Tag Archives: challenge 2013

Review of Michael Wharton’s Electric Pigs

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Electric PigsAuthor, Michael Wharton sent me an ecopy of his new novel Electric Pigs.

Description from Goodreads:
Stan Wragg is sublimely happy in his life as a slaughter man’s mate, stunning section, second rate. He was born to zap pigs, and fate has kindly arranged for him to be employed in that exact capacity at Hopes abattoir in Drearly, just north of Birmingham. Everything is as it should be and all is well with the world, until one day, malign and cruel forces outside of Stan’s control or comprehension decide that things must change.

Review:
Oh, this is a hard book to review. It’s strange. I mean, like, WTF weird. It also mercilessly refuses to allow anyone to avoid, ignore, or sweep away human ugliness. It’s there, and Electric Pigs doesn’t let you forget it for an instant. And while there were moments in which I considered declaring it a pretentious piece of pseudo-intellectualism disguised as ironic absurdism, that wouldn’t be fair to it. It simply isn’t, and not just because a meaningful conclusion is eventually reached.

I would hazard a guess that forcing the reader to face the generally and socially ignored grotesque that surrounds us is part of the author’s goal. I’m not going to pretend to know this for certain, but it’s certainly how I read it.

While I could have done without Stan’s inventive solution to constipation, or half the descriptions of human bloatedness, or the somnolent bestialitism fantasy play, the book wouldn’t have been the same without them. And Stan’s innocent, child-like splendour wouldn’t have had the grimy backdrop on which to shine. Stan makes all of the horridness of his environment worth suffering through. He and his admittedly dysfunctional and cognitively deficient family are marvellous.

This book won’t be for everyone. Heck, having read it I’m not even sure it’s for me. It’s not an easy read, and I suspect the audience will be limited by its focus on the repugnant as well as the number of people who are able to look past the seemingly juvenile obsession with sex and fecal matter. There will undoubtedly be those who do deem it a ‘pretentious piece of pseudo-intellectualism.’ I’m just not one of them. I’m fairly certain I found meaning in the apparent randomness.

For those who can look past its ugliness, Electric Pigs presents a well-written, snuggly plotted piece of literary fiction. I sincerely hope that it can find the appropriate audience in front of which to stand tall and garner the praise it deserves.

Book Review of His Black Wings, by Astrid Yrigollen

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His Black WingsI downloaded a copy of Astrid Yrigollen‘s YA/NA novel, His Black Wings, from the Amazon free list. I also followed a convenient link from Ms. Yrigollen’s blog to here, where there happens to be a giveaway for a free paperback copy of the book.

Description from Goodreads:
Claren Maidstone has been forced to flee her childhood home after the death of her parents and a vicious assault from a sadistic young man who intends to marry her. Claren changes her identity and finds employment as an assistant to the handsome Fredrick Lowood, a generous yet mysterious benefactor. However, she soon finds out his generosity comes at a price. Fredrick wishes for Claren to befriend his disfigured son who resides in seclusion at their estate, Westwind.

Fredrick Lowood knows what the history books do not teach, that the Grand Council built this new world of peace and beauty on hidden blood and greed. He has plotted for years to bring down the family that enslaved his own people. Suddenly, he has the last living heir in his grasp.

Etrigan Lowood rejects the world that forces him to hide. He is powerful, plagued with a terrible dark beauty: WINGS. It is these wings that carry him out only at night to watch the unwanted intruder in his home. A creature of refined instinct yet little social grace, he is strangely captivated by Claren but knows nothing of how her family’s dark past is intertwined with his own. Through their blossoming friendship, Etrigan realizes he still retains his human heart and yearns for Claren’s love.

Kurten Wandsworth is the only son of the Mayor of St.Marhen. Kurten lives his life fueled by cruelty and lust. Whatever he wants he takes and he wants Claren to be his wife even it if kills her. Scarred by Claren he hunts her down mercilessly until he can set a trap which she will never be able to escape from.

Review:
Ok, so I’m a huge manga fan. Yes, I know I’m too old, but get over it. I have. Being that I love Japan’s graphic exports as much as I do, this cover really appealed to me. I won’t lie; it’s the sole reason I downloaded the book. I’m kinda burnt on YA, so if it had had a standard YA cover with some star-crossed waif in a flowing dress, I’d have written it off without another thought. But Ms. Yrigollen went with something a little different, and it paid off here.

I will admit that I expected the story to be more childish, or for a younger YA audience than it is, based on the cover. Etrigan and Claren look so young in the picture but are actually in their early twenties, and the book starts with an attempted rape (not really kiddie stuff). I was tempted at one point to argue this would be better labelled New Adult than Young Adult, and I think that argument probably can be made for the first half. However, after a fairly lengthy info dump at about 70% through, the whole feel of the book really takes on the shallow characteristics of a YA.

I don’t mean shallow as an insult, but rather the way YA books often tend to avoid dark outcomes and deep moral quandaries by allowing every circumstance and character an easy, happy solution. I’ll be honest, I actually hate this aspect of YA. It’s part of what makes me take long breaks from the genre. But I’d obviously never punish a book for matching it’s genre. Having said that, all the good-natured hearts and flowers that popped up all over the place toward the end of this book did cause me to squirm a bit.

The story does seem to be a retelling of Beauty and the Beast (as the description says), but since it takes on a bit of a dystopian, steampunk setting, it strays far enough from its progenitor to feel original. There were times that I wished it would choose one or the other for consistency’s sake, though. The introduction of robots and steam cars seemed out of place, with the beginnings rather Victorian environs, and then later with technology that could implant encyclopedic knowledge in one’s mind in seconds.

There were also a few POV and narration inconsistencies. The book was predominantly told in the third person, but every once in a while, an anomalous first-person narrator comment would pop up and confuse me. Along with the mentioned info dump, which really caused 15 or so percent of the book to really drag, and a questionable lack of commas, I have very few other complaints. I enjoyed the story.

I liked that Claren was willing to stand up for herself and appeared to be smart enough to read a situation for what it was. She was also perfectly able to read others, meaning that she didn’t pull the common heroine habit of constantly wondering about someone’s feelings or motives when they were perfectly obvious. Etrigan, on the other hand, seemed deliciously fragile. He showed a little beastly backbone at the end, but for most of the book, ‘cute’ would be a much better adjective to describe him. There was a slew of colorful side characters, namely Horace, Dekker, and Mrs. Whitby, as well as minor main characters (Frederick and Kurten). They all played their part well and helped flesh the book out without cluttering it up. 

All-in-all, I may have let this one linger on the shelf until I was able to face a YA HEA, but having finally given it a read, I find myself happy to have given it the time. For those who like original retellings of fairy tales or blending of genres, this one is worth picking up.  

Book Review of Angela Roquet’s Graveyard Shift, Pocket Full of Posies, For the Birds

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Graveyard ShiftI grabbed Angela Roquet‘s Graveyard Shift (Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. #1) from the Amazon free list. I then bought the sequel, Pocket Full of Posies. You can win paperback copies of all the first three Reaper books here.

As a side note, I just discovered she lives not too far from me, which makes her feel like a local celebrity (’cause you know I idolize authors over just about anyone else)….or maybe that idea just makes me a little bit internet-stalker-creepy. Hope not.

Description from Goodreads:
The Inferno has evolved…Lana Harvey is a reaper, and a lousy one at that. But when Grim promotes her to a high risk assignment, all hell breaks loose…literally.

Review:
This was a joy to read—fresh, funny, well-written, well-edited, and just plain engaging. I enjoyed Lana’s sarcastic personality and lackluster…or rather lack of ambition. She is a marvelous slacker who, despite her worst intentions, can’t help but get the job done–with a little help from her friends (and occasional frienemies). Said friends are also a lot of fun, especially Gabriel.

I occasionally had a little trouble following how things hung together. How Winston fit his bill, for example. But the general plot is an interesting one. I especially liked seeing all of the religions mashed together in a reasonably peaceful way and the politics of Eternity.

Additionally, I think it’s worth a small mention that with all the Islam-bashing that has been going on in the press and such lately, I thought it was a nice change to see Muslim characters presented as good guys. It would have taken so little for Roquet to cast them in the oft-envisioned role of villain and play to the modern xenophobic fears of the West. I was pleased to see that she didn’t.

All-in-all a fun start to a new series. I can’t wait to start book two, Pocket Full of Posies.

Pocket Full of PosiesDescription from Goodreads:
Not Your Grandma’s Afterlife…
The promise of peace in Limbo City is threatened once again, but this time the terrorists have a more specific target in mind: Lana Harvey. The up and coming reaper thought passing her classes at the Reaper Academy was going to be her biggest challenge, but when a rebel demon sends her apartment up in flames, she realizes that her victories from the previous year haven’t gone so unnoticed after all…

To make matters worse, the Afterlife Council has taken notice of Lana too. The Egyptian god Horus is blackmailing her into joining the Posy Unit so she can do an illegal side job for him, and Cindy Morningstar, Lucifer’s daughter, insists that she take a two week training course with the devilishly tempting Beelzebub, much to her angelic boyfriend’s chagrin.

Review:
I’m still really loving this series. Watching poor Lana struggling to keep it all together is a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed her strong independent spirit and how she handled the whole Maalik situation–best passage of the book, right here:

“…I’m tired of constantly having to fight with you just to live my life the way I see fit.”
“Then stop fighting me,” he said, and like it was actually a legitimate solution.

Yep, that summed Maalik up pretty well–best intentions, worst execution. Loved it.

I do have to admit I found the book to be a bit repetitive. Not just because it recapped the events of book one, that’s kind of to be expected. But because the reader is told the same general information more than once, things like Reaper’s lack of Deity rights or Josie’s strict rule-following nature. The information fit the flow of the passage each time, but it really didn’t need to be repeated.

The book also felt like a middle book, fair enough, it is after all. But while I enjoyed almost every word of it, it felt a bit more like a setup for future books than a story on its own. Here Lana struggles through her education so that she can join the Posy Unit, but it’s joining the Unit and doing things in it that carries the heft, and that’s held off for book three. It was still a lot of fun to follow her around and see her succeed, though. So I’m hoping to get my greedy little paws on the next installment of Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc.

for the birds coverDescription from Goodreads:
Lana Harvey isn’t just any reaper. She’s the new captain of the Posy Unit, a specialty group dedicated to harvesting mass quantities of souls from natural disaster sites, battlefields, and the like. The new title didn’t come without a price, though. Lana made some promises along the way, and now it’s time to follow through… even if that means putting herself in the path of the three Fates, a fickle and mighty force to be reckoned with. The Fates run a soul recycling plant in Limbo City, and if Lana isn’t careful, they just might recycle her.

Review:
This series keeps getting better and better. However, I wish I knew if it will be limited to a certain number of books (I know there’s supposed to be a 4th next year) or if it is one of those series that expands and expands endlessly. Because while this volume was a lot of fun to read, the tale shows no evidence of winding down anytime soon and I like to know what kind of commitment I am making when I dedicate myself to reading a series. Having said that, I liked this book every bit as much as the previous two (more than the second actually).

Honestly, I tend to stop reviewing the books in a series at about this point because the reviews have a tendency to become redundant or simply a way to say I liked this book more or less than the previous ones. We’ve already established that I like the story, characters, and writing. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have made it to book three. That all remains true. I still like Roquet’s sarcastic narrative style, Lana’s personality, and all the interesting side characters. (Grim and Gabriel took especially interesting turns in this one.) I think the story is still quite interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing how it eventually works itself out.

Essentially, if you’ve liked the series up to this point you’re pretty likely to like this 3rd book too. The series maintains its high standards, too. It’s well-written and fairly well-edited. I noticed a few missing words, mostly a’s oddly, but not enough to break the flow of reading.