The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin: This Book Was Tons Of Fun

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin is written by Josh Berk. It was published in 2010 by Alfred A. Knopf. Berk’s website can be found here.

Genre: Young Adult, Realistic, Mystery

Summary/Blurb:

“When Will Halpin transfers from his all-deaf school into a mainstream Pennsylvania high school, he faces discrimination and bullying, but still manages to solve a mystery surrounding the death of a popular football player in his class.”

~Library of Congress

Passages/Quotes:

So what’s happening on this bus? The most interesting stuff is in the back. All the cool kids sit in the back. It is pretty much a directly rising slope of coolness from the front of the bus to the back. From me to a weird skinny guy in a football shirt who clearly isn’t on the team to Marie (whose last name is Stepcoat) to the trio from my morning bust stop: A.J. Fischels, Teresa Lockhart, and Gabby Myers. If you keep going, you’d fly out the back of the bus onto the road itself and land in the cars belonging to the kids far too cool to ever set foot on a bus.

~Berk 23

Smiley_Man3000: It is really sad what happened to Pat.

HamburgerHalpin: yeah

Smiley_Man3000: Who do you think it was? Do you think it was someone who was mad about not getting invited to the party? A.J.? Do you want to help me find out?

HamburgerHalpin: why? u hated pat right? he flushed your suit

Smiley_Man3000: Smileys have been cops for three generations. Solving crimes is in my blood. Plus, I spent my childhood wearing out those Hardy Boys books from the library. I think I can take a crack at it!

HamburgerHalpin: aunt gertrude’s cookin’ better be good

Smiley_Man3000: So does that mean you are in?

HamburgerHalpin: let’s do this frank

~Berk 133

Cover Art

Warnings: Death, hormonal teenage boys

Recommended Age Range: 14+

Rating: 5/5

What I Liked:

I loved this book! It was fun (and funny) and the mystery was pretty good. Will Halpin was such a great narrator, with a nice witty and sarcastic voice. He’s also bursting with self-confidence; he doesn’t mind that he’s fat and he doesn’t mind that he’s deaf, and he doesn’t let the (small/miniscule amount of) bullying that does happen to him get to him.

This book also is a great way to introduce someone to the ways of the deaf world. The deaf community and their beliefs are talked about briefly and Will likes to explain sign language occasionally. It’s not in-depth knowledge, but it’s enough to make someone want to learn more. I took two semesters of ASL in college and I really love the language.

I also liked how Berk usually showed two sides to each character, with the exception of Pat. It made them more nuanced and realistic.

What I Didn’t Like:

The summary is a tad inaccurate.

Overall Review:

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin is a great introduction to the deaf world and can be used as a starting point for those who are interested in learning more. It also has a memorable protagonist, a decent mystery, and enough charm to hope for a sequel. It’s tons of fun.

Coming Up Next: In the Hands of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce

Requiem: I Dislike Love Triangles, But A Good Finish To A Good Dystopian Trilogy

Requiem is written by Lauren Oliver. It was published in 2013 by Harper. It is the third and final book in the Delirium trilogy. I reviewed the first two books here and here, respectively. Oliver’s website can be found here.

Will contain slight spoilers for all three books.

Genre: Dystopian, Young Adult

Summary/Blurb:

“While Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous Wilds, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland.”

~Library of Congress

Passages/Quotes:

“You really do look lovely, Hana,” my mother says.

“Thank you,” I say. I know I look lovely. It might sound egotistical, but it’s the truth.

This, too, has changed since my cure. When I was uncured, even though people always told me I was pretty, I never felt it. But after the cure, a wall came down inside me. Now I see that yes, I am quite simply and inarguably beautiful.

I also no longer care.”

~Oliver 13

“The river—” Raven starts to say as we get closer, but Pippa cuts her off.

“We heard,” she says. Her face is grim. In the daylight, I see Pippa is older than I originally thought. I assumed she was in her early thirties, but her face is deeply lined, and her hair is gray at the temples. Or maybe that is only the effect of being here, in the Wilds, and waging this war. “It isn’t flowing.”

“What do you mean?” Hunter says. “A river doesn’t stop flowing overnight.”

“It does if it’s dammed,” Alex says.

For a second there’s silence.

“What do you mean, dammed?” Julian speaks first. He, too, is trying not to panic. I can hear it in his voice.

Alex stares at him. “Dammed,” he repeats. “As in, stopped. Blocked up. Obstructed or confined by a—”

“But who dammed it?” Julian cuts in. He refuses to look at Alex, but it’s Alex who responds.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” He shifts slightly, angling his body toward Julian. There’s a hot, electric tension in the air. “The people on the other side.” He pauses. “Your people.”

~Oliver 177-178

Cover Art

Warnings: Violence, swearing.

Recommended Age Range: 16+

Rating: 3.5/5

What I Liked:

Oliver’s writing is, as usual, beautiful. I wish more authors would write like her.

The whole “Story of Solomon” thing with Alex was so adorable. Also, loved the way Oliver handled the love triangle (well, mostly…). It wasn’t so much of a love triangle as confusion, hurt and uncertainty. Great job breaking the mold (slightly), Oliver.

Grace! You’re back! I missed you!

Overall, it’s a good finish to the series, and the series itself is pretty decent. It’s definitely above Condie’s Matched trilogy. I would re-read this sooner than I would re-read Matched (also, if you’re curious as to my ranking of dystopian trilogies, it goes: Hunger Games, Divergent, Delirium, Matched. Those are all the ones I’ve read in full (minus Divergent, the third book of which comes out in October).

There’s going to be a Delirium TV show!

What I Didn’t Like:

I wish we could have gotten a better look at the inner workings of this society. Although, now that I think about it, maybe we did in the first book and I’ve just forgotten.

Okay, so, instead of resolving the love triangle like most books with love triangles do, Oliver decided to not resolve it, and left Lena like Katniss in Catching Fire and the beginning of Mockingjay, which means that we are left with no clue as to whether it’s Julian or Alex. I mean, sure, it can be implied that it will be Alex, and it probably most definitely is Alex, but it’s far more complicated than that, as Lena herself said! What about Julian? What happens with him?

Also, what the heck happened to Hana? Is there no resolution for her either? Does she get away? Where does she go? Does she meet up with Lena again? Why do people like ending books with unresolved issues? At least with Mockingjay we got an epilogue, no matter what people thought of it.

Oh, and I didn’t much like the way Oliver ended the book. Not with the characters tearing down the wall, because that was cool, but the whole three paragraphs after that that talked about “tearing down your walls.” That was a bit…twee? Corny? Something like that.

Overall Review:

Requiem continues the beautiful writing of Delirium and Pandemonium and finishes the trilogy fairly well. I had a few problems with the trilogy as a whole and with this book in particular, particularly the way Oliver chose to end it, but it is a decent series and probably one of the better ones out there.

Coming Up Next: The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk

Sapphique: One Of The Easiest Ways To Make Someone Dislike A Book Is To Make All The Characters Annoying

Sapphique is written by Catherine Fisher. It is the sequel to Incarceron (which I reviewed here). It was published in 2008 by Dial Books. Fisher’s website can be found here.

Spoilers for Incarceron.

Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Young Adult

Summary/Blurb:

“Incarceron, the living prison, has lost one of its inmates to the outside world: Finn’s escaped, only to find that Outside is not at all what he expected. Used to the technologically advanced, if violently harsh, conditions of the prison, Finn is now forced to obey the rules of Protocol, which require all people to live without technology. To Finn, Outside is just a prison of another kind, especially when Claudia, the daughter of the prison’ warden, declares Finn the lost heir to the throne. When another claimant emerges, both Finn’s and Claudia’s very lives hang on Finn convincing the Court of something that even he doesn’t fully believe.

Meanwhile, Finn’s oathbrother Keiro and his friend Attia are still trapped inside Incarceron. They are searching for a magical glove, which legend says Sapphique used to escape. To find it, they must battle the prison itself, because Incarceron wants the glove too.”

~Inside Flap

Passages/Quotes:

“Call me Ishmael,” he said, and then laughed, a sudden throaty bark that startled her.

“What?”

“From a patchbook I once read. About a man obsessed with a great white rabbit. He chases it down a hole and it eats him and he’s in its belly for forty days.” He gazed out at the featureless pain of tilted metal, its few spiny shrubs. “Guess my name. Riddle me my name, Attia mine.”

She scowled, silent.

“Is my name Adrax, or Malevin, or Korrestain? Is it Tom Tat Tot or Rumplestiltsker? Is it—”

“Forget it,” she said. There was a crazy glint in his eye now; he was staring at her in a way that she didn’t like. To her alarm he leaped up and yelled out, “Is it Wild Edric who rides upon the wind?”

~Fisher 36

“Tell us more about the day you remember. The day of the hunt.” The Shadow Lord loomed over him, eyes hard.

Finn stood in the empty center of the room. He wanted to pace about. Instead he said, “I was riding…”

“Alone?”

“No…there must have been others. At first.”

“Which others?”

He rubbed his face. “I don’t know. I’ve tried to think, over and over, but…”

“You were fourteen.”

“Fifteen. I was fifteen.” They were trying to trick him.

“The horse was chestnut?”

“Gray.”

~Fisher 234-235

Cover Art

Warnings: Violence.

Recommended Age Range: 14+

Rating: 2/5

What I Liked:

Jared is amazing, just like he was in the last book.

Fisher is doing some great things here with the world she has built. Like I said for Incarceron, it’s a great concept. I liked the ending and the bleak hope the characters have as they stare at their ruined world but know that they can rebuild it and make it better.

I liked Attia a whole more in this book than I did in Incarceron. In fact, she was the only character I liked besides Jared.

Fan art by iabri71 on deviantart

What I Didn’t Like:

So many unanswered questions. Is Finn the real Giles or not? Who is Rix? Why in the world did Finn think of old Tom mentioning his son when old Tom did not, in fact, mention his son?

Why are all the characters (with the exception of two) so annoying? Keiro made me grind my teeth in annoyance, Claudia was too untrusting, too stubborn, and too arrogant and snobby and Finn was always sulky and moody. Unlikeable characters can really ruin a book, and it really almost ruined this one. For me, to get into a book I have to enjoy the characters, and when I can only stand reading about two out of the main five, there’s a problem. I do not enjoy a book when I feel like punching Keiro in his smirking, arrogant face, or slapping Claudia for being so snobby and high-and-mighty, or shaking Finn for being so sulky and angry. Oh, that’s another thing: I don’t think any of these characters actually develop at all over the course of Incarceron and Sapphique.

Also, Fisher’s writing drives me crazy with her comma usage and lack of conjunctions.

Overall Review:

I don’t understand the praise for this duology and for Fisher. To me, this is a mediocre fantasy at best. The characters are unlikeable and have no development whatsoever; there are a lot of unresolved plot points and questions left unanswered; and the concept, while unique and interesting, is not enough to redeem this book.

Coming Up Next: Requiem by Lauren Oliver (on Friday!)

Holy One-Year Anniversary, Batman!

It’s been one year, folks! One year since I started reviewing YA books!

Celebrate!

Technically, it will be one year tomorrow (May 11), but I’m posting this today since I graduate from college tomorrow and so will be busy all day. It’s been a fun, wonderful time so far. When I started this blog, I felt a bit lost at sea, but now I’m more comfortable and can now start thinking of more ways to improve these reviews. I added an age range, categories, and a list of my reviews, and I’m approaching my 100^th book review! Also, in celebration of my one-year anniversary, and because I think my reviews need it, I will be implementing a Rating System! Starting in the next few days, I will be giving every book I’ve reviewed so far a rating. The ratings will range from 1 to 5, with 1 being terrible and 5 being amazing. To further explain, 1’s will be books that I feel are boring, terrible, poorly written, etc. and that I would not recommend to anyone. 5’s are books that I feel are amazing, wonderfully written, and that really stand out and that I would definitely recommend to someone. To accompany the ratings system, I will be adding another page with my book reviews listed by rating, so I’ll have my book reviews by author and then my book reviews by rating.

It’s summer time for me, which means that I’ll be getting a lot more reading done, which means that the blog will once again be updated twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays! As an added bonus, here’s what to expect for the future: books by Cassandra Clare and Diana Wynne Jones (my favorite author), the Divergent series, the Hunger Games trilogy, and lots more! As for future Series Weeks, I’m still considering several options, including Harry Potter, Gregor the Overlander, and the Chronicles of Chrestomanci. Stay tuned to see what happens!

As a celebration of both my one-year anniversary and the ratings system, here’s my top five favorite and least favorite books that I’ve reviewed (the first 5’s and 1’s; not including any Series Weeks books (although all of those will be getting individual ratings, as well as a series rating)).

Favorite:

1.)    Entwined

The moment I read this book, I loved it. The humor is great; I’ve never laughed out loud so much reading a book before. When all I can say is “Go and read this book right now,” you know that I really liked it.

2.)    Beauty

This is probably my favorite Robin McKinley book. It doesn’t have that flowery, lengthy prose that she uses a lot in some of her later books and it’s an absolutely masterful retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I’d recommend this as both the one McKinley book to read as well as one of the best retold fairytales.

3.)    The Mysterious Howling

I loved this book and the two that came after it. It has similar humor to Entwined, which is probably why I liked it so much. It’s just laugh-out-loud funny, and it’s a really good mystery, as well.

4.)    Between

It has a great concept and the mystery is really well done. It’s also not very obvious; or, at least, it doesn’t do the obvious things. This is my favorite of Jessica Warman’s novels, and what I would consider her best. The other two were dull and boring (her first was so boring that I couldn’t even bring myself to review it).

5.)    Matched

I really liked Matched when I read it, which is why I was so disappointed in Crossed and Reached. But Matched has some important things to say about eugenics, and it’s beautifully written. It’s the best book in the trilogy by a long-shot.

Least favorite:

1.)    All We Know of Heaven

This book was so hard to finish. It dragged on and on, and then there was STUPID DANNY. The best part was when it ended; I was so happy that I could go and do better things than read that boring, annoying book.

2.)    If I Lie

While not a terrible book, it was not even close to being good. The characters’ behavior is so over-the-top that it becomes almost unrealistic and Quinn’s angst just gets really annoying.

3.)    Ashen Winter

I read the sentences on the page. I turned the page. First I read the left page; then the right. Then I turned the page again. This is how reading Ashen Winter felt. Action’s no fun when you can’t feel it.

4.)    Willow

Willow was annoying, but personally, I think this book just has an awful message. Have sex with your boyfriend and your problems will magically go away! No, there’s nothing wrong with that at all.

5.)    Snow in Summer

I almost put Eona down in this spot, but then I looked over my reviews and I had more positive things to say about Eona than this book. This book was just creepy and the omniscient narration deflated all the tension and suspense. Not a fairy retelling I would recommend.

So there you have it! Take a look over the next couple of days at the ratings I gave the books and stay tuned for more reviews, as always! Tuesday will be Sapphique by Catherine Fisher!

Compromised: Don’t Ever Be A Runaway

Compromised is written by Heidi Ayarbe. It was published in 2010 by HarperTeen. Ayarbe’s website can be found here.

Genre: Realistic, Tough Read, Young Adult

Summary/Blurb:

“Maya’s life has always been chaotic. Living with a con-man dad, she’s spent half her life on the run. Whenever her father’s schemes go wrong, Maya finds a scientific way to fix it. But when her dad ends up in prison and foster care fails, Maya grasps at her last possible hope of a home: a long-lost aunt, who may not even exist.

So Maya formulates a plan, and with her wits, two unlikely allies, and twenty dollars in her pocket, she sets off in search of this aunt, navigating the unpredictable four hundred miles from Reno to Boise. Life on the streets, though, becomes a struggle for survival—those scientific laws Maya has relied on her whole life just don’t apply. And with each passing day, Maya’s definitions of right and wrong are turned upside down when she’s confronted with the realities and dangers of life as a runaway. She can’t help but wonder if trying to find her aunt—and some semblance of stability—is worth the harrowing journey or if she should compromise and find a way to survive on her own.”
~Inside Flap

Passages/Quotes:

I hate when that happens, when the observer becomes the prey. I wonder how I’ll deflect the attack when I blurt out, “This is definitely an issue of territorialism.”

The three of them stare.

“You know,” I say. “When an animal stakes its claim to an area. It has to suss out its possibilities to win the battle, depending on the size of the other animal, maturity, which one already possesses the territory, and value of the territory in relation to other available locations.” They continue to stare, so I continue to talk, never taking my eyes from Nicole. It’s like we’re in some kind of staring contest.

I won’t lose.

~Ayarbe 29-30

“This is kinda fun.” Nicole adds another stick to the fire. The man dropped us off at a campground on the outskirts of Boise. We were pretty lucky that he took us all the way from McCall to Boise. That’s like a hundred miles. In Nevada, that took Nic and me about three days to cover. We never got real long rides.

The only thing that sucked was crouching down in the back of a metal truck bed for two hours, trying to keep from freezing in the wind. We huddled to cover Klon and tried to protect his chest. I can’t believe I didn’t steal those cough drops.

~Ayarbe 280

Cover Art

Warnings: Swearing, violence, description of abuse

Recommended Age Range: 16+

Rating: 2.5/5

What I Liked:

I’ve noticed that each viewpoint character in Ayarbe’s books so far have some sort of obsession or in-depth knowledge about something. In Freeze Frame, it was movies; Compulsion, numbers; and in Compromised, it’s science.

The ending was super sweet. Loved it.

I suppose Ayarbe was trying to show what it’s like in foster care and what it’s like to be a runaway, and she definitely succeeded. It’s just downhill from the moment Maya decides to run away.

There’s nothing near this level of cute in this book

What I Didn’t Like:

What the heck does Ayarbe have against Christians? Every (named or in some way significant) Christian in this book was some sort of abusive maniac. I’m not saying that Christians are all angels of goodness and light (unfortunately), but still. Put some balance and subtlety in there so it’s not so obvious that you’re trying to rag on Christians.

This book was overall meh. It wasn’t as gut-punching or sad as the other two books I’ve read by Ayarbe. It wasn’t really that thrilling or exciting, either. It wasn’t memorable, and it wasn’t bad enough to get me ranting about how bad it was. It was plain vanilla; that’s it.

Overall Review:

Compromised will probably evoke some sort of feeling in you about foster kids and runaways, but overall, it was uneventful and forgettable.  It was so forgettable that I’m having trouble finding words to write this. You know what? Forget it.

Coming Up Next: A special one-year anniversary post on Friday! Then,  Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

Alanna: The First Adventure: Here Comes Tamora Pierce

Alanna: The First Adventure is written by Tamora Pierce. It is the first book in the Song of the Lioness quartet. It is Pierce’s first novel. It was published in 1983 by Simon Pulse. Pierce’s website can be found here.

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Summary/Blurb:

“Though a girl, Alanna has always craved the adventure and daring allowed only for boys; her twin brother, Thom, yearns to learn the art of magic. So one day they decide to switch places: Disguised as a girl, Thom heads for the convent to learn magic; Alanna, pretending to be a boy, is on her way to the castle of King Roald to begin her training as a page.

But the road to knighthood is not an easy one. As Alanna masters the skills necessary for battle, she must also learn to control her heart and to discern her enemies from her allies.”

~Back Cover

Cover Art 1

 Passages/Quotes:

“You’re here, Alan of Trebond, to learn what it is to be a kinght and a noble of Tortall. It’s not easy. You must learn to defend the weak, to obey your overlord, to champion the cause of right. Someday you may even be able to tell what right is.” It was impossible to tell if he was joking, and Alanna decided not to ask.

“Until you are fourteen, you will be a page,” the Duke went on. “You will wait on table at the evening meal. You will run errands for any lord or lady who asks you. Half your day will be spent learning fighting arts. The other half you will spend with books, in the hope that we can teach you how to think.

“If your masters think you are ready, you will be made squire when you are fourteen. Perhaps a knight will choose you as his body squire. If so, you’ll tend your master’s belongings, run his errands, protect his interests. Your other lessons will continue—they’ll be harder, of course.

‘When you are eighteen, you’ll undergo the Ordeal of Knighthood. If you survive, you will be a Knight of Tortall. Not everyone survives.”

~Pierce 28-29

Her essence, the stuff that made her Alanna, streamed out through her palms. She was dissolving into the fire; she was the fire. Then she uttered the spell Maude told her to use only when nothing else was left.

“Dark Goddess, Great Mother, show me the way. Open the gates to me. Guide me, Mother of mountains and mares—”

The fire roared up with a sound like a thunderclap. Alanna’s body jerked, but she couldn’t move away from the hearth. The fire filled her eyes. She saw countless gates and doors opening in front of her. Suddenly—there it was: the city, the city carved in black, glossy stone, the one she had seen in Maude’s fireplace. The sun beat down on her. She was very warm. The city called to her, its beautiful towers and shining streets singing in her brain.

~Pierce 127

Cover Art 2

Warnings: Uh, puberty? And violence.

Recommended Age Range: 14+

Rating: 3.5/5

What I Liked:

I’m really liking the struggle Alanna is having with her female side. It’s like she’s afraid of it or doesn’t want it and it keeps coming back to remind her that, yes, you’re a female, not a male, no matter how much you want to be a knight. I think as she grows older Pierce will emphasize this a little more and I look forward to it.

George is great. It’s kind of obvious what role he’ll play in later books, but he’s still a fabulous character.

I love fantasy so, so much. It’s always different every time I read it, even if the same tropes are used again and again.

What I Didn’t Like:

Ok, what book did the person who wrote the summary on the back read? Thom does not disguise himself as a girl! That…would actually have made some things far more interesting.

Cover Art 3 (by the way, there are about a kajillion different cover arts for this series)

So this is Pierce’s first novel, and it really shows. It’s also an ‘80s novel, which also shows. Maybe I’ve read far too many books, or maybe I’m completely wrong, but books written in the ‘80s have completely different styles to them than books nowadays. I think it’s mostly the writing; it’s not what I’m used to reading so it was a bit off-putting for me. If it was written by anybody other than Tamora Pierce, I wouldn’t finish the series. But it’s Tamora Pierce, who is awesome. Plus it’s her first (‘80s) book series, so I’ll cut her some slack. Before anybody gets upset and ranting about how great this book is, let me just say that I really think it’s the fact of when it was published rather than any fault of the book itself. Writing has changed a lot, and what editors are looking for in terms of writing and plot has changed a lot. I recently read some short fantasy stories that were from the early to mid-1900s (these were even revolutionary fantasy stories, like Conan the Barbarian and whatever) and despised them. They were overbearingly flowery and dramatic, horribly cliché, and just not very good. But that’s me in my 21^st century mindset. The mindset of the early 1900s in terms of writing and plot were completely different. Therefore, don’t put too much weight in my opinion. I just noticed the writing was different and I didn’t like it much. There’s still some fantastic things going on in the book.

Overall Review:

This is obviously a first book and it’s obviously an older one, but it’s still got some great charm to it. George in particular is wonderful, and I like where Alanna’s inner struggles seem to be heading. Also, Tamora Pierce is one of the goddesses of fantasy writing and it will be great to see this series and her writing evolve as she evolves as a writer.

Coming Up Next: Compromised by Heidi Ayarbe

Syren: These Books Just Keep Getting Better And Better

Syren is written by Angie Sage. It is the fifth book in the Septimus Heap series. It was published in 2009 by Katherine Tegen Books. Sage’s website can be found here and the Septimus Heap fansite can be found here.

Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade

Summary/Blurb:

“In this fifth book in the Magykal series, Septimus ends up on a captivatingly beautiful island, one of seven set in a sparkling sea. He’s stranded there with his badly injured dragon, Spit Fyre, along with Jenna and Beetle. There are some strange things about the island, including a Magykal girl named Syrah, a cat-shaped lighthouse that has lost its Light, and an eerie presence that sings to Septimus—can he escape the persistent call?

Trouble is also brewing for Lucy and Wolf Boy, who have become entangled with some nefarious sailors at sea, and for Milo Banda, Jenna’s father, who is harboring a mysterious treasure chest in his ship’s hold.”

~Inside Flap

Passages/Quotes:

“I am a jinnee,” it replied.

“A what?”

Oh merciful spirits, this was a truly stupid one. “A jinnee,” said the yellow blob, very, very slowly. “Jin…nee.”

Merrin’s nose was blocked, his eyes were still watering from the jinnee incursion, and his ears were still buzzing from the whistling sight. He could hardly hear.

“You’re Jim Knee?” he asked.

~Sage 75-76

“I am Syrah Syara. I am nineteen years old. I come from the Castle. I was the ExtraOrdinary Apprentice of Julius Pike. I am Syrah Syara. I am Syrah Syara.

I am Syrah Syara. I am nineteen years old. I come from the Castle the island. I was am the Extra Ordinary Apprentice of Julius Pike. Island. I am Syrah Syara. I am Syrah Syara Syren.

I am Syren. I am ageless. I come from the Island. I am the Island. I am Syren. I am Syren. When I call, you will come to me.”

~Sage 440

Warnings: None.

Recommended Age Range: 12+

Rating: 5/5

Cover Art

What I Liked:

Lucy Gringe, you are so great! I’m glad that you got a big role in this book. Also, Wolf Boy, you’re amazing too. I think these two characters are my favorite, besides Spit Fyre (yes, the dragon). I hope Sage brings them back as major/viewpoint characters again.

Sage is getting better with these plots. This one was great. There’s an especially nice, nail biting scene near the end that I thought was brilliant and absolutely loved. Syrah’s journal is also especially chilling and effective. It gave me shivers of dread, that’s how good it was. I think this is my favorite Septimus book so far.

Jenna wasn’t nearly as annoying this time! Yay! She actually listened to Septimus for once. I was terrified that she would try and join them anyway, all sneakily, and I would get annoyed at her again, but she didn’t. Way to go, Princess.

Jim Knee. Jim Knee the jinnee is fabulous. I’m liking the secondary characters more than the primary ones at this point.

This is the best thing ever.

What I Didn’t Like:

Merrin is the most ridiculous, ineffective character ever. Seriously, why is he still hanging around?  I hope he improves a lot in the villain department before Sage makes him the central antagonist.

Jenna had a few annoying moments near the beginning, but she gets better by the end (hooray!).

Overall Review:

This series is improving with each book; Sage is getting better and better with plot and character development. Syren is my favorite in the series so far because of the great atmosphere in some of the scenes. I also really love the magic system; Sage has done some great worldbuilding in the Septimus Heap series and I look forward to reading more about it. 

Coming Up Next: Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

Ashen Winter: Lackluster, No Emotional Connection, Snore

If you’re wondering why I’m updating on a Monday and not a Tuesday, it’s because I am going to be working all day tomorrow and I will not have time to upload this.

Ashen Winter is written by Mike Mullin. It is the sequel to Ashfall (which I reviewed here) and there is a third and final book, Sunrise, coming out next year. It was published in 2012 by Tanglewood. Mullin’s website can be found here.

Genre: Young Adult, Survival

Summary/Blurb:

“It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the dark, cold, and primitive world…

It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remained communities.

When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.”

~Inside Flap

Passages/Quotes:

“We rounded the corner and passed a burned-out building on our left. The sign in front read GALENA STATE BANK & TRUST. We raced on past a whole series of burnt buildings, but none of the rest of them had signs.

Peering around Darla, I saw something surreal. A few hundred yards ahead of us, a line of cars stood upright, resting on their front bumpers with their trunks in the air. They formed a wall that stretched as far as I could see to the left and curved away from us to the right. Where U.S. 20 passed through the car-wall someone had built a heavy timber gate across the road. Almost before I’d processed what I was seeing, church bells began ringing furiously. A line of men popped into view one by one, their heads and shoulders above the low log gate.

Every one of them was pointing a rifle at us.”

~Mullin 47-48

“How many shells we got?” I said to Ben.

“This is a Remington 870 pump-action shot gun. It is the most popular shotgun ever made. Law enforcement and military all over the world use this gun.” Ben tried to pump the shotgun, but the slide wouldn’t operate. “It is loaded.”

“So how many shots are in it?” I asked as I started the truck.

Ben clicked a lever on the side of the gun and started pumping the slide. Chunk-chunk. Chunk-chunk. Each time he pumped the gun a shell flew out, landing in the footwell. “None,” Ben said when he finished.

~Mullin 319

Warnings: Crude language, sexual situations, violence, death

Recommended Age Range: 16+

Rating: 1/5

Cover Art

What I Liked:

Ben is a great character. He’s probably the one thing I would look forward to in the final book.

Mullin really does his research here. Everything is portrayed accurately and realistically, from medical procedures to food to supplies.

What I Didn’t Like:

I didn’t really enjoy or like Ashfall all that much, but this book was worse. It is action-packed, yes, but I didn’t feel it. It was more like: “I took the gun and shot it. The bullet hit the driver’s shoulder;” very matter-of-fact, very…informative, for lack of a better word, very emotionally-lacking. I felt no emotional connection to the characters. None. I could not care less if Alex found Darla or not. I could not care less about their relationship. I did not feel happy when Alex finally found her. I felt nothing at all, and that’s probably the worst feeling a reader can have.

It’s the return of Darla!

This is a good example of how sometimes action does not make for a thrilling good read. I felt no thrill and it was not a good read. It was all tell and no show. I couldn’t wait until I finished this book. I’ll probably read the last book just to finish out the series, but I’m not impressed with it. Ilsa J. Bick has a similar survival series (except hers has zombies-of-a-sort) and it is ten times better. I’d much rather read hers than suffer through this one again.

Overall Review:

Ashen Winter, while packed with action, elicited exactly the opposite of a heart-pounding, thrilling read for me. It went on and on until every connection I had with the characters was sucked dry and I stopped caring about everything. There are much better survival stories out there. Don’t waste your time with this one.

Coming Up Next: Syren by Angie Sage

Sunshine: Step Aside, Twilight

Sunshine is written by Robin McKinley. It was published in 2003 by Speak/Penguin. McKinley’s website can be found here.

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Young Adult

Summary/Blurb:

“It was a dumb thing to do but it wasn’t that dumb. There hadn’t been any trouble at the lake in years. And it was so exquisitely far from the rest of Sunshine’s life; she just needed to be alone with her thoughts for a little while. But then the vampires found her. Now, chained and imprisoned in a tumbledown mansion, alone but for the vampire shackled next to her, Sunshine must call on skills she didn’t know she had if she is to survive. But her fellow prisoner is not what she expected of a vampire, and soon Sunshine discovers that not only does she need his help, he needs hers…”

~Back Cover

Cover Art 1 (my favorite)

Passages/Quotes:

“Speak,” he said at last. “Remind me that you are a rational creature.” The words had long pauses between them, as if he found it difficult to speak, or as if he had to recall the words one at a time, and his voice was rough, as if some time recently he had damaged it by prolonged shouting. Perhaps he found it awkward to speak to his dinner. If he wasn’t careful he’d go off me, like Alice after she’d been introduced to the pudding. I should be so lucky.

I flinched at the first sound of his voice, both because he had spoken at all, and also because his voice sounded as alien as the rest of him looked, as if the chest that produced it was made out of some strange material that did not reflect sound the same way that ordinary—that is to say, live—flesh did. His voice sounded much odder—eerier, direr—than the voices of the vampires who had brought me here. You could half-imagine that Bo’s gang had once been human. You couldn’t imagine that this one ever had.”

~McKinley 28

“Pat sighed again, this one a very long sigh, like a man about to step off a cliff. Then he shut his eyes, took a deep breath, and held it. And held it. And held it. After about a minute he began to turn, well, blue, but I don’t mean human-holding-his-breath blue, I mean blue. Still holding his breath, he opened his eyes and looked at me: his eyes were blue, too, although several degrees darker than his skin, and I mean all of his eyes: the whites as well. Although speaking of all of his eyes, as I watched, a third eye slowly blinked itself open form between his eyebrows. He was still holding his breath. His ears were becoming pointed. He held up one hand and spread the fingers. There were six of them. The knuckles were all very knobbly, and the hand itself was very large. Pat was normally no more than medium-sized.”

~McKinley 123-124

Cover Art 2 (the edition I read)

Warnings: This book is almost YA. Pages 248-250 (in my 2010 edition) completely blow that out of the water with swearing and an extremely graphic almost-sex scene. Then it returns to YA material.

Recommended Age Range: 16+, hesitantly, due to the three pages mentioned above.

Rating: 3.5/5

What I Liked:

I normally avoid paranormal YA because I usually don’t like reading about things like werewolves/vampires/angels/demons or whatever. It just doesn’t interest me. Also, I think my experience of Twilight turned me off of paranormal. I don’t like Twilight, and not just because Stephanie Meyer’s vampires sparkle (and yes, I have read all four books); it’s essentially emotional porn for tweens and there are a host of other things that I have problems with, so I think that (unfairly) tainted my perception of paranormal YA.

This book, though. This is the vampire novel that Twilight wishes it was. This is also the vampire novel that, unfortunately, nobody knows about. This book deserves more attention because it is really very good.

Con is great. He’s described as Byronic but I didn’t really see that. He and Sunshine have this really cute, awkward conversation at the end of the book that is…well, really cute and sweet.

Fan art!

McKinley loves strong female leads and Sunshine is no exception. She can kill vampires with her bare hands because she has a magical affinity for sunlight. She can also bake amazing cinnamon rolls and desserts like Killer Zebras and Bitter Chocolate Death and Manguamania and Sunshine’s Eschatology.

McKinley has some major world building in this novel and Sunshine is a fountain of knowledge, throwing out random bits of information about the world and its laws throughout the book. It’s an involved world that is so similar and yet so alien to our own.

Some of the great things that McKinley deals with in this book are darkness versus evilness and Sunshine’s inner struggle with similar issues. There’s a lot going on in this book that can be discussed after reading it.

What I Didn’t Like:

I don’t like ambiguous/unresolved endings, and this book leaves so much unresolved. Here is where a sequel would be perfect, but, unfortunately, McKinley is pretty adamant that there will be none. It’s really sad because the ending leaves you with a feeling of incompleteness and a question of “What about this?” What’s the deal with Mel? Is Sunshine a bad magic cross or not? What about her father? The book was great, but the ending was not.

Sunshine goes off on random tangents and asides frequently. She starts off with a ten-page info dump on her family and her life in general before mentioning her kidnapping by vampires. She then exposits on vampires for a few pages before returning to her capture. It’s like, “I drove to work and the charms my mom gave me were banging away in the dashboard. By the way, there are multiple charms for different objects and purposes and you can make them out of etc. etc. etc.” It’s rambling and it can be hard to get into the novel because of all the information that is thrown at you. You notice it less as you go along, but it definitely makes the book drag in a few places.

Why the heck is this book marketed for young adults with that really explicit section in the middle? Sure, it’s only three pages, but it is a really graphic three pages.

Overall Review:

Sunshine is a fantastic vampire novel that does not get the attention or have the audience it deserves. There is an iffy bit in the middle that contains a graphic almost-sex scene which is more adult than young adult, but the rest of it, besides the unresolved ending and the at-times slow, rambling narrative, is pretty darn good.

Coming Up Next: Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin

Series Week: Wrap-Up of A Series of Unfortunate Events

Series Rating: 4/5

It was so much fun to reread this series again.  Its strongest point is definitely the great absurdist humor that Snicket/Handler employs. This is a series that is genuinely funny to read and really just sucks you right in from the first page. There are so many memorable moments; not just from the actual story but from Snicket’s asides as well. Before I started rereading the series, I distinctly remembered Snicket’s pages-long list of “nevers” in The Reptile Room and the two pages of black that he uses in The Ersatz Elevator. So much of this just sticks with you because it’s so funny and memorable. I will probably never forget “the bears bear hard hard yarn yarns” or the long list of “I love you like…” from The Beatrice Letters. This series just give so much enjoyment, even if it is unfortunate (and frustrating).

Speaking of frustrating…that’s it? That’s the end? What the sugar bowl? Why was the sugar bowl so important? Did it just contain horseradish? Why was it so important to save it if the Baudelaire parents had done the whole tree thing on the island? Did the Baudelaire parents really kill Olaf’s parents? What’s up with him and Kit? Was Dewey the father of Beatrice? Was Lemony that cab driver who took the sugar bowl? What about the underwater library? What about the Snicket file? Why did Snicket say that the Baudelaires should have gone to a fungal ditch/should have read the chapter on fungal ditches? Why is Beatrice looking for the Baudelaires ten years later? What was that ? on the sonar? What happened to Hal and the Quagmire triplets after they fell into the sea? Do you see why I don’t like unresolved endings?

Don’t get me wrong, this is still a great series to read and you should definitely read them if you haven’t. Just be prepared to not have a lot of the mysteries cleared up. On a related note, Snicket is writing another related series. The first book is called Who Could That Be at This Hour? and it’s about Snicket’s apprenticeship in V.F.D. I think it’s also supposed to clear up some of the mystery about the Great Unknown (the ?).

Here are my favorite books, from most favorite to least favorite:

1.) The Slippery Slope

2.) The Penultimate Peril

3.) The Hostile Hospital

4.) The Ersatz Elevator

5.) The Wide Window

6.) The Reptile Room

7.) The Bad Beginning

8.) The End

9.) The Carnivorous Carnival

10.) The Austere Academy

11.) The Miserable Mill

12.) The Vile Village

13.) The Grim Grotto

That was harder than my list for The Edge Chronicles. The top three are definitely my favorites, while The Grim Grotto is probably my least favorite. The middle is a bit rough: 5-9 can probably shift around a bit, and so can 10-13, but this is roughly my general impressions from reading each book.

I’ll be back on Tuesday with my regular weekly updates! I’ll be looking at Sunshine by Robin McKinley.