ARC Review: George - Alex Gino

George
Alex Gino
Series: N/A
Genre: Children's, LGBT+, Realistic Fiction
Release Date: August 25th, 2015
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

This book is incredible, and I suggest you just go read it right now.

If you've read my review I.W. Gregario's None of The Above, or really any of my reviews, you'll have realized by now that while I do review books, I also mostly yell at books for not having certain progressive values or being diverse, or praise books that do have these things. George will fall, of course, to the latter category.

George follows the story of a young girl. The only problem with this, and the central struggle of this story, is that no one else knows she is a girl. This is because George is male, and the world around her is a terrifyingly gendered place.

This causes many problems in George's life. As a ten-year-old, she has to hide "girl" magazines, inside which she's made friends with all of the pictures of models and often dreams of wearing bikinis at the beach with them. George hides these magazines and other behavior (like pulling her hair down the middle from its part to pretend she has bangs, and using lots of shampoo to cover her genitalia while she bathes, as she is uncomfortable with it) because she does not want to strain her relationship with her mom. She fears her mom's disapproval, and it stems from recent memory. George's mother has caught her in the past with feminine clothing and, while she considered it cute when George was three, she no longer does.

It is in this secret environment that George has to live. Behind the shadows, putting on a play for her mother because she cannot speak otherwise. This is incredibly important, because if you've read anything about trans or gender-non-conforming persons, this is generally the kind of childhood they grow up in. And that's what I really like about this book. Its accuracy and nuance are beyond my expectations for a children's book.

To be honest, I was completely expecting a simplified version of a trans youth. Instead, George offers exactly the kind of nuance that real trans people deal with. For example, George at one point questions whether she likes boys or girls more, and is unable to come up with a definite answer. Many of the trans people I know are bisexual/pansexual, and this is often erased in media and literature, so it's refreshing to see that in a children's book. George also questions if she'll want the surgeries available to trans people. And so on and so on. Basically, this book earned a lot of its stars just by being realistic and honest about the thoughts of trans kids, instead of being an oversimplified caricature.

Another thing I really like is that Gino writes George as a best case scenario. George's family is not rich, but they are not very poor. She has access to a good education, nice housing, food, and so on. Many LGBT+ youth are poor and deprived of many of the securities George has. Unlike None of the Above, George's secret is hers and she is not outed without her permission, which is very common among LGBT+ youth. George is white, and thus far less likely to be criminalized for being transgender. George's mom and brother care deeply for George and are there for her.

These facts make George's inner thoughts even more heartbreaking. Even with all of these things stacked on George's side, her world is still a broken place. For example, while her mother is caring, she refers to as George as her "little boy," often adding that nothing can change that fact, and though she means it endearingly, it further silences George from ever.

George has to perform for the whole world, even with her best friend Kelly. This is perhaps why Gino chose to use a play performed by the students in George's class as the central stage (puns!) for the conflict.

See, George really wants to be Charlotte in the Charlotte's Web play the school is putting on. Now, I'm not even going to go into why this whole set up is absolute literary genius. But while George practices very hard with Kelly, and has a wonderful voice, her teacher shoots her down because Charlotte is a girl's part.

Now, Charlotte is a spider. A spider. It's so massively ignorant to project human genders onto completely different animals. But this is common. Few people think about this, and George suffers from it. Kelly ends up getting the part, but because she's a wonderful human being, she starts scheming with George on how to get George to play Charlotte . . . and . . . possibly come out to her mom in that performance.

I love this set up, too. Because Kelly and one of George's family members (unexpected family members!!!) are the supporting characters for George's desires in the book. But neither are perfect. Kelly especially begins the book from an innocent place, not understanding George when she says that she is a girl. But later, Kelly evolves as the novel evolves and she becomes one of the biggest wells of courage and relief George is allowed.

I honestly could not find a single thing that I found that really dragged this novel down. I'm serious. George eats hot dogs at one point and I don't like hot dogs but really, that's not even important.

I can't imagine the struggle it must have taken to create such a beautiful piece of art. I just want to thank Scholastic team (I'm looking at you David Levithan) for fighting for this novel, and for Alex Gino's brilliance and dedication and bravery for creating it in the first place.

Just read this book, please. It's very short!

- Marlon

Charlotte or Wilbur?

Let us know in the comments!

Review: Heir of Fire - Sarah J. Maas

Heir of Fire
Sarah J. Maas 
Series: Throne of Glass, #3
Genre: Young Adult, High Fantasy
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Thanks to Bloomsbury USA Childrens for the ARC I received at Book Expo America!

I started reading this book in August. As many projects, assignments, and shows piled up, this book sat on my shelf looking sad and unloved, only occasionally being picked up for maybe a few chapters a month. Once the end of the semester came around, I was finally able to pick up this book. Let me tell you something about this book - every moment that I waited to finish this book was worth it because it was such a satisfying and fantastic book.

For those of you who have not read Throne of Glass yet, YOU NEED TO GO READ IT. YOU ARE MISSING OUT. If you have read Throne of Glass but not Crown of Midnight, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GO DO IT. Now, if you've read Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight, you are prepared to read what I write below (as it contains some spoilers for Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight).  I will not judge you as harshly for not having read Heir of Fire because surely you will after I tell you of its gloriousness.

**Note: I was completely serious about there being spoilers ahead for Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight - read at your own risk!**

Knowing that Celaena was no longer going to be in Rifthold with the other characters I had grown to love, I didn't entirely know what to expect in terms of who we would still hear about. I was pleasantly surprised to read all of my favorite character's stories throughout Heir of Fire despite the fact that they were over seas from Celaena. The way Sarah J. Maas weaves all of these characters' stories together is truly magical in itself. Through the close third person point of view that we've had throughout the series, the characters continue to grow and come to life, especially some of the newer characters.

I absolutely LOVED some of the new characters, especially Rowan and Manon! I won't give too much away about them, but they are really great.

Manon, who was featured in my Stuffed Animal Saturday post a while back, is a character who I just could not get enough of throughout Heir of Fire. She's completely different from any of the characters we've met so far while still having somethings that remind me of Celaena. All in all, I'm glad to see another strong female character in this series after losing one in Crown of Midnight.

Rowan is also great throughout the book. I loved seeing the way he interacted with Celaena and helped her grow into herself. Rowan proved to be a great companion for Celaena and I can't wait to see what the next book holds for him.

Throughout the entire book, we learn a lot more about Celaena's past, but also the past of her world as a whole. Sarah J. Maas built this incredible mythology within this incredible world and it is truly incredible. Did I mention that it's incredible?

Overall, I am so happy that I finally finished Heir of Fire and I kind of feel as though I disrespected this glorious book by not reading it in a timely manner. But what a book to finish as my first book read since August! I have the utmost respect for this series as a whole - it just keeps getting better and better - and I cannot wait for the next book to come out in September (so long, sob)! At least A Court of Thorn and Roses will release in May to hold me over! Oh, and in case you couldn't tell, I highly recommend this series and this book. It gave me all the feels.

- Kiersten

Marlon's Review *nearly spoiler free*
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

So unlike Kiersten I bought the hell out of this book, somehow circumventing the popularity of the first and second and totally not reading them until a couple of months ago. But I'm so glad for that, I would probably have died waiting to read the sequel to Throne of Glass, and then again to Crown of Midnight, and I'm dying now to read the fourth book.

For me, the strongest aspect of this book is Maas's unravelling, both of the history and mythology of the world of Erilia and of the specific character developments that drive the heart of his novel.

The first and second books were highly linear, and understandably so: there was a lot to introduce the reader to in terms of mythos and significantly more physical action going on. Therefore, the unravelling was not as significant or abundant in the past novels, which were driven in my opinion more by plot and the gorgeous, and often very sharp language that Maas has. Heir of Fire on the other hand, leaves a lot of space for contemplation, consideration, and therefore complex characterization.

The novel begins with Celaena mulling about in a Wendlyn town,  starved and depressed. This is one of the central, if not the central, conflicts in this book. In this section of the novel, she is shown to be almost completely ruined by the events of Crown of Midnight. So what the hell is she going to do about it? What will happen to her? What does she want now? How does overwhelming sadness affect a person who has responsibilities well beyond their reach that they are committed to?

Far from being a meditation on this soul-searching arc, however, there exists the contrast that is given with the other main characters. Dorian's budding romance and frigging awesome new powers and Chaol's identity crisis and his actions bring a lot to the table to absorb. The novel has a scope somewhere between Game of Thrones and The Mortal Instruments in terms of the level of character drama versus the world around them, by which I mean in GoT there's a lot of focus on the overarcing political conflicts, and in TMI there is more focus on the individual's experience. With the triple narration, there is a balance struck between these two ways of portraying a world and I really really love this particular balance.

Like Kiersten I also loved the new characters, Aedion, Manon, and Rowan. I love love loved how each of these characters helped fulfill some aspect of characterization in our main cast. For example, the combination of Rowan's gruff, immortal solidity with a tiny tiny core of sensitivity coupled with Celaena's apathy, callousness, and anger, make for a volatile thing.

"Training was bad that day." is probably used more than the average person says "like" or "uhm".

But this is good! I loved their banter, the way they brought out the worst in each other, and the partnership they built from this.

Similarly, Aedion brought out the dissent and critical side of Chaol that I have waited two books for, and Dorian seems to be in a coming of age novel the way he acts around Manon and I frigging eat up every second of it.

This book is just really good. The humor is strong, the narrative is expertly done, the plot does not feel rushed and never drags, the mythology is beautiful, the secrets are incredible, and the owls are hot. Of course I would have liked to see some more ethnic/sexual/etc representation but I'm rarely satisfied with representation these days to the point where I'm happy that at least there were those two gay faeries and the realistic female characters and the realistic display of loss. I'll take that.

Anyway, this is getting too long, just like this excessively long book. SO GO BUY THIS ISH. READ IT. IT'S VERY GOOD. 

What series do you think everyone should be reading?
Let us know in the comments!

Triple ARC Review: The Iron Trial - Holly Black & Cassandra Clare

The Iron Trial
Holly Black & Cassandra Clare
Series: Magisterium, #1
Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade
Release Date: September 9th, 2014
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Word Rating: A+
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

SO MUCH YES. I CAN'T EVEN BE REMOTELY PROFESSIONAL ABOUT THIS BOOK, IT WAS TOO FREAKING GOOD IT PHYSICALLY HURTS JUST BUY IT NOW STOP READING DAMNIT.

For anyone interested in words that are not crafted out of raw magic, here's a review:

At first I was prepared for this book. I realized that no one can be prepared for this book.

First, the construction of the novel– Black/Clare bring it to another level. The design of this narrative is so precise and meticulous that it's difficult to think about without architectural analogies.

There's little doubt that Black and Clare are master world-builders. The world of The Iron Trial is no exception. From the caverns of the Magesterium to a wall of ice and death and crippled babies, the authors pour over the architecture of this world . . . of course, it wouldn't be Holly Black if was expressed in any orthodox way . . .

Remember all the beauty and wonder that Hogwarts brought when Harry first walked through it?

This is what our protag experiences:

“Once . . . [Call's] father had taken him to a big park, with rides that started like this. He'd cried through all of them, totally terrified, despite the cheerful music and the animated puppets. And those had been rides. This was real. Call kept thinking about the bats and sharp rocks and how, sometimes, in caves, there were cliffs and holes that dropped down like a million feet below sea level. . . . The boat cut through the water, into darkness.” (ARC 81)

Not quite the same feeling, right? It makes you think what kind of place these kids are being sucked into. But you quickly find out The Magesterium is not a bleak place. Call is simply scared. But the fact that the authors present it this way gives them endless leverage to present the beauty of the Magesterium as stone-cold fact, by someone who has to be won over by that beauty.

Of course, it isn't just the world that is so breathtakingly built. The events of this novel unfold from a startling beginning to a deceptively relaxed introduction to . . . I don't even know. I can't even explain how well put together it is. The plot points converge in ways that lit sparks in my head, leaving me struck and perpetually stuck on the question of how did they do that? Really? The scene where Call is trying to contact his dad and meets a training, hopeless Jasper, manages to steal Rufus's talking lizard, finds out that he has been lied to or he is a danger . . . all within the span of a page or two . . . and it makes perfect sense? How?

The most amazing thing? You probably won't even notice it because of the combined narration of Black/Clare. Their use of accessible language and a rich, pointed voice creates a sense of weightlessness – you will fly right through this novel at breakneck pace. The authors manage to create a seamless experience, where everything the language portrays – characters, ideas, the tug of tension – is allowed to shine unhindered by clunky or unpolished voices.

In addition, the cast that populates The Iron Trial's pages are wonderfully realistic, and at the same time enchanting.

Callum Hunt, for instance, is not your run-of-the mill protag. I have been waiting for a protagonist that isn't the hero for many, many, many years, and Black/Clare deliver a striking, fresh one to drink in. The kid is more or less completely atonal to the Harry Potters, Percy Jacksons, and yes, the Clarissa Morgensterns, of the fiction we've come to know and love. Callum refuses to be involved with magic full stop. He tries his best to fail the Iron Trial, tries to escape the Magesterium, tries to distance himself from everyone there, and so on.

I love love love Callum Hunt. Complex protagonists are a risk because the reader might not connect with them, but with Black/Clare, the risk pays off so much they could buy an island and populate it with all of my feels for Call.

Callum's got more than enough bite to compensate for any weakness one might see in his broken leg, enough sarcasm to fill an ocean, and the moral ambiguity usually given to a dare-devil anti-hero type. That ambiguity is re-imagined and brought to life in a struggling, confused, loving, relateable protagonist. It's easy to say a protagonist is relateable in YA and children's books, but I really felt a deep connection with Callum. I understood his hardship and his doubt, why he trusted his father's judgements about Mages and the Magesterium, and why it was so hard for him to find peace in the world of magic. Look at this sarcasm:

“Everybody lives in pony school.” (ARC 55)

EVERYBODY LIVES IN PONY SCHOOL. Call at once calls out what he feels is the nonsense of the Magesterium: all the school does is get people killed. At the same time, he's vaguely mocking a pony-obsessed minor character and he's majorly pissing off his future team mates – how can one guy be that offensive just damn!

But in the fashion of Black and Clare, no character goes to waste. The rest of the cast is interesting and believable – no one is reduced to decoration. Tamara and Aaron, Callum's main support and contrast throughout the novel, stick a little closer to the conventional heroes: the talented Aaron is the long-awaited Makar, a rare mage that can rival the Enemy, and Tamara is a genius mage with strict and forceful parents and a dark past. These three mix in unsuspecting and often endearing ways. Callum takes an eternity to stop being a big ball of suck to Aaron and Tamara, but once he befriends them, the trio just works, with Aaron and Call set to be The Iron Trial equivalent of parabatai by the end of the book. Most of their interactions can be expressed with comedic bits (some of which you really won't understand until you read so please do that now):

“I'm going to kill you,” Tamara said very calmly. “I am going to sort your guts into piles.” (ARC 88)

Even the most minor characters have their roles and play them without falling flat or being too intrusive. It's almost unbelievable how well the tiniest joke fits in with the most brilliant thematic examinations.

With such a powerful integration of characterization and language into an already masterful plot structure, The Iron Trial already crushes most contemporary fantasy and is definitely one of the best children's/YA book I've read this year so far.

PS. Spoiler: the end's going to seriously frak you up.

- Marlon

Kiersten's Review of The Iron Trial
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Incredible 

It's no secret that the bloggers of We Live and Breathe Books are Cassandra Clare fans - this is without question. So, naturally, since she and the amazing Holly Black were signing ARCs of The Iron Trial at BEA this year, we all had to get copies, regardless of the wait. Let me tell you something about this book - it was worth the wait.

The world of the Magisterium is one that is so easy to get pulled into. Not only is it full of adventure for the characters, but it is so rich with history and tradition that the reader can feel the magnitude of its meaning. I absolutely loved all the little details about how the Magisterium works and the different ceremonies and symbols used throughout.

Inside of the incredible world built by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare are equally great characters. There is a very diverse mix of characters in the bunch and they all brought something different to the table. The dynamic between the characters was especially spectacular because it felt so real. The story is about a bunch of 12-year-old kids who are on their own and finding themselves while training at an intense magic school.

Of course, while there are a few prominent characters in the bunch, the most prominent is Callum, the main character. The best thing about Callum is that he is a surprising character, especially with the way he deals with his problems. I loved that Cassandra Clare and Holly Black created a character who had the potential to be a hero but wasn't necessarily up to it. Callum is absolutely not your typical main character, and, because of that, he brings so much more to the story.

Throughout the book, a lot of it is building up the relationships between the students, showing the reader the world of the Magisterium, and following the challenges that the students face. Throughout the story, I couldn't help but feel as though there was a larger conflict to come - a sort of foreboding. Of course, there was a big conflict (because there had to be something big) that doesn't come until fairly late into the story, and it is a real doozy. The funny thing about it is that I had two guesses about what was going to happen but I knew that somehow Holly Black and Cassandra Clare would a way to make it something unexpected. Shockingly, it was something I did not expect.

Overall, The Iron Trial is incredible and my words do not do it justice. Cassandra Clare and Holly Black truly bring something great to this genre with their unexpected story and characters. I absolutely fell in love with the story while reading and I was so eager to keep reading to find out the mystery behind Callum. I'm really looking forward to more in this series - I can't wait to see what the story has in store and the way the characters continue to grow and face the challenges that come their way.

- Kiersten

Noor's Review of The Iron Trial
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Fabulous 

Wow, I'm so glad I waited in line for this book at BEA because if the duo of Holly Black and Cassandra Clare sounds intimidating and fierce, jus Wow, I'm so glad I waited in line for this book at BEA because if the duo of Holly Black and Cassandra Clare sounds intimidating and fierce, just wait until they take that level of ferocity to the page.

I think what I loved the absolute most about this book was the fact that the two authors took the trope of the school for magic and really flipped it and molded it so everything was new and refreshing and, most of all, unexpected. The entire world Clare and Black bring to the reader is so carefully constructed, every plot point begging a question, every twist leading into a turn. It’s clear that every moment is very deliberately placed in order to trick the reader, because the story certainly is not going in a direction that can be considered predictable.

Because of the nature of the book, the worldbuilding is – excuse my terrible pun – out of this world. The book features so many different concepts in the world like the Magisterium itself, the concept of which has a slew of things to explore branching off of it, like how the school works, and who gets chosen, and what is learned, and the inner workings of those who end up staying. There is also focus on the history of everything that’s going on and how the past comes into play and affects certain characters.

Speaking of the characters, I thought they were so well written and enjoyable, and just as hardheaded as 12-year olds generally are, which is always fun to read. As seasoned authors, Clare and Black definitely could create well-rounded characters with their hands tied behind their backs, being forced to peck at a keyboard with only five keys. Call often made amusing comments and got himself into a fair bit of mischief. We also get to know Aaron and Tamara, who end up befriending him. I got pretty invested in both of these characters and how they both brought different things to the table and were full of charm in their own ways. I liked Aaron and how he had such a good heart and was supportive and I liked Tamara and how Call thought she was an emotionless robot but really she gets pretty fired up. Even the minor characters added to the story and weren’t simply thrown in.

And even though it's a third person point of view, we still see a lot of Call's voice in the narration, which I think makes the book a lot better and makes the way it reads very interesting -- the voice reminds the reader that it's a middle-grade book, but the writing style and many other aspects of the book make him or her forget. The writing is done so well and every description is beautiful and every action scene is heart-stopping and it's all so well-done you picture it all so clearly in your mind but you forget that you're even reading descriptions of anything at all until you come across a particularly beautifully worded sentence and have to stop for a minute to admire it.

I enjoyed the plot of the book, especially how it related to Call's past and what the future now holds for him. I think the pacing was a little slow towards the beginning/middle because a lot of time was spent just showing them the ropes of the school, but that can be forgiven because it really was just a lot of worldbuilding and explaining how the Magisterium worked and I think in the rest of the series it shouldn't be a problem because we have a basic foundation already. The plot itself was very interesting and I'm excited to see where they go in the next book in the series after the way The Iron Trial ended. I liked that even though a lot of the book is Clare and Black rejecting traditional conventions of fantasy in order to surprise the reader with the kind of book this was, they weren't afraid of include some aspects that might seem to be used in other places, as long as they added something new to the mix. I like the idea that lots of things have been done before, but if you're doing it differently, well, there you go.

Overall, I really loved The Iron Trial. It has so many more components than I even mentioned in this review but it’s honestly best to just read it all and see for yourself, especially because it’s such an atypical story in a genre full of the same tropes and plots. I’m so glad I got to read an ARC of this but that just means an even longer wait until the next book, which I’m certainly anticipating greatly!

- Noor

Would you rather attend Pony School or the Magisterium?
Let us know in the comments!

Review: The Lover's Dictionary - David Levithan

The Lover's Dictionary
David Levithan
Series: N/A
Genre: Young Adult/Adult, Romance, Poetry, Contemporary
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Beautiful
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

I probably will never be able to articulate what this book means to me and how much I love it. It is tiny, but the heart on the front cover beats furiously, every single word holding something baring and honest and magical and alive. Do you get it yet!? Go read this book! What are you waiting for?

If you're still here, I might as well entertain you -- and this sentence exemplifies one of the most powerful devices Levithan employs in the book. The use of the Second Person point of view. It can feel subtle at times but it's huge. It immediately draws you into the story, makes you feel a part of it, forces you to think about how your actions affect another human being. It forces you into the general shoes of a lover, but also of someone with familial problems, with alcohol problems, and infidelity when your partner and you have clearly set boundaries against that. In this way, it helps enormously with the characterization.

motif, n.

You don't love me as much as I love you. You don't love me as much as I love you. You don't love me as much as I love you. (Levithan, 144)

Which leads to my second point: how the hell did he fit all of this poetry and depth into 211 pages? What the actual hell? The language is often as simple as the above quote, but if you know anything about this book at all, you know the lengths of Levithan's poetic abilities. And even when it's simple, it's often meaningful. The imbalanced love provided in Levithan's 'definition' for motif  is a crucial part of what can make or break relationships (of any kind) and is scarcely touched upon with deft hands in the over-romanticised world of fiction we find ourselves in, where it is only ever used as a plot device or character development device. The recognition of this imbalance is a crucial part of what makes this book, because Levithan doesn't handle it like just another plot device: like everything else in the book, he simply recognizes that it is a part of most relationships, explores it, and leaves it to play out on the rest of the pages and then for you to carry with you after the book is done.

This honesty is just so bloody fresh. I've become so spoiled with near-perfect relationships or perfectly destructive relationships in YA that it's hard to spot something that truly feels honest. Levithan sums it up in two pages:

ardent, adj.

It was after sex, when there was still heat and mostly breathing, when there was still touch and mostly thought . . . it was as if the whole world could be reduced to the sound of a single string being played, and the only thing this sound could make me think of was you. Sometimes desire is air; sometimes desire is liquid. And every now and then, when everything else is air and liquid, desire solidifies, and the body is the magnet that draws its weight. (19)

arduous, adj.

Sometimes during sex, I wish there was a button on the small of your back that I could press and cause you to be done with it already. (20)

This. Is. Perfect. I choose this over ubiquitous, which is summed up as: when it's good, you feel like your at the top of the world, and love is everywhere, and when it's bad, it's still everywhere, and it haunts you. This is the message in these two definitions, though this has to do with a more physical facet. Ardent gives desire a poetic, all-encompassing, overwhelmingly poetic and transcendent feeling. Sometimes, though, people can be turned off. This is wonderfully important because, like motif, it is something honest that is hardly ever come up in literature today. Even more so, because these definitions are right next to each other, this does something that the ubiquitous definition, as much as I love it, cannot do, it shows you just how quickly things can turn from good to bad. I've read some people complain about the structure of this book, how it isn't in a progressive narrative order. Those people obviously are missing something here. The structure is one of the most important parts of the book. Since the story itself is so incredibly simple: the narrator falls in love with 'you' and you both go through the motions of a regular relationship: finding an apartment and reconciling the different ways you like your living rooms, having to deal with your alcoholism, having to deal with the narrator's almost pathetic (and this is what sells it) shyness and inferiority complex, meeting each other's friends and family, having you cheat on him, him getting angry because you don't put the toothpaste cap on, etc. It's a simple love story, but love isn't so simple to Levithan, and it's so much more all over the place, confusing, contradicting, and so that's what this book is to me (in part). This book documents the difference between a facile understanding of relationships, and a comprehensive, honest understanding. Of course, there are books like The Art of Loving that offer deeper analysis, but this tiny masterpiece here offers so much more than its 211 pages to the world of budding lovers.

Before I continue to drool effervescently over this novel, I'll cut this review here. You should acquire this book by whatever means you possibly can. And read it.

And the best part? David Levithan continues his story on this twitter page.

- Marlon

What's your favorite love story?
Let us know in the comments!

Review: City of Heavenly Fire - Cassandra Clare

City of Heavenly Fire
Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments, #6
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Paranormal
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: A + a truckful of tissue boxes
Goodreads  |  Amazon  |  Book Depository

Well one thing is true: Cassandra Clare knows how to end a series. And at the same time, she knows how to keep our sorry selves hooked from now until the world is consumed and forsaken by demons.

Let me explain. If you've read Clockwork Princess (if you haven't then I don't know what you're doing with your life), then you know what I mean. In the last book, all of the stories that Clare has set from the spindle, has unwoven and unwoven and unwoven, fall completely apart and are stitched back together by the end. The villain has moments of fury, a few people never see the light of day again, certain characters become undone and new again, people die, the romances have their denouements . . . it's a beautiful ending. It may not be the necessary ending, but it's a beautiful, neat, and at the very least, sensible, ending.

Though City of Heavenly Fire (hereafter CoHF) strays from this and stretches the beautiful part, I still think it deserves the description. Developments I never thought of, characters I completely forgot, were given some form of closure (and for a certain Taki's employee, a lot of frustration). There were a few seeming strikes, like the way a certain character seems to move on after someone dies . . . but then that began to make sense under the pressure and emotion of what took place. I do have one strike though, for the end, but I'll save that for the end.

Unlike Clockwork Princess, though, Clare softens the pain of an ending with the prologue to a new beginning. Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn are heavily featured throughout the chapters of CoHF and this was something that immediately won me over. The scene where Emma is doubled over and Julian brings her her blade, Cortana.

" . . .  and there was Jules, leaning against the edge of the bed, and holding something out to her . . .

It was Cortana. . . . Cortana, of the same steel and temper as Joyeuse and Durendal. . . .

This is what her father had meant: Like Cortana, she had steel in her veins and she was meant to be strong . . . She hugged the sword against her chest. As if from a distance, she heard Helen exclaim and reach for her, but Julian . . . tugged Helen's hand back. . . . blood was running down her arms and chest . . . She didn't feel it . . . she clutched the sword like it was the only thing she had ever loved . . . " (Clare, 58)

I think that scene is just irrefragably one of the most powerful moments in the novel, as it sums up the horrors of Sebastian's (it's hard not to call him Sebi-chan) 'Dark War', the problems with the Clave, and Emma's manner of coping with pain.

But in wonderful contrast to that, Clare pours out Simon's clipping, sarcastic comedy, Jace's hot hotness and hilarity, Clary's endless wondering . . . things we know we'll sorely miss. For the sake of the Angel, the book starts with Jordan and Jace discussing how hot Jace is, literally, while meditating on a beach. It's so normal that it seems magical in itself.

And I love magic! Especially in the form of demon realms! And it's one certain demon realm that leads me to my next point: The characters themselves have definitely developed, and I love, love love the way it's shown. Smack in the middle of the book, Clare gives the characters their final crossroads, their final set of desires and paths, by feeding them to dream-eating demons that show them, crookedly, what they might want. Each character is faced with something horribly interesting: Clary seems to want to be with Jace, married, with her family, including Jonathan, a brother who was never turned into Sebastian by Valentine. Freaking Izzy wants to be human? THAT was character development, from the hardcore bad-ass to settled down? Though the dream-eater was slightly wrong, and the characters don't end up that way, the developments are still as powerful. Jace, by the end of this book, has found his peace, he has found that love does not destroy and he has soften the darkness inside of him. Magnus has determined not to solidify. Simon tracks down Cassandra Clare and demands City of Simon (this might not be at all factual). Hell, even Jonathan Morgenstern finds happiness.

(This is getting long . . . I'll try to keep this review short. I'm sorry, this book is more than 700 pages long! How many forests have been cut down so that Clary and Jace could almost have sex? HOW MANY?)

I realize I have been talking about CoHF as the closing pages of a book. But it's not just an ending. It is quite standalone because of the scope of the material. New characters like Bat are introduced and have their entire developments throughout the book, seemingly to replace the mass grave we suffer a few chapters in. And I love Bat, and I love the new little bits in the books like (SPOILER (skip to next paragraph): Maia's wanting to break up with Jordan) despite the last book never indicating anything as such.

This is such a powerful message: things happen outside the books. These characters DO LIVE ON. That might be some vain, childish wish, but Cassandra Clare makes that wish something worth pining after. There are mysteries and secrets and lives lived after this novel. In The Infernal Devices, Magnus Bane was re-introduced, and in CoHF, he mentions the lives he's lead right up until Alec, to whom he gifts what I'm sure are THE FREAKING BANE CHRONICLES. But the message is the same, Magnus (and another warlock) lived lives before this book, will live lives after it, will have death after it and love . . . I"m getting emotional, let me backtrack to the sex.

Clary and Jace finally had sex. They did the do. The do was done. Finally. Out of the way. Thank all the gods and angels you can think of.

Also CITY OF ALEC IS NOT YOUR BITCH.

My one real strike is that the ending is almost too happy. Something needed to happen to someone and that thing did not happen. SPOILER (skip to the next paragraph to avoid): Simon doesn't die. Magnus doesn't die. Alec, Izzy, Jace, Jocelyn, etc, live. One of the main cast had to die. Jordan and Raphael do not count. They were secondary and very close to my heart but no, I will not believe Asmodeus was stupid enough to think that our team would not Ascend Simon beyond his control. Unless there's some other motive behind not taking at least Magnus's life, I don't understand. There is a willingness to keep a certain happiness through the novel, and yes, so many people were lost already, but the reader has to feel the loss personally, the effect has to be Luke losing Amatis. We have to lose Simon. Granted, what happened to him sucked, but there was hope for a full recovery. That means we haven't lost anything. We were given a glimpse of what life would be like without Shadowhunters, and then what life would be like without Simon, but this isn't enough. One of them, I felt, needed to die. Unfortunately, I can see why the story panned out the way it did.

Despite this, I still cannot find it in myself to lower this from five stars.

The ending is not full of happiness though, and though I will give you no spoilers further, you will be sad. For me, I knew something like it would happen but I rooted for it not to.

I honestly don't know what else to say. This novel is packed, and a proper review would take ages and ages and bore the hell out of anyone reading it. Bravo Cassie, I can't wait until Lady Midnight.

- Marlon

Are you ready for The Dark Artifices?
Let us know in the comments!

Review: The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath
Series: N/A
Genre: Psychology, Adult, Mental Health
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Authoritarian
On Goodreads

I'm reading a lot of books before I finish the War of The Fae series. Woops!

This won't be my last word on Slyvia Plath's only novel. This isn't my first word. This is my initial reaction.

First, I'm miffed I haven't read this before. It's incredible. There is almost too much to write.

Brief context: Plath killed herself a few days after the novel's publication. This is a novel about a woman who nearly kills herself but doesn't. It's almost impossible to detach the author from the work (as some of us would like to do with Ender's Game and Orson Scott Card or Star Wars and George Lucas; these are terrible examples for the expense of petty humor but you get the point). One can't help but conflate Ester, our protag, with her author. And even if that wasn't the case, it speaks to the work's most defining quality: it's drowning in Sylvia Plath. She is indeed 'silver and exact' in this novel.

Which brings the first of my main points: holy hell that word choice. She takes the English language and just snaps it in half and builds it again from the ground up. It's absolutely gorgeous. This is exemplified in just the first and second page: there are five paragraphs that start with 'I' . . . in a row. And they're all one sentence. This is personal and intimate and conversational, but also completely challenging the aesthetics and formality of varied language, of 'proper' English.

And let's not forget the poetry either, all of the "being burned alive along all of your nerves", all of the "cindery dust" (Plath, 2 (ebook)). . . and:

"I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of the tornado must feel . . . "  (2)

This isn't even three pages in. This is still the introduction. I love it. This is 1963 and yet it has all of the trappings of a current YA novel.

I might return to word choice another day, but just be assured that it only gets better as the novel intensifies.

What struck me most, however, and really defines why this is a five star novel for me, is the way that depression and mental health are portrayed. It's acutely difficult to pinpoint what faculties should be explicitly stated or implied when writing about mental illnesses, it's horribly hard to say what depression is like or how to describe it. Everything is just muddled in our heads. But The Bell Jar, for a hell of a lot of people, it seems, honestly portrays the descent of the mind, the confusing nature of it all. There is so much fragility in being human and Sylvia Plath is deadly honest about it and it shows.

"In the afternoon we went to see a baby born." (53, ebook. A page or two in from chapter six, whatever).

Over and over and over again, Ester describes her actions in this detached, passive fashion, as if she isn't experiencing them at all. It's happening to someone else. She explicitly states on the first page that she should be happy. But she isn't, but we don't realize what her statement means until later on.

It's so flipping subtle, isn't it!? It's so subtle that you won't even realize what it's about until it just jumps at you. Depression plays with you, life feels detached, Holy Poseidon this book is so amazing.

You can't begin to discuss depression with anyone who has been brainwashed into thinking it isn't a serious issue, that it's just being sad, that you can simply take pills to cure it. It's huge and explainable and in the exact same way that you feel happiness (with your entire body, literally your entire body heats up and your nerves are so much more active) you feel this horrible feeling that she describes as a Bell Jar. But you can discuss it with this book.

I'm going to shut up now, or I'll just ramble. Read this book. Do it.

- Marlon

How would you describe depression?

Let us know in the comments!

Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon

The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time
Mark Haddon
Series: N/A
Genre: Mystery, Young Adult, Contemporary
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Breathtakingly Simple and Realistic
On Goodreads

I first read The Curious Incident for AP Lang way back in the high school days (last year) and I loved it. I was recently gifted another copy as a birthday present (she was mad I read it and thereby would understand her clever inscription, you know how it goes). And so came this review (it will be brief). Of this book (that is indeed brief). That only ever gets better.

The very first association I have when this novel crosses my mind is the voice of the main character, Christopher. I don't know what kind of sorcery or in depth study Mark Haddon had to do to delve into Christopher's alternate vantage point (namely Asperger's Syndrome) and write this book. Actually, I do. He works with autistic children, and it bloody pays off.

It's absolutely fascinating not only to have the raw clarity of Christopher's thoughts and actions, completely devoid of figurative stretching, but to constantly forget that Christopher is not real. I am reminded of the honesty and simplicity of Ocean at the End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman and Mortality by Christopher Hitchens.

'And this is why I like timetables because they make sure you don't get lost in time.' (Haddon, 195)

Honestly, you could crack open the book to any page and in it you will find something striking that gives you insight into Christopher, because first and foremost, this is a book about Christopher, about how he sees the world. And it's fascinating, there is such a wealth of information in this novel to be explored and though it's written simplistically, it's hard to grasp all at once. Getting into Christopher's head is incredibly difficult, as in the beginning he demonstrates that he recognizes and understands emotions differently than other people. But there's a bit of Christopher in everyone and it comes out.

Who doesn't appreciate the relateability of:

'On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard, I like when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.' (103)

Or the depth behind:

'And when I am in a new place, because I see everything, it is like when a computer is doing too many things at the same time and the central processor unit is blocked up and there isn’t any space left to think about other things. And when I am in a new place and there are lots of people there it is even harder because people are not like cows and flowers and grass and they can talk to you and do things that you don’t expect, so you have to notice everything that is in the place . . . ' (143-144)

I just love love love Christopher and the dynamic that occurs with his character. If only slight, Christopher does shift and it's a hard change and it displaces something within any reader who can empathize with him and heck, what else is writing about?

Of course, there is the clever construction of the book. The chapters are in prime numbers, the bolding of terms and the listing and the graphs make the math come to life. The plot is just gorgeous.

I've heard people complain about the simplicity and predictability of the plot and that 'it's not even a mystery it's just a bunch of maths' I'm like

If you want that kind of book go read friggin Sherlock Holmes. The Curious Incident is not unique (see Virgina Woolf) in making its plot incidental, but it is rare in that everything seems to be centered around Christopher's analysis of the world. Why? Because it's so damn cool it makes a mystery out of a dead dog, it makes walking past the end of the road a bloody war, it makes math simple and people complex, all for people who might not think this way, the 'normals'. And you know what? Christopher does it. He makes the journey, and he wins.

Why are we not preaching this book from rooftops?

As a wise Mr. Gump once said, 'And that's all I have to say about that.'

- Marlon

Tell me how much you love maths!

Let us know in the comments!

Review: Call to Arms - Elle Casey

Call to Arms
Elle Casey
Series: War of the Fae, #2
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Easy
On Goodreads

After a bit of rehashing and reflection that Jayne does in the beginning, our story begins.


Tony's gone, Jayne's fae race is mysterious, and Casey allows us glimpses of the Dark Fae and what may take place in the war to come. See, Jayne might be what is vaguely referred to as an Elemental, possibly of Earth and maybe, just maybe, of Water. But the Dark Fae have a Fire Elemental.

What I love about Call to Arms is the intricacy of the issues at hand. It follows the apparent structure (at least in the beginning) of the fantasy action sequel: the mysteries of the main character start to be divulged; the stakes are raised; conflicts of interest and of potential are introduced to further complicate things . . . you get the point. However, the underlying factors are what keep me reading. The structure of the books is particularly deceiving in that the apparent conflicts exist as they should in the typical novel of its kind, but one or two things throw it off enough to make my predictions crumble. Especially around the end of the first half of the book . ..  all the things that make Jayne the apparent typical protagonist make her dangerous as well.

It's rather rare, I suppose, nowadays to see a sequel that does a good job of not only entertaining the ideas of the first book but expanding on them, making everything go absolutely bollocks. This is where the stupid love interests should be, this is where the bad decisions should be made, this is where all the crazy gets crazier and doesn't just repeat the first book or reject it. *Cough cough The Matrix cough cough*.

Harry and Voldemort have to face off. The Ring's got to be taken to Mordor. But how? That's what gets us as readers and Casey does an excellent job of designing the 'how' around her characters individual interests. For instance, Jayne's desire to be extraordinary is deeply embedded into who she is and how she acts.

When she's told she might be an elemental, a part of me backed off and thought, well damn, this might just turn out like I predicted. But then there was the added dilemma of Jayne being either weak towards the Dark Fae Elemental or, if the Water affinity turned out to be correct, strong towards the Dark Fae Elemental. But Jayne immediately turns on herself:

'I had wished to be extraordinary. And my mother had always told me be careful what I wished for.'

And later

'But still, I was no warrior. I think it would be more appropriate to call me . . . a 'lucky klutz'.'

Jayne's disposition to want to be anything but that high school girl she used to despise being is internally thrown into the pit against the idea she has of herself that she is not extraordinary in a certain sense. She's not a warrior, but she still wants to be a Fae.

But a war's about to happen.

Do you get what I'm saying?

This is just one issue. Never mind the ever-deepening sexual attraction Jayne has to Spike, never mind Chase's odd visit in the middle of the night to say that, though Tony's gone, Jayne can still talk to him. Never mind Jayne's lingering hatred for the Fae for putting her through such a test, though even the stubborn dissenting dwarves agree she shows 'reason'.

And that's just the first three chapters. The plot landscape and character development are completely intertwined. The plot isn't just incidental to the characters and the characters are not just subjects of a wonderfully woven plot. The internal and external factors just make me go insane I love it.

A lot happens, and yet, it doesn't feel like infodumping, which is fantastic. It's simplistic, neat, and easy to follow. Though I might go so far as to say sometimes the reflection is unnecessary, it's only because I follow the story so closely. Most people might need the first chapter to think about all the hell that broke loose during the length of the first book.

I think that's all that needs to be said. There are just as many plot twists as in the first book (I won't forgive you for that cliffhanger, Casey!) and just as much cursing, if not more (shoutout all my B*tches in the lake and my dumbass faeries). But, like the first book, it doesn't take away from what happens. I won't spoil anything for you, go read it yourselves! GO AND LOVE SPIKE, THE CUTE, DREAMY MOTHERLOVER. AND CHASE IS SO ADORABLE BUT hey can we just talk a minute about how Elle Casey still does not make these romantic undertones something that hinders Jayne's psyche or somehow makes her incapable of logical decisions.

And Maggie. YES Maggie! All hail Maggie and her sass upon the loathed Tim! Also what the crap, Tony?

I do have a bit of a problem in that I wanted more people do just die and go limbless and suffer great psychological trauma . . . but hey . . . that's just me.

 Mother Nature is a bit psychopathic. Trees are not to be trusted. These novels are twisted.

- Marlon

Can you handle life without your best friend?

Let us know in the comments!

Review: The Changelings - Elle Casey

The Changelings
Elle Casey
Series: War of the Fae
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: What is This I Don't Even. So good.
On Goodreads

What's so scary about faeries? What could be? They're cute and pink and wonderful right? Even if you're clever and have read Artemis Fowl . . . well, you ain't seen nothing yet.

First of all, the diction is so sharp it could tear down the YA industry's general 'teenage voice'. It's extremely clear and no sentence is at all fluff. Casey is never ambiguous, never too florid, chooses precisely when to rain down her more poetic voice and most of all, she never infodumps, even in the beginning . . . instead, there's a bit of a pattern:

"I write and eat with my left hand but do just about everything else with my right. My body is confused with what it's supposed to do."

That's in the context of having a mini existential crisis in a history class. Very fluid, very helpful feel of what the narrator thinks of herself . . . plus we now have the tiny fact that our narrator is multidexterous. This pattern is brilliant and Casey uses it throughout most of the beginning to paint a brilliant internal and external picture of the main character, Jayne. This is such a rarity . . . in the introduction of even the best books I've read, there have been infodumps out of utter necessity (or in the case of City of Bones, a clever trick to make you think certain things are important when they're all lies). So I commend Casey for being able to wriggle out of that convention.

Now let's talk about Jayne. This girl. Oh gods. There aren't enough curse words in the English language for her, I assume she'll learn a few more languages to sate her thirst. She's just angry, and confused, and generally you do not want to piss her off. She's Percy Jackson if he'd stayed in the public school system, a little bit of a 'glutton for punishment'. She's relateable, in that most teenagers have felt like she has about parents, school, their bodies, and life in general. After all, I've always felt the itch to tell off my worst teachers. But what I like about her most is the absolute downplay on the romance. I mean, really? THANK YOU. In any YA, even friggin YA's that don't have a smidge of romance tag on it, there are still romantic conventions just looming around. But Jayne's not having any of that nonsense. She's tough, independent, and she shows her emotions like her skin, despite being inclined against both. Jayne also handles situations quite . . . wonderfully:

"Sonofabitch!"

"Shhh, Jayne, not so loud," said Tony, Panicked.

"What?! Those assholes put us in this forest with humanoid creepers that like to suck the life outta people! You know what that means, Tony? Vampires! And not the hot, Twilight kind either. How am I supposed to remain calm about that?"

I don't think I need to talk about anything else because the word choice and Jayne literally just make the novel. This girl will have you laughing constantly because she does not just accept everything, she acts like her inner ten year old and loses her marbles. She clings on to her friends when she's desperate. She faces her enemies after deliberation and you have no doubt she's going to rip them a new one. When stranger things start happening to her, she doesn't just take that either. She rampages. I love it. This girl reacts. Percy Jackson reacted like any regular kid would. That's why I fell in love with that series. Jayne is just brilliantly portrayed as not just someone you could be, but more along the lines of someone you're actually rooting for and you don't want to be because she's so clearly getting screwed over. I wish I knew her in real life.

Oh gods read this book for the tree hugging. Seriously, you'll know what I mean.

(Also every secondary character bar Tim is fabulous and you sort of hope no one dies but you realize they're all probably going to die. The plot and tonal shifting are on point and easy to follow. Jane is stubborn and doesn't develop much until the end where she's forced a bit out of her skin. The enemies were frightening, just about every conventional beast is thrown in . . . werewolves, vamps, etc, but it doesn't stop there . . . everything is an enemy in the "challenge", which takes up most of the novel.)

Tree hugging, though.

- Marlon

What mythological monster have you been dying to read about?

Let us know in the comments!

Review: Unweaving the Rainbow - Richard Dawkins

Unweaving the Rainbow
Richard Dawkins
Series: N/A
Genre: Science, Nonfiction, Philosophy
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Bloody good.
On Goodreads

Bit out of the usual books we review, but it's beautifully written, succinct, and deals with a powerful idea: the idea that, somehow, scientific understanding diminishes the aspect of wonder and awe that one has for the universe. In fact, Dawkins strives to posit and prove quite the opposite: that understanding increases awe and beauty and pseudoscientific nonsense diminishes them. And he does it brilliantly.

I'll take the shortcomings first. The first half or so of the book suffers from Dawkins's rhetoric, which he admittedly loses himself in. Thankfully the words and ideas are quite intriguing so I definitely stood the lengthy discourse on the skewed and misrepresenting views of those who try to make science 'fun', such as 'whacky' conventions where the word science itself is not used because it leaves a bad taste. The first part of the book seems to be Dawkins endeavoring to firmly set this book apart from the 'cold, bleak' views that were presented in his previous ones, full of their 'barren desolation . . . their sense that life is 'empty and purposeless''. The book is, of course, a personal response as well, to those who read The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion and see a 'blind' and natural universe too devoid for them, and meaningless. To them I say, read The Ancestor's Tale. And this book. Good shit.

Immensely pleasing, however, is his skill with poetic prose and forthrightness. He begins this book with the statement, 'We are going to die and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born.' Well, call me hooked, Richard. This is a kind of direct prose, rather than an abstract and unintelligible thing one may expect from a scientist. Which is one of the reasons I love this book. It actively diffuses and derides its oppositions. The conventions set against Dawkins are dealt with with deft hands. Even the most moderate, he addresses, nodding to Peter Atkins in his premise: 'Gone is the purpose; all that's left is direction. This is the bleakness we have to accept as we peer deeply and dispassionately into the heart of the universe.' Scientists face this unyielding emptiness as well, and the latter half of this book seems to help them, after it begins to deal less with the harshly opposed.

Equally engaging is the development of the book, as it works from his premise to the major vantage points whereupon we can stand to understand the reaches of his positions. Yeah, I know that sounded terribly boring but it's a pretty fluid way to describe how science adds beauty as it leaves Dawkins time to linger on his 'genetic book of the dead' at the end, because he has already dealt with society and whatnot in the 'barcode' chapters.

One of my favorite parts was the bit on Information Theory, the rather vague and still young field of understanding the world. 'We are digital archives of the African Pliocene, even of Devonian seas; walking repositories of wisdom out of the old days. You could spend a lifetime reading in this ancient library and die unstated by the wonder of it.' Can we just. Can we just take a moment to appreciate the beauty herein.

This book is good. Read it. It's short, it muses to the world and back and it will spin your mind and make you re-think what you know about evolution, what you know about science and society and poetry and awe and reason.

- Marlon

Science and beauty, are they separate for you?
Let us know in the comments!

Review: Champion - Marie Lu

Champion
Marie Lu
Series: Legend, #3
Genre: Fantasy, Dystopian, Young Adult
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Breathtaking
On Goodreads

I JUST WANT TO SCREAM MARIE LU'S NAME FROM THE TOP OF EVER ROOFTOP IN EVERY BATTERED CITY THAT I CAN FIND MOTHERFRICKITY FRACK I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU TILL THE MOUNTAINS CRUMBLE AND THEN MORE, MARIE LU. I DO.

This was the most incredible ending to such a book I did not expect all of that to be happening I honestly just expected another war like novel with beautiful words and a amazing writing but a cop out ending like Requiem. But no, that did not happen.

I mean, can we just talk about the characters for a second. Can we just? June bloody Iparis absolutely does it for me. She's not real but she deserves a BAFTA.

This is June:



And Day, and Pascao (DEAR GODS I LOVE PASCAO) and Tess and everyone.

June finished her character development and grew into the strong, amazing young woman we knew she would. She handles everything so, so well and deals with her emotions far better than she did in Legend and Prodigy. She finally accepts her love for Day and does her best for everyone around. I confess my only major disappointment at the end was that Marie Lu used June's suffering and the situation around her to make June have weak moments, and her final resolutions are not true to the character at all and do not make her stronger. 'Perhaps there is such a thing as fate' is neither June, nor quite relevant to what June was thinking, nor does it make it mature and wise and healthy for her to submit to the whims of the world like that.

But anyway, only one gripe. Day was mag-fracking-nificent because he loses everything and he fights. He fights because it is the only thing he can do. He loves so much he is destroyed, his family is ripped to shreds and he fights and he fights and he fights and the willpower in this one character is so intimidatingly inspiring I don't understand how to word it correctly. Everything he does to protect Eden, how he basically changes the ENTIRE WORLD with his love, including Anden from turning into a monster and June from losing herself. When he began forgetting things? That's when I knew. Spoiler alert: That's when I knew who the real enemy was and that the Chancellor was nothing but a plot device and nothing was ever going to be okay again.

Ugh and the PLOT! The plot had around five billion intricate lengths all woven into a fabulous, fabulous cloth which I pour my tears into. Everything came together perfectly.
The ending was so perfect. It leaves you with the succulent taste of 'I really don't know what's going to happen' but everything that isn't said is implied and the struggle between these two boarders and the war between them is a story only for your minds.

- Marlon

Does love conquer everything?
Let us know in the comments!

Review: Treasure Hunters - James Patterson

Treasure Hunters
James Patterson
Series: Treasure Hunters #1
Genre: Adventure, Children, Humor
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Exciting
On Goodreads

Okay finally. A+ James, A+ for bringing me back to a good book. I actually recieved this at BEA 2013 and never managed to read it. My cousin picked the book up and couldn't put it down and so . . . after reading such books as Claire de Lune . . . . (detailed description of my hatred at goodreads, here).

First off, this book is just plain funny. And it's a children's book. Did I mention that I like those? No dirty jokes would be spared within these pages, no clever witty puns. Just straight up humor. And Patterson does it best when he makes fun of his own craft and characters.

'I'm twelve. I don't have a mustache or eyepatch. Don't believe everything you see.' (Introduction)

He even pokes fun at simple things that are hardly funny but you can't help but smile because you've always thought about it. Like, narrators that die, who are still able to tell their story.

'Whoa not so fast . . . If I were dead, how could I be telling you this story?' (On the first page, my lads)

I think the best parts were Beck's drawings. I can't post them for you but she makes fun of her brother all the time and writes 'yikes' at storms and ugh she's just so cute I wish she was my little sister.

Also seriously:

'One, it wasn't Spanish. Two, it wasn't treasure.' (137)

Just. Yes.

And that leads me to my next love of this book. You just love the characters. Maybe I'm just sort of high from a bad succession of terrible books but holy crap I loved everyone in this novel. No one pissed me off from being too exaggerated or too two dimensional. Everyone did what they were supposed to (or went out fighting). The sleazy treasure hunters were sleazy as hell, the CIA were cold and ruthless. The kids were clever, resourceful, witty, and enjoyable as they fought for their parents and their treasure. And I just learned the release date for the second novel. Win.

There's pirates, hidden treasure, lots of bad guys, a missing mom and a possibly dead Dad. The four kids are bickering half the time, trying to cleverly deduce their way out of traps the other half of the time.

There's also a bit of a potteresque (I don't mean to say that the kids are orphans even though by the beginning of the book they're left pretty much orphans) feeling with that heartwarming and adventure around the corner atmosphere.

I really don't know what else to say. I can't find much that is bad about the book. Obviously there are halting moments in the plot and a bit of character development that never happens for one character in particular (you'll see what I mean), I'm judging it as a children's book and as a children's book, it made my cousin go bonkers and want to be a pirate and if that doesn't deserve five stars then I don't know what does.

- Marlon

What would you put in a treasure chest?

Let us know in the comments!

Review: Day of the Doctor

Day of the Doctor
Steven Moffat

Series: Doctor Who, #Uhm . . .

Genre: Sci Fi, Fantasy

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Word Rating: Overwhelmingly Compelling
On IMDB

Okay so this isn't particularly a book review, but come on, think about the amazing writing that had to go into the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special! My brain can't help but ruminate over everything that happened, so on this wonderful occasion (while tumblr is melting down and twitter has fallen), I'll be reviewing the Day of the Doctor.

Okay first of all, let's not bag on Moffat. Why, you may ask? This Anniversary was hyped up to extremes, to the point where expectations spanned the imagination of every viewer. There were countless lies to mislead the audience (which Moffat and everyone involved should be arrested for) but the hype was too intense . . . nothing could ever live up to it. Moffat did his absolute best and in contrast to Series 7-2, where there was individual, particular focuses (which Moffat as a show-runner fails at miserably), the 50th had overarching themes (which Moffat as a writer is absolutely splendid at; Cracks in the Universe and Silence speak for themselves), which made it seem like it was more than it was. Choices and identity and teamwork were themes that were prevalent throughout the 50th, along with nothing being at all what it is (sand is statues, statues are zygons, paintings are war instrument, Time Lock isn't Time Lock), and using this Moffat was able to make three reluctant Doctors work together to 'win' the Time War . . . that dark age between the Classic and New Who that has only been discussed in passing.

People believe Moffat retconned RTD's era by making the Time War bunk, but in recall that John Hurt says "I have to live with that," meaning that the Doctor's feelings up until that point have been perfectly realistic, he really believed he was so monstrous as to make that choice and had 400 years of regret and forget to finally say no. In addition, we can throw off the haters who think that because 8.5, 10, and 11 were the only doctors with a primary role that Moffat is writing off the classics. Really? Did you forget all the references to the classics? Dear Rassilon, it starts with the first episode's title screen and pan shot (Dr. Foreman!) and Zygons! And . . . never mind. Watch the Five(ish) Doctors reboot by Peter Davidson and Behind the Lens narrated by Colin Baker and tell me the classics were written off. John Hurt seemed to represent all the previous Doctors at once, because he hadn't yet made the choice that forsakes the name of Doctor.

Alright, thematic construction and ideals aside, holy shit this was written so well. The Zygon sub plot was admittedly confusing at first but when the three doctors were in the cell and they figured out how to open it by using all three screwdrivers (thanks to Bad Wolf/Rose Tyler/The Moment), it started to come together as the Doctors started making decisions together rather than 10/11 having a pissing contest and 8.5 remarking on their collective madness. The subplot hasn't got definitive ends, and that put me off until I realized neither does the main plot. Ugh everything is so perfect, how does that parallel do that. Ugh. Ugh.

Look at these mofos.

And I just cannot with the witty remarks and the feelings! But I won't be that much of a fanboy. I must be professional. BUT SERIOUSLY UGH DID YOU SEE TEN AND ELEVEN WHEN JOHN HURT MENTIONED BAD WOLF GIRL? DID YOU FEEL THEIR FEELS?

Right, anyway, my favorite part about this special is all the little things you can't possibly pick up on a first viewing. For instance, the sciency girl says that she got Four's scarf from "The Curator," who happens to be played by Tom Baker (notice also that Peter Capaldi's chracter in the Fires of Pompeii was a curator). What exactly Tom Baker's incarnation is. The fact that Meta-Crisis Doctor will always live with the regret. Also, each of the doctors after episode regenerate. Ten remarks in the End of Time that he'd just come from Queen Elizabeth, we actually see 8.5 regenerating, and Eleven's off to Trenzelore.

And omigosh everything just came together so brilliantly, right at the end, "You could say I've been doing this all my life," really absolutely killed me because every doctor was there. EVEN CAPALDI. Those eyebrows, man. Those eyebrows.

Yes. Those. Tell me you are not a Peter Capaldi convert now. Tell me you don't want the Doctor to call a dalek a 'fuckwad'.

-Marlon

How did you feel about the 50th?

Let us know in the comments!

Review: American Gods - Neil Gaiman

American Gods
Neil Gaiman
Series: N/A
Genre: Fantasy, Mythology, Adult, Science Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: ErmygerdNeilGaiman
On Goodreads

When I was consulting a friend about this, I proposed it wouldn't even take five minutes to sell this book to almost anyone who has read anything ever. So this will be short, centering on Neil Gaiman's command of language, winding, almost architecturally sexy plot structure, and, let's not forget, his cast of incredible characters.

The most difficult to display is his plot structure. American Gods is not one story. It's not about our too-calm, too-passive, and often-silent protagonist, Shadow. This story is like the depiction of the World Tree on the cover (of my version), but in reverse: a plethora of branches funneling into one large trunk. There is the divine Hunger Games running through as one branch; a dead wife and a live ghost with a secret; a mad road trip; ostensibly irrelevant and cast aside gods who've become whores and prisoners; a game played by two cunning gods with Shadow struck in the middle with a classic outcome that represents no classical ideas; the Men in Black, the Media, and all the rest that present themselves as antagonistic and yet aren't at all. I urge you to read this novel more than once. It is difficult to fully grasp the underlying themes, factors, and analyses all at once. Shadow experiences everything so passively, as if they weren't happening to him, that the reader experiences the novel as such (though we are given intimate knowledge of Shadow's thoughts). Until the big moments, when Shadow realizes his dynamic and chooses to act, chooses to change, and the novel begins to explode all in your face and you are rendered into a ball of fangirling mess:

Le plot.

And you.

This might not accurately describe anything at all but this is what most people I know have felt and therefore it is so obviously right. Heh . . .

This novel is enormous and tiny all at once, soaring and plummeting, suspenseful and slow and yet incredibly fast flowing. Growing and shrinking in on itself, this novel is a journey where you don't move an inch and yet you travel hundreds of miles. Gaiman's command of language in this novel lies not just in his stunning description around a constantly arresting narrative – as if lines like "the house smelled musty and damp, and a little sweet, as if it were haunted by the ghosts of long-dead cookies" weren't enough! – it lies in his deliverance and juxtaposition of ideas:

I can believe that things are true and I can believe things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny . . . I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in American is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theatres from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternate . . . I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time . . . I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.

To exemplify my love of the characters:

The bird turned, head tipped, suspiciously, on one side, and it stared at him with bright eyes."Say 'Nevermore,'" said Shadow."Fuck you," said the raven.”

Our cast of characters is vast and filled to the brim with character: The Technical Boy, who is most relavent to us now . . . is the god of computers and progress and the prevail of new gods over old gods. In a nonconformist vs. conformist society like ours, The Technical boy takes on the antithetical role to Mr. Wednesday (Odin); however, the characters are not just their representations in society but what they embody. The novel's weird, often three-layered, and dynamic (Odin, though, is tirelessly stubborn, though, and Gaiman establishes a nice balance between static and dynamic characters). As many of the characters are created and upheld by people's belief in them, most are exaggerated forms of human desires and consciousness, and pitting these against each other is like playing Twister with my brain, or this:

So yeah, if you're still reading this and not American Gods, I have nothing else to say to you because these aren't Neil Gaiman's words and therefore are not worthy of being read at the current moment, seriously why are you even still here?

- Marlon

How much are your cultural beliefs a part of your identity?
Let us know in the comments!