beyond the wall

Gallant by V. E. Schwab

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fantasy

Review: Olivia knows her mother only through her journal and longs to escape her life at the orphanage where everything seems to exist in shades of grey and ghouls that only she can see lurk in the corners and under the beds.  When a letter from her uncle arrives at the orphanage and promises her a home and family, she leaps at the chance.  But her mother's journal has warned her to stay away from Gallant, the family home.  And maybe her mother was right that not having a family is better than what she'll face on the other side of the wall.

I confess that I hadn't read anything by Victoria (V. E.) Schwab until The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and I confess that I only picked up Gallant because I loved Addie LaRue so much.  I knew that Addie LaRue differed from her other work, but I was curious.  And I was not disappointed.  Although it seems that Schwab has returned to something closer to her previous brand, her writing is just as lovely as it was in Addie LaRue, and the story is just as compelling.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

history repeats itself

The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray

Rating: 4.75 stars (out of 5)

Genre: historical fiction

Review: In her author's note and throughout the book, Dray talks about the "Spirit of Lafayette," which, even as an American history major, I'm ashamed to know I knew very little about until reading this book.  Now, I know a lot more, and am inspired to continue my learning with non-fiction (to me, this is a mark of good historical fiction).  Dray's research is exacting, but she avoids the well-researched novelist's abyss of needing to share everything she's learned.  Instead, this is a deep and rich portrait of three women, each of whom embody the "Spirit of Lafayette" throughout three different wars.

Dray bit off a lot with this book, which weaves together three separate stories, that of Adrienne de Lafeyette during the American and French Revolutions, Beatrice Chanler during WWI, and the fictional Marthe Simone during WWII.  Each could have sustained a story on their own.  And it might have been less confusing if Dray had made this into a trilogy, rather than a single, interweaving story.  In fact, my only teeny complaint about this book is that I sometimes forgot which war we were in.  (My actual thoughts several times during the book: "You can't go to Paris now, the Nazis will get you!  Oh wait, this is WWI...")  I can only imagine that people who lived through both wars might have felt the same way.  But I understand that each story gained power from being told alongside the others.

To say that this book moves slowly doesn't do it justice.  Think of it like a lazy, meandering river.  It'll take you a long time to get from one end to the other, but the journey is more than worth it.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

how to build a family

No Biking in the House Without a Helmet by Melissa Fay Greene
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: memoir
Challenge: 100 Book Challenge 2011
Review: It may be a cliche to say that you laughed so hard you cried, except that I did while reading this book.  Several times.  Greene tells the story of how her family created itself with such wonderful humor that you can't help but fall in love with them all.

Of course, a book like this can't be all sunshine and smiles, and Greene doesn't pull her punches when relating stories of family tribulation.  Nor does she leave us in any doubt that children around the world face horrifying poverty and hunger every day.

If this book has a flaw, it's that it's a little uneven.  In the midst of discussing the process of adopting one child, the narrative jumps back to relate an anecdote involving an older child, or Green's own childhood.  These leaps never detract from the overall story, but the transitions are sometimes jarring.

Another cliche: this book is both hysterical and heartbreaking.  But mostly it is about how family bonds are about love and effort more than blood.

loses focus

The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Challenge: 100 Book Challenge 2011
Review: It gives away nothing about this book to say that it's about two sisters whose father kills their mother. One of the sisters is also stabbed, but survives, and the other sister runs for help and returns to a very bloody scene. The remainder of the book is the next 30+ years of the sisters' lives, showing us snapshots of how this traumatic event and its aftermath effect the rest of their lives.

This is an excellent premise for a book (one that is loosely based in the author's own life, as it turns out). The father's impending release (either earlier on parole or later when is sentence is up) is supposed to create a lot of tension for the sisters, but very few changes are evident in their lives or relationships as this date grows closer. An improbable and weakly fleshed out encounter shortly before the father's release causes some temporary changes in their thinking, but things soon go back to "normal" and the reader is forced to wonder what the point of it all was.

This book got off to a strong and vivid start, as we live through the sisters' trauma, but as they grow into adults it becomes disorganized. Meyers could have either kept a tight focus on the immediate aftermath of the event (that part of the book was quite good) or given the reader more to chew on as the sisters grew up. She did neither, but instead takes the reader on a ramble through 30 years of the sisters not dealing with what happens. But then it seems she suddenly realizes that the story needs some closure, so Meyers gives them a breakthrough for an ending that neither she nor her characters have earned.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

not too predictable

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: historical fiction

Challenge: A-Z (title)

Review: At first, this looks like a fairly predictable orphaned-English-girl-gets-shipped-off-to-live-with-distant-relatives story. Predictably, the family Maia is to live with in Brazil is horrid, and only allowed her to come at all so that they could get the allowance that comes with her. Fortunately, Maia has a very sympathetic, if somewhat mysterious governess who accompanies her to Brazil and in her adventures. It isn't until Maia's been in Brazil for a while that the story begins to come out of its predictable beginnings. There's a missing boy who may or may not actually be missing, and a child actor suddenly looking at the end of his career, and possibly Maia's new family has been living on ill-gotten gains for some time.

This is quite an enjoyable story, with plenty of adventure, and some intrigue mixed in for good measure. The characters are believable and the ending is quite satisfying, with the horrid family getting their comeuppance and Maia and her friends being able to live out their dreams.