I Hunt Killers

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I Hunt Killers
Barry Lyga

Publisher’s Blurb:

What if the world’s worst serial killer…was your dad?

Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.

But he’s also the son of the world’s most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could–from the criminal’s point of view.

And now bodies are piling up in Lobo’s Nod.

In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret–could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

Let’s start with the only two words that can really sum up this book:  holy shit.  I hadn’t ever thought about serial killer’s children, I think because I had some senseless hope that the universe would somehow deny something that innocent and impressionable to someone that horrifyingly evil.   Now that I have thought about it, all I can think is “holy shit” over and over again.  We’ll start with the fact that Jazz is remarkably well adjusted for someone who grew up listening to murders for bedtime stories.  The other side of that coin is that he’s also understandably conflicted.

In terms of characterization, I have no complaints with Lyga.  Jazz spends a fair bit of his time waffling over whether he’s good or if he’s really evil and just exceptionally skilled at faking good.  Here’s the thing though:  I never once got fed up with it because of course the kid’s going to have some burly inner demons given his upbringing.  I mean, even if it were just limited to the dreams, he would still have been monumentally screwed up. What tempers Jazz’s uncertainty a bit is that this is really just the (reasonably) exaggerated internally conflict between light and dark that everyone goes through.  Admittedly some to a greater extent than others, but everyone’s questioned themselves at some point.  By adding that small sense of familiarity, it adds an element of realism to the story.  No one wants to believe that serial killers exist, but an internal struggle is pretty easy to understand.

Okay this is the last thing I have to say about Jazz, but it’s something that was done so artfully that it surprised me.  What surprised me so much was the fact that I ended up sympathizing with Jazz so thoroughly.  I actually got a little defensive on his behalf, particularly when he was approached by families of his father’s victims who asked him why he didn’t do something.  Why didn’t he stop his dad?  Normally, that’s a perfectly valid question, but when it’s the killer’s son, it bothered me of a very basic level.  When you’re growing up, your parents are gods and what they do, who they are is perfectly normal.  Asking a seventeen year old why he didn’t do something to stop his dad pissed me off because his dad has been in prison for four years, so really they’re asking why a fourteen year old couldn’t have risen above a decade and a half of brainwashing to put a stop to it.  I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like to lose a loved one knowing that they experienced so much pain and terror before they finally passed on.  My heart goes out to anyone who’s had to go through that.  But this is what Lyga did artfully.  He made me resent the victim’s families a little, which is an entirely new experience for me.  Normally, I’m pretty universally on their side.  It takes some good writing to get someone to abandon their pre-conceived inclinations.

In the end, this book is compelling, though even that doesn’t quite do it justice.  It’s fascinating layered over enthralling.  You’re probably thinking that this book is filled with only darkness from this review, but Jazz’s best friend and girlfriend provide a fair bit of relief from the murder and dismemberment.

4.5 ink bottles
Character Investibility:  5 Buffys
Character Believability:  5 Doctors
Pacing/Urgency/Tension:  4.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding:  4.5 Snyders
Language:  4.5 Feegles
Mystery:  4.5 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

The Drowned Cities

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The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker, Book 2)
Paolo Bacigalupi

Publisher’s Blurb:

Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die.

In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man–a bioengineered war beast named Tool–who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.

I would like to preface this with the fact that I haven’t read the first book in this series yet (though that fact will be changing in the very near future).  Having said that, this is one of those rare books wherein it’s completely unnecessary to have read the first book in the series. Normally when I discover that I accidentally picked up the second book of a series, I give it about ten pages and then put it down in frustration because I’m clearly missing something huge that’s happened that’s super critical to this plot.  In this book, there’s every indication that huge things have happened, what with the whole war-torn jungle that used to be America, but it doesn’t constantly remind you that you missed Book 1.  I’m actually really looking forward to reading Book 1 now given the deft hand that was evident in this one.

Now, to the story:  it’s amazing.  It combines the horror and pain of Vietnam with Iraq and adds in a sprinkling of Afghanistan, but in a future where science has created a perfect killing machine.  The irony is that even though it’s in the future, it feels like it’s set in the Dark Ages, that period after the fall of Rome when the whole of the world was plunged into chaos and plague.  The sheer brutality of the book was both visceral and compelling.  The truly terrifying part is that about half way through the book, I realized that this is totally plausible.  First one politician accuses the other of treason, and then the other fires back.  It’s easy to see the snowball effect there.  The brilliance of Bacigalupi’s writing is that he gave me that whole history, the accusations followed by the division, followed by the taking up of arms, and then chaos, he gave me all of that over the span of maybe two sentences.  He made me see my world implode with twenty five words (give or take).

And within that world he gives you these characters of unflagging bravery and courage, even when they’re claiming to be cowards.  They live in a world where nothing is sure, but each other and themselves and he makes events turn around them and yet they still put one foot in front of the other.   It’s delightful to read.  When one thinks of the children of war, I usually look on with sympathy at the little ones who have been orphaned and are helpless in the face of wonton destruction.  Bacigalupi’s children of war are so much more than that.  Sure, they’ve been orphaned, but they aren’t helpless.  Mahlia listened to her peacekeeper father’s lessons on The Art of War and little Mouse knows where to forage for food in the jungle surrounding the Drowned Cities.  However, Bacigalupi used the brutality of the book to put his characters in danger over and over again and it made the book enthralling because he had gone to the trouble to make me care for them first.  Even Tool was never the animal that he could have been seen to be.  He was a warrior, albeit a wounded one.

I could gush about this book for ages, but there’s no need for that.  Pick up the book.  I really can’t recommend it enough.  It’s a gut wrenching tale that will grab hold of your brain stem and won’t let go.

4.5 ink bottles
Character Believability: 4.5 Buffys
Character Investibility:  4.5 Doctors
Pacing/Tension/Urgency: 5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding: 4.5 Snyders
Language: 5 Feegles
Mystery:  4 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

Book Trailer:

Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders

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Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders (The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries #5)
Gyles Brandreth

This story has been out in the UK for more than a year now, but it was just released in the US.

Publisher’s Blurb:

Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders opens in 1892, as an exhausted Arthur Conan Doyle retires to a spa in Germany with a suitcase full of fan mail. But his rest cure does not go as planned. The first person he encounters is Oscar Wilde, and the two friends make a series of macabre discoveries among the letters—a finger; a lock of hair; and, finally, an entire severed hand.

The trail leads the intrepid duo to Rome, and to a case that involves miracles as well as murder. Pope Pius IX has just died— these are uncertain times in the Eternal City. To uncover the mystery and discover why the creator of Sherlock Holmes has been summoned in this way, Wilde and Conan Doyle must penetrate the innermost circle of the Catholic Church and expose the deadly secrets of the six men closest to the pope.

The absolute best part about this book is that for the few days it took me to read it, I got to enjoy my coffee in the company of Oscar Wilde and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  And while that should be reason enough to pick up the book, I can’t begin to describe how much I enjoyed reading Wilde in all his flamboyant delightful ways.  Whether he’s ordering lobster and lemon mayonnaise for dinner for everyone or showing up in a lime green suit, every time that Wilde stepped on stage I found myself riveted to the tale.  His charisma is what carries the story.  His hints that he’s already solved everything sprinkled throughout the story only served to make me wonder why I hadn’t yet.  In short, Oscar Wilde is the reason you will read this book.

Regretfully, Conan Doyle seems rather bland and boring by comparison.  Allow me to explain through example:  while on a working vacation, time set aside to respond for correspondence that’s been sent to Sherlock Holmes, he discovers a series of letters containing, most dramatically, a severed hand.  Now, one would imagine that if you found a severed hand in your mail it would be at least minorly important to you.  If nothing else, it would likely hover in the forefront of your mind.  In the book, although Conan Doyle keeps the morbid artifacts on his person at all times, it seems that he does it more to prevent a stray housekeeper from discovering them in his rooms that it is to pursue the reason for why someone would mail body parts.  In fact, it seems to me that while in Rome, if it weren’t for Oscar Wilde’s insistence that they solve the mystery set before them that Conan Doyle would likely spend the entire time locked in his room responding to postcards or cavorting about with a pastor’s sister.  While I understand that a person who writes murder mysteries might not be a detective in real life, I would absolutely expect for them to have a sense of curiosity that would at the very least propel them to investigate a hand in the post.  I know I’m risking flogging a dead horse here, so I’ll sum up: while I enjoyed Conan Doyle to a certain extent, I found his lack of curiosity and ambivalence to a mystery to be out of character to a person who specializes in the creation and solution of mysteries.

As to the story, while it carries on at a reasonably pace, it seemed to me that Brandreth waited for a long time to reveal that there had been any crime at all and the subsequent convulsions of plot where not universally necessary.  There is something to leaving your reader in the dark until the very end, but the sheer number of times when Wilde was 100% sure that he’d solved it, only to have it unravel in his face was mildly galling.  Wilde was the detective in the story.  I would have expected him to be a little bit better at the detecting and a little less of the making up a story to fit the available facts until one worked.

This is turning into another review wherein I condemn by faint praise, which is not my goal.  My complaint about Conan Doyle is balanced by Wilde’s drive and charisma.  Sure, Conan Doyle just kind of shows up where he’s told to go, but once he gets there, Wilde inevitably takes over.  As to the convoluted story, I was expecting something a bit convoluted given the involvement of the Vatican and while it doesn’t make for a gripping tale, it does make for a reasonably compelling one.  Your eyes might not be glued to the page, hungry for the next word, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Not every book can subsume.

3.5 ink bottles.
Character Believability: 3.5 Buffys
Character Investibility: 4 Doctors
Pacing/Urgency/Tension:  3.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding:  4 Snyders
Language:  5 Feegles
Mystery:  3 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

The Enchantress

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The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Book 6)
Michael Scott

Publisher’s Blurb:

The two that are one must become the one that is all. One to save the world, one to destroy it.

San Francisco:

Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel have one day left to live, and one job left to do. They must defend San Francisco. The monsters gathered on Alcatraz Island have been released and are heading toward the city. If they are not stopped, they will destroy everyone and everything in their path.

But even with the help of two of the greatest warriors from history and myth, will the Sorceress and the legendary Alchemyst be able to defend the city? Or is it the beginning of the end of the human race?

Danu Talis:

Sophie and Josh Newman traveled ten thousand years into the past to Danu Talis when they followed Dr. John Dee and Virginia Dare. And it’s on this legendary island that the battle for the world begins and ends.

Scathach, Prometheus, Palamedes, Shakespeare, Saint-Germain, and Joan of Arc are also on the island. And no one is sure what—or who—the twins will be fighting for.

Today the battle for Danu Talis will be won or lost.

But will the twins of legend stand together?

Or will they stand apart—

one to save the world and one to destroy it?

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this story, given the number of parallel plotlines that we left off with in Book 5.  And while I can’t say that my socks were completely knocked off, I will unreservedly say that this is my favorite book of the entire series, hands down.  Josh isn’t whiny at all, you guys.  In fact, he’s kind of awesome, but that’s not what makes this the best book.  No, in this story, Scott uses the parallel plotlines to build tension.  Everyone in one place is about to die? Yeah, let’s jump over here to this other place where other important things are happening.  And something important is happening everywhere.  Every page of this book feels like a dead sprint.  The characters are constantly moving with every ounce of their strength and being and it makes for such a compelling tale.

However, it’s not all hair-raising action.  Scott wove in humor here and there and it ratcheted to book up from really good to great.  The redshirts reference had me grinning from ear to ear and the fifteen year old in me laughed out loud at the thought of hearing the Imperial March when parents walk into the room.  Also, you don’t often get Sci Fi references in Fantasy, but after this, I want it to happen more often because it works.  Boy howdy, does it work.

The time travel dimension to the story had a part of my brain working overtime.  I realized at one point the number of decisions Scott would have had to have made in writing this book given the complexity of having people from the present going in the past, interacting with people they had known and loved in the future.  You see, even that sentence is muddled.  I would give you an example, but I don’t want to spoil anything.  Rest assured, where my writing is failing, Scott’s came through with flying colors.  There was never a doubt of who was where and with whom.  It’s astoundingly clear and without the use of any qualifiers.

The one thing I take issue with is when an Elder says that humans are essentially good.  While I’ve always hoped for that to be true, I know it isn’t universally true.  Stalin was not essentially good.  There’s no doubt in my mind that he thought what he was doing was for the greater good, but the truth is that you cannot be “essentially good” and be responsible for the brutal deaths of millions of innocent people.  It’s a nice sentiment, to imagine that we as a race are essentially good and I still like to think that the majority of human beings are, but the reality is that there are outliers.  It’s just too big of a generalization.  It exceeds the truth.

In the end, however, this story is a fast paced roller coaster ride of action, magic, and monsters.  I highly recommend it.

4.5 ink bottles.
Character Believability:  4.5 Buffys
Character Investibilty: 4.5 Doctors
Pacing/Tension/Urgency: 4.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding: 4 Snyders
Language: 4.5 Feegles
Mystery: 5 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

The Storm

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The Storm
Clive Cussler with Graham Brown

Publisher’s Blurb:

In the middle of the Indian Ocean, a NUMA research vessel is taking water samples at sunset, when a crew member spots a sheen of black oil ahead of them. But it is not oil. Like a horde of army ants, a swarm of black particles suddenly attacks the ship, killing everyone aboard, while the ship itself goes up in flames.

A few hours later, Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala are on their way to the Indian Ocean. What they will find there on the smoldering hulk of the ship will eventually lead them to the discovery of the most audacious scheme they have ever known: a plan to permanently alter the weather on a global scale. It will kill millions . . . and it has already begun.

I’ll openly admit that it’s been a long time since I’ve read a Cussler novel and in that regard, I enjoyed this one, although to a lesser extent that I was expecting.  I remember opening a Cussler book and losing track of all time and space until I turned the final page, but that didn’t quite happen this time around and I don’t necessarily think that it’s due to the intervening years.  Initially I thought it was due to the co-authorship of the novel, but after a little bit of research, I don’t believe that to be the case.  Through my research (Megalith, Kill Zone), I learned that this story is primarily written by Brown, in which case, I’m impressed by Brown’s ability to hold true to Cussler’s style.  Knowing that the story isn’t necessarily written by Cussler makes it make a lot more sense, in that there are one or two stylistic departures that one wouldn’t normally expect from him.  I will say this: I do intend to hunt down more of Brown’s work because now I’m curious.

This is the first Kurt Austin novel I’ve read, so please forgive my ignorance of what he and Joe are normally like.  I did very much enjoy the byplay between the two, but I found myself stopping just shy of suspending all disbelief, which has never before happened during a Cussler book.  When Joe confused being on a boat with vertigo, I was baffled. Wouldn’t a person who’s spent a large portion of their life on a boat immediately recognize the motion of one, even in pitch black darkness?  Although this happened rarely throughout the book, it had the rather unfortunate effect of pulling me out of it.

The action is superbly well wrought, making the pages fly by at an incredible speed.  And even though it felt like the reveal on the Big Bad came early, it only meant that it was the action driving the story, not necessarily the mystery.  The characters were well done, though admittedly some more so than others.  I found the Trouts to be delightful and I devoured Joe’s portions of the story.

This is one instance wherein the bad guy is done very well. He has this undercurrent of immaturity that made him both compelling and truly horrifying. It felt a lot like watching a bully tease the little kid in school.  You cringe and wonder why on earth that kind of person would be given that kind of power.  One of the awesome things Cussler and Brown did in this book is the back story they provided for Jinn.  They give you the exact moment when the innocent child takes that first step down the path of evil mastermind.  It might not qualify as good parenting, but it certainly hits the mark for quality exposition.

In the end, it boils down to this:  this book is a fast paced tale of death and a few people’s quest to save the world before it gets eaten alive.  You won’t just read it. You’ll consume it.

4 ink bottles.
Character Believability: 4 Buffys
Character Investibility: 4 Doctors
Pacing/Tension/Urgency: 4.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding: 4 Snyders
Language: 4 Feegles
Mystery: 2.5 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publsiher

The Invaders

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The Invaders (The Brotherband Chronicles, Book 2)
John Flanagan

Publisher’s Blurb:

Hal and the Herons have done the impossible. This group of outsiders has beaten out the strongest, most skilled young warriors in all of Skandia to win the Brotherband competition. But their celebration comes to an abrupt end when the Skandians’ most sacred artifact, the Andomal, is stolen–and the Herons are to blame.

To find redemption they must track down the thief Zavac and recover the Andomal. But that means traversing stormy seas, surviving a bitter winter, and battling a group of deadly pirates willing to protect their prize at all costs. Even Brotherband training and the help of Skandia’s greatest warrior may not be enough to ensure that Hal and his friends return home with the Andomal–or their lives.

I know I’ve said this before, but I’m not sure if it’s possible for me to dislike Flanagan’s books.  He has this brilliant ability to strike just the right tone of earnest effort in his characters combined with genuine humor overlaid upon a bed of grave danger that makes it impossible to do anything but flip page after page after page.  And I’ll give you that that’s probably why I love it so much.  His stories are driven by his characters in the way that life is driven by people.  Nothing’s going to happen in the greater world outside of basic survival unless someone stands up and starts building houses or, in this case, takes the ship that he built with his own hands and the handful of peers that he solidified into a crew and leaves home to fight to return what was stolen.  Flanagan’s characters have the uncanny ability to grow into everything that I want them to be.  Sure, he’s kind of falling into a pattern of who the brains of the operation is versus who the amazingly skilled warrior is, but it doesn’t come off as contrived, but rather an acknowledgment that some of us are better at some things and others at other things.  It simply acknowledges the diversity of human skill and it’s done in a way that is subtle.  I never once stopped and thought “oh, har, har.  I see what you did there.” No, instead I stayed in the story, 100% focused on what was going to happen next.

As to the story, I can’t lie, Thorn kind of stole it for me.  His form of dry humor and his indignation over losing a battered old sheepskin were fantastically endearing.  Let’s be honest, the story of this book would have floundered had Thorn not been there to quietly steer it from the background.  The boys of this tale are delightful and smile-inducing, but they would have devolved into bickering children if Thorn hadn’t stepped in to focus them and bring them back to task.  Granted, I was hooked as of the first word on page one, Thorn or no Thorn, but he lent the story an edge of quiet humor that kept not just my eyes glued to the page, but my heart as well.

There’s not much more I can say except for this; this story is a classic Flanagan tale of growing up, honor, courage, friendship, and loyalty.  It’s harrowing at times, but in a good way, making the words disappear and instead building a world for you to live in, at least for 430 pages. Compelling doesn’t quite do it justice.  It’s enthralling.

5 ink bottles.
Character Believability: 5 Buffys
Character Investibility:  5 Doctors
Pacing/Tension/Urgency: 5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding: 5 Snyders
Language: 5 Feegles
Mystery:  4.5 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

The Serpent’s Shadow

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The Serpent’s Shadow (Kane Chronicles, Book 3)
Rick Riordan

Author’s Blurb:

When young magicians Carter and Sadie Kane learned how to follow the path of the ancient Egyptian gods, they knew they would have to play an important role in restoring Ma’at—order—to the world. What they didn’t know is how chaotic the world would become. The Chaos snake Apophis is loose and threatening to destroy the earth in three days’ time. The magicians are divided. The gods are disappearing, and those that remain are weak. Walt, one of Carter and Sadie’s most gifted initiates, is doomed and can already feel his life force ebbing. Zia is too busy babysitting the senile sun god, Ra, to be of much help. What are a couple of teenagers and a handful of young trainees to do?

There is, possibly, one way to stop Apophis, but it is so difficult that it might cost Carter and Sadie their lives, if it even works at all. It involves trusting the ghost of a psychotic magician not to betray them, or worse, kill them. They’d have to be crazy to try. Well, call them crazy.

With hilarious asides, memorable monsters, and an ever-changing crew of friends and foes, the excitement never lets up in The Serpent’s Shadow, a thoroughly entertaining and satisfying conclusion to the Kane Chronicles trilogy.

It’s taken me a long time to get around to writing this review because this is the first time I’ve ever been even remotely ambivalent about a Riordan book.  Ordinarily I eat them for lunch, but this book was a little slow to get rolling.  And by a little slow, I mean I was more than a little surprised when the action started.  So many Important Plot Points in this book seemed to be arbitrary and accidental.  The most compelling plot line was Sadie’s quest to re-call Bes’s ba, but this plotline was mired down by the other plotlines all of which were comparatively tedious and seemingly pointless in comparison.  While these stories typically have multiple plotlines that only coalesce in the end, this one seems more like a torrent of chaos (no pun intended) that makes it hard to glean the golden plotlines in the center.

The love interest plotlines were galling to a certain extent in that, while I remember a fair portion of my teenage years being spent mindlessly thinking about boys, I do remember that there were other cogent thoughts going through my head at the time.  Riordan reduces his characters to lovelorn simpletons and if they’re not pining away for professed loves then they are drowning in doubts with regards to their ability to save the world/humanity/their loved ones, etc, etc, etc. I will grant you that it’s important to build a bit of weakness into a character, but the amount of time Sadie and Carter spend doubting themselves is a little ham-handed.

HOWEVER, that being said, while the first half of the book is mired in toil, the second half is more typical Riordan fair.  It moves at a pace that certainly qualifies as break neck.  And although I’m more than a little wishy washy on the way in which Carter and Sadie save the day, I still enjoyed reading it, which is saying something.  The bickering between Sadie and Carter was still endearing and periodically comical, though I’ll stop short of saying hilarious.

You know, this is really coming off as if I hated the book and that’s not accurate.  I enjoyed this book, but I’m left with this feeling of disappointment that can’t be entirely explained away with the fact that it’s the last book in the series.  I do mean it when I say that my favorite part of the story is Bes’s subplot.  It was charming and endearing to know that Sadie would try to do a small act of good in the face of an overwhelming one.  It made her more human in a very real way.  Outside of this storyline, however, this book failed to truly connect in a way that I’ve grown used to with Riordan books. I know that the majority of fans will be willing to look past it, but I’m finding it difficult to do so.

I’ve heard that his next project will be Norse gods and I can’t lie, I’m excited about that.  I’m just hoping that whatever was missing from this book goes into that series because I kind of love Norse mythology and I’m very interested to see what Riordan does with it.

3.5 ink bottles.
Character Believability: 4 Buffys
Character Investibility: 3.5 Doctors
Pacing/Urgency/Tension: 3.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding: 4 Snyders
Language: 4.5 Feegles
Mystery: 2 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

Book Trailer:

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Clockwork Prince

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Clockwork Prince
Cassandra Clare

I was a little trepidatious about starting this book.  I’d seen a few things in the Goodreads forums that would normally have made me pick a different book to read, but having already read the first book I trudged forth and turned the first page.  And then the second…and then the last, because once you turn the first page you won’t be able to put it down until you finish. I’m not entirely sure how Clare achieves such a complete level of buy in, but good gracious me, I was addicted.  Literally any time I had a second to read, I would pick up this book.  I read this one in half the time it took me to read the first one.  Between the action and the fate of the Institute and the mystery and the romance, everything swirls into this heart stopping tale that had me flipping pages at the rate of a minor hurricane.

Publisher’s Blurb:

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

In the past I’ve avoided books that center around a love triangle.  This is the primary reason why I still haven’t read the Twilight books.  What I didn’t know is that if it’s done right, it can make for one incredibly compelling story.  I didn’t know about the triangle until I scrolled down on Goodreads and saw a ton of artwork about Jem and Tessa and I was prepared for the sappy, mushy, will-she-won’t-she, that I’ve always associated with the genre.  I am both surprised and more than a little pleased to say that although I couldn’t tell you whether I would prefer for Tessa to have chosen Jem or Will, I never once gagged on any excessively sappy platitudes.  The romance bit of the novel is tempered pretty significantly by the action that is constantly putting the characters in harm’s way.  The fact that the entire book is borne in an odd state of contention makes the romance something to look forward to.  Of course, it helps that Clare has written such amazing characters and given them each a heart that I couldn’t stand to see broken.  All in all, I actually quite enjoyed watching Jem and Tessa grow together.

However, the rest of the book, outside of the romance (whether it be the triangles or any of the other romances) was pretty frakking amazing.  The pacing held just the right amount of urgency so that the words disappeared before my eyes, but I never got burned out on it.  The characters are vividly wrought, though at this point in reading Clare that’s to be expected.  The more fantastical elements of the story, whether they be werewolves or warlocks, were brought to life in a believable and realistic way.  In fact, Clare went further than simply making them realistic.  She made them into Characters in the sense that there were a few in particular that invariably ended up making me smile at their adorable idiosyncrasies.  It’s nothing short of wonderful when the author applies the same care and attention to the werewolf lordling’s ring as she does to the family ring of one of the main characters.

In the end, this book will hold your attention until the very last page, at which point you’ll look up the release date for Book 3.  It’s currently set as March of 2013, incidentally.  Trust me, I checked.

4.5 ink bottles.
Character Believability:  5 Buffys
Character Investibility:  5 Doctors
Pacing/Urgency/Tension:  4.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding:  4.5 Snyders
Language:  4.5 Feegles
Mystery:  3.5 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

Book Trailer:  (*Caveat* I sincerely debated whether to include the book trailer or not.  I’ve watched it a few times and it doesn’t exactly represent the book or at the very least it thoroughly misrepresents several scenes from the book.  If you’re waffling on whether to read the book or not, I wouldn’t suggest deciding off of the trailer.  *End Caveat*)

Clockwork Angel

Image via Goodreads

Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, Book 1)
Cassandra Clare

This book is one of those books that reminds me of exactly why I used my spare time the way I do (e.g., pretty much always for reading).  It’s steeped in tension and magic.  In an industrial 19th Century London, Clare brings to life a world of angels and demons, warlocks and vampires, but it’s more than that.  She throws in clockwork automatons, a random goblin, and so many other things to the point where I’m pretty sure that I’ve forgotten a few.  This book combines the best of the speculative fiction genres.  You have the glittering coppers of steampunk combined with the transmogrification of fantasy.  It makes for this whirling tale that’s somehow simultaneously set in the realism of a gritty smog-filled London, but steeped with the surrealism of having a main character who can transform into literally anyone simply by holding something that belongs to them.  Really, it makes for a tale that will fly by.  I’m glad that I already had Book 2 when I finished, because I needed to know.

Publisher’s Blurb:

Magic is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . . and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

My only real gripe about the story is the part wherein Tessa tries to make Will’s extreme mood swings and frequent rude behavior towards her okay because that’s what the Darcys and the Heathcliffs of the world do.  While I understand as a girl who has read more than her fair share of books that it’s sometimes easy to draw parallels from the book to your life, whenever this one, in particular, happens I usually end up getting shouty about it.  Here’s the deal:  sure, Darcy turned out to be a genuinely good guy in the end, but in real life, you really can’t bank on “saving” a guy from himself or being the one to change him for the better.  Sure, you might have a wonderful affect on his life and the way he treats other people, but if he starts out being a bit a rude asshole who treats you like shit chances are that he’s going to stay that way. That’s not to say that every guy’s a lost cause. To be clear my complaint here isn’t necessarily Will’s behavior because he seems to have a whole lot of underlying issues that the author hints at, but doesn’t address seemingly purposefully.  My complaint is using a fictional depiction to rationalize subpar treatment from anyone.  Annnddd, the shouting ends…

All of that being said, the one thing that Clare does remarkably well is her characters.  They have life and a tenacity that’s rare to find.  Sure, a few of them are a little one dimensional (Henry, for one), but I think that has more to do with the fact that they are surrounded by so many characters that are so vividly wrought.  Between Tessa’s struggle to figure out what she is and her one-minded mission to find her brother, Clare did an excellent job of creating a character that was steadfastly strong and yet simultaneously conflicted to the core.  And Will? Yeah, it’s pretty clear the whole time that there’s something going on and that Clare is building to it, but she does it in such a way that you feel his anguish and see his ripping himself apart and you want to do something about it.  His interactions with Jem are really where you see him become a true human instead of just a character.  You know, now that I think about it, it seems to me that it’s really the interactions between the characters that makes them come to life to such a delightful extent in this book.  They don’t just stand up from the page and walk around.  They stand up and then start bickering over the dinner table.

In the end, this story is an addicting action packed tale of love, families, and the magic that comes from places unseen.

4.5 ink bottles.
Character Believability:  4.5 Buffys
Character Investibilty:  4.5 Doctors
Pace/Urgency/Tension:  5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding:  5 Snyders
Language: 5 Feegles
Mystery:  4.5 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

Book Trailer:

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The Ash Born Boy

Holy Announcement, Batman!

As you all know, The Near Witch was one of my favorite books of last year.  You can find the review here.  If you haven’t read it yet, the paperback comes out today.  You’ll want to go get that now… I’ll wait.  *stares at watch for thirty seconds* Everyone back?  Awesome, because to celebrate the release of the paperback of The Near Witch, “The Ash-Born Boy” is finally up at Disney*Hyperion.

What is “The Ash-Born Boy”, you ask? It’s a free story that Victoria wrote as a thank you to her readers and to answer one question:  ”Who was Cole before he came to Near?”  You can find it here and you’ll want to go read it.  It’s written in the same evocative prose as The Near Witch and it gives you back story on Cole.  You know, the back story that you wanted the whole time you were reading The Near Witch, but instead you sat on your hands and watched all the things unfold.  Yeah, that back story.

Here’s the awesome thing, even if you haven’t read The Near Witch you can still read The Ash-Born Boy.  There aren’t any spoilers.  If anything it’ll just make Cole’s character in The Near Witch that much more compelling.  If you want to wait to read The Near Witch first, however, the story will stay up at Disney*Hyperion’s website, and if it ever comes down, Victoria will carve out a space for it on her own site. It will always be available somewhere, and it will always be free.

You guys, I’ve read the story and I love it.  It’s not every day that an author gives readers a gift, particularly not one this richly woven.  I can’t recommend the story enough.  It will make you smile and will tug on your heart-stings.  Victoria uses the same chiaroscuro brush strokes to bring her characters to life and the action is stomach clenching.  As far as the usual platypus rating for this book, it’s 5 ink bottles easily.

Help Victoria celebrate today and go get the paperback of The Near Witch because it has more goodies in it.  You’ll find the first chapter of Victoria’s next book, The Archived, in the back.  I can’t tell you how excited I am for this book.  I’ve had it on my Goodreads to-read shelf since I finished The Near Witch and  I. Can’t. Wait.