Another very complicated story by the author of one of my recent favorites, Jellicoe Road. She’s trying out fantasy this time: when Finnikin, son of the captain of the guard of Lumatere, is a child, the ruling family is murdered and the city occupied. It’s also sealed off, Sleeping Beauty-style, by the dying curse of [...]
Finnikin of the Rock, Melina Marchetta
March 22nd, 2010 · 3 Comments
Tags: Reviews
Rampant, Diana Peterfreund
November 29th, 2009 · 3 Comments
The premise is pretty cool: unicorns are vicious killers which were wiped out several generations ago… but now they seem to be back, attacking people in the modern world. Our heroine joins up with a group of… Slayers, basically, who all have a Great Destiny (blech) to send the unicorns back to extinction.
In the [...]
Tags: Reviews
Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan
October 8th, 2009 · 1 Comment
I’m not even going to try to summarize this one, except to say: interweaving of Snow White & Rose Red, Rumpelstiltskin, and probably some other tales into a lyrical novel with the most sexual creepiness I have had the misfortune to encounter in awhile. This is an excellent example of a book marketed to [...]
Tags: Reviews
Sequel Summer: Attack of the Theater People, by Marc Acito
August 25th, 2008 · 1 Comment
How I Paid for College is one of my top 5 funniest books. (Not sure what the others are, honestly. Gordon Korman’s Son of Interflux and I Want to Go Home! are in there, for sure.) It is my standard Beach Reading Recommendation, and if I haven’t pushed it on you, consider [...]
Tags: Reviews
Fantasy birth control
August 19th, 2008 · 7 Comments
I just finished a wonderful book called Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. I’ll wait on the review, because the book doesn’t come out until October, and I don’t want you to forget about it because you can’t read it right now. (I don’t have a lending copy, unfortunately.) But I was talking with [...]
Tags: Book lists · Musing
Grown-up Table: The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perrotta
April 14th, 2008 · No Comments
In a recent post I set myself a challenge to read one grown-up book for every 2 or 3 YA books I read this year, to give myself the same chance at a literary lens for adulthood that I had for childhood/adolescence.
For my first meal at the grown-up table, I picked The Abstinence Teacher, by [...]
Tags: Grown-up table · Reviews