Shine by Lauren Myracle

A boy beaten, bound, and left for dead, words of hate scrawled across his chest...
A girl shrinking from life, enslaved by a shameful secret...
A tight-knit Southern community riddled by poverty, clannishness, drugs, and intolerance...
When Patrick is found near death, strung to the pump of the local gas station, sixteen-year-old Cat emerges from her self-imposed exile to avenge the horrors inflicted on her former best friend. The local sheriff is ready to pin the crime on gay-bashing out-of-towners, but Cat's suspicions lie elsewhere. Despite ominous warnings to leave it be, Cat finds the will -- fueled by fury born of an old injustice -- to expose the homegrown hatred that gave rise to Patrick's attack.
Bestselling author Myracle has crafted a hypnotic mystery, steeped in a sense of place, that is also a searing coming-of-age story: an exploration of loss, guilt, and fear fused inseparably with a tale of courage, resiliency, and love.

~Print copy, 350 pages
Published: 2011 by Amulet Books


As much as I wanted to love this... I can't quite get there. It's rather random, my bits and pieces of opinion, but this post is supposed to organize it into something coherent.

I liked that this is set in the South. Everything seems to be set in New York or London, or even another world. I come across few novels set in the good old American South.

Books about gays are also rare to cross my sightline. This copy I've read comes from my local library. I've seen it in Barnes and Noble, but my mother happens to be very Christian-like and... well, she's the one with the money. But even then, either nothing's being mentioned in the summary or they are not here, because most of it looks overwhelmingly heterosexual romance. (See my rant on not finding what I want here.)

What also caught my eye was the main character, Cat, took off from chapter one. Literally. It is within a chapter that she breaks out of that "self-imposed exile" and decides to chase her friend's assailant. In truth, this is somewhat shaky to me -- I would have liked to see her in exile, not just in flashbacks but during the story time. But still, she can be a hardy character, not some fluffy-headed princess who walks down that haunted corridor and opens that spooky door despite your irritated shouts at her to stop.

The mystery part, too, was actually pretty good. I won't spoil the ending, but the twist was pretty well-carried out -- I never saw that ending coming, and simultaneously I could see how it led there. And those types of endings pack quite the punch.

On the other hand, there were quite a few things that churned in my gut.

One of the major secondary characters, Jason. I don't know about you, but college boys hanging around 16-year-olds seems a bit... creepy. To be in college, I have to assume he's at least 18 or older. I turn 18 tomorrow. Even I can tell you that who I am now and who I was then are VASTLY different -- at 16, I was vulnerable, even more timid than I am now. I didn't see things like I do now, things like the whole picture -- not even a bigger picture, than my own little world. Two years is forever.

And that is the minimum age he could be -- he has two more years, maybe three or four or even five years, than she has in terms of experience, of that seeing the whole picture. I don't care if she likes him. I don't care that she is "mature" or "fearless" or anything else. I don't like the way this sort of relationship -- between two teenagers of vastly different ages -- was portrayed, set aside, made sort of... cute, in a way. My parents would not let my 16-year-old sister hang out with an 18-year-old -- and she has. And that sort of thing ends badly.

I also wasn't fond of how quickly things went. Like I said, Cat was raring to go from chapter one. She's well into character development within a couple more. Near the end, it began feeling kind of preachy, like there was a lesson being pushed on me. All that there's-good-in-everyone sort of lesson, where there's no real villain, because no one's a real villain.

And going off of that, I don't like how quickly her quietness was cast aside at a moment's notice. Now, I've never really been attacked myself, and I've never dealt with the consequences, when someone I love has been hurt or even overly sick. But still, Cat acted like being quiet and withdrawn was just a phase she never wanted to go back to. There was her talk of how much it hurt her friends, that she stood by; even counted herself among evil people, because she didn't say "yes" to the world and go after everything.

But being quiet and withdrawn takes over your life. I know. I barely speak more than the Pledge of Allegiance in the mornings and a paltry conversation during lunch on any given day. It deserves more than just paragraphs here and there vaguely describing how she didn't stand up for [insert friend here]. It's a lifestyle, and there's more than one type of "withdrawn" person. It can be everything, it affects everything in a worldview, and quite frankly, I've been trying to find a way even partially out of "self-imposed exile", and it doesn't go away with one decision. It doesn't go away with a chest full of fury -- I have been furious, and it gets you nowhere when you are used to a certain quiet lifestyle.

And I refuse to believe that it is entirely negative, because there is something healing and calm in not being around people, about not being so extroverted as to have lots of conversations with people every day. It's not quite evil at all, really. I do have friends, now, but I've been at the place where I am a ghost. And it's lonely. But it isn't negative, not some phase to cast off and see the error of my ways, like it seems from this novel. It's a place of mind where you can think, and see yourself.

And, while it seems kind of minor after my talks of my philosophy, this novel can become character soup at points. It's a small town, I know, and she knows everyone's name, but the ladies at the church? Aren't entirely deserving of a name. And the librarian. And the names of the parents, of the kids she keeps talking to. At times, I became somewhat confused, and this wasn't really annoying in and of itself -- but in conjunction with my questioning some of the way other things were being portrayed, it really did pick on my nerves.

All in all, I wasn't entirely fond of this novel. Not really. The bits I liked about this novel -- the setting, the fact that it is about homosexuality, rather than the homogeneous heterosexuality -- seem kind of small in comparison with the way I dislike some of the other aspects. I don't like the way being quiet, or relationships with older teenagers, were sort of made cute, set aside, in favor of the plot, or of flashbacks of her and Patrick. How being quiet looked like something she had to "get over", and how meeting with a guy at least two years older than her was made casual.

I don't really know if I'd recommend this to someone. If you take anything from this post, it's that I am not always entirely clear myself on how I feel about it. But it does grate against what I believe in places, and I'm not sure I would actively seek someone out and place this book in their hands. All I can really give in terms of whether or not someone else would want to read this is a lengthy post explaining my tangled reasoning and hoping for a discussion.

And, having said that, I give this novel a 2.5 stars, because while I am not entirely in agreement with it, I really do respect a good plot twist. (Rounded up to 3 stars.)

The Storybook of Legends by Shannon Hale

On Legacy Day each years, the students at the Ever After High boarding school sign the Storybook of Legends and pledge to fulfill their destinies as the next generation of Snow Whites, Prince Charmings, and Evil Queens. Everyone believes that refusing to sign means both you and your story will vanish forever after. Poof!
Raven Queen, however, is having doubts. As the daughter of the Evil Queen, it is her destiny to give the poisoned apple to Snow White's daughter. But Raven has a spark of rebellion in her heart, and she knows one thing for sure: Evil is so not her style.
On the other hand, the royal Apple White, daughter of the Fairest of Them All, cannot wait for Legacy Day! It will be the day she shuts the book on getting her Happily Ever After. But her destiny is intertwined with Raven's, and if rebel Raven doesn't sign the Storybook of Legends, it could mean a Happily Never After for them both.

~Print copy (from the library), 304 pages
Published: 2013 by Little, Brown and Company

Okay, so this is a princess book. The pages are decorated in pink and purple. Sometimes the narrator has characters with one of the secondary characters in the book (Maddie, the Mad Hatter's daughter). And it alternates between Apple White's point of view and Raven's, and Apple's point of view -- to be frank -- is nauseatingly happy. (What did you expect from the daughter of Snow White?)

But still. It's Shannon Hale. Despite the pink and purple cover, we're talking about Shannon Hale -- who wrote Goose Girl and Book of a Thousand Days and Princess Academy, which all deal with royalty of course, but I LOVED them when I was younger. Princess Academy is still on my greater-favorites bookshelf. And anyways... I'm always a sucker for fairy tales.

I picked this up at my local library, and -- although a little embarrassed to bring it to school with me -- I began reading. It took two days. 150 pages a day, between school and writing, because I just had to make time for it.

This book was just... it was splendid. (Or, as Goldilocks's daughter says, "just right.") In this novel, the daughter of the Evil Queen and the daughter of Snow White are put in a room together at a boarding school where everyone must sign a pledge to follow the scripts of their parents, or else the story -- and them -- will die.

But the Evil Queen's daughter isn't... well, evil. She's a bit more shades of gray. And, despite the pretty, happy appearances she puts on, so is Apple White. The two pledge to be friends despite their story, but Raven's determination to avoid signing the Storybook and Apple's determination to keep her Happily Ever After eventually come into conflict throughout the novel, as Raven finds the name of a girl who didn't sign the Storybook and tries to find out what happened to her.

Let's start with the characters. Apple White is sickeningly a princess. Spoiled, pretty, but still nice. Throughout the whole. Freaking. Book. She helps Raven with her quest, she expects princes to always save her (as they usually do, seemingly unable to help themselves), and has animal critters help her do her work. She wants to be seen as a Queen who can pull her weight and run the kingdom nicely, but all most of them see is her beauty.

Raven, on the other hand, does not have princes saving her, and the woodland creatures avoid her at all costs. She's miserable, with her mother punishing her for being too kind and the group of "happily Ever After" royals at school generally looking down at her. But with this one name -- this girl who didn't sign the Storybook -- she finds a little bit of hope that she can escape her destiny. And, unlike Apple, she doesn't want anyone making this decision for her.

It's a great comment on choice and destiny -- on how, even with a magic book in the way, a person should always have the choice to choose the right destiny for herself. It shows how selfish both sides are, Apple wanting her Happily Ever After at Raven's cost, and Raven wanting to choose her own ending at Apple's cost. The light tone and princess-y subject matter only serve to underscore the conflict of both sides.

And, while we're at it, I actually like the plot and ending. (For once.) It's never slow or boring, and the ending fits just right. If there were any flaws (other than my hatred of Apple's goodness), they were entirely overlooked. As I said, I got through it in two days, when I really should have been focusing on schoolwork and writing.

 This book is part of a series, it seems -- the second book appears to be out on e-book -- and I cannot wait to pick up the second one. (But maybe I'll wait until it's in paper book format.) I would recommend this to anyone who still loves a good fairy tale, and a good twist on the familiar. While yes, it's probably MG and intended for a younger audience, it is still an amazing book.

Five stars. Easily.

Fantasy and the Hobbit

So, I've finished re-reading the Hobbit for a school summer project. (No, I'm not going to underline it. It's practically a common noun by now.)

And I must say, I rather enjoyed it this time around. I mean, it still took me a week to get through it, but... it wasn't detestable, once I started accepting the ending. I mean, he didn't have this epic showdown with the dragon, but in a roundabout way, he DID somewhat cause Smaug's death. Anyways, the writing, rest of the plot, and ploys used were nowhere near as bad the second reading through.

So I figured I would give you a list of my favorite fantasy tropes, as used in The Hobbit.

Favorite Things About Fantasy

1. War! The Battle of Five Armies, people. (Even though, technically, it was more like six or seven armies, when you include the Eagles and Gandalf. Good old Tolkien.) There is no other genre where magic and magical creatures can turn everything into an unpredictable, completely befuddled mess.
2. Magic! You just have to love Gandalf's fires that drive off the Wargs in that scene after getting away from the goblins. And the Ring -- no one could forget that. 
3. Evil Forest! Because, ya know, the Mirkwood just isn't as cool if it's easy to get through.
4. Shape-shifters! We once had a cat named Beorn, and I didn't get the reference until years later.
5. Dragons and hoards of gold! I want to write a book about dragons one day. Not like Smaug-dragon, but a relatively good one. And also, hoard of gold.
6. Evil goblins! Somehow, stories seem a lot better when goblins are evil. I don't know why. I mean: the Hobbit, Artemis Fowl... 
7. Hobbits! How many people don't want to be a hobbit? Second breakfast, nice home under a hill, natural stealth, etc etc etc.
8. Neolithic landscapes! Yea! For some reason, the whole unspoiled-by-indutrialization landscape is easy on me. (Is it neolithic, or medieval? The Hobbit, I mean? Because it has the monarchy... but only deep into LoTR. Mostly, it's a quiet hobbit neighborhood, a vast stretch of wilderness, and then one human town who bows to a King under the Mountain, who is not human.)

As well as plenty of other things, but we'll not make this a super-long post. What about you? What are your favorite fantasy tropes?

Have a blessed Monday (if there's such a thing)!     

Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? by Eleanor Updale

When a petty thief falls through a glass roof in his attempt to escape the police, what should have been the death of him marks the beginning of a whole new life, After his broken body is reconstructed by an ambitious young doctor, he is released from prison, and -- with the help of Victorian London's extensive sewer system -- he becomes the most elusive burglar in the city. He adopts a dual existence as a respectable, wealthy gentleman named Montmorency and his degenerate servant Scarper. But Montmorency must always be on his guard. The smallest mistake could reveal his secret and ruin both his lives.
Eleanor Updale's writing is witty and wholly original. With a unique perspective and a voice reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe, Montmorency is a cleverly told, gripping adventure story.

~Print copy (from the library)
Published: 2003 by Orchard Books

I've read this book before. So, immediately, you know that this is a book that caught my spark.

Where to begin?

First off, I like that name. Montmorency. It rolls off the tongue. It sounds really dramatic and exotic and a cool name to have if you're a character from an adventure novel.

I love the premise. Montmorency, or Prisoner 493, is broken; a young doctor by the name Farcett stitches him up again... and shows off his nearly-naked body as a science exhibit for the Scholarly Circle (not the actual name of the group). You know, the rich, snooty scientists, who examine his body as if 493 is not a human being but some sort of practice mannequin. A doll, with scars to show off, so the doctor can tell the crowd how he fixed this problem on his thigh and ask how he might get into that wound on his back.

So, when Montmorency gets out of prison, he writes a note. He dresses like a servant and delivers that note to a fancy hotel, which tells the manager to rent out a suite with a good view to a Montmorency -- meanwhile, he, as the servant Scarper, would prepare the room for his master.

Quite an ingenious plan, really. He learned of the sewer system in one of those scholarly meeting, and he decides to use those sewers to get around the city, stealing valuables and then just dropping down into the filth, out of sight, while the police search vainly aboveground.

As I said, genius premise. I think it kind of speaks for itself.

I really like Montmorency the character, as well. For a prisoner, servant, and snooty elite, he was a good choice for POV. (In 3rd person, of course.) He had freedoms the rich didn't have, and he had the money most servants didn't have, and as a prisoner he'd attended those lectures to show him off, and he learned a great deal from them -- a luxury most prisoners didn't have.

More than that, he was devious and quick-minded, and a darn good actor. He is, of course, morally ambigious and a criminal, but Updale wrote this cleverly enough that he's a really likeable criminal.

My third point: the adventure. The action. His getting around society and fooling everybody makes for a good story, and I didn't mention the surprise at the end. I kind of thought it almost abrupt, that last quarter or so of the book; but in retrospect, you can look back and see how it built up to it. I'm not telling you that ending.

I didn't really have anything against this book. Or if I did, I didn't really notice. I give this a definite 5 stars.

 

Follow Friday #30

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. (I'm doing this in the morning because I'm off school! Snow Day! Yay!!)

Q: Who is your favorite villain from a book?

Ohmygosh. Um... let's see... Opal Koboi from Artemis Fowl? Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter? Capricorn from Inkheart? Tigerclaw/TigerStar from the Warriors series (Erin Hunter)?

As you can see, I still have a mighty soft spot for my MG favorites. And that I have a hard time picking my favorite villain.

What makes a good villain?
-A cool name
-brilliant intellect
-doesn't go into monologues
-Actively opposes the protagonist (through minions or by himself)
-That evil, charismatic attitude
-Knows morality; knows what he wants; ignores morals in favor of what he wants.

At least, this is my definition. All of the villains I mentioned above do this. (Except maybe Opal Koboi. But she's crazy. And looks completely innocent, so nobody knows how evil she is for awhile, and she has the freedom to gloat monologue. But I think she has the other attributes.)

Yes, they have to have a cool name. You can't be evil without a cool name, or everyone will laugh at you. Capricorn even renamed himself that -- named after a horoscope, but at least it's a cool horoscope name. (I don't know what I would've thought if it'd been a not-cool name, like Taurus; who would take your genius seriously when your name means bull [or something similar to a bull]?)

And stupid villains... are stupid. Case in point. They have to be a genius. How far would Voldemort have gotten if he was an idiot? Certainly not far enough to know what a horcrux is.

And charisma is necessary if you want followers. Otherwise, the villain sits in his lair, shunned by all, and has no minions to send after you. He's too busy cooking his own meals and cleaning his own house to plan his daring plots against the hero. Or under his bush, if you're Tigerstar. (He's a cat. Living in the woods with his clan[s], who he's not the leader of until after the third book.)

So... yea. This is my list. And my explanations. Trust me, there are plenty of other villains I loved, but I didn't want to blog post to stretch on for infinity, so I cut it short.

How about you? Who did you choose? What makes a villain cool for you?

Have a blessed Friday!

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

Who is Artemis Fowl?
A genius. A criminal mastermind. A millionare.
And he is only 12 years old.
Yet as crafty as he is, Artemis may have met his match in Captain Holly Short, an elf from the LEPrecon Special Forces, when he plots to steal the richest treasure the world has ever known - the timeless treasure of the fairies!

~Bought, paperback copy
Published: 2001 by Scholastic Inc.

My review:

I will try not to squeak in happiness. This is an amazing book! I've read it at least four or five times.

There are good reasons for loving this book. The characters are awesome - I mean, a rich child prodigy who kidnaps a fairy?! Artemis Fowl is clever and always a step ahead. Then there is his bodyguard, Butler, who is pretty freakin' amazing as well. I don't use freakin' lightly. He is among the biggest humans in the world, with special knowledge of weapons and hand-to-hand combat. He does most of the physical work, while Artemis does the intellectual work. They make a good team.

Then of course, is Holly Short. The first female recon fairy - the test case. When she is kidnapped, she doesn't blubber or freeze, like I know I would - she thinks of a plan to get out. She is just as ingenius as Artemis, in some cases. Of course, Foaly, the computer geek centaur, is worth a mention, as well as Holly's boss, Commander Root. While their role is relatively smaller, they stop time to try and get Holly back.

But the characters are not the only reason I love this book. The setting is awesome - a manor/modern castle in Ireland, and the underground world of the fairies, are thought out in detail. Colfer doesn't just wow you with technology - he explains exactly how this technology works, and wows you with that. For example, he doesn't just tell you they stop time - he explains the process.

While this might seem like it's drag down the pacing, it doesn't really. Instead of the headlong rush to the climax you see so often in YA, here it's more of a leisurely jog through the park. If "leisurely" included kidnapping, explosions, fairy magic, and trolls. It's well-written and a refreshing change from those novels that just rush, rush, rush.


There is no doubt that this is one of my favorite books. While it's on a serious topic - kidnapping - it is filled with humorous moments and witty dialogue. I first read this back in fifth grade, and I still love it. 5 stars!

Wednesday Writings: On Good vs. Bad

It's one of the most basic plot lines: perfectly good hero vs. the perfectly evil villain. Like as not, the hero wins, and there is happily ever after.

I've read a lot of books in my 16 years of life, and this is a recurring theme that starts to grate on my nerve for two reasons. One, it's predictable. I sometimes pick up a book and I know right off the bat that the hero wins, and it sort of spoils the reading (especially if the writing isn't all that good). It's like your fairytale, with the dragon in a different shape. And two, because it shows bad writing to have your MC perfectly good.

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Tips on Avoiding the Cliche:

1. Give your character some flaws. At least one. Don't give me that "Oh, but he's Edward Cullen in disguise!" nonsense.

2. Instead of focusing on good vs. evil, focus on a different pair of opposites. Like, in the Red Pyramid by Rick Riordin, it's order vs. chaos. You see how much more interesting that is?

3. See if you can't make the villain one of the "good" characters. Gradually sneak in his/her evilness. Think Loki from that movie Thor (or The Avengers). He was like, the best villain ever because you could empathisize with him completely, and in the beginning of Thor, you don't realize him as the villain at all.

4. Don't think at all in terms of good vs. evil. Think more on the MC - his/her emotional journey. Perhaps your villain is only the catalyst of a mental reevaluation. Perhaps your villain is there to test your MC's real hero-ness. Not that fake perfection, but their true worth as a human being.


Good and bad in literature is a common debate: you either think it's a classic, or a cliche. I'm leaning towards the latter, and it's cool if you think otherwise. But hey, new blood freshens things up. I see the whole "Perfect" hero less and less, but how about the others? Can you think of a different pair of opposites to focus on?

Have a blessed day and keep writing. :)  

From simpledisneythings's tumblr HERE.