Review - The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

Series: Fairyland #2

Published by Feiwel & Friends on Oct 2 2012

Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade

Pages: 258

Rating: 5/5 stars

September has longed to return to Fairyland after her first adventure there. And when she finally does, she learns that its inhabitants have been losing their shadows—and their magic—to the world of Fairyland Below. This underworld has a new ruler: Halloween, the Hollow Queen, who is September’s shadow. And Halloween does not want to give Fairyland’s shadows back. 

Fans of Valente’s bestselling, first Fairyland book will revel in the lush setting, characters, and language of September’s journey, all brought to life by fine artist Ana Juan. Readers will also welcome back good friends Ell, the Wyverary, and the boy Saturday. But in Fairyland Below, even the best of friends aren’t always what they seem. . . 

I never for a second doubted that I would love The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland…. There wasn’t a thing not to love. After the phenomenal first book in the series, I was thoroughly hooked. In fact, I even managed to read the second book within a year of reading the first, which is quite a feat for me!

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There takes place a year after September returns to her home in Omaha, Nebraska. She itches to return to Fairyland, and searches for the Green Wind and opportunities to go back anywhere she can. She finally returns to Fairyland on her thirteenth birthday whilst attempting to read French books in a corn field. September arrives in Fairyland hoping to find adventure and excitement, though she doesn’t anticipate how needed she is. She is quickly thrust into the current upheaval faced by the residents of Fairyland – they are losing their shadows, and with their shadows their magic. September discovers that her own shadow, which she bargained away during her first visit to Fairyland, is the force behind the mass shadow exodus and takes it upon herself to stop Halloween (as September’s shadow has dubbed herself).

Like the first book in the series, this novel was incredibly creative. I envy Valente her ginormous imagination, but I’m so grateful to be able to read about all of these fantastical characters and events even if I am incapable of creating anything quite so magical myself. I was particularly enamoured with the tea and coffee family (whose names I unfortunately cannot remember!) and Aubergine the Night Dodo, who was absolutely lovely, though I’ll admit that every single character in this series is utterly unforgettable.

I was also impressed with the integration of September’s personal growth. She’s truly growing up, and you can see her maturing right before your eyes. Where she was a heartless child in The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland… she has begun to develop a heart and a conscious. She is no longer a child and it is evident in the choices she makes as well as the way that she is dealt with in the narration. There is a more melancholy streak in this book that in the first, and I think that is due to the fact that September is indeed becoming a teenager and is able to see the darkness through all of the beauty and brilliance of Fairyland. The inclusion of her father at the end of the book ripped my heart right out of my chest.

The sporatic illustrations throughout the book were beautiful and imaginative. I loved the way that the illustrator played with proportions and didn’t necessarily create images that directly translated exactly what was written. It really added to the reading experience.

My one source of confusion or annoyance in The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland… was that September’s shadow had her own name and her own identity, yet all of the other shadows went by their person’s name. For instance, Saturday’s shadow was called Saturday. I understood why this made sense for narrative purposes, as it illustrated the fact that they were two sides of the same person, but I thought it rather odd that Halloween was the one exception. Other than that, I was completely enraptured by this book and would recommend it to anyone regardless of age or gender or anything else. It’s the kind of book that makes me really appreciate what middle grade books have to offer and why they are so important. 

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

Series: Standalone

Published by Random House on August 20 2013

Genres: Mystery, Adult Fiction,

Pages: 602

Rating: 5/5 stars

WILDLY IMAGINATIVE, ADDICTIVELY IMMERSIVE, BREATHTAKINGLY SUSPENSEFUL. 

Everybody has a Cordova story. Cult horror director Stanislas Cordova hasn't been seen in public since 1977. To his fans he is an engima. To journalist Scott McGrath he is the enemy. To Ashley he was a father. 

On a damp October night the body of young, beautiful Ashley Cordova is found in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Her suicide appears to be the latest tragedy to hit a severely cursed dynasty. 

For McGrath, another death connected to the legendary director seems more than a coincidence. Driven by revenge, curiosity and a need for the truth, he finds himself pulled into a hypnotic, disorientating world, where almost everyone seems afraid. 

The last time McGrath got close to exposing Cordova, he lost his marriage and his career. This time he could lost his grip on reality. 

ONCE WE FACE OUR DEEPEST FEARS, WHAT LIES ON THE OTHER SIDE?

I don’t really like mystery novels. I’m not drawn to them the way I am to fantasy or contemporary. This may be partially because I’m dreadful at figuring out what is going on before it is all explained to me, which makes me feel kind of dumb. A regular Sherlock Holmes I am not. So I was surprised to discover that I really, really wanted to read Night Film. So much so that when I saw it on my cart at the library whilst shelving books, I knew that I had to check it out and start reading it right away, despite the five or six other library books awaiting me at home. I started reading it that night, and finished it the next afternoon.

This book was a lot of things, but it was never boring. I thought that Pessl did a marvellous job of keeping the pacing up through such a hefty book – this thing is just over six hundred pages long! I had no idea what to expect, but I was not ready for it to get so freaking creepy – I read the scenes at The Peak at two in the morning when I was home alone, and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest when my mum got home and knocked on my door. I couldn’t bear to put it down until I knew that everyone was safe (at least for the time being).

Some of the reviews I’ve read mentioned being disappointed by the ending, which I completely understand. The ending of Night Film isn’t for everyone, but it worked for me. I liked the ambiguity, the way that everything wasn’t wrapped up nicely with a shiny red bow. I liked that there was room for interpretation, that like the characters we can choose to believe whichever story works best for us as readers. It actually reminds me a little bit of the ending of Yan Martel’s Life of Pi in that sense.

The only thing I didn’t care for about Night Film was the protagonist. I never really gave a damn about Scott McGrath. I never felt more than lukewarm about him as a character, whereas the rest of the cast were excellent – I loved Hopper and Nora and most of all Ashley. I think the problem I had with Scott was that he thought very highly of himself and was judgemental of everyone else. He was also a pretty crappy father. He viewed Sam as an afterthought, as an inconvenience. I completely understand why Cynthia made the decision she made and I don’t think that Scott deserved her forgiveness. I wish there would have been more character development on Scott’s part. He was just as obsessed with Cordova, to the detriment of every other aspect of his life, at the end of the book as he was at the beginning. Also, I don’t understand how he had so much money to throw around. He’s a disgraced journalist, so it’s not like he’s had steady work over the last few years…

Finally, it’s impossible to write a review of Night Film without mentioning Pessl’s use of multi-media. Throughout the book there are news articles and blog posts and photographs and web pages all created (or doctored) just for this book. Some of the images are truly haunting, and it really added to the experience. It’s hard to believe that Stanislas Cordova is not a real person and that his films and fanbase are entirely fictitious. I really commend what Pessl has created with this book, and am interested to see what she does next (also I need to check out her first book, as I hear it caused quite a stir and received many accolades when it was released).

Review - Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone #3

Published by Little, Brown & Company on April 8 2014

Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy

Pages: 613

Rating: 5/5 stars

By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause. 

When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. 

And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.
But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world. 

What power can bruise the sky? 

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.  

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter?

The highlight of this book was not the main characters, lovely though they were. It was Liraz and Ziri. Before reading Dreams, I would never have believed that I’d love Liraz as much as I now do. I cried more times that I’d care to admit over Ziri’s fate (both good tears and bad tears). That moment with Liraz and Ziri at the entrance to the kirin caves? Hold me while I swoon! For all the focus that is given to the romance between Karou and Akiva, I was far less invested in their relationship than I was Ziri and Liraz’s.

Akiva has been my least favourite protagonist in this series since day one. I just don’t connect with him, and I don’t really see the attraction aside from the whole “soulmates” shtick. Not my jam. BUT Karou more than makes up for it. I love that girl so much and I’m really not even sure why. The blue hair doesn’t hurt.

The dudes in this series are way weaker than the ladies. I don’t mind it because they aren’t bad, but they aren’t as well rounded and interesting. It’s pretty obvious that Laini Taylor prefers writing women (I can’t blame her). Between Akiva and Mik, the main men don’t do much other than stand around being attractive and supportive and occasionally broody (we all know which one I’m talking about). The villains are pretty interesting, and very infuriating. I’m pretty sure I haven’t hated a character as much as Thiago since Voldemort.

A solid conclusion to a fascinating and staggeringly original story. I’ve never read a series quite like this. And I’ve read a lot. I wasn’t too sure about the introduction of a new problem in the last book of the series, but it definitely lends itself to a potential spin-off, which I approve of. I want to live in this world for as long as possible. The biggest major problem I had with the plot was that I wasn’t sure why the seraph had to leave Meliz in the first place. If the Stelians can keep the Beasts from entering Eretz, why wouldn’t they have been able to keep them out of Meliz? I get that this wouldn’t work for the plot, but it doesn’t quite add up.

I also got a kick out the scene with Karou and Akiva hiding in the hotel shower at the Kasbah. All I could think of was that Virko could hear every word they were saying and was standing there trying to ignore them.

Laini Taylor is a prose wizard. Everyone should aspire to be Laini Taylor. That is all. (Actually there were a couple of bits that were a little bit lengthier than necessary, but it didn’t bother me.)

Review - Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2

Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy

Pages: 517

Rating: 5/5 stars

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.
This is not that world. 

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it. 

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life. 

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope. 

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

Laini Taylor is a master. I would go so far as to say that based on her technical writing skills alone – how beautiful and engaging the prose she writes is – she is one of the best YA authors. Ever. Even if the stories she was telling were pure shit, her writing alone is just so enjoyable that I don’t think I’d care.

But her stories aren’t shit. Days of Blood & Starlight picks up where Daughter of Smoke & Bone left off, and it took me a little while to get re-acclimated within the world that Laini has built.  I wasn’t particularly impressed with the first few chapters – it was a lot of Akiva, and no Karou. I personally never really liked Akiva all that much in Daughter of Smoke & Bone. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dislike him, I was just much more invested in Karou and her side of the story. Akiva’s storyline was more of an irritating distraction before I could get back to Karou. It picked up around the 15% mark and didn’t slow down until the last page.

In Days of Blood & Starlight, I fell in love with Akiva. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but I actually enjoyed the seraph storyline, at the very least. The most important thing that changed in Days of Blood & Starlight regarding Akiva was that Hazael and Liraz became characters that I actually cared about – moreso, possibly, than Akiva himself. I still preferred the narrative surrounding Karou, but I didn’t try to rush through Akiva’s chapters in a hurry to get back to her.

Speaking of Akiva, I really hate his name. I don’t even know what it is about it, but I dislike it. I love all of the other names in the book; they’re deliciously creative and I love the distinct naming patterns of the chimaera and the seraph (their names have very different sounds). I just don’t like the name Akiva. Oh well.

Ziri. Oh, Ziri, Ziri, Ziri. I thought Zuze was my favourite character in this series, but she was overthrown by my beloved Ziri. I want an entire book just about Ziri so I can revel in his marvelousness. Okay, he’s a little be pathetic sometimes – he totally moons over Karou all the time, which is just adorable. He may be a bit of a puppy dog,  but he’s also a skilled warrior, a good person, and best of all loyal. Yeah, I’m swooning.

There are some huge events in Days of Blood & Starlight, and I can’t wait to see what happens in Dreams of Gods & Monsters. I just can’t wait until April 2014! That’s SO LONG!