Waiting on Wednesdays: Born Wicked

Title: Born Wicked

Author: Jessica Spotswood

Publisher: Putnam

Release date: February 7th 2012

Plot: Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave. (Description from Goodreads)

Why I’m waiting: I love a good story about witches and intelligent women. Besides this sounds like a promising debut full of mystery, fear and forbidden romance.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine. I plan to participate for the next year at least (because my to read pile really needs to be longer ;P). If you’d like to join in, grab a graphic, write a post and leave a link on her site.

Fun with Picture Books

The fact that I work as a children’s librarian means that, though I have no children of my own, I read a lot of picture books. I even have favorite picture book authors whose new releases make me very excited. (Who, you ask? Mo Willems, Oliver Jeffers, Melanie Watt, Marie Louise Gay and Emily Gravett among others… also the illustrators Rogé and Stéphane Jorisch.)

The Guardian has put up a great article in which that same Emily Gravett shows us how to draw a dragon. (I’m reminded a little of Trogdor ^_^)

And in the video below Benedict Cumberbatch reads Little Red Hen. Not a book by one of my favorites by I’d listen to him read his grocery list. Enjoy:

Do you have favorite picture books?

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Plot: Evie is different from other teens: she can see past the glamours that paranormal creatures wear to their true selves. This has made her a prized operative of the IPCA (The International Paranormal Containment Agency). Life in the Center is all she has ever known but she dreams of being a normal teen. When she falls for a shapeshifter and something starts killing paranormals throughout the world, she begins to suspect that she may never be normal. 

White’s debut novel has a very interesting concept. Evie’s powers and origins (which I will not spoil) are fascinating as are the Empty Ones and Lend, the shapeshifter. She also brings a breath of fresh air to more familiar paranormals like werewolves and vampires… these vampires won’t make you swoon. The IPCA itself shows promise though it is poorly developped: for a decades old international organization, it is not very organized.

The romance, meanwhile, is quite sweet. I like that Evie loves Lend no matter what face he wears regardless of race or attractiveness (though I don’t know how I feel about her repeated assertions that it’s weird when he’s a girl). Their conversations are cute and funny.

But though I liked all these things about the book (and Evie’s pink taser Tasey ^_^), I was never fully swept away by the story. I found it interesting but I never really felt for Evie. I wanted to: she has lived a hard, lonely life. But White spent too much time telling me how lonely it was, how Evie craved normalcy and not enough making me feel it.

Fans of paranormal romance will enjoy this book. It was a quick, entertaining read but I can wait to read the sequels.

2012 (#10)

Comics and manga of the week (23)

Black Butler, volume 8 by Yana Toboso

• The true nature of Ciel’s servants is revealed when the Phantomhive manor comes under attack. And Ciel must stop a terrible crime that reminds him of the horrors of his past.

Bokurano, volume 5 by Mohiro Kitoh

• This series continues to be depressing as only a series about pre-teens dying to protect their world in a giant robot can be. But a new revelation makes the whole situation even worse!

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Plot: Anna’s father sends her, against her will, to finish high school in a boarding school in Paris. Sounds great in theory but Anna doesn’t speak a word of French and is forced to leave behind her best friend, her potential boyfriend and her little brother Sean. But almost immediately after arriving, she makes friends with her dorm neighbour, Meredith, and by extension St-Clair, the most gorgeous boy she has ever seen. Unfortunately he already has a girlfriend and even bigger problems with his dad than she has with hers.

“Very Romantic. You should date this book.” – Maureen Johnson

Johnson is as amusingly creepy as ever but she is also right: this is a great, romantic read. Perkins’ debut novel actually reminds me of Johnson at her romantic best: quirky, likable characters, great dialogue and complicated emotions. I read it in a single sitting. You know, I used to think that I didn’t like straight up romances (which is silly when you consider my manga collection) but I think I just hadn’t found any books like this one yet.

Anna is a great character. I enjoyed the complicated friendships that she has with those around her and her tentative explorations of Paris. But the best part of the book is without a doubt St-Clair. I’m often told that the romantic interest in stories is gorgeous and charming but it’s harder to make me feel it. I fell in love with Étienne St-Clair right along with Anna. I couldn’t help it. He is smart and funny and kind. His family situation will break your heart. And though he has flaws and he makes mistakes that hurt people, that’s what real people are like. I like that he is Anna’s best friend, because I honestly believe that your boyfriend should be a friend first and foremost. And I love that he’s short and still gorgeous because I personnally like short guys and I don’t think they get enough love in romance.

You don’t need to date the book but I do recommend that you read it. I’ve already ordered the companion book, Lola and the Boy Next Door.

2012 (#9)

This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

Plot: Long before Victor Frankenstein created his monster, he was the son of a wealthy magistrate in Geneva. He lived a charmed life in a castle on the lake alongside his twin brother Konrad, their beautiful cousin Elisabeth and their friend Henry. But in their 16th year, Konrad turns deathly ill and no doctor can cure him. In desperation Victor and his friends turn to alchemy and the forbidden Dark Library hidden within the castle. They must face great dangers and make even greater sacrifices in order to create the Elixir of Life and heal Konrad once and for all.

I think Oppel got the tone of gothic horror just right for his Frankenstein prequel. The novel is full of castles, dark stomy nights, deep caves and secret laboratories. There is an oppressive air of danger throughout. By the end I was sitting on the edge of my seat, desperate to find out what would happen next but also a little afraid to. Honestly, some of the scenes late in the book gave me chills and I was reading them like I watch horror movies: trying to look away but completely unable to.

Victor is an interesting hero, if you can call him that. You can definitely see the seeds of what he is to become in this intelligent boy: he is passionate, determined but also jealous and prideful. The funny thing is, while reading, I found myself resenting Konrad as he did for always being the best at everything and getting the girl. Elizabeth is the perfect companion for him: as intelligent and passionate with a fiery temper and fierce independence. His love for her is, however, anything but romantic. It’s creepy really, and selfish… not because Konrad loves her too but because he is prepared to ignore her desires in his pursuit of her. Victor is far from evil or mad in this point of his life but there is something occasionally uncomfortable about watching the world through his eyes.

This novel was nominated for the Governor General’s Award (which Oppel has already won before for Airborn) and I’m not surprised. I can’t wait to see how the story, and Victor Frankenstein, develop! The second book, Such Wicked Intent, is due out in August this year.

2012 (#8)

Waiting on Wednesdays: The Way We Fall

Title: The Way We Fall

Author: Megan Crew

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Release date: January 24th

Plot: A deadly virus is sweeping through Kaelyn’s community: it starts with a itch, soon you’re babbling all your secrets, then the paranoia kicks in. A few days later you’re dead. Her island is quarantined and the healthy must fight for dwindling supplies as they watch those they love die.

Why I’m waiting: I really enjoyed Crewe’s debut: Give Up the Ghost. It was a very fun, unique ghost story. This one sounds just as promising. A horrible disease, survival and love… What more can I ask for? Besides, I love supporting Canadian authors when I can.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine. I plan to participate for the next year at least (because my to read pile really needs to be longer ;P). If you’d like to join in, grab a graphic, write a post and leave a link on her site.

Happy Snak by Nicole Kimberling

Plot: Gaia runs the Happy Snak, a fast food joint on a space station orbiting Mars. After she helps a dying alien, she is named its protector. She had no idea what she was getting into when she agreed. Now she is the guardian at the shrine of a very physical ghost, the front line in human-Kishocha relations but all she really wants is get a foothold in the alien snack market.

This book won’t change the world but it was a good read: a fun, interesting with a novel approach to the idea of first contact. It was silly at times but I was endlessly fascinated by the Kishocha. Kimberling created a very interesting hermaphroditic, amphibious race with a fully developed culture and reveals it in tantalizing bits.

The best character is without a doubt Gaia’s alien servant/employee Wave: it is endlessly curious, kind and funny. Its perspective on the world and its frank manner of speech made me laugh out loud a few times. Besides which it takes an almost childlike glee in mischief. Gaia is not bad herself – strong, independent and entrepreneurial – but her romance left me dry. Fitzpatrick, her generically gorgeous paramour, seems less like a person than a programmable love-bot: always exactly what Gaia needs when she needs it, be that arrogant government authority to resent or a comforting shoulder to cry on. He is in Kimberling’s own words “awfully convenient”. It isn’t romantic, but I will say this for it: I like that Gaia is a woman who knows what she wants from a relationship and isn’t afraid to express it.

I will leave you with Kimberling’s amusing warning that precedes the book: This book contains excessive consumption of clams and clam-based snacks. Also gratuitous abuse of orange dye, as well as summary decapitation, forbidden love, alien sex and one beloved hamster named Microbe.

I think I may look into her novel Ghost Star Night which contains “men, magic, man-on-man moments, orangutans speaking in sign language, beehive hairdoes and an army of soulless janitors that seeks to destroy them all.”

2012 (#7)

Comics and manga of the week (22)

Lots of manga again. I’m finally starting to make some headway on my pile. Just don’t remind me that I hid another pile in the filing cabinet.

All Rounder Meguru, volume 3 (French) by Hiroki Endo

• Meguru progresses in the world of competitive Shooto (a kind of MMA) while his childhood friend Takashi strives toward a competitive career but keeps being drawn, against his will, into organized crime. A must read for fans of martial arts (which are represented beautifully and with great accuracy) and of the amazing Hiroki Endo (of Eden fame).

Black Bird, volume 8 to 12 by Kanoko Sakurakoji

• The romance in this series is basically the manga version of Twilight and it angers me. But I keep reading it because I like Japanese folklore and the art is pretty. …Ok, I admit it, it’s all about Zenki, the guy on the cover of volume 12. Totally my type. Seriously though, the story is getting rather exciting.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Plot: Nailer works on lightcrew in the ship breaking yards, crawling through the ducts of wrecked oil rigs scavanging copper wire just to stay alive. It’s a dangerous life, made worse by the fact that his father, high on amphetamines, takes his money in the best times and beats him whenever his mood shifts. The only way to stay alive is to be loyal to your crew and keep to quota. After a storm, Nailer finds a rich girl in a crashed clipper ship. She and the wealth on her ship make Nailer a target of all fortune-seeking muscle on the beach, his father first among them, but she also offers him the hope of a better life if he can just get her back to her people.

What a page turner! Bacigalupi has written a non-stop adventure in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world. Betrayals, dangerous accidents, deadly fights, flights and daring escapes, this book has them all. I had to stop a couple of times, heart in my throat; I was genuinely worried about the outcome. An adventure story with this much danger can tend toward the ridiculous but Bacigalupi’s excellent pacing and characters keep it from ever becoming so.

Nailer is an interesting hero: loyal, practical, morally conflicted and underneath it all, terrified of becoming like his father. And Nita is not your usual pampered princess. She will lie when necessary and she is not afraid to get her hands dirty. Nailer’s father is, meanwhile, truly terrifying in his pure violence and his unpredictable mood swings. A great vilain: evil, yes, but human. But I haven’t even mentioned the amazing world-building yet! Bacigalupi’s world is truly immersive and believable. And I suspect we have only scratched the surface.

Bacigalupi’s first YA novel well deserves its Printz award.

This spring, he will release a companion novel to Ship Breaker: The Drowned City. It is not a sequel, but stars a character who fascinated me in the first volume. Tool is a genetically engineered dog-man, bred for combat but with a deep desire for freedom. I’m already looking forward to it.

2012 (#6)