Review: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee

Title: The Agency: A Spy in the House
Author(s): Y.S. Lee
Genre: YA historical mystery
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Candlewick

Disclosure: Review Copy sent to me by Sarah Rettger
The Summary: Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan (and thief) Mary Quinn is surprised to be offered a singular education, instruction in fine manners — and an unusual vocation. Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls is a cover for an all-female investigative unit called The Agency, and at seventeen, Mary is about to put her training to the test. Assuming the guise of a lady’s companion, she must infiltrate a rich merchant’s home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships. But the household is full of dangerous deceptions, and there is no one to trust — or is there? Packed with action and suspense, banter and romance, and evoking the gritty backstreets of Victorian London, this breezy mystery debuts a daring young detective who lives by her wits while uncovering secrets — including those of her own past.
--From GoodReads.com

The Review: Woah, where to start? I love this book, and I’m not confident that this review will do the book just. Well, first things first, as I suspected from following Y.S. Lee’s blog tour, the setting was AMAZING. I felt like I was transported in time to 19th century London. Everything felt so tangible, the grime and stink and grit of the city, and the house Mary was assigned to just felt so real, like I could imagine myself walking through its kitchen and corridors and what have you. Best of all, the setting felt like such an integral part of the story, a story that couldn’t take place anywhere but in that time period and in that city, that context. It’s not just, you know, Victorian window dressing to make everything look pretty and get an excuse for the ladies to wear pretty frocks. I wish more historical novels set in the Victorian era read like this book.

I’ve seen quite a number of reviews giving attention to the banter between Mary and James, saying that this is their favourite aspect of the novel, and while I too enjoy good banter (and the ones between Mary and James were really good), those didn’t make the novel for me. I mean, I do like the Mary and James interaction because they were just really well-written and fun, but this wasn’t an aspect of this novel that made the reading experience so memorable for me. Nor was it the mystery aspect, as I confess I have absolutely no taste or sense for mystery/detective written narratives. Some of the stuff that really stuck out for me was not really mentioned in the reviews I have read, such as the basic concept of the Agency Lee brought in. I love the idea of an all-female intelligence force giving opportunities to young women in Victorian England who may not otherwise have access to. It’s such an interesting and empowering aspect into the story, and I kinda wish we got to have a story that took place IN the school, a bunch of girls gathered from all walks of life learning and dreaming for a future in a kind of Victorian boarding school way. (This is because I am partial to school setting narratives) Anyhow, what I’m trying to say is that the concept of the Agency really appealed to me, and I hope that the workings of the Agency gets fleshed out as we get more books in the series.

The other thing I really like about this novel was just Mary herself. I found her fascinating and relatable, a really interesting yet flawed character. It’s been a while since my favourite character turned out to be the narrator of the whole story, and it’s really nice to always be on the narrator’s side for once, lol. I liked her brashness, her wit, how she takes action without always thinking things through clearly. I also liked that, even though she’s not exactly the conventional leading lady for a Victorian England setting, Mary still fits into the historical setting without feeling like a “modern” day woman transported in time. Mary, despite not being conventional, is still very much shaped by the Victorian era she lived in, and I appreciate that. I enjoyed all her interactions with the rest of the cast. There’s a nice amount of character development in this book, wherein people change as they encounter and talk with others, and getting to see all of this from Mary’s perspective was lots of fun. Not only did we get to see other people change, but we can also pick up on the subtle changes in Mary that she herself may not realize as of yet. In fact, I must confess, the most memorable character interaction scene was not between James and Mary, but this one scene towards the end, with Angelica as they talked about what they want and their futures. In fact, my favourite line came out of that scene! “It’s terrifying to be on the verge of finally getting what you want.” (pg. 281) You know that moment when something you’ve hoped for seems finally possible to attain, how it’s kinda scary but amazing all at once? This moment of interaction just brought back all those emotions: of self-reflection and hope and a dash of fear for the unknown. (I do know that this comes up with Cass too, but I happen to like this moment of interaction more. I suspect because this one was more dialogue-y?) I really liked seeing how Angelica grows in Mary’s eyes, from the spoiled sullen girl she was assigned to, to the lady with a goal to fulfill.

I liked how Y.S. Lee handled the passing aspect as well. Will not go into details about this as it’s spoilery, but I enjoyed slowly finding out more about Mary’s murky, hidden past, and I hope we get to see more of this family exploration in the next few books. The writing of the novel was fluid and accessible, almost deflecting attention from itself so that the reader can concentrate on the many plot twists thrown our way, which is very helpful. The ending left me satisfied yet wanting more story, new adventures for our leading lady Mary Quinn. (WHERE IS THE CIGAR BOX?! I MUST KNOW. *whimpers*) The sequel just can’t come out fast enough.

The Verdict: Excellent book, and I think everyone should give this novel a try. It was an engrossing read, with a lead character you can root for with all your heart, an interesting premise, and a nice heavy amount of twists to keep mystery fans pondering. I, personally, am dying for the sequel. Is it August yet?!

Rating: 4.5/5
Enjoyment: 100%

Title and Cover Discussion: I know technically this book is called The Spy in the House and the seriesname is called The Agency, but I keep calling this book the Agency in my head. I suspect I’ll start properly calling it The Spy in the House once the sequel comes out though. As for the cover, I’m a bit ambivalent. Passing is a bit complicated to portray when we have face covers, but getting a white model (I think the model is ‘white’? Feel free to correct me) to portraying a passing protagonist is rather problematic. I'm informed that the model is indeed of mixed heritage. I suspect this cover would work better for me if it was an illustrated cover instead, but oh well... It’s visually appealing, I’ll admit. Skipping out on ratings because I’m ambivalent about how I’d rate them. =D

Review: A Million Shades of Grey by Cynthia Kadohata

Title: A Million Shades of Grey
Author(s): Cynthia Kadohata
Genre: MG Historical, War
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Disclosure: I received this review copy from Book Chick City
The Summary: Y'Tin wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with Lady, his elephant, and become a elephant handler. But the Vietnam War looms closer and closer into his tribe's every day life. As the Americans leave and the North Vietnamese army marches closer and closer, Y'Tin seeks a way to live and stay with Lady - no matter what it takes.

The Review: Some confessions I must make before I proceed with the review: I love Cynthia Kadohata's works. From the momemt I read the first page of Weedflower back in the cold wintery day of January last year, I fell in love. Kadohata has this wonderful way of capturing her protagonists' voice, and her stories are so intimate, so personal, like the protagonist is speaking to me, and her stories break my heart in all the right places.

Now, despite this love, I was also somewhat apprehensive about this novel. For one thing, as much as I love Weedflower, Kira-Kira, and Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam, I did not care for Outside Beauty at all, which was her latest work just before A Million Shades of Grey came out. It utterly failed to impress me. That was the first time I felt that the voice of the protagonist was unconvincing, and voice is the best aspect of Kadohata's writing. I, well, I admit to wondering if maybe Kadohata might be losing her touch. That coupled with the fact that this will be the first novel I read by her with a male protagonist, and I was weary in wondering whether she could pull off a male's voice.

Well, this book just blew all my apprehensions out of the water, and taught me that I should just never doubt Cynthia Kadohata's mastery in writing ever again (I'll just chalk Outside Beauty as an anomaly). It was amazing. Brilliant! It is actually the saddest Kadohata story I've read, and if anyone's familiar with any of her other titles, you know I'm really saying something here.

Y'Tin was a brilliant protagonist. Kadohata proved to me that not only can she completely charm me with her portrayal of a young boy's voice, but capture the child perspective of the war around him in the most convincing fashion. I was in Y'Tin's head the whole way through, and every laugh, every heartbreak Y'Tin went through, I not only sympathized, I felt it inside with him. His heartrendering relationship with Lady, the elephant he trained, was one of the most beautiful animal companion relationships I've ever seen, and I'm saying this as a person who is normally skeptical of animal companionship tales. Y'Tin tells us he cares about Lady more than anything in the world, and you just - you really believe it, and that's why when the events of the novel unravel, it just breaks you - there.

And the story! Wow, what a story. Like all of Kadohata's work, the ride is slow but sure, as she draws you into the lives of her characters then slowly builds up the events, one at a time to a breathtaking climax, and an ending that will tear your heart out. If anyone was worried about this book not being able to pull off the grittiness and ravages of a war setting - since, well, as much as I loved Cracker, Kadohata gave us a very sanitized version of the Vietnam War in that particular book - no need to worry about that here, the horrors of war are shown in all its traumatizing glory! I may or may not have completely embarrassed myself at a dinner party as people saw me bawling in public, book in hand. I like how Kadohata decided to show the war from the Montagnards' perspective, an indigenous tribe living out in the jungle of Vietnam. It offers us a perspective that's outside of the usual Vietcong or American GI perspective, yet still very much a part of the war. Y'Tin's family helped out the Americans, and it was fascinating to see the effects towards the end of the war for this decision, as the Americans left them to their fate and the Vietcongs come closing in. I was reading a review of this book by The Bookbag which argued that it idealized the American GIs way too much and vilified the Vietcongs. Which is a valid interpretation, and I do see shades of that in the story, but I think the reason why it worked for me, this portrayal of the Montagnards helping the GIs is that the Montagnards do not benefit from this aid. The Americans were not at all their knights in shining armour coming to their rescue - it was quite the opposite. The whole story is set around the time when the Montagnards were to fend for themselves, and explores the broken promises of protection made by the Americans, and it was very sad, and very painful to see. We see the slow change in which Y'Tin's peers reacted around him, as the people within his tribe blamed his family for helping the Americans and it's a credit to Kadohata's fantastic writing abilities that she is able to render these moments heartwrenching without overwrought writing.

It's worth noting however that while there were some positive portrayals of the Americans, by contrast there were absolutely none of that when we see portrayals of the Vietnamese people. If they weren't calling the Montagnard savages, they were attacking their villages. I am not too 100% sure of Thorat's ethnicity, who was character portrayed sympathetically, but even so, he was a sympathetic teacher teaching French, a colonial language. (Oh! Sidenote: the French here is all grammatically correct! I say this because I often get annoyed when I find books that don't bother checking their grammar when they decide to have the characters spreaking French in the story.) Hopefully Cynthia Kadohata would consider writing another novel set in Vietnam that gives the side of the Vietnamese more justice.

The Verdict: This is decidedly the best work by Cynthia Kadohata so far, and most definitely my favourite. Clear, crisp writing, a charming protagonist, a sweet animal companion tale, and a war-ridden setting that shatters your heart. After reading this novel, I couldn't get the story out of my head for weeks. This book will make you smile, laugh, cry, and leaves you with a sad, yet hopeful at the end. What more can we want out of a novel, really? This book deserves to be up there and known with the other amazingly wrought war stories such as Markus Zusak's The Book Thief and the like. Run, don't walk, to get a copy of this novel. You won't regret it.

Rating: 4/5
Enjoyment: 100%

Title and Cover Discussion: The title is passable, I suppose. However, the title doesn't give me an immediate connection to what I've read in the story. Which is too bad, since all her other titles (Kira-Kira, Outside Beauty, Cracker, Weedflower) did this so well. But I think it hints at the layers of war being explored, that the side to the story isn't all just black and white, that there's the people not on either sides. Of course, I could be wrong, and those who've read the novel can feel free to share the title thoughts they have about this with me here. I'm all ears! I do love the cover. It's not exactly shiny or anything but it has Y'Tin AND Lady being all BFF there! How can I not love it? ♥ And I passed by the hardcover of this book a while back in the bookstore and the inside of the cover is beautifullll. It is the pattern of the jungle leaves we see on the top of the cover. But I'm not really a fan of the cover for the hardback... What's the difference, you ask? Well, they photoshopped in the 'Asian' hat. Not only does Y'Tin never actually wear that hat in the story, but I get the sense that the hat was pasted on to hint and the ~*exotic*~ Asian-ness. This is not the first time this happened with Kadohata's covers, but they make me sigh. lol, but w/e my version doesn't have the hat on it so YAY HAPPINESS. ♥

Title: B
Cover: A

This counts for the POC reading challenge.

Review: A Girl Made of Dust by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi

Title: A Girl Made of Dust
Author(s): Nathalie Abi-Ezzi
Genre: (YA) Historical Coming-of-Age Fiction
Page Count: 236
Publisher: Doubleday Canada

The Summary (in my own words): Eight-year-old Ruba and her family lived in the village of Ein Douwra outside of Beirut to the rumbles of shellings. It is the 1980s in Lebanon, deep in civil war and the looming Israeli invasion shadowing our tale. But Ruba was concerned with other things: her mother in a permanent state of sadness as she sweeps and cooks in the house, her brother slowly becoming a stranger as he spent more and more time with older boys and guns, and her father who sits on his chair all day long, silent and avoiding the world. When Ruba decides that she has to save her father from the sadness he suffers, she uncovers secrets in her family, one by one... And all the while the events of the war seeping closer and closer to Ruba's town, Ruba's life.

The Review: When I was reading this book the first time around, something about it felt off. I found this book on the YA shelves, knowing that the protagonist was supposed to be eight years-old. However, when I read it, there was something about the narrative that nagged at me. On one hand it was lovely, beautiful prose, and yet on another hand it didn’t fit with the narrative voice I was expecting out of a MG/YA novel. Those who read MG or YA novels may know what I mean: narrative voices that make you feel like you’re hearing the protagonists thoughts, etc. In other words, the voice of the novel was completely off. And yet, on the flip side, I couldn’t say that there was anything wrong with the narration either. There was a beautiful, flowy style to it that I enjoyed very much. It was just that somehow when I put together the narration style I read with my expectations for a YA/MG novel, something didn’t add up.

It wasn’t until I looked up information on this novel online that things started clicking together. I saw copies of this novel with the above cover marketed as YA – and, at the same time, I saw another version of this novel with a different cover marketed as Adult Lit. As far as I can tell they’re both the exact same novel with both versions having the complete text, just marketed to two different groups. And in this case I think this novel very much falls under Adult Lit. The style of the novel just made that much more sense to me if I think of it that way. There’s a style to writing Adult Lit and a voice to writing YA novels that I’ve come to expect, and A Girl Made Of Dust, while failing at capturing the standard YA voice, excelled brilliantly in getting down the Adult Lit narrative style. When I read the novel a second time around, with this information in mind, the novel worked so much better. Fans of the adult literary style and historical fiction should run right now to get your own copy of this novel. You don’t want to miss out on this little gem by a promising debut author.

Triple Snapshot Saturday - Legend of Tarik, I Wanna Be Your Shoebox, Bound By Your Touch

(Idea inspired by Hyper-Parfait's now defunct Triple Delights)

In which I discuss three novels at the end of the week (Saturday) in quick paragraph snapshots on my general impressions and reactions.

The Legend of Tarik by Walter Dean Myers
You know, I think I just read this book at the wrong time. I can see objectively that it is a very well written book, and for what the story tries to do, it does it well. It’s a whole fantasy quest story to avenge his father, with one little subversion: the hero is black. Now, I do appreciate this subversion, but it doesn’t satisfy me. I mean, yay black hero that actually wins the day in a magical quest story, that’s a storyline that you don’t come across every day. But my tiff with this book is that it didn’t subvert enough for me. Why not go all the way, I thought to myself. Subvert the wise old men who trains the hero prodigy! Subvert the role of women! Subvert the whole object troupe! Hell, challenge the stereotypical villainous characters as well!! But alas, this book didn’t do that. Basically I wanted a bigger challenge to the whole typical magical quest story and it didn’t do it for me. The role of Stria, the hero’s woman companion, particularly disappointed me, not because Myers didn’t attempt at subversion (he did! She had personality! She was his partner to fight the bad guy as oppose to being the weak love interest!) but because I just wanted more. I wanted to see why she couldn’t be the hero of the day, and the best we got was that it’s because she had anger problems, and that plus the whole hysterical aka way-too-emotional woman type characters often found in fiction made me frown.

This frustration wanting more subversion for other aspects of the novel besides the black hero/white villain thing stopped me from appreciating the novel as much as I would have, if I read this back when I was a bit more enamoured with the fantasy quest story line and only needed a little bit of subversion to be happy. But I’m mostly jaded on these quest things and it takes a lot more reversals of the typical quest storyline for me to be invested. Sadly, The Legend of Tarik didn’t do it for me. I do recommend this to people who love the magical quest storyline and want just a slightly different twist on the formula. I can guarantee that the writing is spot-on and will appeal to the lovers of this genre.

I Wanna Be Your Shoebox by Cristina Garcia
Omg soooooo much fun to read!! Our main character, Yumi, is a girl that cannot be easily confined to a checklist of what she should be. I like this aspect a lot, because I think it shows the endless possibilities of Yumi’s bright future. I also liked the intertwined storyline between Yumi and her grandfather, Saul. It isn’t my favourite use of this device, but I thought they worked well together. And the portrayals of Yumi’s relationship with her family and friends and classmates were vivid and a great joy to read about. I think the biggest theme of the whole novel is hope, a bright, endless hope of the future, that there’s always a possibility of great things to come and experience. That’s not to say that there aren’t any “serious” themes to this story, there’s death and divorce featured in this MG novel as well. But this novel is not a problem novel and about dealing with such conflicts. It’s more about facing the future, of the good and bad and making the most of it. And the book convinces you of this hopeful message by being written with such gusto and spirit. It’s the kind of book that makes you smile every time you remember reading it. Highly recommended.

Bound by your Touch by Meredith Duran
The book I would have never read if it weren’t for Sarah Rees Brennan’s recommendation! It was lots of fun, and I love the romance aspect. However, the historical part was not as good as it could have been. I mean, it more or less sticks to how 19th Century England works, but it doesn’t exactly make you feel like you’re there in that past, or challenging the notions of the time period. Then again, this is a novel marketed as romance and if the “historical” side to the romance was not as good as it could have been (not that I remember ever reading historical romances that actually did the historical side justice… I suppose I have to look into straight historical novels for that), it balances out by having a lovely romance that subverts stock romance troupes. The spinster gets the young rake! And other spoilery stuff I shouldn’t reveal about various family members that have interesting subversions. I was rather irked by the whole Egyptology thing being used as the driving plot of the story though. I mean, it has that feel of exotic foreign dead artifacts being used to further along the European story and that always nudges me the wrong way. Perhaps I could have reconciled with this if there was a prominent Egyptian character in the story but they were nowhere to be found. I did enjoy this novel very much though. Not enough to feel like buying my own copy of the novel, but it was a fun read.

This Week's Triple Snapsnots: Evening is the Whole Day, Ten Cents a Dance, February Flowers

(Idea inspired by Hyper-Parfait's now defunct Triple Delights)

In which I discuss three novels at the end of the week (Saturday) in quick paragraph snapshots on my general impressions and reactions.

Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan - This is a book that’s seriously hard to love. When I say this, I don’t mean that this is a horribly written book or anything. In fact, I think the writing is lovely, if sometimes a little overwrought. No, what makes this book hard to read is the fact that none of the characters are likeable. The very premise itself is about how people fail each other, and this process is very painful to watch. No one in this story comes off with their hands untainted. I think I could have came to terms with this theme if there was some form of redemption at the end, but Samarasan offers us none. It’s a bleak premise told and contained in luscious prose, like the relation of the Big House (lovely, brightly coloured) to its inhabitants (broken, spiteful, misunderstandings, failure.) Now, I can come to love a book even with awful, mean characters when they are shown in a larger-than-life quality (I like Wuthering Heights for a reason. >D) but here, while the cast do cruel things, they don’t do it because they are particularly vicious and messed up people. They do it almost as if it’s all ordinary and normal, resigned to their fate. And that’s far worse, actions taken and accepted without hope or subversion. The storyline of Chellam the servant and Uncle Balu was the hardest for me to swallow, personally. Hence, I took months to finish reading this novel. Sometimes I think I would have enjoyed this novel more if Samarasan challenged the wrongs and failures of the family and society more, but then again, that wasn’t what Samarasan was trying to illustrate in her work.

Despite all this, I do think the reading experience was worthwhile. Just the writing is really something to behold, how Samarasan perfects the art of out-of-sequence storytelling, jumping seamlessly through time and point-of-views and still tells a coherent and brilliant story, one secret, one bit of failure, revealing one by one with steady pace and rhythm. The ghosts that the youngest child sees was also tastefully done. (This novel kind of has this bizarre fairy tale-esque quality to it, sans the redemption and happy endings, when I look back at it. I think it's the imagery thing and the language Samarasan uses that evokes this impression in my mind, lol.) And I enjoyed this as the first novel I read that takes place in Malaysia and feels real rather than just window dressing. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to read a novel with beautiful prose and is set in an Asian locale without going down the “exotic” route, and doesn’t mind unresolved tension at the end. (When I say unresolved tension, I mean that the failures are never redeemed, not that the various plotlines are left unresolved.) Just, don’t go in expecting everyone to end up happy. ^^;

Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher - This has got to be one of the best historical fictions I’ve read in a long, long time. The 1940s in Chicago setting is vibrant and comes to life with Fletcher’s amazing writing ability and paramount research, from the setting descriptions to the dialogue and just, everything. I love Ruby, and I love seeing a YA novel that is really all about our female protagonist and the way she views the world around her, and less about her one-true romance with some creepy stalker-ish guy. (Not to say that there wasn’t a creepy stalker-ish love interest. In fact, they were several. I guess what I’m trying to say it’s a breather to find a YA novel that isn’t all about a romantic relationship. There are other more pressing concerns that Ruby has in her life, like her job, and forging a future for herself.) This novel is really about Ruby and her position as a poor teenage girl growing up in a debt-ridden family above anything else, any ties she has with others, and I enjoy that. I also thought Fletcher handles the various problematic issues of the time (prostitution, gangs, class, race) in a subverting way without ever feeling like she’s just imposing 21st century values on the past, and I appreciated that a lot. I mean, when Fletcher handles the whole racism thing against Pinoys, etc, as realistic as it was back in the 40s without pissing me off, that’s when you know it was done well. (The Filipino guys are actually considered as a main love interest for one of the main girls in this story and they even got married!! I know, I thought I’d never see this happen either.) I also liked how the story was unpredictable in the direction the plot was taking us, and while I thought the ending was a tad bit rushed, I liked the hopeful quality at the end. Highly recommended to EVERYONE. One of the best books I read this year.

February Flowers by Fan Wu - This book is, at the core of it, about the relationship between two university women, and how our protagonist, Yan, is slowly becoming attracted to her best friend Ming. Thing is, I came into this novel thinking it’d be more about Yan’s sexual desire for Ming and let’s just say this novel let me down in this aspect. It was all UST* all the way through with no reconciliation, and the first thought I had after finishing was “Oh come on, I don’t even get a KISS?!” I don’t think I’m being too demanding here about this. There were all sorts of heterosexual sexual scenes in this novel, and even masturbation, but I don’t even get one lousy awkward first time lesbian kiss between Yan and the love of her life? The most we get on any described homosexual fulfilled relationship was an implied scene with two other women on campus holding hands. lol, this makes it sound like I hated the novel, but I didn’t, not really. I mean, I definitely believed that Yan was very smitten by Ming even when she doesn’t realize it, and Wu’s description and narration on Yan’s feelings felt very real. I also liked the setting, how it was strongly grounded in the city of Guangzhou and wasn’t just some vague exotic Chinese city thing going on, how Wu shows us the changes in Guangzhou as time goes past. The prose is very pretty without being extravagant as well. I thought Wu could have done more on the whole bit about Ming being an ethnic minority in a Han dominated China (Ming is Miao, if anyone wondered) but it wasn’t a bad portrayal and I didn’t think her whole ethnic minority status was used by the author to portray her as the exotic love interest or anything. I just, I guess I wished this novel was more than it was.

*Unresolved Sexual Tension

Triple Snapshots: Eternal, The Haters, Leviathan

(Inspired by Hyper Parfait's Triple Delights feature)

Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith - I could not get into Eternal. (Hence the short paragraph—I could say more, give it a fully fleshed out review, but I didn’t care enough about this story to bother.) Which sucks because this whole star-crossed lovers premise is totally my thing, and bi-racial vampire girl! But I couldn’t do it. I didn’t care about any of the characters, least of all Zachary and Miranda, and hence I couldn’t invest myself in the plot or the romance. (Actually the romance was probably my least favourite aspect of this novel, surprisingly enough.) I’ll be honest: if I didn’t buy this and instead borrowed it from the library I probably would have stopped halfway through the novel, max. Sometimes the writing is snappy enough to make things interesting but most of the time the writing felt trite and dragged on for me. But the fandom references were amusing, I’ll give it that. (This was probably the only thing I can say I liked with no reserves about this novel.) Just to put it out there, I didn’t hate this novel. I just found myself really distant and meh towards it. (lol if I truly hate it I’d be really obvious and mean about it.) I guess, to sum things up, this really wasn’t the novel for me. I’ll be passing on the rest of the books in this series.


Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - When it comes down to it, I just had plain good fun reading this novel. It’s fun and fast and I love the action and the dialogue. Also, the illustrations are beautiful. I’m reserving opinions on how well this alternate version of WWI is done until I get to the third book to see how this divergence will play out. Also, this has been marketed as a kind of Romeo and Juliet romance, so I’m crossing my arms and waiting for it to happen. I hope it delivers on the Tragic Love aspect all the way to the end. ♥ So basically, it’s a book full of potential. Perhaps when the trilogy is over I can make a proper assessment on how well the story pans out.




The Haters by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez - A YA high school drama novel—this time with the school population being ethnically diverse. I never really became fond of our protagonist. Possibly because the way her powers were handled. (Was the whole animals bowing to her really necessary?! And if you want tips on handling magic in a realistic slice-of-life fashion, watch Natsume Yuujinchou or read Give Up the Ghost or something. Don’t just like, have it sit there and put us readers through her constant whining about her ~*freaky powers*~. It just makes her annoying.) Also, this was one of those many novels where I got attached to the one side character that everyone is supposed to hate aka the evil queen bee Jessica Nguyen. This book, while parading around to be full of Diversity and what not, our author sure doesn’t have any qualms about reinforcing Asian stereotypes. (Valdes-Rodriguez is better with other ethnic groups, btw.) The whole evil robotic Asian person out to get you, all math and no emotions? All there, without any attempts at subversion. I think I should be happy that an Asian girl even gets a prominent role with lines and stuff, but I can’t really find it in myself to be charitable. So instead I ended up rooting for the nemesis and constantly reimagine everything from Jessica’s point-of-view. That was how I managed to finish the whole novel and while I did enjoy the novel, I er, didn’t enjoy it for the “right” reasons.

Review: A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott

Title: A Wish After Midnight
Author(s): Zetta Elliott
Genre: YA Urban Historical Fantasy
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Rosetta Press

Summary: Fifteen-year old Genna Colon believes wishes can come true. Frustrated by the drug dealers of her building, her family's cramped apartment, and her inability to compete with the cute girls at school, Genna finds comfort in her dreams of a better future. Almost every day she visits the garden and tosses coins into the fountain, wishing for a different life, a different home, and a different body. Little does she know that her wish will soon be granted: when Genna flees into the garden late one night, she makes a fateful wish and finds herself instantly transported back in time to Civil War-era Brooklyn.
-Summary from backcover

The Review: To say that I love this novel may perhaps been an understatement. But love it I do, and I will probably end up using the word "love" for basically everything I discuss in this review. Just a heads up to the readers that stumble on this blog review. =D Also, I'm kinda enamored with Judah/Genna couple (OTP FOREVA ♥) and er, while I tried to cut down on the OTP gushing to make this review more readable and less fangirly, I get this feeling I was unsuccessful... *DIES*

Okay, let's begin with the setting of Brooklyn. I absolutely love and adore how strong the sense of setting is in this novel. With Elliott's amazing writing talent, she brings Present Day!Brooklyn and Civil War!Brooklyn to life. The city feels tangible and real, and I wished that all urban fantasy could manage this amount of realism with their respective cities.

I also liked how Elliott spent equal time in the Present as in the Civil War Brooklyn. At first, due to the summary, I kept on waiting for the time-travelling to happen, but then Elliott pulls us into this sweet first love story between Judah and Genna and, for me at least, my investment in this couple is one of the many things that helped make everything that happened in the second half just that much more intense. (It kind of reminds me of The Secret Garden in the sense that it builds up slow, but because of this it just brings everything that much more meaning and punch at the climax. Er, actually I'll just link what Neesha Meminger wrote, for she is so much more eloquent than I. ^^; )

Moving on to my darling GENNA. Oh, sweet, level-headed, practical Genna, I was routing for her dreams and wishes all the way through the whole novel. I love how Elliott took the time to really let us get to know Genna before she gets transported back in time. This way we get the chance to really understand Genna as a whole person, with a life and a family and people she cared for, so that when she does get torn away from home, her sharp homesickness and uncertainty about how she'd return just hits us readers in the heart that much more. I especially appreciate how well-developed Genna's family was and the exploration of family interactions. I love reading stories about siblings and parents and stuff, having more than one sibling myself, and Elliott delivers this factor in spades.

I really loved the supporting cast in this novel. Even though not all of their back stories are revealed, I definitely got a strong sense that every single one of the side characters had their own story to tell, i.e. they don't feel like plot devices. As for Judah, I'll be straight up and confess that I love this guy to bits. Yes, I realize this is probably a minority opinion from the way things look in the internet, and it is probably due to his controlling demeanor in the second half. I understand all this, but I don't care, TEAM JUDAH ALL THE WAY. Judah's got a big heart, is dorkishly sweet (the HAIKU ♥ and his encyclopedia knowledge of everything), and his relationship with Genna makes my heart melt. The accent helps too. *is bricked* He has strong views about what he wants in life, and they do in fact clash with Genna's, but I think that's what makes this couple interesting. I get this sense that they both want things so deeply and passionately, striving relentlessly forward to carve out their future, and combine that with their love that started as a sweet high school crush to the intense longing in the second half and I'm a goner. ♥

(Um, just to put it out there, I do like Paul just fine. He's sweet, flirty and fun though I could have done with less of the Blue! Eyes! descriptions on his attractiveness but I don't really see him ending up with Genna. He is very sweet though and I am fond of him, and I would love to see more of him in the sequel.)

What I also found interesting was Genna's reaction to Civil War!Brooklyn as a 21st century girl. Genna is very much a present day girl with present day views that are extremely different from the commonly accepted and default views found in the U.S. Civil War Era. The issues of race, ethnicity, gender, morality were explored well and isn't treated stereotypically in both Present Day and Civil War Era parts of the novel. I'll try not to be spoilery and just say that I thought her reactions to Mrs. Brant and how they evolved over time was probably one of the most interesting character interactions in the whole novel. In fact, I in general just really appreciated how Elliott shows us readers how Genna grows and changes as she meets more and more people.

lol, all this raving and I haven't even gotten to Elliott's exquisite writing!! Every time I am reminded of the fact that publishers/editors/agents rejected A Wish After Midnight for five years, I just can't wrap my mind around it. It plain boggles me. I can't understand how people can turn down A Wish After Midnight after just trying one paragraph of this novel. You know what? Since I'm basically incoherent and can't talk about this aspect of the novel properly, I shall just quote a passage. (Gratuitously Judah/Genna because I can't help myself):

"You know what a haiku is, Genna?" Judah presses a small piece of paper into my palm and walks on ahead with Tyjuan. I trail behind, wanting to be alone. I stop in front of the purple irises growing next to the pond and open Judah's note. At first I feel disappointed 'cause there are only a few words written inside. But then I read them and my eyes fill up with water and my heart aches with that sweet kind of pain, and I wonder if I'm always going to feel this way whenever someone does something nice for me. Inside the note is a poem. Judah has given me these words:

my love is the sun
and you are a blue lotus
turning towards me
(pg. 55)

Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~~~ ♥ Everyone, go and order a copy now. You won't regret this decision. =D

Rating: 5/5
Enjoyment: 100% ♥

Title and Cover Discussion: You know, I actually don't know how to approach this part of my review? I mean, I don't find our Wish title particularly grabbing, but the more I look at it the more it fits? It might not be a title that makes readers go HOMG MUST READ but it just works so incredibly well with the story. I guess it's like those songs you hear on the radio that you didn't really like at first but the more you hear it the more you like it, lol. Same with the cover. (Though I'm biased since I love pink *is bricked*) It's not like the Shiny YA novel covers I'm used to, but the more I see it the more I like it. Hence, I'm going to wuss out on the rating thing since I'm at loss. Instead I'm going to ask: what do you readers think of the cover and title? I'd like to hear and share opinions/thoughts, etc, along with the novel discussion, of course. =D