Books n' Nails

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.

But all that changes when the Lynburns return.

The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

From the very first page I fell in love with this book.  Kami is a wonderful character and I enjoyed being in her head.  I also really liked her connection with Jared and ((dude, most obvious spoiler EVER)) their shared mind-talk.  It was really nice to see how being a mind-reader made it HARDER to have a connection with a person, not easier.  The cast of characters around Kami is diverse and well fleshed out as individuals.  The book also had an amazing voice.  I thought it was hilarious that I was actually reading half the characters' dialogue in an English accent . . . it felt that real to me.  This is probably because the setting is very vivid and made me feel like I belonged on the English countryside (who am I kidding, I always thought that).  It's really good that this book has such great characters and setting, because the plot is seriously lacking.  Although there's a breathtaking conclusion the beginning is really slow and the pacing is atrocious.  The first half of the book seems to be "figured out something bad about Jared, Jared is blocking me out, can I trust Jared, find out what Jared's hiding, Jared is blocking me out . . ." ad nauseum.  It was so fun to learn more about Kami and Jared that I excused all these problems, but I can see how some people would be very annoyed with them.  Finally, just as the plot gets going there is a big crash-bang ending and then . . . nothing.  Talk about the mother of all cliffhangers!  I was left clambering for the second book, which I'll probably read in one setting just like I did this book.

The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman

Kicking off a riveting sci-fi trilogy, National Book Award winner Pete Hautman plunges us into a world where time is a tool — and the question is, who will control it?

The first time his father disappeared, Tucker Feye had just turned thirteen. The Reverend Feye simply climbed on the roof to fix a shingle, let out a scream, and vanished — only to walk up the driveway an hour later, looking older and worn, with a strange girl named Lahlia in tow. In the months that followed, Tucker watched his father grow distant and his once loving mother slide into madness. But then both of his parents disappear. Now in the care of his wild Uncle Kosh, Tucker begins to suspect that the disks of shimmering air he keeps seeing — one right on top of the roof — hold the answer to restoring his family. And when he dares to step into one, he’s launched on a time-twisting journey — from a small Midwestern town to a futuristic hospital run by digitally augmented healers, from the death of an ancient prophet to a forest at the end of time. Inevitably, Tucker’s actions alter the past and future, changing his world forever.

If I had to sum this book up in one word it would be "Confusing".  Time travel novels are always at risk of having a disjointed sense of causation due to the back and forth skipping of events.  This novel tries to avoid this by following the chronology of the narrator, Tucker, but Tucker is often confused and thus so is the reader.  There is also pacing issues: it takes Tucker forever to figure out the disks and start the actual adventure that it feels like the book cuts off right in the middle of where it should be just gearing up to a climax.  Add in problematic characterization (Tucker felt young, more like 10 or 12 than 14, even when he was 17 and his mother's portrayal of mental illness seemed to have little basis in reality) and some personal issues I had with the presentation of religion, faith, technology, and humanity and you get a whole that is rather unsatisfying and incohesive.  I will attempt to read the next book to see if there is a more overarching plot that helps things make sense, but to the general reader I say give this a pass at least until the series is complete.

Feature and Follow Friday: November 2nd

Q: What is a deal breaker for you in a book? For example, do you abhor love triangles? Or can’t deal with bad editing?

The only thing that makes me truly dislike a book is no-win scenarios.  If I have no hope that the situation will get any better for the protagonist and her people it really doesn't do it for me.  I first discovered this with Life as We Know It.  Even though the book was excellent technically I knew, logically, that what had happened was the end of life on this planet as we know it, and that no matter how long the protagonist held out things weren't going to get better.  A lot of zombie books are like this, too, so I'm not too big on those.  Otherwise I can tough out pretty much any issue in a book, even if I do throw it across the room repeatedly while I finish it.

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

The blurb to this book sounded awesome, so I went in with high hopes.  I don't want to say that my hopes were dashed, exactly, but they weren't exceeded.  Perhaps the premise of assassin nuns is just so awesome that nothing can totally meet it.

The characterization in this book is good.  I felt a connection with Ismae and her confusion, logical workings, and her heartbreak over her job.  Through her eyes we meet a vast cast of characters that all seem individualized and realized, with motivations that follow through to actions.  The pacing started off slow, and was a little jarring at the beginning (it switches from "we want to make you an assassin" to "you're an assassin now" with only a chapter break), but towards the middle it picked up speed and really became the book of court intrigue.  I saw the romance coming miles away but it still felt natural and logical.  I did not see the big villain twist coming and yet it still felt like it fit with the book and the characters.

Now, the things I didn't like.  There was a lot of "story" to this book, especially the first part.  I felt like I was being told a lot of stuff without evidence to back it up.  For example, I was told "Ismae is now an assassin" without seeing much of her training or her relationships growing with her fellow nuns and superiors.  The book gets better as it goes on, but there is still a lot of telling going on.  I also felt that the worldbuilding was a little suspect when it came to the nuns and their world.  Perhaps that is because we spend so little time there, but it felt as if details about the nuns' beliefs only came up when they were necessary, not planted chapters before, which makes things seem a little contrived.

In all, I think this was a great but not amazing book.  Perhaps I am jaded by all the amazing court intrigue books that have come out this year, but it just didn't click with me like some others did.  It certainly wasn't a waste of time, though, and I'd highly recommend it over many other books.