Review - The Grimm Legacy

The Grimm Legacy, by Polly Shulman

Elizabeth has a new job at an unusual library— a lending library of objects, not books. In a secret room in the basement lies the Grimm Collection. That's where the librarians lock away powerful items straight out of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales: seven-league boots, a table that produces a feast at the blink of an eye, Snow White's stepmother's sinister mirror that talks in riddles.

When the magical objects start to disappear, Elizabeth embarks on a dangerous quest to catch the thief before she can be accused of the crime—or captured by the thief.

This was a fun book to read, and partly because as I read it I thought "it would be so cool if this was real!" I love working at a public library...but working at a lending library for objects (especially if some were magical) would be pretty awesome. The book started out a little clunky for me, but I realized that if I started reading it as though I were reading a fairy tale -- not just reading about fairy tales -- then the writing style fell into place. For example, the simplistic reveals and the willingness to accept magic felt more natural once I read the book as a fairy tale. And that's not to say that the story was lacking in depth. The characters, for example, were very well-drawn and lent a richness to the book.

Bottom line, a fun, enjoyable, magical read.

Review - Please Ignore Vera Dietz

Please Ignore Vera Dietz, by A.S. King

Vera's spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she's kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.

So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to? (summary from www.goodreads.com)

I LOVED this book. The characters are solid and clear and ring true; the story is simple, yet deep and complex at the same time; and it's just quirky enough. I love that the author is able to take a sad, tragic moment in a girl's life and write a story that isn't melodramatic and isn't too dark and full of despair. At the same time, she doesn't make light of the major things going on in Vera's life. You feel her heartache, but the author paints a picture of life as being more than just heartache. There is love and hope and humor mixed up in there too. I loved Vera's journey through the book, and getting to see her relationship with Charlie, even knowing the bittersweet nature of that relationship. I also really loved Vera's dad and her relationship with him. Again, it's such a reflection of a true relationship: realistically imperfect. But still a solid relationship. These two need each other, and it's great to see them work through that as they both work through personal trauma as well.

Bottom line: excellent book.

Weeding the collection

It often falls within my job to weed the Young Adult collection in the library where I work. Sadly, we are at a great need for space in the library, so I have to weed often (and often brutally). I am always torn by some books that are borderline YA and Middle Grade. If they aren't being read in YA, do I delete them, or try them out in the JF (Middle Grade) section? How do you decide which books go where?

This weeding cycle I'm also facing the reality that I may walk home with quite a few books today. Some of these books look good! Maybe they just need a good home, someone to love them.

What I'm reading

Right now I'm about to finish City of Fallen Angels, by Cassandra Clare. It's the fourth book in her Mortal Instruments series. So far, it's just what I expected it to be: a fun, action-packed read. I'm enjoying getting a bit more of Simon in this story, and I like that the romantic relationship is in the we're-already-a-couple-but-growing-in-our-relationship-and-dealing-with-stuff-or-not stage. It's a nice change from the typical boy meets girl.

I've also started Monsters of Men, by Patrick Ness, the final installment of his gripping and heart-wrenching Chaos Walking trilogy. Holy cow. That's all I can say.

And slightly related to what I'm reading...I've also started watching the first season of the t.v. show Friday Night Lights. It's a good show -- solid storytelling, interesting characters and great actors. All the things I enjoy from a good book! And even though the insane football stuff just makes me shake my head in wonder, I have to admit it kinda makes me miss Texas a little.

Woops!

Forgot to mention that I read The Iron Thorn as part of The Story Siren's 2011 Debut Author challenge!

Review - Iron Thorn

Iron Thorn, by Caitlin Kittredge

Aoife lives in a world where science and reason are the only religion. There is no magic, no gods, nothing weird or strange or fantastical. And anyone who says or acts otherwise is either a heretic, or infected with a deadly nanovirus. Aoife's mother is, in fact, infected with the nanovirus; and lives in one of the city's many mental hospitals. Luckily Aoife, whose father is not in the picture, is smart, and she has been allowed to attend the School of Engineering. Unluckily, Aoife is almost 16, the age when her older brother's nanovirus manifested itself and he tried to kill her before disappearing. But Aoife doesn't believe that her brother really tried to harm her, and she's been getting secret correspondence from him since he disappeared. Weeks before her own 16th birthday, Aoife receives a brief letter from him: Help. She finds out he has gone north to find their father, and tells Aoife she must follow him. Withing nothing to lose, Aoife sets out on a dangerous adventure and discovers a lot more about the world she lives in...and some she doesn't.

That may be the worst summary ever! But I didn't want to give too much away. For the most part, I enjoyed Iron Thorn. I liked the world that Kittredge built: it's an alternate United States around 1959/1960, with steampunk touches. That's a time period you don't see a lot of in YA fiction these days, and it allowed the author to add some fun details, such as the 1950s morals (think Sandy in the first part of Grease), and a James Dean-esque bad boy. The first part of this book was really creepy and trippy, which I loved. As the story unfolded and the reader -- along with Aoife -- start figuring out what's really going on, things became more straight forward. Unfortunately, this is about the time I started getting really irritated with Aoife. I felt like she was just so dense and very uneven. I really wanted to smack her a few times. The secondary characters were interesting, but I would have liked to see a little more development. Fortunately, it's a trilogy, so maybe that will come in later books. I will also say that the very end of the book picked up quite a bit, and really left me wanting to read the next installment. My only other complaint with the book, is that I didn't really feel the romance. It seemed a bit forced to me.

Overall, it was a good read, if not one of my favorites.

Link to interview with Lish McBride

I've been looking forward to reading Lish McBride's debut novel Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, how about you? I think my copy at the library is about to come in for me...yay! In the meantime, check out this interview with the author over at The Enchanted Inkpot.