the sequel to The Believers, Daniel Lansbury, the son of one of Ryce's henchmen is hiding three religious believers, all of whom were supposed to be executed. The group has to outsmart the politicos in charge in order to stay alive, especially when the president begins to suspect that they may have the answers to her immortality.

In many dystopian novels, the story takes place far into the future, in a world that has been rocked by war, illness, and near-apocalyptic desolation. In contrast, The Witnesses takes place in a near future, when New America has split from the United States, and medical technology has progressed significantly beyond its current state, but the landscape and culture remain quite similar. Another interesting point-- the "believers" alluded to in the title of the first novel are Mormons in hiding, and the religious discussions that take place in the second half of the novel were interesting to me from a publishing point of view. This is a novel that would seem to have broader reach without all the Mormon stuff, but it also seems pretty central to what Black wants to do here. It seems that a lot of the stories this year include conversion narratives, which I'm not sure is a super-successful approach for authors who are preaching to the choir.

Book Review: Echo in Time by C.J. Hill (Whitney Finalist 2013)

Title: Echo in Time (Erasing Time #2)
Author: C.J. Hill
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Digital Copy
This book would be rated: PG-13 for violence

The sequel to Erasing Time, Echo in Time follows the saga of two sets of twins-- Taylor and Sheridan, sisters who have time jumped from the 21st century to the 25th, and Joseph and Echo, 25th century brothers who were separated when Echo died in an attach several months earlier.  When Taylor and Joseph are sent on a mission to destroy the Time Strainer, Taylor just wants to hurry up and get back to adjusting to her new life, but Joseph wants to restore Echo's life. When he succeeds, he finds that one small difference in the fabric of time can change lots of things, and the existence of the entire group falls into peril.

I've decided that what makes an enjoyable sequel for fans of a first novel is entirely different from what makes a book an award-winner. My guess is that C.J. Hill did a lot of character building in her first novel-- fans of the book know who the characters are (what their desires and motivations are), and now they want them to do something. But contest judges have to look at the novels in isolation, and what I see here is a lot of exciting action, a strong finish, an exciting conclusion, and bad guys with laser boxes around every corner, but what I don't see much of is what I like best in novels-- the character development. This is one of those second novels where I feel like I've been thrown into the water to swim without a life preserver, and I flounder around a bit before I find my footing.

Book Review: Winter Queen by Amber Argyle (Whitney Finalist 2013)

Title: Winter Queen (Fairy Queens #1)
Author: Amber Argyle
Enjoyment Rating: **
Source: Digital Copy
This book would be rated: PG-13 for violence and sexual situations

Ilyenna lives in a world where people die. They get sick. They fight in wars. And while one of the basic facts of life is that everyone dies, it seems that in Ilyenna's world they die more violently, unexpectedly, and quickly than most. So it's no surprise when Ilyenna herself suffers a mortal wound, from which she is saved by fairies, who then require her to be their queen. The problem is that the fairies' winter queen is always cold, hard, and ruthless, and Ilyenna doesn't want to become these things, so she puts her fate in the hands of Darrien and his tribe, the rivals to her own. Darrien is as bad as they come, and wants to make her his in more ways than one while overthrowing her clan. And then there's Rone, her brother's best friend, the man who has her heart.

While Ilyenna is, in many ways, a fantastic heroine (she's super-tough-- don't mess with her), the story as a whole didn't work for me. I know that this has a lot more to do with my own inability to get caught up by most fantasy (and fairy stories in particular) than it does with Argyle's story itself. That said, I found that I had to force myself to keep reading (books with a lot of world building are particularly hard for me), and then I kept getting confused with who the fairies were and who the clan guys were. But the main character is interesting and someone to be admired, and I'm sure that the right audience would enjoy Winter Queen.

Book Review: Dark Memories by Jeffrey S. Savage (Whitney Finalist 2013)

Title: Dark Memories
Author: Jeffrey S. Savage
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Digital Copy
This book would be rated: PG-13 for violence and creepiness

In 1977, six kids went missing in a Colorado mine during a school picnic. Nearly a week later, five kids were rescued. Nearly forty years later, those kids, now grown up, are killed, one by one. Police Chief Cal Hunt tries to solve the mystery of their deaths, while coming to terms with the powers that the mine still seems to hold.

I opened Dark Memories on my Kindle before checking which Whitney category it was nominated in. I guessed that it was nominated in Mystery/Suspense, because I've read works by Savage in that category before, but it was quickly apparent that this was no normal mystery. Dead children appear, the walls of a mine seem to weep and moan, and people have the strangest kinds of dreams. The book reminded me a lot of a Stephen King novel, and I was both surprised and a little delighted to see Covenant Communications publishing a horror novel. The book was entertaining and delightfully creepy.

Book Review: Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce

Title: Some Kind of Fairy Tale
Author: Graham Joyce
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Audible
This book would be rated: R for language and sex

Back in the day when I publicized how many books I was reading each year, I used to shy away from buying long books on Audible. They took too long to listen to, which would decrease my numbers for the year. But one thing I've learned is that I like epic stories-- I like the ones that twist and turn and keep me guessing where they're going (or even if they're going somewhere, I'm enjoying the journey). I like stories that are long and detailed, and even kind of weird. I've decided that maybe these books wouldn't mess with my numbers, after all, because they're the kinds of books that keep me listening long after my run is done.

Some Kind of Fairy Tale is the kind of epic story that I love. The story opens on Christmas Day, when Tara Martin shows up on her parents' doorstep after an absence of more than twenty years. At first (if you don't pay attention to the title), it seems like a pretty straightforward story-- Tara was a pregnant teen who had a fight with her boyfriend and was presumed murdered, and when she returns, her family, particularly her older brother Peter, want to fill in the gap of where she'd been. The only problem is that Tara is extremely reluctant to share her story, and to make matters stranger, she doesn't look like she has aged at all in the twenty years she was gone.

What unfolds is a story of family life, the fairy world (which is nothing like most readers would expect), psychological analysis, trust, and belief. I loved the way that Joyce created complex characters, and the way that the side stories ended up being integral to the plot as a whole. Perhaps my favorite interactions were those with her psychiatrist. It's a really fascinating read-- not for kids (despite the title). The fairies are pretty randy! The story definitely kept me listening (and blushing, from time to time).

Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Title: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Author: Neil Gaiman
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Audible
This book would be rated: PG-13 for scary situations

A man returns to his hometown in the English countryside for a funeral and decides to visit his childhood home. While there, he feels strangely compelled to stop by the farm where one of his neighbors lived. His memories of this neighbor child are hazy, but the thinks her name may have been Lettie (or was it Lottie?) Hempstock and that she may have moved to Australia (unless it was somewhere else).

Once the narrator arrives at the farm, and meets Lettie's grandmother (how could she possibly be alive after all this time?) memories start flooding back. First he remembers that they called the pond in the backyard an "ocean." Then he remembers the terrifying adventure they had the spring he was eleven years old, when otherworldy creatures found their way into the children's lives, and it was up to them to save the world.

Over the last few weeks, I've listened to three books in a row with young protagonists which don't feel like YA novels. When I first started listening to The Ocean at the End of the Lane and was introduced to the main character (unnamed throughout the novel), I expected a Gaiman story along the lines of The Graveyard Book, but instead found a story more along the lines of American Gods (okay, those are the only Neil Gaiman books I'd read before this one). In other words, the book is dark and terrifying at times, not sweetly scary.

While I enjoyed the story, and particularly enjoyed the afterword (I don't think I've ever written those words before), I did find it a little hard to follow sometimes. Maybe it's because I listened to the climax of the book while doing speedwork (with the oxygen diverting from my brain to my lungs). I think Gaiman is a great reader, but I did find minutes passing when I wasn't totally checked into the story. That's probably more my fault as a reader than Gaiman's fault as an author or narrator, but it still affected my enjoyment of the novel as a whole.

Book Review: 14 by Peter Clines

Title: 14
Author: Peter Clines
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Audible
This book would be rated: R for language, sex, and violence

Nate is in his thirties, but still hasn't found his groove. He's working a dead-end job and living with roommates who all seem to be going places. He needs to find a new job, a purpose in life, and maybe a girl to share it with, but first he needs a new place to live. When he finds an apartment that's almost too good to be true, (in Hollywood, with a view of the Observatory, for $500/mo, including utilities), he jumps on the chance to make a move, and maybe get his life in gear.

But Nate's new apartment building is decidedly weird. At first it's just little stuff-- the black light in his kitchen, the strange hole in his closet, the apartment without the doorknob, but then he finds bigger things that don't make sense and starts talking with the neighbors about it. This starts him off on a quest to discover the secrets of the building.

See it right there on the cover? The comparison with LOST? At first, I felt like I was listening to the first few seasons of LOST, where everything is shiny and new and plenty confusing. I felt like I was trying to figure out a puzzle. It felt like the most satisfying book I'd read in a very long time. And then, as the book started to wind to a close, just like in LOST, things got decidedly weird (and I'm not talking about the final episode). I would rate the first 80% of the novel five stars, the next 19% two stars, and then the last few pages redeemed the story. The book also reminded me of Stephen King's 1963 book, but it was a less satisfying read for me.

Book Review: The Penitent by C. David Belt (Whitney Finalist)

Title: The Penitent
Author: C. David Belt
Enjoyment Rating: **
Whitney Finalist
This book would be rated: PG-13 for adult themes, violence, and creepiness

Vampire professors at BYU? Vampire doctors at University Hospital? Vampires teaching your child's Primary class? These are all possibilities in the world C. David Belt creates in The Penitent, where "good" vampires have freed themselves from their power to Lilith. Word of this accomplishment has spread, and now Moira and Carl Morgan, the first vampires to be sealed in the temple, must face the power of their enemies.

I thought this was an ingenious concept for a book, and I was impressed with the way Belt allowed readers to jump into the second book in the novel, but the story soon seemed like it favored outer conflict rather than the inner conflict I found so compelling in the early chapters.

Book Review: Flight from Blithmore by Jacob Gowans (Whitney Finalist)

Title: Flight from Blithmore
Author: Jacob Gowans
Enjoyment Rating: **
Whitney Finalist
This book would be rated: PG

Flight from Blithmore tells the story of Henry, a carpenter, who wishes to marry Isabelle, the only girl he's ever loved. Unfortunately, Isabelle's family considers Henry beneath their daughter, so he has to do something to prove his worthiness. When Isabelle's father gets in trouble with the law, Henry has the perfect opportunity. The story is kind of an epic fairy tale, and feels like a cross between The Odyssey and The Canterbury Tales, with some of The Princess Bride thrown in. This might sound like an engaging combination, but it's long and somewhat convoluted, and feels out of place in this category.

Book Review: City of the Saints by D.J. Butler

Title: City of the Saints
Author: D.J. Butler
Enjoyment Rating: **
Whitney Finalist
This book would be rated: PG

Once again, I'm rounding out my reading (and reviewing) of the Whitney finalists with the adult speculative novels.  Of the eight categories, this is the one that is always the most challenging for me, both in terms of the genre and the length of the novels, but I just can't get smart and read these books first, and save something I want to read for the end. Oh well, maybe next year.

That said, City of the Saints has an interesting premise-- Mormon Steampunk set in the 1850s, with Orson Pratt, Edgar Allan Poe, and Porter Rockwell figuring prominently, but not in any form you might recognize them. The book reminded me a bit of last year's A Night of Blacker Darkness, but it was less zany and ultimately less successful for me. But I may have been prejudiced from the first line-- a book that begins "'This is insubordination, Dick!' the man in the tall top hat and cravat hissed" is just not going to be my kind of book. But it may be yours?

Book Review: Earthbound by Teresa Sneed (Whitney Finalist)

Title: Earthbound
Author: Theresa Sneed
Enjoyment Rating: **
Whitney Finalist
This book would be rated: PG

I know I should find a way to be diplomatic about this book, and if I were less tired and overwhelmed by my toddlers, I'm sure I could find a way. But I am feeling cranky, and I have a feeling that will come out in this review. I read Theresa Sneed's No Angel for the Whitneys last year, and while I enjoyed the first half of that book, I had a really hard time getting into this story. Like No Angel, Earthbound  starts in the preexistence, and basically covers the story of the War in Heaven from the point of view of one spirit, Sophie. Sophie is falling hard for Daniel, a courageous spirit, and a lot of the story is about their romance against the backdrop of the war in heaven.

The problem with the book is that it felt so corporeal. The book takes place in the spirit world, but Sneed describes Sophie and Daniel with very human sensations and feelings and emotions. There is a lot of emphasis, for example, on what Sophie is wearing in the book, and every time I read a detail like this, it was hard for me to reconcile a preoccupation with clothing with a spirit. Furthermore, the book seems to be set in a world very much like modern-day America (maybe five years from now), with texting and classrooms and all that kind of stuff. If the story had been really compelling, I might have been able to overlook the details, but instead, I got all hung up in them.

Book Review: The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson

Title: The Emperor's Soul
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Review Copy
This book would be rated: PG

Shai has one day left to live. She's spent the last week in her prison cell, trying to find a way to escape using her skills as a forger. And then, just when she thinks she's going to be carted off to her death, she's given an interesting challenge-- forge a new soul for the Emperor, whose soul has been destroyed in an attack on his life, within 100 days.

The Emperor's Soul is set on the same planet as Elantris (which I haven't read), and unlike most of Sanderson's tomes, this one is short-- more of a novella than a novel. Sanderson really delves into developing three characters-- Shai, the Emperor, and Gaotona, the councilor who is overseeing Shai's project. While I really enjoyed the character development and the concept of this piece, which isn't a sequel to the Elantris books but more of a companion piece, I did feel like I was missing something by not having read the novels. And I always have to work against my inborn prejudice against men in robes and worlds that are like ours, but not ours.

Book Review: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Title: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Author: Seth Grahame-Smith
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Audible for iPhone
Books I've read this year: 74

I don't plan to watch Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter when it hits theaters in a few weeks. The previews look way too gory, and it seems to be shot in that gray-on-black way that always puts me immediately to sleep. But I'd heard a lot of buzz around the movie, and I hate to be left in the dark, so I decided to read the book so I would at least be conversant in this pop culture moment (by the way, I'm really struggling with my choice not to read Fifty Shades of Grey, for mostly the same reasons).

Anyway, the premise of ALVH is that shortly after Lincoln's beloved mother dies, when he's barely more than a boy, Lincoln discovers that she was not killed by milk fever (as history suggests) but by a vampire who was owed money by Lincoln's father. Fueled by rage, Lincoln decides to avenge his mother's death and rid the world of vampires. After that, pretty much every significant moment in Lincoln's life (the death of his first love, his choice to pursue politics, his election to the presidency) can be traced directly to his relationship with Henry, a "good" vampire who wants to eradicate the "bad" vampires who came to America because they could buy themselves a steady stream of fresh blood through the slave trade. So the Civil War is really just a cover for the war between the good and bad vampires.

There are some things I loved about ALVH. I love how Grahame-Smith took real historical elements and gave them a vampiric twist. It's evident that lots of research went into the novel, and that made it feel believable (in its own twisted way) to me. But ultimately, the book was a lot more icky and gory than I enjoy.