Born Wicked - Jessica Spotswood

So today we're here to cover a book I loaned from work last week. I've never heard of the author or the series, and I honestly didn't even bother reading the jacket before I took it home. Sometimes this 'blind run' really works for me, and other times it completely backfires (I'm looking at you, Above).

This is historical (though alternate-universe historical) fiction about witches. The novel revolves around three sisters, the Cahills, whose mother has passed away, leaving the oldest daughter in charge of keeping her sisters safe. Having been raised without the presence of an older motherly figure in their lives, they are not as ladylike and refined as society would like. In this time period this would already be a problem, but the Cahills have it worse: in their world, society lives in fear of witches, who are known to be evil creatures who will trick you and can even turn your own mind against you. This fear is instilled by the Brotherhood, a group of men who essentially run the show. Their female counterparts are the Sisters, a group of secretive unmarried women who are always searching for new young women to recruit. If one is found to be a witch, they are sent away to institutions from which they will never return. While everyone in this world lives in fear, the Cahills have more to lose than most - all three of the sisters are witches, as was their mother.

As usual, we'll begin with the characters. Cate, the main character, was well written in my opinion. Her motives were always clear, though her actions did not always reflect that. As an older sister myself, I can understand being protective of younger siblings. In fact, whenever Cate even began to think of her own life and happiness she would dismiss it because it wouldn't benefit her sisters in anyway. Sure, she was controlling of them, and sure, she overreacted about some things that were way less of a big deal than she made them to be. But hey, she's thinking of her family here. And I'm totally cool with that. Something to mention is that there was a bit of a love triangle happening here, though it was slightly less in-your-face than it has been in other books. For one of the first times ever, I wasn't really rooting for one character or another, either. Both boys had their merits and shortcomings and would be equally good for our main character.

Now, something I have to complain about a little. This paragraph will contain MINOR SPOILERS so if you really don't want to know anything about this book before reading it, please continue on to the next spoiler free paragraph and pretend you never saw this. Go on. Are you still reading? Do you WANT to be still reading? Cool. Anyways, so something I really have to mention is this whole "mind magic is so rare, but everyone I know seems to have it!" thing. Even the characters themselves comment on how many people seem to be able to do this supposedly rare form of magic. I won't do a count of how many people can do it, as I don't want to give away too many spoilers here, but it's more than a few. Maybe they'll address this in the next book, but it just seemed strange to spend so much time talking about how nobody can ever do this kind of magic (though the Brothers seem to think that it's everywhere, but that's mostly to scare people) and then it starts popping up in all these characters like it's just some garden-variety power. Again, maybe this was intentional, but it definitely bugged me.

Much of this book felt like setup for the next novels, which made it slow at times, but I think that in the end it works to this book's advantage. You don't see too much of the magic that the characters can do, and we're not given all the facts right off the bat. It was a refreshing departure from many of the books who jump into the action right away and rush the endings. While this might not work for every reader, I think that this book (which until the last third can almost be seen as a prologue to the actual story) does a great job of setting the scene and introducing the world and the concepts.

If you're into romance and good storytelling and magic, this book is for you. If you're looking for action and excitement you'd probably be better off looking elsewhere, but I urge you to give this book a chance. I look forward to reading Ms. Spotswood's other books.

SCORE: 7.4/10
IF YOU LIKE: Grave Mercy (Robin LaFevers), Masque Of The Red Death (Bethany Griffin)

Uninvited - Justine Musk

Not long ago I buckled down to read a book that had been in my to-read pile for years. Generally this isn't a very good sign, but regardless Uninvited intrigued me with the plot description on the back and a quote from Holly Black saying she loved it. It seemed like a quick read, so I decided to give it a real try after going through a few failed trial runs.

It was worth it.

Kelly has turned to drugs and other forms of escape since her brother, Jasper, walked away from a car accident where two others died and never returned. She absolutely believes that it wasn't his fault, but can't figure out why he left. Once a star student, Kelly is now following a dangerous path. Her mother is pregnant again, presumably to replace the void that her other son has left in their lives. Her world is turned upside down when Jasper returns, however. He appears to be the same brother who she knew, but appearances can be deceiving. Kelly starts to see things - Jasper's new tattoo appears to be moving, and she keeps running into a man that nobody else can see - and realizes that her brother might still be in trouble, and endangering her family at that. But Jasper won't open up to Kelly... so she decides to take matters into her own hands.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book - after trying it out so many times and failing to read it, I was beginning to wonder if maybe this book just wasn't for me. It's not often that a book will sit on my shelf for years before I read it and still end up being something worthwhile. This is one of those books.

There was the right amount of mystery and paranormal in here to satisfy me. Unlike some other books I've read recently (*coughcough*Betwixt*coughcough*) if Uninvited promises something's going to happen, it does. The book was paced well, and I didn't find it lagged in action or dialogue at any point.

As usual, I liked Nick, the secondary-character-who-may-be-a-love-interest. I don't know why, but I will never get sick of the best friend who happens to be a guy turning into a love interest. I wish Nick had been in the book more, but the truth is that this book is about Kelly's family, specifically Jasper, and I'm glad that the author didn't stray too far away from what was really important.

The one main complaint I have about this book is the same as I had for Above (see the last review) - the characters are too one-dimensional. Aside from Jasper, who himself feels like your typical bad-boy who usually ends up being the love interest, the other characters just didn't feel as developed as I would have liked them to be. While I like action in my books, I'm a very character-driven reader. I would have liked to learn more about Kelly, to figure out what makes her tick. I would have liked to see more of Archie, too, who seemed promising but didn't live up to my expectations by the end.

It was a good book, I'll give it that. I don't regret reading this. But in the grand scheme of things, this didn't blow me away and didn't offer anything new to the genre. I loved the ending; it took me completely off-guard. Read this one if you can get your hands on it, as it's worth a look, but there are many other books out there that deserve your attention more than this one.

SCORE: 6.7/10
IF YOU LIKE: Uninvited (Amanda Marrone), Ruined (Paula Morris)

Above - Leah Bobet

As you probably know by now, I often pick books out based on their cover. I'm a sucker for pretty artwork and especially pretty dresses. Usually this works out pretty well for me - some of my most favourite books were found that way (I'm looking at you, Wither). Every now and then, this method completely fails me. This is the case with this book.

Above looks pretty fantastic if we're basing this simply on an aesthetic level. There's a girl with bee wings on the cover, the CN Tower (go, Canada!) and a quote from Emma Donoghue, whose book (Room) I LOVED. I read the blurb on the jacket and it seemed interesting, so I borrowed it from work. It's not often I find a good book from Canada, and I was hoping that this would be the one.

Oh yeah, the plot. Matthew, a strange boy (though everyone in this book is strange) saved Ariel, a girl who can change into a bee, a while ago. Since then he has become incredibly infatuated with her, though it's hard for him to tell if the feeling is mutual. Matthew is the Teller of Safe - he keeps the stories of their refuge's past, as well as the origin stories of all of the people who live there. "Origin stories" sounds as if I were talking about superheroes, but I might as well be - people who live in Safe have found themselves there because they are different and are not/do not want to be accepted in the normal world. They are each abnormal in their own way: some have scales, some have animal limbs, others can turn into bees, see ghosts, shoot lightning. They have a pretty good system going on: raid Above whenever they need supplies, and stay put underground the rest of the time. Except an old enemy has shown up; one that threatens their entire existence. Safe is destroyed, and only a few people - including Matthew and Ariel - manage to escape.

Okay, so I've probably just made it sound like something you might want to read. This is where I was when I started. But there are a few things that I wish someone would have told me before I started.

1. The book is told from Matthew's perspective: This is the main problem I have with this book. The problem is not that the book is told in a guy's voice rather than a girl's... it's that Matthew is not able to speak properly. Being born and raised in Safe, I suppose nobody taught him the real way to talk, though most other people around him appeared to use normal words and sentence structure. This is not the same with Matthew. Don't believe me? "...because I know that look from Tales, the kind where people stare five feet into the distance for the Telling and you need to help to Tell them, like a hand light on the curve of the back." This is one of the more normal sentences. Some things in this book I had to reread multiple times, and I only read 20 pages in a whole day because I couldn't grasp the plot or the characters.

2. It's incredibly hard to follow what's happening: Tying into the last point, it's very difficult to follow the action or make sense of the plot. This is probably mostly due to Matthew's way of speaking, but it deserves its own point nonetheless. Three-quarters of the way through the book, I had NO idea what had happened, or what was currently happening. I understood individual events, but I just wasn't getting into it enough to say what was going on. If asked, I would not have been able to explain the plot to that point. By the end of the book, this had cleared up a little for me, but I don't think a book should confuse its readers up until the ending. I don't mean this in the same way as I would mean it for a mystery book - it's not that I was trying to figure out whodunnit, but rather didn't have a grasp of what the plot was actually supposed to BE. I had problems keeping track of characters, as well, and some I just gave up on figuring out.

3. The characters were one-dimensional: Or at least, what I could understand of them. Sure, at the end a little was revealed about the motivations of some people and why they did what they did, but I feel that there were just too many characters and not enough development on each of them. The author tries to fix this by adding random origin stories throughout the novel, but it's just not enough to make the characters intriguing and interesting. For characters with such strange deformities and origins, I would have expected a lot more in terms of development. This is the first book I have read in a long time that I don't feel attached to any of the characters by the book's end.

I wish that I could say I liked this book, I really do. I hate writing a bad review, and this may be the exact book for someone else, but it wasn't for me. It's rare I find a teen book that I don't enjoy, but here we are. If you're still thinking about trying it, by all means, do. The writing I imagine was supposed to be poetic, so perhaps you'll appreciate it and take much more out of this book than I did. I may try another book by Leah Bobet at some point, but not if the writing is still this way.

SCORE: 2.5/10
IF YOU LIKE: Wither (Lauren DeStefano) *Not because it's similar to this in any way, but because I love it and have to recommend you SOMETHING here!

Betwixt - Tara Bray Smith

It's pretty much a given for me that if a book is about teens and something paranormal, I'll read it, and probably love it. Bonus points to the book if it's already on sale, as this one was. This book was very intriguing even just from the dust jacket: one character seems to have a dark secret, one can make paintings come to life (what even??) and the third can see halos of light around those who will be dying soon. Immediately I started to speculate on what the plot would be about... Casters? Psychics? Something entirely new?

Well, I was partially right. This book is about fey, but the idea of what you know about fairies has been taken and twisted so much that it can hardly be called fey anymore. The book begins very promising, and the characters are introduced in a way that makes the reader want to continue discovering more about them. While some of the characters do posess powers, none of them know how to use them or why they even have them in the first place. The characters begin talking about a summer rave in the woods fairly early on in the book, and anyone can see that this is where their fates will start to be revealed.

And this is where the book began to lose me. For the first two hundred or so pages, we are given tiny teases of what lies ahead, but not much more. In fact, the first third of the book mostly revolves around the two main girls in the book planning throwing a party. This party serves as an introduction for other characters who will become more important later, but feels like a completely different book entirely. There are not many revelations made about the characters in this first part, and it feels somewhat like filler.

About 200 pages or so in, we finally make it to the secret rave in the woods. At almost 300 pages in, the main teenagers have finally left the party. Do you see where I'm going with this? The book definitely had its moments, but it seemed to drag on and on with not much direction until the very end. The climax definitely had me turning the pages to see what would happen next, but led to a very disappointing ending. Will there be a sequel? I'm not sure, and I'm not sure the author knows either. The ending feels like the ending of the first season of a television show: the writers want to make sure that all loose ends and major plot points are tied up, so that it has closure if the show is cancelled, but leave enough questions and "what ifs" so that a second season can be made if need be.

The book was confusing, and the plot could have been a lot better. Many portions of the book were very promising, and the powers that the teens had were for the most part very unique. However, the book dragged on, and felt more like a chore to read than I would have liked. Normally a book with a plot like this and of a similar length would take me about a day to read; this book took me over a week.

One last thing I'd like to mention: what's with the character names? Morgan D'Amici is normal, but the other two characters leave something to be desired. Nix Saint-Michael sounded like it was trying too hard to have a 'cool' name... I didn't like how the author shortened "Nick" to "Nix" for no reason. The one that bugged me the most, though, would have to be Ondine Mason. Ondine is a Latin name, I know, but it felt made-up to me. Who would name their daughter Ondine? There are much prettier names out there if you want to go for a mythological name that has some historical meaning to it. Really though, a parent is not going to name their daughter "Ondine" and their son Max. You either name your kids weird things, or you don't. Not to mention - the characters in the book were constantly commenting on how weird the names "Nix" and "Moth" (short for the character's last name, Motherwell) were. REALLY? Those are weird, but ONDINE isn't?

Anyways, /end rant. The book wasn't great, but it was somewhat readable if you really like the teen paranormal genre. Not recommended to the average reader, but if you're of the type who must read every book of the genre like I am, go for it. Just don't expect great things. If you go into it with lower expectations than I did, who knows... you might like it!

SCORE: 4.5/10
IF YOU LIKE: Wicked Lovely (Melissa Marr), Tithe (Holly Black)

Juliet Immortal - Stacey Jay

Have I ever mentioned how much I love getting ARCs? I get books that I would have never normally picked up, or even heard about. This novel is one of those: it came out officially in September, but I've yet to see it in a bookstore. It's a shame, because the idea of this book is so new and exciting.

Juliet Immortal takes the world's most famous love story - Romeo and Juliet - and twists it around entirely. Yes, Romeo and Juliet did the whole 'forbidden love' thing, and then got married. But soon after, Juliet awakes to find Romeo... in the middle of sacrificing her. Okay, so he didn't just flip out one day and decide to sacrifice his new wife: he was talked into it by the Mercenaries, a group dedicated to stopping true love. They convinced him to do this by promising him eternal life if he complied. Who wouldn't do that, right?

But it's all okay, because Juliet's nurse happens to be someone sent from the Ambassadors of Light, a similar immortal organization that does the opposite of the Mercenaries... that is, ensuring that soul mates remain together. They offer Juliet one last chance at life, to dedicate her existence to preserving romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Juliet, however, doesn't get to have a full life; she is brought down to earth at various points in time to protect soul mates in danger.

Now, there IS a love interest in this book. The problem is, Juliet falls for him while she is using a host body during one of her missions. He doesn't know who she really is, and Juliet has to wonder whether he is falling for her or the body she is currently using. I did like the character of Ben, but there could have been a bit more character development beyond the fact that he was good-looking and overprotective of Juliet. He wasn't all bad, though, and I looked forward to him being around.

The character of Romeo, on the other hand, was very well written. He was messed up, but not completely evil, and I spent much of the book wondering if he was going to stab Juliet in the back or if he was being somewhat truthful. I like when characters are not simply black and white. Yes, Romeo was the 'villain' of the book, but there were times where the reader felt bad for him, and times where you wanted to rip his head off.

Now, I'd just like to mention the ending. While I can't say here what exactly the twist at the end of the book was (because that would violate my unwritten 'no major spoilers' rule), I would like to say that I didn't like it, at all. After all that we went through, the twist took everything and threw it away. Essentially, the end of the book was as frustrating as if they had said everything contained in the book was a dream. It feels like the ending was rushed, and didn't really make sense with the motivations of EVERY character in the book and the rest of the plot. But whatever, I'll deal. Still, I feel that the second twist, about Ben, is probably worst of all... it just didn't need to happen.

While I do recommend this book, be cautious: it's great, until the last few chapters or so. Enjoy it, but don't feel bad if at the end you're pretending that the book finished differently.

SCORE: 7.5/10
IF YOU LIKE: Illuminated (Erica Orloff), After Obsession (Carrie Jones)

Insatiable - Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot books have always had a special place on my bookshelf. I've been reading her since I discovered her Mediator series when I was around 13 or 14, and I've pretty much bought every one of her books after that simply because they were written by her. The thing I like most about Meg Cabot books is her style of writing - they're always very stream-of-conciousness and go off on tangents sometimes, which a lot of writers since her have tried to emulate. Insatiable is no exception to this, though it's written for adults instead of her usual teen audience.

Sick of vampires? Lots of people seem to be these days. Franchises like Twilight and True Blood have taken vampires and shoved them down everyone's throats in the past few years... yet vampire still SELLS. Meena Harper (get it? Meena? Like Mina in Dracula?) works for a soap opera as a dialogue writer, and is waiting for a well-deserved promotion. Unfortunately for Meena, she doesn't get the promotion - and she hates teh woman who does. The network and sponsor decide to take the soap opera in a different direction at the same time, and since vampires are what sells (and Lust, another soap opera, already features them and is killing in the ratings) their show will just have to add vampires into the mix as well. A vampire is very quickly cast and Meena is ordered to start writing vampire dialogue.

Of course, she isn't very happy by this. But Meena's life is about to get a little more complicated, too. Her nosy, annoying neighbor invites Meena and her brother Jon (get it? Jon? Like Jon in Dracula?) over for a party to meet her husband's cousin, a supposed Prince from Romania. Meena and the Prince hit it off... but he's hiding a pretty important secret about who he really is.

Oh, and that isn't all. There's been a lot of murders lately, where young girls have been drained of all their blood. This has attracted the attention of the Palatine, a secret military group fighting for the Vatican... to vanquish evil. Vampires. The Palatine have sent hunters to find and exterminate whatever is causing these murders. Which happen to be in New York City, the same place that Meena lives.

Did I mention that Meena has a special power that lets her see how people will die?

Yes, the plot is a bit far-fetched, but I don't expect anything less from Meg Cabot. She's created an intriguing story where characters have faults and vampires aren't beautiful, sparkling creatures. The story itself begins as a sort of a parody of the genre, and points out many of the faults of the whole vampire craze.

The characters, as usual, were some of my favourite parts of this book. Meena is headstrong and resists the typical damsel in distress stereotype. She can handle herself well enough (though she does need saving on occasion) and has a bit of a hero complex. Lucien (the prince) shares this hero complex and, while he can be nice sometimes, is also a bit controlling and seductive. Alaric, the hunter sent from the Palpatine, is... well... an ass. He's ridiculous and rude but one of the best written characters.

Overall, a great book that's a fast read. It's laugh-out-loud funny, and everything Meg Cabot is known for. Highly recommended.

SCORE: 9/10
IF YOU LIKE: Overbite (Meg Cabot), Sookie Stackhouse series (Charlaine Harris)

Tighter - Adele Griffin

From the first page, we are introduced to Jamie, a girl who is being sent off to work as an au pair on a small, secluded New England island. The island is mostly off the map to everyone except the locals, and a handful of 'lifers' who come every year to vacation in their summer homes. Jamie is put in charge of Isa, an 11 year old girl with a wild imagination and an unconventional family. Isa lives alone with Connie, her housekeeper, while her father is away in Hong Kong.

Soon after Jamie settles in, Milo, Isa's trouble making brother (who, at 14 years old, is gorgeous and totally off-limits) arrives after being kicked out of summer camp. While Isa loves Miles, the town and Connie all seem to be very against him being on the island.

Jamie quickly learns about the previous au pair and her boyfriend, and the tragedy that happened on the island last year. Jessie, Isa's old babysitter, was killed in an accident with her boyfriend, Peter. The town is very reluctant to talk about what happened, making Jamie more curious as to what happened. Jamie becomes more and more consumed by the deaths and the mystery surrounding them as she begins to see the dead couple around the island. This is not new to Jamie - she has been seeing her dead relatives, Hank and Uncle Jim, for a while now. While she is not sure why they are coming to her, or what they want, she has resorted to stealing pills from her family's medicine cabinet to make them go away.

Part ghost story and part psychological thriller, this book was fantastic from beginning to end. The whole thing played out very much like a movie, and reminded me quite a bit (in terms of tone, not story) of the movie The Others. The story kept you guessing right until the very end, and was loaded with twists and turns that caught you off-guard.

I especially liked the character of Jamie. She is not your typical cookie-cutter heroine - she has problems, like everyone else. She struggles with events from her past and the reality of her future throughout the book, and speaks in a very real voice. It is hard to tell what is real and what isn't for Jamie, as the pills she takes skew her vision of the world and the events that are happening. The fact that the main character is unsure of what is actually real throughout the book makes it all the more disturbing and unsettling for the reader. How can we draw conclusions about the outcome of the book if the heroine herself can't fully tell us what is happening? I thought this was a fantastic way to write the book; I was creating theories and making guesses right until the very end.

One thing I particularly liked was the ending. Looking back on the book now, there are so many little hints about what is coming at the end that just went right over my head when I read them. This book definitely merits a reread - I feel like I'll discover more clues and foreshadowing as I go through it. The twist at the end of this is definitely on par with the ending of The Sixth Sense and The Others in my mind, which is great!

This book is not out for the general public yet (it only comes out in May) but I do hope it gets the recognition it deserves. It was a fantastic YA novel, and I will definitely be singing praises about this one for a long time!

One thing to note: this book is partially based on Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, a novella from 1898. While I have not read the original (I certainly will if I can get my hands on it, though!) I've skimmed over the summary. It's not exactly the same - the story is similar at the start, but then Griffin takes the story to a whole new level and makes it her own. Since this is a modern retelling, with a different story at its core, the reader will get the same experience whether they've read the original or not.

SCORE: 8.8/10
IF YOU LIKE: The Turn of the Screw (Henry James), Ruined (Paula Morris)