Book Review: Let Me In , by John Ajvide Lindqvist

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let me in cover
Set in 1981, Let Me In is the horrific tale of Oskar and Eli. It begins with the grisly discovery of the body of a teenage boy, emptied of blood. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last — revenge for all the bad things the bullies at school do to him, day after day. While Oskar is fascinated by the murder, it is not the most important thing in his life. A new girl has moved in next door—a girl who has never seen a Rubik’s cube before, but who can solve it at once. They become friends. Then something more. But there is something wrong with her, something odd. And she only comes out at night. . . .

Review:

Seriously creepy in a skeevy kind of way. There are many monsters in this book, of which I think the vampire was the least frightening. It’s not one I can claim to have enjoyed reading *shudder*, but I’m honestly glad to have read it.

Stormdancer

Book Review of Stormdancer (The Lotus War, #1), by Jay Kristoff

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StormdancerI picked up a copy of Stormdancer, by Jay Kristoff at my local library. (With that cover, how could I not?)

Description from Goodreads:
A DYING LAND
The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; an island nation once rich in tradition and myth, now decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, the land is choked with toxic pollution, and the great spirit animals that once roamed its wilds have departed forever.

AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST 
The hunters of Shima’s imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary creature, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows the beasts have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death.

A HIDDEN GIFT 
Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a talent that if discovered, would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun’s hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he’d rather see her dead than help her.

But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire.

Review:
This is probably a must-read for all Anime and Manga fans out there. You’ll definitely recognize the feel of it. Not to mention it’d be really helpful to already understand what a yokai and oni are, as well as any number of other recognizable Japanese words (clothing items, ranks, weaponry, etc).

I basically enjoyed it after a really slow start. I enjoyed Yukiko and Buruu, as well as some of the side characters. I probably could have done without the teenage romance, but this is a YA book so I don’t know that I can really complain about it.

Like so many YA books it is essentially an allegory. Shima’s Chi dependence mirroring the modern world’s dependence on oil and it’s destructive self-perpetuation. The maniac Shogun could easily be the greedy 1% crushing the common man, while placating him with lies and base entertainments.

All in all, well worth picking up.

I love my local library consortium!

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Webster Groves Library

Webster Groves Library

It’s official I love my library. Ok, I love libraries in general, it’s not necessarily that my library is all that much more impressive than most. But I love going to the library and I did so today.

Now, I occasionally write these little library posts so people know why my blog stalls for a week or so. I predominantly read & reveiw indie books, but every once in a while I get a hankerin’ for some traditional publications or to catch up on a series I started and never came around to finishing. This is what pulls me towards my library and away from the ~3,000 indie books I have at my fingertips. But I don’t always bother with reviews for these books. Honestly, if Hachette Publications puts a book out I may read it, but probably not when it’s new and probably not before it has 5,000 reviews. So, unless I have something significant to say, I just don’t bother. As a result, library trips often coincide with a temporary reduction in blog posts. So, let this serve as official warning that posts may lag.

What did I get, today? This year, one of my reading goals is to try clearing off some of the books that have been on my TBR for a long time. With this in mind, I took the time to go through my Goodreads Please-Lend-Me shelf and requested any of the books that were on it and available from my library. There weren’t that many of them, again, I read mostly indie, which my library carries few of.*

I went to the library today

But I did manage to snag John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let Me In (which has been on my list since I joined Goodreads in 2012), Kij Johnson’s Fudoki (also Feb 2012), Jay Kristoff’s Stormdancer (Feb 2013), Liz Williams’ Snake Agent (July 2014) and Ron Rash’s Serena. (The last one because I’ve joined a real-world book club—yes, wine, mojitos, appetizers, chatty well-read women, it’s great—and this is our book of the month). I also requested William Goldman’s The Princess Bride and George R. R. Martin’s Fevre Dream (so I can sample his writing without committing to the Song of Fire and Ice series). These last two however are checked out, so I’m on the waiting list.

It’s a couple thousand pages, all in and I may or may not review them all. So, again, be forewarned that there may be a week and a half or so pause in blogging on my end.

But access to free books isn’t the only reason I love my library. They have a ton of free activities for both kids and adults—classes, book signings, book discussions, movie nights, story time, lego mania, Minecraft events, concerts, etc.— there are just a ton of things happening. (Seriously, if you’ve not checked out your library, you should.)

My favorite of the moment is the summer reading challenge. Granted, I originally only signed up for this to do it with my seven-year-old, who loves books but struggles with reading. I thought if we did it together, she might feel encouraged. And she likes the idea of winning a prize for doing 500 minutes of reading over the summer, sure, but it’s me that’s really taken to the idea.

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I read roughly a book a day…yeah, that 5 book goal was done in the 1st week.

Now, I don’t care about the prizes. I don’t even know what’s on the table, or even if it’s a prize or drawing or something else. What I love is that, as an adult, I have to list the books I read to qualify. And surely, SURELY the library takes advantage of the fact that their members are telling them, in real time, what they are reading and uses this conveniently collected data to determine what sorts of books to order in the future.

And that matters to me. My library is a member of a consortium in which anyone from any of several libraries can request books from other consortium libraries. And at least 2/3 of the books I request come from one branch of that consortium (University City). The members in that community must have reading tastes more similar to mine than my local branch (or at least someone in the ordering department does).

My point is that I’ve taken to the idea of letting my local library know exactly what I’m reading in the hopes that it will encourage them to order more books in the genres I read a lot of. We have a pretty strong fiction and biography section, but other than new releases of popular series, I have a hard time finding much good Urban Fantasy. I enjoy a good PNR and am currently ga-ga over M/M & (to a lesser degree) F/F romance, but am not a fan of contemporary romances, only the last of which my library seems to carry many of. Not to suggest they have none, but I have to work pretty hard to find them. Undoubtedly, this is all the result of the fact that my community has historically, I think, had an older population.

Anyhow, at this point I’m basically just squeeing over my trip to the library. I encourage everyone to get out there and visit their own.

*Hey library people, I know funds are limited and books are chosen carefully, but might I suggest some Leigh Parker, Alexis Hall,  Maya Lassiter, Jordan Castillo Price, Michael McClung, C. Lynn Murphy, Sera Ashling, Giacomo Giammatteo, K.J. Charles, Andrea Speed, J.L. Merrow, Vaughn R. Demont, A.J. Aalto, Lindsay Buroker, Rebekah Turner, J.L. Murray,  Angela Roquet, Harper Fox or Mary Holland. These are just some of the ones I’ve read and loved in the last year or two. The list is a bit biased toward genres I read a lot of, but all worthy reads from indie authors.