Tag Archives: YA fantasy

the raven boys

Book Review of The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1), by Maggie Stiefvater

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Somehow I own both a mug and a T-shirt with quotes from Maggie Stiefvater‘s The Raven Boys, but had never read it. I opted to correct this oversight and borrowed an copy through my library.

Description from Goodreads:
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them–until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.

His name is Gansey, a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn’t believe in true love, and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

Review:
I’ll be honest, I have a real hit and miss relationship with Young Adult fiction. But I have been on a real roll so far in 2018 and this is the third series I’ve started an truly enjoyed. Further, I went in not really expecting to love this. It’s so popular and I’m often the odd (wo)man out, disliking what everyone else seems to like. But I got a lot more than I bargained for with The Raven Boys. It was surprisingly snarky, subtly funny, lyrically written and interesting.

Yes, I think occasionally clarity was sacrificed for beautiful prose, but this was rare and I finished the book hoping the library had an copy of book two, because that I could checkout online and read immediately. (It does and I will.)

Book Review of Briar Queen (Night and Nothing #2), by Katherine Harbour

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I borrowed a copy of Briar Queen, by Katherine Harbour form my local library. I reviewed book one, Thorn Jack in February.

Description from Goodreads:
Serafina Sullivan and her father left San Francisco to escape the painful memory of her older sister Lily Rose’s suicide. But soon after she arrived in bohemian Fair Hollow, New York, Finn discovered a terrifying secret connected to Lily Rose. The placid surface of this picture-perfect town concealed an eerie supernatural world–and at its center, the wealthy, beautiful, and terrifying Fata family.

Though the striking and mysterious Jack Fata tried to push Finn away to protect her, their attraction was too powerful to resist. To save him, Finn–a girl named for the angels and a brave Irish prince–banished a cabal of malevolent enemies to shadows, freeing him from their diabolical grip.

Now, the rhythm of life in Fair Hollow is beginning to feel a little closer to ordinary. But Finn knows better than to be lulled by this comfortable sense of normalcy. It’s just the calm before the storm. For soon, a chance encounter outside the magical Brambleberry Books will lead her down a rabbit hole, into a fairy world of secrets and legacies . . . straight towards the shocking truth about her sister’s death.

Review:
This was ok. I thought it very similar to book one. Finn runs around with her merry, rag-tag team and reacts to whatever is thrown at her, always central to the action but never quite fighting. That is subtly left to the men.

I liked it all well enough. I’ve always been attracted to the dark, scary side of the fae myths. And there are some scary ones here. I appreciated that gender and relationships where diverse and there is some lovely writing in imagery in the book. Though I did irritably think if I had to read “fur-lined” one more time I might scream. Sometimes Harbour shook it up and wrote, “faux-fur lined,” or even just “fur.” But everyone seemed to be wearing a fur-lined coat and we apparently needed to be told that was what they were wearing every-time they came on page. Seriously! If someone read this on Kindle, search the word fur for me.

All in all, however, I found this a perfectly passable YA book.

Sensation

Book Review of Sensation (Kid Sensation #1), by Kevin Hardman

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I received an Audible credit for a copy of Sensation, by Kevin Hardman.

Description from Goodreads:
Like millions of other kids, Jim grew up wanting to be a superhero. Unlike most of his contemporaries, however, Jim actually had the goods: a plethora of super powers that would have been the envy of any meta on the planet. But when his tryout with the Alpha League – the world’s premiere group of supers – goes disastrously wrong, Jim basically becomes an outcast. 

Two years later, Jim is still bitter about what happened to him. However, he soon finds himself the centerpiece in an odd turn of events that gives him a second chance at his dream. But nothing is as easy as it sounds, as Jim soon discovers. Among other things, he’s made an enemy of a prospective super teammate, he’s being stalked by an unknown pursuer, and a shadowy cabal bent on world domination has identified him as the only obstacle to their plans. 

It’s a lot for one super to handle, even with a smorgasbord of abilities. But if saving the world were easy, everyone would do it…

Review.
Amusing, but about as substantive as the comics it is obviously modeled on. This isn’t wholly bad. There is a lot of humor here and obviously a large world has been envisioned, though we’re only given small glimpses of it. But the plot itself it fairly thin and predictable and I didn’t sense much growth in the characters. The main character, Jim, is a little too perfect to be believed and seems far too mature for 16.

Despite generally good writing, there is a lengthy and largely unneeded flashback that disrupts the flow of the story. The narrator, Mikael Naramore did a fine job too. I liked his reading, but not so much his attempts at accents. All in all, it wasn’t a total disappointment. I really think teens will enjoy the heck out of it. But I found it a so-so read (listen).