Saturday 25 April 2015

A Darker Shade of Magic

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Book Title: A Darker Shade of Magic
Author: V.E. Schwab
Series: A Darker Shade of Magic #1
Date Started: April 20th 2015
Date Completed: April 25th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Thriller
Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars
Final Rating: Five stars
Review:

Unsurprisingly, Schwab has written another brilliant story driven by its awesome characters and original magical concept. There's something about a classical fantasy adventure that at the same time has refreshingly different protagonists that subtly veer off the well-worn path that just amazes and excites me. My faith in Schwab's talent for taking the usual and twisting it just a little bit farther than you imagine is just growing stronger. This is the kind of thing I love to read, and this is the kind of thing that's so hard to find.

I love Schwab's writing. It's just brilliant. The one drawback that emerged with the high fantasy genre was the opening description and explanation of the worlds was a bit lacking in structure: so many commas adding to not that many sentences. However, she somehow managed to avoid the danger of information dumping and actually when the direct explanation came, it was reasonably easy to understand. The concept itself is brilliant, and the world building around it did do well for such a confusing idea; but the biggest benefit from the magical world was that it made the book seem so much bigger. I don't think many authors can carry off such a succinct story in such a broad universe, but Schwab does it wonderfully.
The other notable part of the writing is, of course, Schwab's talent for non-linear timelines. Though it wasn't such as complex as her previous novel, I couldn't help noticing the little flashbacks and twists in chronology to hide or reveal details to the reader. It isn't something I've read a lot of in high fantasy, since typically the genre depends more on cause and consequences of events on a whole world, but Schwab was able to make it work very nicely.

A Darker Shade of Magic has a nice original storyline, mainly because of the worlds: it broadened the potential for the story, and Schwab took full advantage of this. I feel like we got to see all three Londons throughout the story without feeling pushed in a certain direction in order to show off something the author thought up.
The climax was brilliant as it was following two characters, and each were battling and sneaking at different times. The diversity of plot increased the tension, and the time jumps between the action spread it out just enough for get some more excitement in without drawing it out unnecessarily. I really admire the aftermath of the climax: Schwab took her time after the 'end' of the story to develop things properly. We're left with so much potential for the future and so many little things that I want to discover the answers to. I cannot wait for the next book.

The characters are my favourite part of this book, especially because of the protagonist's diversity from each other: they're both powerful and weak in different areas, and they make a brilliant team because of this. I also really loved the fact that, while there's definitely the opportunity of a romantic relationship, they didn't need to have in order to trust each other and be close - they're just as wonderful as friends.
I love Kell: he's awesome and his development through the story is great. He's a brilliant hero since he doesn't dedicate himself entirely to protecting others, but he isn't fully out for himself either: he has an ability others don't have and so he uses it, but he's acting like a 'normal' person would in his situation. His relationships with those around him are really nice, and you get the feeling he's a likeable character without everyone being spontaneously in love with him. He's actually pretty relatable past the magic.
Lila is now one of my all time favourite characters. While she might look like the newly typical kick-ass, sarky heroine, there's more substance beneath that, and Schwab pushes at those new boundaries. Lila isn't the way she is for the sake of rejecting traditional stereotypes: she isn't just irritatingly sarcastic, she does do some bad things; she isn't recklessly stupid, she genuinely is stubborn because of what she's been through.
Probably one of the few things I would've changed about this book would be the inclusion of two characters: Rhy would've been a hilarious addition to the team that I wish I'd learnt more about before Kell acted so rashly for him. I was also really rooting for Holland - but that's pretty much all I can without spoilers.

Because of Schwab's signature talent for non-chronoolgoical timelines (which aren't as important in here as in Vicous) the pacing was really good here. Well, maybe apart from just the beginning: it took a bit of time for the action to kick off, and since I'm used to tension and fast-paced plot it caught me a bit off guard. But as the story went on things picked up pretty effortlessly and I found it pretty much impossible to put down after the first hundred pages.

I think A Darker Shade of Magic is a brilliant book for a huge range of readers: younger readers will love the adventure, older readers will enjoy the complexity of the worlds. I don't like to make comparisons to other books because each do exist well on their own, but this was like Howl's Moving Castle meets Inkheart meets Throne of Glass - and that would make me pick it up without hesitation. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to wait for the next book.

Image source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23403402-a-darker-shade-of-magic

Sunday 19 April 2015

The Stone Gods

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Book Title: The Stone Gods
Author: Jeanette Winterson
Date Started: April 14th 2015
Date Completed: April 19th 2015
Genres: Romance, Dystopian, Sci-Fi
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Stars
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

I hate that it's this novel's unconventional nature that meant I struggled with it. But to be honest, it was different to the point where I didn't actually know what I was reading and what was happening for most of the book.

I think Winterson has a really lovely writing style, and I really do like her experimentation with prose text. But, for a novel that has so many other little confusing things, the chunks of dialogue, and then just narration, and then weird mixes of the two, just became too much to keep up with. It became very hard to correlate the text to what was actually happening in the story.
However, I think the comments made on modern life, feminism and homophobia was brilliant, and the way they were integrated into the plot (at first anyway) made it really powerful. On the other hand, it did become dominating at time - I'm still not sure if the book itself is supposed to be a comment on these issues, or if there's supposed to be a story that poses these questions.

The Stone Gods started off really interestingly for me: it took me a bit to understand the flow but then I really got engaged with the plot and messages it communicated. Then, when things started to get a bit confusing with the chunks of dialogue and then narration etc, I kept going thinking it would sort itself out. Then we had our first time jump - if that's what it was. This, unfortunately, was the final straw for my understanding of the book. First of all, I don't understand how they fit with the rest of the story, and it left me utterly lost in terms of location, time, progress of the characters and the whole plot. And, actually, I can't see what they add tot eh story itself. If there were some parallels drawn between the unusual jumps to get across a message that'd be great - but I honestly can't see anything.
Furthermore, I expected things to become more and more clear as I came to the end: it's a complex book and I'm fine waiting until the end to understand what it's trying to get across. But I got to the end and it just kind of...stopped. For me, things changed so drastically so many times - and not in the plot itself, more in how the story was told - and I just completely lost the thread of progress. The worst thing is I don't know if there was something I just didn't get with the whole book, or if there actually wasn't anything to get in the first place.

Even though the characters seem to be the pivot of the story, they only seemed half there a lot of the time. I struggled to get when they were actually talking and when Billie was musing and...well everything else was just confusing for me.
Overall, I really liked Billie. I thought she had a good balance of emotions: outrage, wonder, sarcasm, love etc. She was the only person that at most points in the story I could explain why she was where she was and how she got there - physically and emotionally.
I really hate to say it, but Spike didn't break the 'are robots robots, or are they still a form of life?' concept - she really did read robotically and without much emotion. I couldn't tell if that was the point or not, but she was one of the many little things I didn't understand about this book.

I think pacing is an important part of this novel; I don't think I had the patience to bear with it the whole way through. There's a lot more to this book than the story and its pacing, but because of that things are quite jumbled and confusing and so I found it very hard to enjoy.

For me, The Stone Gods just got a bit too weird and confusing for me to keep up with. I think this could be a brilliant book if you have the patience and an open-mind, but because of the way I went into it, I don't think I would've liked it much anyway.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19246890-the-stone-gods

Tuesday 14 April 2015

The Raven Boys

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Book Title: The Raven Boys
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Quartet #1
Date Started: April 11th 2015
Date Completed: April 14th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Mystery
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

I was caught off guard by how much I enjoyed this book. While I had my expectations set to the stereotypical YA level (sorry), I was surprised that my expectations of feels and an over-dramatic climax were missed, and in fact a not-quite-conventional story emerged. The main thing that made it stand out for me was the clarity that Stiefvater wasn't obsessed with giving her audience exactly what they wanted: she let the story naturally develop, and every now and then nudged it in the right direction.

I can't say that I completely agree with other readers that describe Stiefvater's as beautifully poetic, but you can definitely see that this book has been written with love and skill. You really get the sense that she's confidently taken her time making sure everything feels right and natural, rather than just writing, seeing how it goes and making sure it'll tick all the boxes for the 'typical' YA audience.
I absolutely adored the fantastical portrayal of the supernatural themes. Paranormal stories have never really been my thing, but Stiefvater's opened a way for me to really invest in it through the beautifully magical atmosphere in this book. Not only did this make everything so much more interesting for me, but the consistency throughout the whole story impressed me because it made everything seem so much more believable. (The balance between the supernatural plot and the more serious 'human' issues faced by the characters should also be noted.)

When I started this book, I wished I could just read about the boys: they were infinitely more interesting to me, and their friendships could make up a whole story itself. But actually, I do appreciate Blue's later involvement, even though I wouldn't call her the main protagonist.
Something I loved about the plot was how it didn't follow the easy routes that it hinted at: Stiefvater deliberately implied things would go a certain way (something quite easy to do with a house of psychics), but sometimes the story just didn't turn out that way. It actually made it feel more believable, as events naturally turned in different directions, rather than being forced to reach somewhere and then attempt to explain why. This was personally impressive to me because when I write it down, it sounds like a cop out for bad planning, but it seemed so honest that it just didn't come across as badly written. (The only thing that sometimes felt like a cheat was the money available for the boys to do whatever they wanted, but there are enough factors stacked to justify this that I didn't really mind.)
The climax still hasn't completely settled as good or bad in my head yet. Inside my mind, it looked spectacular and I could almost feel the chaos happening around me, but towards the end it just fell a bit flat and started to read jerkily and I lost sense of a lot of what was happening. Having said that, it left enough open to show that this was only really the beginning. For once, something that's very clearly a single instalment in a much bigger story worked very well on its own. I can't possibly not go on and see how everything ends.

The Raven Boys has a good variety of solid characters, and a reasonable balance for featuring all of them.
Blue didn't always feel like a protagonist to me, as it felt a lot of the time the more important parts of the story were led by other characters. However, I liked her quirky presence in the story: you often get female heroines who are 'unusual' and 'different', but Blue really felt like she was separated from normality (maybe because we never see her in school or at her jobs) and that enhanced not only the fantastical aspect of this book, but also just made her more appealing for being something unique.
If I would pick anyone out as the ringleader of the book, it would be Gansey. I'm not sure I feel the attraction a lot of readers do to him, but he's certainly a big part of the book and I like his position. I'm not sure I quite understand him yet, but I'm confident with Stiefvater's pacing.
I like Adam, but I can't say I was entirely invested in him. I really liked his differences financially and emotionally from the other boys, and I'm glad it's there otherwise I'd worry about him fading into the background.
Some of the 'smaller' characters were actually was I grew to love the most. Ronan stood out to me from the start as being the most interesting of the boys, albeit the most violent - I don't know, maybe that's why he was interesting to me; he was very clearly made out to be the most volatile. Noah was a character who I didn't like at the start, but who Stiefvater very cleverly turned upside down, so of course by the end I adored him. I wish Calla and Persephone had been more involved in the story because I really really liked them: I felt the whole psychic house of women was going to be brilliant, but it was only these two that amounted to much for me.

Like I've mentioned, I really felt that Stiefvater took her time planning, writing and editing this book, because everything seems very naturally but confidently constructed. The story does start off slow, but it makes sense that things gradually build up, and even by the end you can tell there's so much more left to say - it's one of the best planned series' I've read in a while.

I would recommend The Raven Boys to all YA readers for its enjoyment and hints of the common attraction of romance, supernatural elements and sarky characters. But I think readers that sometimes shy away from Young Adult fiction would also like this because it really feels like a fully-fledged instalment in an exciting series that has been lovingly written.

Image Source https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15995747-the-raven-boys

Friday 10 April 2015

The Fury

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Book Title: The Fury
Author: Alexander Gordon Smith
Series: The Fury #1
Date Started: April 5th 2015
Date Completed: April 10th 2015
Genres: Dystopian, Thriller, Adventure, Horror, Action
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

The Fury follows the typical in of younger thriller ('boy') fiction, but has some really refreshing differences and twists. Though I can't say I was won over with the overall explanation, the story itself and the suspense it builds will entertain a wide range of younger readers (and not just boys).

The writing fell a bit flat for me, but to be honest I wasn't expecting anything magical. Even so, the action was well written, and the characters and dialogue scenes well-enough structured. I just feel like everything - especially the more supernatural parts of the book - could have been developed in a more interesting way. The book was written well enough to make sense of everything, it just lacked some flair.

The Fury didn't have the most believable plot line, but it still came across as probably more entertaining and engaging than a lot of novels aimed at similar audiences. And despite the vaguely too-easy climaxes or obstacles, I still found myself reasonably invested in the characters.
I think that specifically was very important, and possibly the reason why I enjoyed The Fury more than others: it focuses a lot more on the character's decisions, relationships and them trying to work out what to do. There is of course a different obstacle present in this book in which there are still other people alive (unlike, for example, the world being wiped out, or full of zombies etc), and because the teenagers had to take this into account it became a lot more about being clever rather than just running around until you find something interesting. The three main protagonists definitely pushed the story on, at the end of the day. I'm not sure how much I would have enjoyed this book had one of the characters annoyed me.
The thing with this story is it did a very good job of basically just setting up the action in the next book. Now I hate filler books that are only in place to get you to a certain point with more information and very little new story, but Smith made The Fury seem like its own story. Realising that we weren't going to get many answers that would solve the story near the end of the book did take away from the climax a bit, but nonetheless, it was a satisfying ending that did leave me wanting to know what happens next.

I really liked the relationship between the three main protagonists; they're distrustful and a little skeptical, as you would expect in a situation where everyone wants to kill you - but you also do get the feeling they care about each other, no matter how much they squabble or get angry and scared.
I really liked Cal, and felt he had a good influence on the story, but it did sometimes feel he was a bit too diplomatic with a group of scared teenagers. It's all well and good acting the level-headed hero but in what could easily become a Lord of the Flies situation it might not be the best course of action.
Daisy was also a good protagonist. I liked the way she understood what was happening to them a little bit more than anyone else, and you definitely get the sense she's a little bit different. However, despite liking the fact that the 'baby' of the group still played an important part in the story, I do feel that she was dumbed down for her age - she's thirteen not nine.
Brick is probably the least likeable of the protagonists, but the brief inclusion of his girlfriend really brought his character into perspective for me. There were times when I was just ready to kind of overlook him for anything other than nice or useful - but that little part in the story not only enforced the danger these kids were in, but also the human aspect they were facing.

There was a fast pace for such a long book (okay, the font wasn't exactly small but still), and I was impressed by the range of action and dialogue Smith incorporated into the story. I have to say, it took a little too long for things to really get going for me, but as an older reader I was in more anticipation for the plot reveal rather than the action leading up to it - but for its target audience I think the development will have them hooked.

Like I've said, I think younger readers will really enjoy this book for its fast-paced action and exciting mystery. Though it wasn't my favourite book ever, I still definitely enjoyed it more than most books that follow this sort of design. Perhaps not for a first-time reader, but definitely something to introduce the dystopian or thriller genre.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12993207-the-fury

Sunday 5 April 2015

Red Queen

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Book Title: Red Queen
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Series: Red Queen #1
Date Started: April 1st 2015
Date Completed: April 5th 2015
Genres: Romance, Dystopian, Fantasy, Adventure
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

I'm confused by this book: the beginning was quite frankly a train wreck, but literally within a sentence it felt like there was a completely different writer, a different story and definitely a completely different protagonist - and I actually really enjoyed it from there. I don't understand why it was so different to me but there were so many little things on every page at the start that just annoyed me so much.

Aveyard's writing itself is nice: quick to read but also a little more detailed and different than typical YA fantasy/dystopian. I think part of the reason I didn't like the beginning was to do with the world building: to me it definitely seems like this book is sold as a fantasy and so - as a great lover of new imaginative fantasy - I got a bit lost when suddenly there was electricity and everything was described as very luxuriously and fantastical, but high-tech and in ruins at the same time. This isn't necessarily Aveyard's fault but a clearer build up of the world would've helped this for me.
I have to say the big thing about the start of this book was just all the little things: the threats and feelings didn't feel consistent; first person and italics used for the same purpose; some contemporary-like dialogue and actions that just felt silly in this world; and the description. You can tell there's so much imaginative stuff going on in the author's head but it came out as a confused jumble that I found really hard to picture. My immediate instinct is that the beginning of the book was just badly edited? Because after a certain point, these little things just disappeared and, though the story wasn't without its faults, it became really enjoyable.

The first thing with this story is that it is basically a hybrid of several well-known YA novels. I don't think that this was at all deliberately, but the storyline was from one book, the characters from another, and then the world from something else (I did actually directly link them to other books but I don't want to give away too many spoilers).
There were so many little things at the start that really annoyed me, but I'm just going to pretend that the first hundred pages didn't happen and move on from there.
The big twist was predictable because Aveyard tried so hard to make us think the opposite - and honestly it really annoyed me. It felt like one of those twists where the author is trying so hard to catch the reader off guard that the surprise comes out of nowhere and doesn't have much meanings as a twist anymore. However, the ending itself was really good in my opinion.

There were just a few strong characters that this book depended on, and there were a few holes in consistency, but ultimately they were enough to keep the book going. I did feel some of the lesser characters weren't judged fairly from what we'd witnessed (a lot of the 'villains' didn't actually act too badly, but they really are talked about as evil - it didn't quite add up).
I hated Mare at the start. She was a different twist on the typical YA heroine: she wasn't angry and reckless and stupid with a cause, she was just angry and stupid. But then she grew a backbone, and I'm still not completely sure about her. One second I was rolling my eyes and the next I was absolutely loving her, and then back to sighing at something she said.
I really really liked Maven. I think he was a really nice character and probably the one person who slowly developed throughout the whole story. It is ten the reason that I'm very very annoyed at his current position.
Cal was a good character, but he wasn't always consist. Having said that I did end up liking most of his various sides, but he felt morel like different people instead one person who was very conflicted.

Barring the beginning of this book, I think Red Queen was actually quite well paced. There was a good balance between action and dialogue, and events were well placed to allow the necessary development to reach the end (in most cases). Towards the end I was more and more inclined to keep going back to the book and by the end I had to just keep reading until it was over.

I don't know who I'd recommend this to. Ignoring my confusion about the earlier part of the book, I'd say the majority of YA readers: it's well-paced, exciting, and imaginative. It definitely treads well along the lines of familiarity in YA - decide yourself whether you think that's a good or bad thing. Some parts did annoy me, and I'm still irritated about the things I've pointed out in this review, but overall it was an enjoyable read and I think I probably will be carrying on with the series.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22369406-red-queen

Wednesday 1 April 2015

The Third Woman



Book Title: The Third Woman
Author: Jonathan Freedland
Date Started: March 12th 2015
Date Completed: April 1st 2015
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Contemporary
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

Thanks to HarperCollins for the Uncorrected Proof Copy for review.

Unfortunately I can't say I was blown away by The Third Woman, but at the same time I'm not the target audience nor do I consistently get along with politics-based mystery thrillers - which this book definitely is. Having said that, I do think that it seems like a solid story for those who are interested in this genre.

The narration in this book did have a journalistic tone; I could almost hear Maddy walking through her plan like a brief to someone in the office. This helped to get in the mood of the novel but wasn't the most positive at times. I can't claim the know much about the politics involved here but the almost laid-back but informed tone about quite serious matters did make the story seem slightly bias (it literally takes until the last few chapters for the protagonist to mention that within a political/social group there are disagreements and conflicts of interest).

The big thing that stood out for me in this book was how it brought the impacts of journalism into perspective: it's fair to say there's an awareness in society that the press can hugely interfere with the course of the law, but it can also expose things that the public have a right to know - but both the pros and cons were really shown here, and presumably accurately. I have to say, it wasn't particularly positive towards journalists, but I was definitely more empathetic with their reasonings.
There was a great spiralling of events in the story, but the politics itself didn't seem particularly solid (or rather understandable) for me. I also got quite bored of everyone telling the protagonist that she needed to mourn for three quarters of the book.
The resolution, for me, wasn't really satisfying because I didn't entirely understand it and it seemed quite anticlimactic, however I think other well-read mystery thriller lovers will be happy with the conclusion.

There are a lot of characters in this book, but all only seem to the there to help or hinder Maddy. As a huge fan of realistic developed characters this wasn't my favourite part of the book; people were featured in their own chapters as if their own little stories but they were abandoned. It was also more male dominated than I thought was necessarily necessary.
Maddy was a good enough protagonist, and since literally everything revolved around her it was easy enough to understand her intentions. The one problem I had was that she's supposedly the "best reporter in America" but we're not ever really given anything to support that - the only thing I know is that she's constantly misusing the prestige everyone regards her with.

There was quite a slow pace in this book, which isn't particularly uncommon in mystery thrillers, but it did feel like we were going in circles for a while. In a way this was great because I got just as frustrated with the various people who weren't cooperating as Maddy, but for a pacing I felt it did go on for a little too long with no leads.

The Third Woman is definitely what I'd call a solid adult (definitely adult) mystery thriller, and I wish all the best for Freedland now that he's using his real name on his works - but I can't say it was a personal favourite of mine.

Image Source - http://ea07a3f44950ceb44992-b46d48c1c3e
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