The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong - Book Review

My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.

All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost - and the ghost saw me.

Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? it's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House...before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

For some reason, my expectations for this one weren’t that high going in.  Something about a girl seeing ghosts, thrown into a co-ed mental facility for teenagers, who finds out things aren’t as they seem just screams PARANORMAL ROMANCE, which is pretty much synonymous with cliché and cheesy these days.  But I’d seen a few good reviews on GR for it, from some trusted reviewers, and I was able to get it in hardback (which is so much prettier on my shelf than a paperback) for crazy cheap, so I decided to take the chance.

And boy, am I glad that I did.

It starts off about how I’d expected; girl sees ghosts, girl goes a bit psycho, girl gets thrown into a group home for crazy kids.  There were a few scenes in the first fifty pages or so that only reinforced my initial expectations, most especially one featuring Chloe’s very first period.  (I mean seriously, who gets excited to find that in your panties in the middle of a school day?  And since when does a girl getting her first period feel like she just peed herself?  Please.)  But it didn’t take long for these bumps to smooth right on out, and for my grudging admiration to morph into total immersion of the story.

What caught me most off guard with its awesomeness was the characterization.  Kelley Armstrong managed to take stereotypical characters, throw them into her novel, then strip everything “stereotypical” about them away.  Minus those first few pages, all the annoying, eye-rollingly bad decisions authors make regarding their characters were blessedly absent in The Summoning.  Chloe Saunders is a very realized protagonist, a drama student whose knowledge of movies and comparisons between them and her real life adds a surprising level of believability to the book, and proves that Armstrong knows the difference between what would happen in movies and what would actually happen in real life…you know, if you could see ghosts in real life.

The other main characters, stepbrothers Simon and Derek, were great, too.  They added a hint of a romance to come, without actually supplying it in this book.  In The Summoning, their primary purpose was to add this intense level of mystery that slowly, layer by layer, gets revealed.  Their character development, especially Derek’s, was so satisfying that they completely overshadowed the fourth main character, pyromaniac Rae.  Rae was the only character in The Summoning that didn’t feel three-dimensional, but that’s not to say she was a totally flat character; she just wasn’t up to the level of the stepbrothers.

Unfortunately, the beginning of this book wasn’t the only problem I had with it.  The ending left something to be desired, as well.  Oh, it was action-packed and extremely readable, but the way Armstrong chose to end it was just…not fair.  I’ve said in previous reviews that the sudden surge of paranormal YA cliffhangers has gotten out of hand, and The Summoning is a perfect example of this.  These aren’t cliffhanger endings, because that would imply that they’re endings.  There is no ending to this book.  I’ve come to expect it when I start a new series, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.  And I doubt I’ll stop grumbling about it until we go back to the old days, where first-in-a-series books at least resolved a major conflict, then left a broader one open by way of cliffhanger.

Still, I’m overall very happy with my reading experience with this one, and would most definitely recommend it to fans of the genre.  It won’t be long until I have The Awakening in my greedy hands, eager to return to these characters, especially Derek, and to find the closure The Summoning was sorely lacking.

The Summoning - 4 out of 5 stars

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning - Book Review

MacKayla Lane’s life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she’s your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman. Or so she thinks…until something extraordinary happens.

When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death–a cryptic message on Mac’s cell phone–Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister’s killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed–a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae….

As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As she begins to close in on the truth, the ruthless Vlane–an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women–closes in on her. And as the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac’s true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book–because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands….

. . . .

Update; Though this isn't the most favorable review, the series gets exponentially better.  I won't change my review for Darkfever since these are my honest thoughts after reading, but believe me when I say this turns into one of the most addictive, dark and sexy series ever.

. . . .

By now, I venture into urban fantasy with some trepidation.  They all, for the most part, follow the same formula; sassy heroine, gorgeous guys who toe the line between good and bad (and usually aren’t human), and some life or world threatening paranormal bad guys, usually with some crime-solving thrown in.  For me, urban fantasies and paranormal romances make-or-break-it in their world-building.  Do I like the characters?  Is the mythology explained and believable?  How developed are the bad guys? Do I care about the threat they pose, or would I rather see those threatened killed off to put an end to wasted trees?  The devil is in the details, and if those details are just as cliché and formulaic as the plotline, I’m going to forget the particular UF/PF almost as soon as I turn that last page.

Darkfever somehow managed to both impress me with its details, and annoy me with them at the same time.

MacKayla Lane is by no means a “new” character.  She’s a 22 year old pretty, perky, naïve good-girl who loves life until one phone call changes everything completely; the call informing her of her sister Alina’s violent murder while studying abroad in Ireland.  Distraught and determined to find her older sister’s killer, Mac travels to Ireland against her parents’ wishes to try to do what law enforcement couldn’t; bring Alina’s killer to justice.  Of course, things don’t exactly go according to plan, and Mac soon finds herself smack-dab in the middle of a hunt for a very powerful, very dark book sought after by a species she’s only beginning to learn the existence of; fae.  She herself is a rare sidhe-seer, which means she can see through the glamour and invisibility of those pesky faeries to the hideousness (or sexual irresistibility) of their true forms.  Paired up with the mysterious Jericho Barrons (also known as Darkfever’s gorgeous guy who toes the line between good and bad), she is on a hunt to fulfill her sister’s last wish and find this book before they do.

I liked this book.  I didn’t love it, but it kept me entertained.  The pages seemed to want to be turned.  The Irish setting had a very authentic feel to it, the story was intriguing, and MacKayla, even while at her most annoying, did have a certain unidentifiable quality that made it impossible to completely hate her.  Unfortunately, though, there were a lot of things that were impossible to overlook, and took away from my enjoyment drastically.

Firstly, we never find out much about that book, the Sinsar Dubh (pronounced shin-sa do).  By the end of the novel, all I knew about it was that it’s evil, coveted by practically all of fae-kind, requires 4 stone-thingies to be activated, and caused our MC to become violently ill while in its presence.  I don’t know what it does, why the fae want it, why Alina wanted it, or what Barrons plans on doing with it.  Considering Mac risked her life several times, and her sister actually lost hers, to find it, I’d have expected a bit more information on it.  Instead, Mac blindly follows Barrons on their mutual quest to locate the book, using her sudden nausea as a sort of Sinsar Dubh metal-detector, without really questioning her partner on the thing.

The one fae Mac enounters who doesn’t resemble the monsters from her worst nightmares, V’lane, is supposed to be like walking, talking sex.  He drives her libido through the roof, and when she’s in his presence, she can’t seem to keep her clothes on.  Literally.  I won’t get into this too much since he doesn’t make an appearance until the second half of the book, but these scenes were extremely over-done.  And V’lane was also terribly underdeveloped.  Instead of feeling Mac’s combination of revulsion and inhumanly intense carnal attraction to him, I just wanted to skim the pages with him in them.

There is no real ending to this book.  Nothing is resolved.  Yeah, yeah, I get it; it’s the first in a series, and it was always intended to end on a cliffhanger.  That’s fine.  But Darkfever is a book, and a book should have its own plotline within the larger plotline of the series, one that is developed and conclusively ended.  There was nothing conclusive about Darkfever, making it read more like a compilation of chapters rather than an actual book.  The characters weren’t developed nearly enough, the storyline was only just getting started when it ended, and each and every plotline ended on a question.  I’m sorry, but as a reader, this bothers me.  It feels like a cheap move to boost sales of the future books by cutting what should be one novel into two or three, and charging for them.  And let me stress that I do appreciate a good cliffhanger, most of my favorites end in them, but Darkfever has no ending.

That said, this particular greedy selling technique seems to have paid off, because the sequel, Bloodfever, is currently on its way to my mailbox, courtesy of Amazon.  I’m hoping for more of what kept Darkfever entertaining, and less of what kept my eyes rolling.

 

Darkfever - 3 out of 5 stars

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion - Book Review

R is having a no-life crisis—he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization.

And then he meets a girl.

First as his captive, then his reluctant guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn’t want to eat this girl—although she looks delicious—he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.

Warm Bodies is, in essence, an unabashed love story…told through the eyes of a zombie.  This is a book that could have, should have, gone terribly wrong.  Only it didn’t.

What initially sparked my interest in this novel wasn’t the premise.  And no, it wasn’t the movie trailers (though come on, it looks awesome).  It was a few raving, glowing reviews I’d seen on GR, promising poetic prose and minimal cheese factor.  Sometimes I go by reviews over gut instinct and synopsis.  Sometimes I just have to see for myself what all the hype is about.  Sometimes this bites me in the ass…

…and other times, I find books like Warm Bodies.  Book so right-off-the-bat engrossing, books whose prose will have me lying awake at night with envy, that I can only thank social networking extending to include a large community of readers who can find these kinds of gems for me.

The best part of Warm Bodies is the beginning.  First meeting R, feeling lost with him, hopelessly wistful, desiring all the human things his rotting corpse-like body can barely remember experiencing.  He doesn’t remember anything but the first “R” syllable of his name, doesn’t remember his age or his family or his pre-zombie life.  You wouldn’t expect to be drawn in by the beauty of a zombie’s thoughts, but that’s exactly what happens in these first pages of Warm Bodies.  Isaac Marion’s prose is so elegant and beautiful and eloquent without being hard to read or verbose, and it just captures you.  More than the originality of the story or the creepy sweetness of the romance, the prose is what you shouldn’t miss.  And though I’m sure it’s amazing and engrossing, you just won’t get that from the movie.

Now, though I clearly loved this book, I didn’t rate it 5 stars, and there is a reason for that.  Though the broad picture and plot is one of poetic originality, there were a few qualms I had with it.  First, despite everything else, despite Marion’s amazing writing or the fact that these pages weren’t weighed down in Twilight-esque mushy goo, it’s still about a zombie who falls in love with a human, and begins to regain his humanity because of this love.  Dress it up as fancy as you want, but that’s still going to be a bit cheesy.  Second, the entire novel just couldn’t hold the magnificence of the first quarter; it kind of goes from amazing to great, with maybe even a few scenes of just good here and there.  There were a few instances where R felt less like a zombie, and more like…just a sick dude who couldn’t talk all that well.  And lastly, Julie’s reaction to finding out the man-corpse she’s falling for killed and ate the brains of her lover was decidedly anti-climactic; I don’t care how understanding or forgiving you are, that’s going to take a minute to get over.

But really, those problems were me nit-picking, because overall this novel shines.  If you had any interest at all in reading it, read it.  I’m an admitted zombie-hater who is sick of all these cheesy paranormal romances, and I loved Warm Bodies.  That in itself should say something.

Warm Bodies - 4 out of 5 stars

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand - Book Review

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

This is not an action-packed, fast-moving read. With the exception of the last fifty pages or so, events unfold slowly and flowingly, not shockingly or mysteriously. It is a very addictive read, immersive and compulsive, but Unearthly is not fueled by action or over-the-top romance. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Clara was the rare YA heroine that didn’t make me want to bash my head against a wall, and the romance that doesn’t truly start to take center-stage until the last quarter or so is swee...moreThis is not an action-packed, fast-moving read. With the exception of the last fifty pages or so, events unfold slowly and flowingly, not shockingly or mysteriously. It is a very addictive read, immersive and compulsive, but Unearthly is not fueled by action or over-the-top romance. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Clara was the rare YA heroine that didn’t make me want to bash my head against a wall, and the romance that doesn’t truly start to take center-stage until the last quarter or so is sweet, light, and healthy. Not abusive or ridiculously cheesy. The last angel novel I read featured the creepy, abusive Patch (Hush, Hush), so I can’t possibly overstate how refreshing this was to read. I love angel mythology. Actually I love any religion-based mythology, be it ancient Greek or modern Christianity. Though I consider myself agnostic, there is little I like more in a work of fiction than a well-grounded root in existing lore, especially biblical – as long as it’s not preachy, of course. Unfortunately, though, well over half of the angel novels I’ve read seem to be…well, bad, to put it bluntly. I don’t know how, but YA angel books lately seem to exist to reinforce what I call Post-Twilight YA Syndrome. Authors gloss over the actually mythology behind their angels and instead focus on their otherworldly beauty and abilities, turning them into de-fanged, wing-sporting Edward Cullens. Excuse my language, but this is bullshit. You cannot have a story about angels without including angel mythology. The mythology in Unearthly was far from overbearing or in-your-face, but it was there. Clara is what is called a Quartarius – one-quarter angel, three-quarters human. A nephilim, but more preferably called angel-blood, she has a Purpose to fulfill. On the very first page, we’re put inside of a vision of a beautiful boy stuck in the middle of a forest-fire, and Clara there to, presumably, save him. This vision is her Purpose, and the rest of the novel is more or less about her trying to find out exactly what she needs to do, where she needs to do it and, of course, finding this gorgeous boy she needs to save. The writing isn’t superb, but it is definitely above average. The long-ish chapters are compulsively readable despite the slow pace of the novel. Clara is a great narrator, not annoying or whiny or straight-up stupid like so many in this genre are. (One of my favorite lines from her; “I won’t be that girl who lets the guy treat her like crap and still fawns all over him.”Tell that to your Nora Greys and Bella Swans, please, Clara.) She’s just a fun, relatable character, easy to like and root for. The ending is…huh. Sooo good and sooo readable and sooo well-written, and sooo unfinished! It leaves so many questions open-ended and so many character-arcs incomplete. This was obviously done on purpose. I’m beginning to feel like authors, YA paranormal authors especially, have had this top-secret meeting and unanimously decided to torture us readers with cliffhanger endings. I’m still trying to decide if I liked the ending or hated it, and either way I answer would be for the same reasons. Thankfully Hallowed is out now, so at least I won’t be waiting too long to read it I don’t think I’ll be gushing and raving about this one to everyone who will listen like I still do with Laini Taylor’s Daughter Of Smoke And Bone, but if you have any interest in Unearthly, do yourself a favor and read it. It doesn’t disappoint. Unearthly - 4 out of 5 stars