'ware the derivative novel

After Alice by Gregory Maguire
Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction, fantasy
Review: I'm very grateful to Gregory Maguire that he chose not to set the entirety of the book with Ada after she falls down the rabbit hole after Alice.  The parts that were set down there were tiresome enough.  Lewis Carroll did Wonderland and Gregory Maguire has nothing new to add there, aside from more convoluted language that can be painful to read.  I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and I smiled to see some favorite characters again, but even those smiles were few and far between, and bookended by frustration at having to wade through tortured language (yes, I get that he was going for a style similar to Carroll's, but it didn't work for me).  Unfortunately, although the "real world" scenes provide relief from Maguire's interpretation of Wonderland, there's very little else to recommend them.

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

nothing new here

Irish Meadows by Susan Anne Mason
Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)
Genre: romance, historical fiction
Review: I've read enough romance novels to know that there is usually a formula, and the formula is so plain that many people think that anyone could write one.  Apparently, Susan Anne Mason falls into that category.  Unfortunately, she's wrong.  She adheres to the formula admirably well (young people hopelessly in love but horribly unsuited to each other because of class differences? check.  forbidding father? check.  conflict to keep the lovers apart in the middle of the book? check.  conveniently timed illness to shift the plot onto different rails? check.), but the writing is so trite and predictable, it's almost painful to read.  Fortunately, it also has the required happy ending, which doesn't even seem particularly contrived, so there were warm-fuzzies all around.  It wasn't enough to make up for writing that preceded it, but, you know, all's well that ends well.

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

Who Am I?

Changers, Book 2: Oryon by T Cooper & Allison Glock-Cooper
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Review: Let's get this out of the way up front - Hannibal could drive his army through the plot holes in this series.  And yet, I'm oddly willing to overlook them (so far) in the interests of following through with the main character.  The premise is that Changers are an ancient race of humans who live 4 different lives in each year of high school.  In the first Changers book, we meet Drew, a white girl, who had previously been a white boy who was completely unaware of his Changer heritage.  For sophomore year, Drew becomes Oryon, a black boy who must contend with knowing everyone around him while no-one knows who he really is.  Drew encounters some fairly predictable attitudes from the "queen bees" at school, as well as some harassment from the boys, and Oryon is exposed to racism as he never even thought about it before.

But the main focus of the series seems to be more about the relationships s/he forms and the choices s/he makes.  Does s/he toe the Changer line and keep the secret, or tell the truth in the interest of preserving her/his friendships and relationships from one identity to the next?  These aspects of the story are what will keep me reading until the conclusion of the series.

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

still waiting

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fantasy, YA
Review: In my review of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, I wrote that Ransom Riggs is clearly a talented writer, but that his talents didn't seem to be up to the task to explaining the system of time loops that are at the center the book.  I said that I hoped that the second book in the trilogy would offer some fuller explanations.  Unfortunately, I'm just as much in the dark as I was before, perhaps even more so.  No better explanations of the time loops were forthcoming, and some additional twists were thrown in to make them even more confusing.  Still, the characters and story were just as good, and I'm excited to see how Riggs wraps things up in the third book (and still hoping for an explanation of the time loops that I can wrap my head around).

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

the emotional wringer

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: I was actually breathless when I finished this book, because I read so fast to find out how it ended.  Also because my heart was in my throat from all the emotion that is packed into the end.

This book presents as a fairly straightforward missing-person-type mystery.  Jenna is 13.  Ten years ago, one of the caretakers died at the elephant sanctuary her parents ran.  The same night, Jenna's mother disappeared and her father had a mental break that has had him in a psychiatric facility ever since.  Now, Jenna wants to find her mother.  She enlists the help of a lapsed psychic, and one of the detectives who was on the case 10 years ago, who is now a private investigator.  So far, so normal.  It's a good read, filled with sympathetic characters, and interesting facts about elephants.

Then, Picoult turns the story on its side, and we have to re-evaluate everything we thought we knew about what happened that tragic night at the elephant sanctuary.  Then, she turns it completely upside-down, and you realize that you didn't know anything about anything.  Throughout these twists and turns the emotion is being ratcheted up, until you can't possibly put the book down until you get to the very last page.  Fortunately, while I wouldn't describe it as a happy ending, it's a satisfying ending, and one that is well worth being put through the emotional wringer.

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

just read it

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fantasy, science fiction
Review: There's no good way to summarize this book at all, let alone do it without giving away the whole thing.  So without mentioning the plot, what I can say is this: if you liked Cloud Atlas, definitely read this book.  If you didn't like Cloud Atlas, read this book anyway, because although it too is a genre-bending book, it's really very different.  Ditto for The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (both are among my favorite books, by the way).  What it boils down to is the David Mitchell is one of the most talented writers around and anyone who wants to read a book that will be a lot of fun, but also be challenging, should read his books.

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

just doesn't measure up

The Wednesday Daughters by Meg Waite Clayton
Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: I loved The Wednesday Sisters, and was excited to read this sequel.  Unfortunately, I was disappointed.  The three main characters were neither well-drawn nor likable, and the story wasn't very compelling.  Or perhaps it was that the issues these women are facing were not nearly as compelling as the issues their mothers faced.  Gone are the struggles to break away from the strictures and prejudices of the past.  The daughters are confronting deaths of loved ones, infidelity, and other relationship crises, any one of which is ordinarily enough to make a story.  So why don't we care as much about them as we did about their mothers?  Maybe because Clayton seems to want this book to be as weighty as the first was, but it's just not.  I don't know.  Whatever the reason, this is one case where the the elders really are the betters.

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