Triple Snapshots: Cynthia Kadohata

Triple Snapshots is when I give a paragraph description on the impressions of books I get. Today’s theme for my Triple Snapshot feature is exactly as the title indicates. Now with an added 3-Sentence Summary feature in which I summarize the book.

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

3SS: It's the 1950s and the Takeshimas are moving into the US South. The core of the story is that between two sisters, as they grow and make sense of their world. What will Katie do when tragedy strikes her family?

Kira-Kira is a wonderful tale of the bond between two sisters, and growing up. Katie was a wonder of a protagonist to be with, and I simply fell in love with Kadohata’s voice in this book. Kadohata has that ability to capture young pre-adolescent voice perfectly without ever oversimplifying or sounding fake, and I was thoroughly charmed. As with all Kadohata books, she leaves you crushed and heartbroken as she brings her cast through tremendous trials, so I do warn for those especially teary-eyed to keep a box of tissue at hand, but the experience of reading such a fine MG novel will be well worth all the tears. I recommend this book to anyone across all ages. I freely admit I lent this book out to my young little sister and she does not seemed scarred by the experience besides wailing at the ending, and she told me she loved it, so there you go. Even non Kadohata-biased people liked it, so EVERYONE JUST READ IT NOW.

Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata

3SS: Cracker, our doggy protagonist, becomes separated from her boy and is sent to the army to be trained as a military dog to scout out bombs and other artilleries. She forms a strong and lasting bond with her soldier companion as they warm up to each other through the training. And then, the two of them get set to the front lines for war...

If anyone could make me a believer of animal companionship tales, Kadohata can. I never cared for stories like Watership Down or Redwall or what you will, but Kadohata’s voice, once again, charmed my socks off. You’re reading this and you feel like this author just gets dogs completely, so convincing is her voice. The war in Vietnam was indeed rather sterilized in this novel, which I admit is problematic, (I’m still waiting for that future novel Kadohata will HOPEFULLY write that does the Vietnamese people who fought on the other side of the war justice, but if this glossed over war aspect bothers you, she does better in her latest novel A Million Shades of Grey) but I say give it a go anyways, especially if you’re a dog lover.

Outside Beauty by Cynthia Kadohata

3SS: Shelby lives with her gorgeous mother and many half-sisters. She cannot imagine life outside of her family, but one day her mother is admitted to the hospital and the sisters get separated as they're all sent packing to live with their biological fathers. How will the sisters reunite to become a family once more?

Oh, Outside Beauty. How much I wanted to like you, and how much did you just not succeed for me. It’s my only Kadohata read so far that turned up disappointing. I suspect it didn’t work because Kadohata didn’t quite manage to balance out together all the elements of this book into the story coherently? Certainly this book has a larger main cast than her other books, and I felt like the depiction of the relationship between all the sisters ended up faltering, and because her character interactions were not quite on par, her message on beauty and family fell short. Also, this is the one book wherein she did not quite manage to grasp at her protagonist’s voice quite right… And I’m not sure if it’s because she’s better at the MG-style voice than YA-voice, or if it’s just because the protagonist wasn’t as well rounded as she could have been. There were elements that I liked, and moments where Kadohata’s voice shines out (Coffee scene! *giggles*) but on a whole this book didn’t work for me. Perhaps die hard Kadohata fans should give this a go to complete their Kadohata book reads, but for newcomers to Kadohata’s novels I suggest you set this one aside and pick up any of her other titles instead.

Triple Snapshots: YA Faerie Romance

Triple Snapshots is when I give a paragraph description on the impressions of books I get. Today’s theme for my Triple Snapshot feature is exactly as the title indicates. Now with an added 3-Sentence Summary feature in which I summarize the book snarkily.

Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

3-Sentence Summary: Wannabe teen actress gets role in Midsummer Night's Dream and meets hot faerie dude. Girl finds out she's not all what she seems. Throw in family/romance angst and some saving the world from Faerie and Human world collision into the mix of our run in the mill YA Faerie story.

This book makes it on the list of one of the many books I read for All the Wrong Reasons: Minor Character Edition. That’s right, I plowed through this thing even though I didn’t care for the heroine or the romantic lead, and the romance that made me gag inside. (Can I rant about the whole “his Firecracker” thing? I don’t find that possessive colouring sweet, just… creepy. I don’t even like it when the male leads refer to the girl as “His girl” It makes me want to go, NO, SHE IS HER OWN PERSON, OKAY?! NOT YOURS.) BUT THEN A KELPIE CAME ALONG, AND HE STAYED IN THEIR BATHROOM AND WAS CALLED LUCKY. I was amused. And then the book told me Lucky the Kelpie may turn into Death Horse, and the whole irony of being called Lucky had me cackling and flipping through the pages despite my better judgment. Also Tyff was the best roommate ever. I wish this whole story was from her POV instead. Anyhow, basically what I got out of this is that I really have to stop picking up books because of pretty covers (I love this cover, why oh why did the story within didn’t match up? *sobs*) and crossed off this whole trilogy thinger off my to-read list. As further evidence of my masochistic streak, I actually already heard horrific things about the sequel having a Love Triangle of Doom, and then I skimmed the sequel anyways and it got into this whole Indian mortal child being kidnapped by the faerie queen for his ~*exotic*~ looks AND THEN I was like, fuck this noise. ARGH MUST BLEACH BRAIN. (Needless to say, I didn't finish the sequel) Also if I never read another fairy story that borrows heavily from A Midsummer Night’s Dream ever again, it’d be too damn soon.

Spells by Aprilynne Pike

3SS: Laurel goes to Faerie school! In which we have tourism in faerieland shenanigans for the first (awesome) half and then the second half stops going to awesome school and indulges us all with WHO WILL SHE CHOOSE love triangle drama. Just typical.

I have NO IDEA why I read the sequel when I found the first book so painful. I mean, while I adored the idea of plant fairies and whatnot, the love triangle made me want to die inside and the story formula was just too generic and typical Changeling story (Girl finds out she is fairy and then something comes after her and she has tragic love triangle between a Fairy boy and Mortal boy WHATEVER SHALL WE DO?! Cry me a river.) that I have no patience for this days. Okay, I lie, I do in fact know why I read this. It’s because I found out that the heroine ends up going into fairy school and I was like OMG HARRY POTTER THE FAIRY VERSION?! I am such a sucker for magical boarding schools like you would not believe, people. And I did in fact enjoy it more than the first book. While there was not enough of the fairy school to keep me happy, I really, really enjoyed getting to know more of the fairy world. It’s evident that Pike did some amazing worldbuilding work with this series. It was interesting how we got to know the world too, with the heroine being the tourist and Tamami showing the world. It worked well for me, this way of showing a fantasy world. It’s too bad that Pike simply insists on having the Love Triangle dominate the whole storyline. Watching this whole David/Laurel/Tamami drama drove me quite mad, and made me want to shake all of them. It also made me want to quote Sarah Rees Brennan’s The Demon’s Covenant at them. (“It’s not some kind of tragically stupid love triangle. I’m not going to choose one guy out of two and settle down. It doesn’t have to be either of them for me, or have to be me for either of them. The world’s full of people, if you haven’t noticed.” Pg. 86) But then again I also just want to quote this everywhere whenever I see stupid love triangles in my stories, so I'm not like, singling this out. I'm just a love triangle hater. On the whole, I suggest that unless you’re All About Worldbuilding in your stories (in which case you HAVE TO HAVE TO read this story now. I love this faerie world!), I’d pass on this whole series. It’s really the only thing going for it. (I wish Pike would just write a story set in this world that had no stupid love triangles and more SCHOOLGIRL RIVALRIES and CLASS PROJECTS and stuff, because I'm a geek like that.) Or, unless you actually like the whole Epic Tragic Love Triangle of Ridiculous. In which case you should gobble this up like candy. I’ll try not to judge you. ;D

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

3SS: Meaghan's bro gets kidnapped by fairies and she goes off to save him. In her saving journey readers subject themselves to a long middle of love triangle romance with creepy killer stalker and jokester best friend in which the girl typically prefers the jerk against all reason. Saving happens at end, but we have crack to entertain us along the way in the form of a cat called Grimalkin, etc.

This novel made me so bipolar.* ETA I found this reading experience mostly a mixed bag. One second I’d be laughing over the crack (OTAKU FAIRIES LOLOLOL, and FAIRIES CLUBBING IN LEATHER and GRIMALKIN, BECAUSE HE’S A CAT WHICH WAS HIS EXCUSE FOR LIFE) and then the next second the love triangle crap made me want to die. Like, even more than in Pike's Wings series. Ash was the creepiest love interest ever. I mean, he tried to kill her! Literally! And has told her that he’d kill her if ever she was on the other side of the battlefield. And then, after Ash makes his speech of wanting to kill her, Meaghan gets turned on?! WTF?! (This happened SO MANY TIMES.) I came into this book HOPING it’d be about the rescuing brother thing but I think the author evidently thought a stupid love triangle would be more compelling (Um, NO) Also I didn’t care for Kagawa’s spin on the whole technology thing? It was a little too TECHNOLOGY BAD, NATURE GOOD, though she did try to complicate a little, I’ll admit. There just wasn’t enough complexity there in her spin on fairy folk lore for me. (Kinda didactic, I suppose?) I probably wouldn’t have bothered finishing it if it weren’t for the fact that 1) ninefly wanted me to do a read through to tell her my thoughts (She always uses me for a guinea pig to test out new novels.) 2) this was a debut book and would count for the Debut challenge. The random crack and Grimalkin got me through it, but there’s no way I’m touching the other books in the series. Any more Ash swooning and I just may have to kill myself.

*

In short, I’ve been disappointed by these faerie stories I’ve been reading lately. I know this entry makes me look like a hater, but I honestly once really enjoyed all these faerie stories, and was extremely partial to those changeling ones. I've been (masochistically?) checking out every YA faerie/fey/fairy/faery/whatever I can find in my library in hopes I'll come across one that I like, and I just read one this morning that I really enjoyed, so I'll hopefully have a happy YA faery book review for y'all soon. IN THE MEANTIME if anyone wants to rec me a YA faerie story with no love triangles of stupid, and no Midsummer Night's Dream references, that'd be awesome. For more specific references, I'd gobble up anything if there's an all-exclusive fairy school YA book out there (BOARDING SCHOOL SETTING IS PREFERABLY, BONUS IF IT'S ALL-FEMALES SCHOOL WITH RIVALRY NEXT TO A ALL-MALES BOARDING SCHOOL 8D) or a kelpie story wherein said kelpie lives in your bathtub. (Also, when I say fey books, I mean like, not fairy tale adaptations. Just straight-up fairy stories, please and thank you.) So yeah, recs will be great.

* I was reading this and it struck me that I probably came across as offensive and drowning in ablist privilege. I do not deny that I have ablist privilege and wrote thoughtlessly without considering the impact my use of these words may have, but I apologize to anyone and everyone for my language, and especially to those who may have been hurt by what I have said, and I shall try to do better at unpacking the implications of privilege I have, etc. Once again, I am very sorry.

Triple Snapshots: Asian Matters

Triple Snapshots is a (hopefully) weekly feature on my blog wherein I take a break from my typical overly long reviews to post short one-paragraph impressions on the books I've read. For this week's theme, the three books have at least one Asian character in the main cast (Two Chinese, One Pakistani)

The Year of the Horse by Justin Allen
Ah, The Year of the Horse. A fascinating concept that failed to deliver for me. This was mainly because I couldn’t connect to any of the main characters and in turn couldn’t care less about their adventures. I wanted to like Lu because, hey, Asian-American protagonist in a Western, yay! But he was the passive narrator type, and I don’t care for those. Couple that with his incessant hero-worship of Jack (whom I was thoroughly sick of by the time Chapter two came along, and spent half the time during the reading discussions I had with ninefly and Ari complaining about Jack, and wanting him to get off the stage) and our protagonist elicited feelings of complete apathy on my part. I didn’t care about the characters, I didn’t care about their adventures, I didn’t care about the plot direction, I found the writing uninspiring and I suspect that I wouldn’t have stuck to this book so long if it weren’t for the fact that I was reading this along with others, and that their reactions to the story were far more interesting and enjoyable than the reading experience itself. (For instance, we had a bit of a running joke over Lu’s horrible nicknaming abilities, and I personally think that if ever Lu and Sadie hook up, he should leave all the children’s naming decisions to the lady.) I did, however, fall madly in love with this total minor character called Bill. Mostly because he keeps dangerous animals as pets (He calls his mountain lion Sweetheart! And his snake Hank! Squee~) and names a gun after his wife, lawl. And got all emotionally invested yet another minor character Goklayeh, and his non-existent’s backstory (I’m convined that he and the unnamed scarred girl had a torrid tragic love story and it was all very epic and things of melodrama and tearjerkers.). I think my biggest personal problem that hindered my reading enjoyment was that I kept on wishing that the story was about anyone else but the main characters. I suppose next time if ever I crave a Western setting storyline featuring Asian protagonists, I’ll just watch some East Asian films with a 'Western-esque' troupe. In fact, my Asian entertainment-viewing friends have been badgering me to get on with watching South Korean film The Good, The Bad, The Weird for the longest time, perhaps I’ll get around to finally watching it.

Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim
I really enjoyed this YA novel. It had a lot of heart. Nina was a perfectly lovable protagonist, and I love seeing her navigate through her life experiences, from family setting to school life to love life. This book was all about character growth, not just in the protagonist, but with other characters that surround and make up Nina’s life. In other words, my favourite aspect of the novel was the characterization. Everyone was so wonderfully fleshed out, and the interactions were all very genuine. I liked how her interactions were varied too, and not totally dominated by only one type of interaction (I'm thinking romantic interactions, a phenomenon that’s pretty prevalent in YA books, unfortunately.), and that she has pretty significant, sustained interactions with her family members and friends along with her crush. The voice was charmingly funny and witty in the understated way rather than the outrageous laugh-until-there’s-no-air-in-your-lungs way, and I think this tone suits the narrative of this novel very well. Highly recommended, and I keep hoping that this novel will either be optioned for a movie or a tv series. For this type of slice-of-life genre, I like seeing the story unfold in a motion picture medium, and I think it’d make a great show with lots of hilarity and heart, y/y? I’d vote for Zarqa Nawaz (creator of Little Mosque on the Prairie sitcom) to adapt this novel. 8D

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley
Justina Chen Headley has, after reading and falling in love with her first two books, become an instant must-read author for me. So of course when North of Beautiful came out, I had to hunt it down as fast as possible. Writing an objective review on this novel though, was rather difficult for me. Because while I enjoyed and loved the book, a part of me realized upon finishing it that I mostly liked it for the familiar Headley style in this novel. I enjoyed it because I liked Headley’s writing and the Girl Overboard cameo moment, and not so much the story itself. Because, truth be told, when I had time to step away from the afterglow of being all giddy over Headley’s words, I realized that I enjoyed the actual storyline far less in comparison to her previous works. I’m a bit ambivalent about the message of beauty in this novel. It’s a good message, to be sure - I just wasn’t too fond of the way that orphanage scene unfolded when Terra meets her so called Chinese girl counterpart, and how beauty and race intersected there... I found the family drama rather weak in the first half as well. (The mother-daughter develops improved tenfold when we hit the second half though, to be fair.) The pacing was off and the story doesn’t really take flight until the second half when they go to Mainland China. I was actually surprised that this was my favourite part, as I really despise the whole white-tourist-in-exotic-locale type stories. But it was more or less done right, and most importantly, the romance between Jacob and Terra blossoms. I think I’ll be forever fond of this novel as Headley’s first truly romantic story, aka with the romantic storyline dominating. (As much as I liked her first two novels of young girls empowering themselves and finding their place in the world, I was totally ready for a Headley style romance, and this novel delivered.) Also because I am extremely fond of Jacob. He’s so boyfriend material. I wish that we got to know more about him actually because his role in the novel was predominantly that of a love interest, and we only see glimpses of other facets to his persona. Also the description of a scar on his upper lip is totally hot. I do think however, that he has quite a lot of baggage issues that have yet to be unpacked by the end of the novel. He never really does reconcile with his Chinese heritage and his whole background as a transnational adoptee. His declarations about how his mom and Terra’s mom were “More Chinese than the Chinese” nonsense didn’t sit well with me either, especially since this claim goes unchallenged. But as Headley has handled race much better in her previous books, I’m willing to overlook this factoid. ANYHOW, I think fans of Headley’s works will be slightly disappointed but get a kick out of this novel anyways if you’re fond of her writing, and I think this novel will convert new readers to Headley’s works, so it’s a win situation overall.

Triple Snapshots of Feb '10 - Children of the Waters, The Housekeeper and the Professor, and Eon

Triple Snapshots is a feature in which I do 3 mini-reviews of novels on the last day of the month.

This month 2/3 of the books are POC related. [I don't care what people say about Eon, that book doesn't deserve a POC subject label)

Children of the Waters by Carleen Brice

I’ll have to admit, this novel was a bit slow for me at the beginning. This may or may not have been influenced by the fact that I was anticipating that sister reunion far sooner than it actually happened in the story, which I would like to blame on the summary, lol. But once the sisters meet, it was a non-stop roller coaster ride for me. The most fascinating aspect of Children of the Waters, for me anyhow, was the challenges to both sisters on the perception of family and race. Between the two sisters, I found Billie’s storyline on how she confronts having a ‘white’ sister the most compelling of the two. I’ll confess that there were moments when I was simply exasperated with Trish. Yes, I know she means well, but her cluelessness and her insistence on a “colourblind” world just made her seem rather naïve. It wasn’t that I hated Trish, quite the opposite: I’m honestly very fond of her attempts to connect with her sister. In fact, I did like all the characters and their flaws, and there were moments between Trish’s and her son Will’s exchange that either had me laughing out loud or veering off to the other spectrum, of sadness and pain. All in all, besides the thing Brice chose to do with the ending [SPOILERS: "I’m iffy about the whole Trish finding some shiny Japanese Zen Buddhist tradition to ~*heal*~ her sister, to be honest. Didn’t gel with me.] I really enjoyed this novel. =D

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, trans. Stephen Snyder

O. M. G. This was AMAZING. Simply astounding. It grabbed me from page one and had me racing through till I got to the end. Heartrendering and beautiful and perfect, the type of novel that I’d go out and buy in a heartbeat. (FYI, borrowed this from the library) I loved how Ogawa told her story without ever giving names to her characters – indeed, I barely paused to wonder at why we never know the names. I liked the way Ogawa used the roles of the characters to refer to them, the exploration of the relationships between each cast member. I’ve seen a lot of reviews that say that they found the relationship between the Professor and the son Root the most compelling but I will admit that it was really the relationship between the Housekeeper and the Professor (as the title says) that grabbed me by the heart – possibly because it’s so much more fragile and transient. With the Professor and the Son, our Professor shows instant like towards the son even though he doesn’t remember the kid, whereas every time the Professor and the Housekeeper meet, the meeting is much harder in comparison. The absence of that connection should have estranged their relationship with one another, but each time they meet the ties that get newly formed every couple hours is beautiful in that evanescent way, like the view of autumn leaves, rendered beautiful because we know they won’t last. This book even managed the impossible and made me enjoy the MATH in the story, and anyone who knows me IRL knows how much I can’t take math. (ugh graphs *shudders*) For the time I spent reading this novel, I was a math convert and saw the beauty in numbers and equations. (… I can’t believe those words just came out of my mouth. SEE HOW AMAZING THIS BOOK IS?! It actually got my stubborn self to CHANGE MY MIND about math – for a moment.) Beautiful, and the translation was fluid and lovely as well and basically what I’m trying to say is that you HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK NOW. So good, so shelf-worthy. I can’t recommend this book enough.

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman

… Holy shit, what was this crap? This book is reminded me of all my reasons why my gut reaction is to always shrink whenever I see white authors trying to write out “Asian fantasies” - 99% of the time all I get is faux chinoiserie orientalist CRAP. The world screamed FAKE FAKE FAKE and omg the crappy gender relations was so awfully handled. It was like Goodman has this uber shallow understanding of the Yin/Yang concept and then just shoved in all her “modern” gender role theories into the novel and it was soooooo awful, it made me want to scream. And, just for good measure, when I managed to get to the END of the novel, the author’s notes goes as follows: “The Empire of the Celestial Dragons is not a real country or culture, It is a fantasy world that was at first inspired by the history and cultures of China and Japan, but rapidly became a land of imagination with no claim to historical or cultural authenticity.” (italics and bold mine) WAY TO RUB SALT TO THE WOUND. Not only was the worldbuilding awfully handled, but now I *also* know that she didn’t even TRY for authenticity and thorough research. Always nice to know. [/sarcasm] And you know what’s the worst part (for me)?! Not only did I read this all the way to the end, but I actually want to read the last book of this damn series. Don’t you hate how you get all attached to some stupid minor character and have to read to the bitter bitter end just to see how it goes? (Sounds familiar? Why yes, I am doing the same thing for the Darkest Powers series. Clearly I have a masochistic streak) Because I’m all fond of Lady Dela, who is a trangendered woman (transgender in my fantasy whut?!) and I so badly want her and Ryko to end up together. Which is terrible because some part of me tells me they’re going to end up with a tragic rocks-falls-everyone-dies kind of ending, or either be sacrificed as the loyal sidekicks to Eona’s awesomeness. So when the last book comes out and they don’t end up together, if you see me lying around in a sobbing mess and hating on everything and being generally useless, you now know why I’m in such a state.

Triple Snapshots of Jan' 10 - An Abundance of Katherines, Wanting Mor, The Hour Glass

lawl I haven't done this in ages. Changing this to a monthly meme, just because

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

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

* - indicates POC author

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

You know, after finishing reading this book, I was left with one thought, “If this story was retold in Hassan’s POV I would have liked this novel so much better.” Seriously, while the whole ~*heartwarming*~ road trip left me cold, the fairly standard typical romance had me yawning and Colin’s plight left me mostly unsympathetic (I was dumped by too many girls POOR ME! … You can tell that I’m not really on the dumpee end of the spectrum.), I was completely charmed by Hassan. He was so incredibly geeky (Star Trek references, rofl) and sat around being a school-less, job-less bum with his life’s goal to catch Judge Judy on his tv set, and brought in the funny by poking fun at Colin whenever he went on his angst periods (DINGLEBERRIES. ♥). WHAT IS THERE NOT TO LOVE. The man-boobs can be attractive too. *shifts eyes* I kind of wish I enjoyed it more because I heard great things about John Green, but I’m not exactly tempted to check out his other novels after this one. UNLESS It’s a Hassan novel. I’d buy that in a heartbeat, 1st ed hardcover et all. Ah well, at the end of the day, I did enjoy the novel very much, even if I spent the whole time wishing it was about the side character instead of out protagonist.

Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan *

Hmm, my feelings are a bit mixed for this novel. On one hand I enjoyed this book for giving our main girl Jameela agency in her actions. It’s a bit of a Cinderella story sans the prince, wherein the girl rises from her station and comes into her own. She makes her own choices, her own decisions and I very much appreciated that. I particularly loved how she chose to continue wearing a chadri even after she got surgery done on her cleft lip, how she didn’t choose to wear a chadri because of poor self-image but because she wanted to. However, on the flip side, Jameela herself left me a bit cold. I’m thinking it’s maybe because Jameela is rather cold and standoff-ish towards everyone in the story and by proxy I feel distant from her myself? For the first half of the novel I mostly felt, while a lot of pity for what she had to go through, I also felt distant from everything that was happening to her at the same time. I felt for her, but I just didn’t connect with her. In some ways the second half of the novel was a bit better because she elicited a reaction out of me with her actions towards a particular orphan girl, but my reactions were hardly positive. The reasons for Jameela’s revulsions were explained and true to her judging, standoffish character, but it just didn’t make them any more right. Even when her attitudes towards the child changed towards the end, it just didn’t feel enough for me, more like her attitudes changed because she felt like she was obliged to be kind rather than out of fondness for the child herself. Thinking back, I may have remembered this novel more kindly if Khan handled this relationship between Jameela and the child differently. I tend to remember my endings more than anything so the fact that most of their interactions happened in the second half left the stronger impression on my mind.

The Hour Glass by Hilary Spiers

Ugh. My first short story anthology of the year and it SUCKED. Seriously not impressed. The only reason why I actually finished it (thus being able to talk about it) is because 1) it was a giveaway win and I feel like I oughta at least see it through the bitter, bitter end and 2) the lineup to get my transcript stuff was like, an hour long so I just flipped through the whole thing to see how it’ll go. I think I would have remembered this anthology more fondly if I didn’t finish the whole thing, to be honest. When I first started out, most of the short stories were just very meh. The writing was uninspiring and as for the stories themselves, I keep thinking of other short stories I’ve read that dealt with the themes Spiers presented in a far better fashion. All the short stories basically bored me… Until we got to that Bronte family story of FAIL. Seriously, what was that? It wasn’t even like, a fictionalized historical recount of their lives, but like, she just randomly shoves them in some vague “modern” setting and had them talking about non-inspired story plotlines. There was no plot or ANYTHING. And the interactions Spiers wrote in were terrible and (dare I say it) OOC aka Out of Character. Spiers made the Bronte sisters sound like spinster old writer hacks with the most horrendous writer’s block sharing uninspired ideas with one another and that’s just wrong, wrong, WRONG. Okay, so maybe I’m getting defensive ‘cause I love Emily Bronte and Anne Bronte’s works, but still. ARGH. If I wanted crappily faux reimaginings of historical figures I could go around FanFiction.Net. DO NOT RECOMMEND. And, if I were to rate this anthology, I’d give it a 0/5. The only reason why there aren’t negative numbers in there is because I’m trying to tell myself that just because this one story was fail doesn’t mean I should hate on the whole anthology of mediocrity.

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.

Triple Snapshots: Exclusively Chloe, Silver Phoenix, Secondhand World

Ahaha, so I clearly suck at this updating business...

So, introducing my first feature: Triple Snapsnots. Inspired by Hyper-Parfait's Triple Delights, this feature will contain my scattered thoughts on whatever Three Novels I decide to do a snapshot on for this feature. (The only real reason why it isn't called "delights" is because I can't guarantee I'll always be happy about the novels I'm doing a snapshot of)

1. Exclusively Chloe by J. A. Yang - Just when I thought there was nothing more to offer in the whole asian adoptee storyline, out comes J.A. Yang, who combines this with Celebrity life story, and the combination was pure gold. Asian Adoptee story with minimal angst. Wee~ Also, love Luther and the whole undercover at "normal" school to find long lost relative subplot. I thought Chloe-Grace's friends could have been better fleshed out though. For the whole novel, I felt like they never really went beyond the stock type personality... But this didn't deter me from enjoying the novel, at any rate. =D Highly recced for those who are looking for a YA novel that's light-hearted and fun.

2. Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon - The one major thing that blew me away in this novel: the ABUNDANT chinese mythology reference. I don't think I've seen so many chinese mythical creatures crammed into one novel. Which, in my books, I say is a great thing because one can never have too many chinese mythical creatures. >D It was a really fast paced read, and the setting was amazingly vivid. Unfortunately, I wasn't really a big fan of the characters. They all felt rather... flat. But I suppose the magic stuff makes up for it. =D Oh! And a random nitpick: I'm not a big fan of the people of this world being referred to as "Xi'an". I look at it, and all I can think of is the actual province (the one w/ the terracotta warriors, etc) that exists in China. But it's not a big deal... Recommended to all fantasy fans who like their mythology, but warning: do NOT read this while hungry. =D =D

3. Secondhand World by Katherine Min - Um... I really didn't get this novel? I don't know, it felt like this story was trying to do so much at once, with the whole marital affair and the romance between Isadora and Hero and the death of the kid brother and... I don't know. All this stuff, it just didn't seem terribly cohesive. And I know that the fire was supposed to be the centrepoint that brings all these storylines together, but for me, it didn't work... And Isadora always felt very distant to me. There'd be brief moments where I feel like I can connect, but for a large part of the novel I didn't get her at all... But I think this may just be one of those It's-Not-You-It's-Me moments. =/ I did like the structure of the novel though, for what it's worth.