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Silent Symmetry

Book Review of J.B. Dutton’s Silent Symmetry (The Embodied Trilogy #1)

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Silent SymmetryAuthor, J.B. Dutton sent me an ecopy of his novel Silent Symmetry.

Long Description from Goodreads:
The Embodied glide through the busy streets of New York, uttering barely a sound.

Their eerie beauty comes from their perfect symmetry. Are they flawless humans, the epitome of evolution? Are they a genetically modified super-race? Are they extra-terrestrials? Once prep school student Kari Marriner becomes aware of their existence, she is driven to find the answer and finds herself ensnared in a web that reaches further than she could possibly have imagined.

Kari’s earliest memory is her father’s death in a car crash back in small-town Wisconsin. Now, 12 years later, her mother has been hired by a pseudo-religious organization in Manhattan called the Temple of Truth (a.k.a. the ToT). At Chelsea Prep, Kari develops a crush on classmate Cruz. But when she realizes that Noon, another attractive guy at school, is involved with the ToT, her curiosity gets the better of her.

Kari stumbles upon a secret tunnel leading from her apartment to another in the building, where an ancient book holds images she can scarcely believe, and a cavernous room contains… something inexplicable. As Kari pieces together the incredible evidence, she discovers that the ToT is run by other-worldly beings called The Embodied who influence human behavior and have established a global long-term human breeding program. But why? And what is her role in all this?

Just as she starts wondering whether the love she feels for Cruz is genuine or if her emotions are being controlled by The Embodied, her mother is kidnapped and Kari has to figure out who is human, who is Embodied, and who she can count on to help rescue her mother.

Somewhat spoilerish Review:
Silent Symmetry has an interesting premise and I enjoyed that about it. I also enjoyed Mr. Dutton’s writing. However, there were also quite a few aspects of the book that left me baffled.

First and foremost, the clues that Kari followed in order to recognise that there was a mystery to the Emboldened seemed nonexistent. I get that a lot of it was supposed to be gut instinct, the lizard brain so to speak, on Kari’s part. Though that left very little for the reader to follow and go, ‘oh yea, that is weird, I wonder…’ I had the exact same response to her feelings for both Cruz and Noon. They glanced at each other and BAM! Suddenly there were emotions flying all over the place, abrupt kisses, and even the occasional he “cares about me.” Um…how does she know? Again, that lizard brain is whispering to her, but it left me lost. 

The character descriptions seemed a bit on the light side too. I honestly don’t know what a single one of them was supposed to look like, except that Cruz was of Puerto Rican decent and therefore dark complected. As a result, I had a hard time visualising any of them. 

Next, some of the language made me want to scratch my eyes out. Things like Oh. Em. Gee—Not OMG or Oh My God, but Oh. Em. Gee. Yes, it’s teenager speak, but it’s wrong teenager speak (in my opinion, at least). Then there was the whole Eff thing. Eff or Effing was used instead of Fuck or Fuckin’. Every time this came up I found it jarring. Not just because it seemed out of place, or because it was so frequently used, or even because that’s kind of a linguistic habit one person might have, but not multiple characters, but because other curse words were used without alteration. I counted crazy-ass, ass, shit and shitting. So why not Fuck?

Lastly, since this is the first in a series the book ended without me feeling like I had any real resolution. I kind of followed who the Emboldened were, but not really what they wanted with Kari. Is it the same thing that the Rebels wanted with her? If so, what was all the fighting about? And what of poor Cruz? Is his position secure? What of Emily? The book ended on a cliffhanger, not a seriously precipitous one, but still too early for the reader to feel any real sense of conclusion. This never makes me happy. 

Again, the book is well written. I don’t remember any real editorial issues. The plot seems interesting and the cover is eye catching. So even though I have some complaints I’m not really disparaging the book. It’s worth picking up.

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.