Shiver Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater

 

I read the Shiver Trilogy because my nine year old daughter asked me if she could read it, and I thought it might be a bit too old for her.

I expected to like the story, as it seems fairly popular. However, I wasn't really all that impressed.

As I was reading Shiver, I kept wanting her to get on with the story. It rambles and swerves and goes off on side tangents and it just didn't work for me. At the end of the book, there is a good chance I'd have not gone onto the second if I weren't reading this for my daughter. Though, to be honest, by the end of the book I'd already decided that I would rather she wait a few years to read it.

Linger was a much better book, and I began to get more involved in the characters.  It still had slow moments, but all in all, I enjoyed Linger.

And then comes Forever. I mostly enjoyed Forever, right up until the last twenty percent or so.  It was predictable, I knew how the author was going to play it, almost exactly.  It felt like a cheap way for her to create as much drama around the final events as possible, to be honest.

But I didn't expect her to weasel out of an ending the way she did. She didn't give us a satisfactory ending. At all. She left pretty much everything up in the air, which made me wish I hadn't started the series at all.

What did I tell me daughter? I don't believe in censoring books (with exceptions, she's not reading my erotica books, but she doesn't have access to them, so she doesn't realize she's being censored). Hmmm, let me try this again: If my daughter's friends are reading a book then I have a choice of letting her read it and keeping the conversation open so I can get my two cents worth in about the sensitive bits, or censoring it and letting her friends tell her about it (and there is no telling which parts they will feel are the juicy bits), or risking that she'll borrow it from a friend and read it and then won't be able to ask me questions because she wasn't supposed to have read it. So I told her the truth -- it's not that great of a series, it moves slow, and I didn't like the way it ended at all. I told her she can read it if she wants, but that I don't really think she'll like it. I warned her that if she decides to read it, that the girl and the boy sleep together and do a lot more than just kiss, but I also assured her that it doesn't detail more than the kisses, it just lets us know they do more. She's chosen not to read it, for now.

For the other parents deciding if they want their child to read this, here are some details -- minor spoilers, but they won't spoil the basic plot.  Her parents aren't around much, they seem to be the flighty creative sort, so she's left to her own devices much of the time. The boy sleeps with her, in her bed, every night for more than a month, but nothing much happens for a long time. He is ultra careful around her, and we find out later it's because he doesn't want her to see him as an "animal", so he doesn't want to give in to those urges. They do have sex in the first book though, and then they have an argument about it the next day, where he accuses her of having sex with him just to get even with her parents. She didn't, and she is hurt by the accusation.  Throughout the series we are only told when they have sex a few times, the rest of the time their sleeping together is more about intimacy and closeness than about sexual energy. However, when they can't sleep together, they often can't sleep without the other. Protection is only mentioned when they get caught and her mother asks if they used protection and she says they did. On the good side, education and school and learning is given high marks. Both kids are responsible about where their life is heading, and responsible for taking care of their friends.  The sex and kissing isn't a huge part of it, and for the most part it shows kids who are making plans for the rest of their life, and being very responsible as they attempt to maneuver their way through the challenges thrown at them in the books.

She is seventeen and he is eighteen, so I'm not sure how they got away with allowing a minor to have sex.

As for the writing elements:

• The plot had so much potential, but sadly wasn't really actualized.
• Pacing was horrible.
• Prose and dialogue were mostly okay.
• Character development was very well done. Perhaps too much in places.
• World-building was exceptionally well done.

• Book Rating: Shiver: 5 of 10
• Book Rating: Linger: 9 of 10
• Book Rating: Forever: 6 of 10
• Series Rating: 6 of 10

I would feel comfortable with my daughter reading this around 13 or after, I think. Before then, I will allow it, since at least two of her friends have read (or are reading) it, but I don't think it's a good book for her age. Still, my mom censoring my books didn't work, and I doubt it will work for my daughter, either. So I prefer to keep communication open, and that means allowing it and talking about it as she reads it. I am thankful she chose not to read it, though.

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Magic on the Line (Allie Beckstrom Book 7) by Devon Monk

 

Magic on the Line was a disappointment for me. I almost didn't finish it, and considering this series has been a 9 of 10 for me, that's not what I expected when I picked up the book.

Here's the blurb:

Allison Beckstrom has willingly paid the price of pain to use magic, and has obeyed the rules of the Authority, the clandestine organization that makes-and enforces-all magic policy. But when the Authority's new boss, Bartholomew Wray, refuses to believe that the sudden rash of deaths in Portland might be caused by magic, Allie must choose to follow the Authority's rules, or turn against the very people for whom she's risked her life.

To stop the plague of dark magic spreading through the city, all that she values will be on the line: her magic, her memories, her life. Now, as dead magic users rise to feed upon the innocent and the people closest to her begin to fall, Allie is about to run out of options.

What does an author do when she finishes a plot arc and has to figure out where to go next with her series? Apparently, Devon Monk decided to change the landscape completely. Tear the world apart and let the characters survive as best they can. And to bring back plot arcs that I thought were tied up and done with.

And the first three fourths of the book is just set up. Conversations. Philosophizing. Things don't really gel, with action towards some sort of resolution, until somewhere after the 75% mark.

As for the writing elements:

• The plot was actually a bit too convenient for me. And predictable.
• Pacing was horrible. Terrible. I kept putting the book down and doing something else. It was a chore to finish the book, and the only reason I did was because I am invested in these characters and kept hoping it would get better. But it didn't, it kept getting worse.
• Prose and dialogue were fine.
• Character development was mostly stagnant. There is still much about Allie's past we don't know, and I keep hoping we (and Allie) will get the answers, but Magic on the Line only gave us more questions.
• World-building was mostly consistent with previous books.

Magic on the Line gets a 5 of 10 from me. The series rating drops to a 7 of 10.

• Book Rating: Magic on the Line: 5 of 10
• Series Rating: 7 of 10

There is one good thing at this point -- there are only two more books in the series, which means we should get answers next year, as both books are scheduled for release in 2012.

1. Magic to the Bone
2. Magic in the Blood
3. Magic in the Shadows
4. Magic on the Storm 
5. Magic at the Gate (Nov 2, 2010)
6. Magic on the Hunt (April, 2011)
7. Magic on the Line (November 2011)
8 Magic Without Mercy (April 2012)
9. Unnamed, final book of series (November 2012)

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Embers by Laura Bickle

 

After a bunch of figurative home runs with new Urban Fantasies, I guess it was time for me to find a book that just didn't work for me. Sadly, I found it with Embers.

It's not that the writing was bad, I think it's just that it flat-out didn't work for me. There were elements that should have made it a story and world that I would like: it drew heavily from mythologies, and it's a world that appears to be like ours on the surface (with magic that exists that most humans (and law enforcement) aren't aware of). However, I kept putting the book down, and almost didn't pick it back up. I read it in a dozen or so sittings because I kept losing interest and putting it down.

Anya wasn't someone I would dislike, but she wasn't super likeable, either. The secondary characters were all pretty one dimensional to me, as well. The ideas were all good - the worldbuilding, the familiar, the plot, the clever use of mythologies... unfortunately, it just didn't come to together for me.

Here's the blurb:

Unemployment, despair, anger--visible and invisible unrest feed the undercurrent of Detroit's unease. A city increasingly invaded by phantoms now faces a malevolent force that further stokes fear and chaos throughout the city.

Anya Kalinczyk spends her days as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department, and her nights pursuing malicious spirits with a team of eccentric ghost hunters. Anya--who is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern--suspects a supernatural arsonist is setting blazes to summon a fiery ancient entity that will leave the city in cinders. By Devil's Night, the spell will be complete, unless Anya--with the help of her salamander familiar and the paranormal investigating team --can stop it.

Anya's accustomed to danger and believes herself inured to loneliness and loss. But this time she's risking everything: her city, her soul, and a man who sees and accepts her for everything she is. Keeping all three safe will be the biggest challenge she's ever faced.

I'm giving Embers a 5 of 10. I realize I'm in the minority here, but I'm not the only one who has not liked this book. A quick web search turned up a DNF from The Bibliophilic Book Blog and Blog with Bite. Wings at Storywings also didn't seem to care for it. There are lots of people who love the book, just check out the reviews on Amazon if you want to see some positive reviews. But Embers didn't work for me.

I came close to giving Embers a 3 or 4 of 10, but I'm giving it a few more points because the basic idea that the book revolves around is a good one.

Book Rating: Embers: 5 of 10

Embers satisfies another book in the Debut Urban Fantasy series challenge I'm doing, which means I've now read six of the fifteen books in the challenge.






1. Embers
2. Sparks (Aug 31, 2010)

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

 

I've seen some reviews for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter that made it look promising, but it's a hardcover, and it didn't look that promising. But then someone at work read it and offered to let me read their copy.

As it turns out, I'm not sure it would be worth the price of a paperback, either.

Don't get me wrong, the concept of the book is a really, really, really, good idea. And I did enjoy parts of it.

I'll let the blurb speak for the concept, and then I'll talk about what I liked and disliked about Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."

"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.

The problems, for me, were:

1. Pacing - I put the book down more than once, with the idea that I wasn't sure whether I would pick it back up. I did pick it back up, but when I finally finished it, it was because it was in my car during my daughter's softball practice, and the battery on my netbook was starting to get low.
2. Length - This story could have been told in half the words used to tell the story. In fact, if that had been the case, then I think it would have received a much higher rating from me. The story itself is a good one, it's the way it is told that is the problem.
3. Prose - it was written to be a dry retelling of someone's life. And I get what the author was trying to do with that. I think he was attempting to go for the irony of the dry and factual way it was told, versus the fantastical tale of what was actually being told. But it didn't work for me. Again, if it had been done in half as many words it may have worked.

But my biggest disappointment was in a lack of closure. The book starts with the author being approached by a man who lends him Lincoln's journals, for the purpose of the author writing a book based on the journals. Once the author had told Lincoln's story, I expected him to tell us about the people he interviewed, and I expected him to tell us about the subsequent conversations he would have with the man who lent him the journals. We didn't get any of that.

I understand that the book is being turned into a screenplay, and will eventually be a movie. I think that this is going to be one of those cases where the movie will be a whole lot better than the book.

Book Rating: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: 5 of 10

Lay Down My Sword and Shield by James Lee Burke

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. It is part of a series, the next book is Rain Gods, due out in May of this year. However, Lay Down My Sword and Shield is not a book I would have chosen to read. It was not an entertaining read, nor a pleasant read.

The author is talented - the prose is beautiful where it is supposed to be beautiful, and ugly where it is supposed to be ugly. The voice is comfortable and fairly easy to read. But there really isn't that much of a plot here, it mostly just rambles around. Even with the rambling, the pacing wasn't all that bad. Like I said, I can tell this is a talented author. But this book just didn't work for me.

Who do I think would like Lay Down My Sword and Shield? I think if you are interested in the conditions during the Vietnam war, if you are interested in the differences in Class distinctions, or if you enjoy reading about people who follow society's expectations and are miserable for it, then you might enjoy Lay Down My Sword and Shield. I had to skim through some of the Prisoner of War stuff because I didn't want some of that snaking it's way into my nightmares. I can handle fantasy horror, but true life horror doesn't work well for me. If it does for you, then you'd like this book.

Before I read the epilogue I would have given the book a 4 of 10. The epilogue raises it to a 5 of 10. If you start reading the book and realize you don't want to finish it - at least read the epilogue at the end. Actually, perhaps the last 20 or so pages and then the epilogue. I didn't much like Hack through most of the book... but then, I don't think he liked himself very much, either. I think he finds a way to like himself in the end, so I'm glad I stuck it out to find that, if it's not a totally happy ending, it does show that life goes on and things can be better.

Book Rating: Lay Down My Sword and Shield: 5 of 10

Again, I will give the caveat that some people will like this book. The author is a talented author, and it's possible I would enjoy him telling a different story. But I didn't care for this particular story.

Review: Flirt (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 16.5) by Laurell K. Hamilton

Flirt has been billed as another in-between-novella, and has been compared to Micah. I'm not sure that's terribly accurate. I'm pretty sure you could skip the Micah novella and not be lost in the series. But if you don't read Flirt then I think you're going to be wondering about a few pretty important things when Bullet comes out.

I am not part of the crowd that thinks the Anita Blake books all went in the crapper years ago. The only book so far that I absolutely didn't like was Micah. There have been a few others that I didn't love, but none besides Micah that I'd say I felt like I'd wasted my time by reading them.

I'm still figuring out how I feel about Flirt. There were a few things that got on my nerves this time, kind of a same-old-same-old annoyance, but that doesn't mean it wasn't an entertaining read. There is not much sex in this one, but lots of very detailed sex has never really bothered me. Maybe what is bothering me is that this plot felt so contrived? I mean, plots are contrived, but I guess this one just felt a bit too contrived.

One positive thing, it seems Anita is getting better and better at not fighting her powers. She's been her own worst enemy at times in the past, so it was a little refreshing that in Flirt she has no problems using her powers as a tool, and she doesn't feel guilty about it later. Also, a big plus for this book: No Richard. I seriously wish he could die and be put out of our misery at this point. Either that or make him grow the hell up.

To look at the mechanics of the book for a minute, the dialogue was good and the pacing was good, but as I said earlier the plot felt too mechanical. I'm used to plots that come out of left field and slap you upside the head from Ms. Hamilton, but this plot was pretty textbook.

Without giving spoilers, I will say that there has been kind of a loose end flying in the wind for years now, and I'm thinking that we're finally about to see that loose end tied off. I don't know that we'll like the way it gets tied off, but the events of this book bring it back into focus, and since I've really wanted that particular loose end dealt with, I'm really interested in seeing what happens in Bullet.

So now the big question: What do I rate Flirt? I have to be honest and say I don't think this 192 page book is worth the $12.00 price tag Amazon is currently selling it for, and certainly not the $23.95 list price. Is it wrong that I feel like I could rate it one point higher if this were a $7.00 paperback? I don't know, I just feel like, for the price they are asking, they are claiming it's a much better (and longer) book than it really is. I'm going to give the book a 5 of 10. But I will leave the series at a 9 of 10.

Book Rating: Flirt: 5 of 10
Series Rating: Anita Blake: 9 of 10

The worldbuilding, the complexity of the relationships, the complexity of the metaphysics - all of these things make this a really interesting series. Some of the books are better than others though, and this one was not one of the best.

I currently have Flirt listed as 16.5 in the series, even though Amazon is listing it as book 18. I've done that based on some thinks LKH has stated on her blog, but if it looks like everyone is going to settle on this being a part of the series and not just an in-between book then obviously I'll have to change that.


1. Guilty Pleasures
2. The Laughing Corpse
3. Circus of the Damned
4. The Lunatic Cafe
5. Bloody Bones
6. The Killing Dance
7. Burnt Offerings
8. Blue Moon
9. Obsidian Butterfly
10. Narcissus in Chains
11. Cerulean Sins
12. Incubus Dreams
12.5. Micah
13. Danse Macabre
14. The Harlequin
15. Blood Noir (2008)
16. Skin Trade (2009)
16.5 Flirt (Feb 2010)
17. Bullet (June 2010)

Scarpetta series Books 9-14 by Patricia Cornwell

I try to always say something positive about a book, even if it is one I didn't really care for. Most of the time it's easy to say something positive amongst the negative, but with these five books I'm going to have to stretch.

To be honest, I'm not convinced that these books are being written by the same author who wrote the first four books of the series. The voice is different, the dialogue is different, the plots aren't anywhere near as well thought out, the procedures aren't being handled the same way within the text... they don't feel like the same series.

I have three books left to go in this series, and quite frankly I am only sticking with the series because the ratings for the latter books seem to be back up and I'm hoping to see something along the same caliber of the first four books. Oh, and because I've already bought the books.

Book Rating: Point of Origin: 7 of 10
Book Rating: Black Notice: 5 of 10
Book Rating: The Last Precinct: 5 of 10
Book Rating: Blow Fly: 5 of 10
Book Rating: Trace: 4 of 10
Book Rating: Predator : 4 of 10

Series Rating: Kay Scarpetta Series: 6 of 10



1 and 2. The Scarpetta Collection Volume I: Postmortem and Body of Evidence
3 and 4. Scarpetta Collection Volume II: All That Remains and Cruel & Unusual
5. The Body Farm
6. From Potter's Field
7. Cause of Death
8. Unnatural Exposure
9. Point of Origin
10.Black Notice
11.The Last Precinct
12.Blow Fly
13.Trace
14.Predator
15.Book of the Dead
16.Scarpetta
17.The Scarpetta Factor