Reading Rainbow
Dec. 25th, 2008 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Well and also Merry Christmas. Hope all is well. Since my charger died, I have been reading. A lot. A whole, whole lot. Here are six, so as not to overwhelm. :)
Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. Highly Recommended (♥♥♥♥♥)
This is probably my favorite of the books I've read, with the only possible contender being The Hunger Games. It's a fantasy/action/survival novel, with an absolutely chilling villain. The premise is that certain people are born with abilities, called graces--things they're extraordinarily, impossibly good at. The protagonist, Katsa, is graced with killing. How do you live when you're used just as a tool for a cruel, vindictive king? How do you trust people when no one dares look into your eyes? The plot was strong and engaging, with political intrigue, magic, fighting, and the romantic sub-plot was just delightful. Watching Katsa change and grow and develop (both her Grace and her emotions or humanity) was fascinating. I always love these sorts of magic meets survival meets fighting sorts of novels, and when great realistic character development is thrown in too, I can't resist. It reminded me a lot of something by Tamora Pierce stuff for older teens, which have always been favorites of mine. It's the sort that gets stuck in your head, with you still wondering and pondering and replaying scenes days after you read it. An incredibly strong first novel. Highly recommended.
The Hunger Games, by Suzzane Collins. Highly Recommended (♥♥♥♥♥)
Also a favorite, and very similar to Graceling in some ways. By the author of "The Queen of Attiola", this book is set in some vague future, in what was once North America. Their technology in some ways is far ahead of ours, but it doesn't really matter if you're too poor to even be able to feed yourself some days, like protagonist Katniss, and many other people who live with her in District 12. The Capital forces each district to send one boy and one girl, randomly chosen, to participate in the Hunger Games, a twisted version of Survivor where literally the person--the only person--who survives wins. Killing off your competitors while the entire country watches avidly is the only way to be released from the Games. Katniss enters the games, and has to use the skills she's learned to poach rabbits and wild dogs both to survive herself and to kill the others. She's pragmatic, and not too weighed down by emotions (she does things like calculate how often she should be affectionate to another competitor to curry favors from sponsors) but she's incredibly likable and feels very realistic. This is the first book in a series, and I can't wait for more. I was worried it was going to be silly and not take the consequences of such games (physical and psychological) seriously, but it was a gripping, chilling tale of something that seemed a little too close for comfort. Highly recommended.
Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson. Highly Recommended (♥♥♥♥♥)
This is my only re-read on the list so far, and it's fitting that it's by Laurie Halse Anderson. I may or may not be biased, as she's a dear friend of my family's, but she writes teenagers better than almost anyone I've ever read, with a true respect and appreciation for teenage thoughts and emotions and ideas. This is another boy-centric realistic fiction (points!), and I absolutely love her protagonist, Tyler. The plot is fascinating, which is even more impressive, because it's not anything out of the ordinary. Tyler pulls a prank his junior year, is sentenced to community service in the form of hard physical labor all summer, and subsequently gets more attention from the girl of his dreams, in the middle of dealing with trouble with his family, his grades, and the fact that his best friend is dating his little sister. Nothing terribly unusual, right? But Laurie writes it so well and so honestly that you can't stop reading, and you can't stop rooting for Tyler, and you can't help but getting completely sucked in.
Swim The Fly, by Don Calame. Recommended (♥♥♥♥) (pre-release)
This book isn't out yet, but oh my GOD is it funny! I was laughing out loud 15 pages in. It's about, as my dad described it to me, "three knuckle-headed teenage boys doing knuckle-headed teenage boy things", and it's hysterical. Their summer goal is to see a real live girl naked, and they go to some crazy extremes to try to accomplish it. I love realistic fiction from the boy's perspective--I love their knuckle-headed teenage boy thoughts and ideas, and I'm so pleased that there are being more novels featuring boys that don't also feature airplanes and/or deep-sea diving, or swords and sorcery.
Melting Stones, by Tamora Pierce. Recommended for fans (♥♥♥)
This is set in her Circle of Magic universe, and will not make a lot of sense if you haven't read those books. I like Tamora Pierce a lot--she's got a great knack for fantasy/magic world building and fantastic characters that leap off the page. This book seemed to be a bit young, though, and didn't hold my attention as well as some of her other stuff did. A good, fun read, if you've read her other stuff, but not a drop everything and read this now. Recommended if you have the time.
You Are So Undead To Me, by Stacey Jay. Not recommended. (♥♥) (Pre-release)
Meh. The sort of thing that Meg Cabot wrote in her Mediator series, and much better. The same sort of premise, in that this teenage girl has the ability to speak to some sort of supernatural beings (ghosts in Mediator, zombies here) and put them to rest. However, there were too many things that you were expected to just pick up as you went, and I had a hard time following the rules of her "settling" the zombies, as well as who some of the minor characters were. When the villain was revealed, I was surprised, and not in a good way--more of a, "wait, who was that person again?" The motive was weak and seemed contrived, and that kind of killed the book for me. The writing's not bad, if you like that sort of pop-culture fast paced teen girl novel writing, but the story left me dry. I liked the supporting characters better than the protagonist, and that's always kind of a problem.
All for now. More later. :)
Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. Highly Recommended (♥♥♥♥♥)
This is probably my favorite of the books I've read, with the only possible contender being The Hunger Games. It's a fantasy/action/survival novel, with an absolutely chilling villain. The premise is that certain people are born with abilities, called graces--things they're extraordinarily, impossibly good at. The protagonist, Katsa, is graced with killing. How do you live when you're used just as a tool for a cruel, vindictive king? How do you trust people when no one dares look into your eyes? The plot was strong and engaging, with political intrigue, magic, fighting, and the romantic sub-plot was just delightful. Watching Katsa change and grow and develop (both her Grace and her emotions or humanity) was fascinating. I always love these sorts of magic meets survival meets fighting sorts of novels, and when great realistic character development is thrown in too, I can't resist. It reminded me a lot of something by Tamora Pierce stuff for older teens, which have always been favorites of mine. It's the sort that gets stuck in your head, with you still wondering and pondering and replaying scenes days after you read it. An incredibly strong first novel. Highly recommended.
The Hunger Games, by Suzzane Collins. Highly Recommended (♥♥♥♥♥)
Also a favorite, and very similar to Graceling in some ways. By the author of "The Queen of Attiola", this book is set in some vague future, in what was once North America. Their technology in some ways is far ahead of ours, but it doesn't really matter if you're too poor to even be able to feed yourself some days, like protagonist Katniss, and many other people who live with her in District 12. The Capital forces each district to send one boy and one girl, randomly chosen, to participate in the Hunger Games, a twisted version of Survivor where literally the person--the only person--who survives wins. Killing off your competitors while the entire country watches avidly is the only way to be released from the Games. Katniss enters the games, and has to use the skills she's learned to poach rabbits and wild dogs both to survive herself and to kill the others. She's pragmatic, and not too weighed down by emotions (she does things like calculate how often she should be affectionate to another competitor to curry favors from sponsors) but she's incredibly likable and feels very realistic. This is the first book in a series, and I can't wait for more. I was worried it was going to be silly and not take the consequences of such games (physical and psychological) seriously, but it was a gripping, chilling tale of something that seemed a little too close for comfort. Highly recommended.
Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson. Highly Recommended (♥♥♥♥♥)
This is my only re-read on the list so far, and it's fitting that it's by Laurie Halse Anderson. I may or may not be biased, as she's a dear friend of my family's, but she writes teenagers better than almost anyone I've ever read, with a true respect and appreciation for teenage thoughts and emotions and ideas. This is another boy-centric realistic fiction (points!), and I absolutely love her protagonist, Tyler. The plot is fascinating, which is even more impressive, because it's not anything out of the ordinary. Tyler pulls a prank his junior year, is sentenced to community service in the form of hard physical labor all summer, and subsequently gets more attention from the girl of his dreams, in the middle of dealing with trouble with his family, his grades, and the fact that his best friend is dating his little sister. Nothing terribly unusual, right? But Laurie writes it so well and so honestly that you can't stop reading, and you can't stop rooting for Tyler, and you can't help but getting completely sucked in.
Swim The Fly, by Don Calame. Recommended (♥♥♥♥) (pre-release)
This book isn't out yet, but oh my GOD is it funny! I was laughing out loud 15 pages in. It's about, as my dad described it to me, "three knuckle-headed teenage boys doing knuckle-headed teenage boy things", and it's hysterical. Their summer goal is to see a real live girl naked, and they go to some crazy extremes to try to accomplish it. I love realistic fiction from the boy's perspective--I love their knuckle-headed teenage boy thoughts and ideas, and I'm so pleased that there are being more novels featuring boys that don't also feature airplanes and/or deep-sea diving, or swords and sorcery.
Melting Stones, by Tamora Pierce. Recommended for fans (♥♥♥)
This is set in her Circle of Magic universe, and will not make a lot of sense if you haven't read those books. I like Tamora Pierce a lot--she's got a great knack for fantasy/magic world building and fantastic characters that leap off the page. This book seemed to be a bit young, though, and didn't hold my attention as well as some of her other stuff did. A good, fun read, if you've read her other stuff, but not a drop everything and read this now. Recommended if you have the time.
You Are So Undead To Me, by Stacey Jay. Not recommended. (♥♥) (Pre-release)
Meh. The sort of thing that Meg Cabot wrote in her Mediator series, and much better. The same sort of premise, in that this teenage girl has the ability to speak to some sort of supernatural beings (ghosts in Mediator, zombies here) and put them to rest. However, there were too many things that you were expected to just pick up as you went, and I had a hard time following the rules of her "settling" the zombies, as well as who some of the minor characters were. When the villain was revealed, I was surprised, and not in a good way--more of a, "wait, who was that person again?" The motive was weak and seemed contrived, and that kind of killed the book for me. The writing's not bad, if you like that sort of pop-culture fast paced teen girl novel writing, but the story left me dry. I liked the supporting characters better than the protagonist, and that's always kind of a problem.
All for now. More later. :)