Iron, Steam, and Monsters

The Iron Thorn
By Caitlin Kittredge

In an alternate history, where the cities are driven by Engines and the streets are protected by Proctors, there is a girl named Aoife (Ee-fay). Her mother is mad - the crazy kind - and her brother became mad on his 16th birthday. Aoife is days away from her 16th birthday and she fears this same madness will consume her. The Proctors hunt down mad people and throw them into mad houses.

Aoife wants to escape. She can escape from the city but can she escape from genetics?


Let me preface my review with this: I was so very unattached to all characters, uninterested in the story, and it pained me to finish this whole book. If my review is skewed, this is why. The story might be wonderful and I was not in the mood.

Mainly I found myself uninterested because the book felt like it still needed some serious cutting. It was 492 pages. For what really happened, that is too many. There were scenes that were superflous and much of the nattering inside Aoife's head was unneeded.

The world is cool. It's steampunk basically. Aether glows in lights much like electricity, but blue. An Engine located underneath the city constantly churns and keeps the Aether going. Typical steampunk things make appearances: goggles, dirigibles, machines with gears and cogs.

The best part of the world was not the steampunk aspect, but the insertion of Lovecraftian monsters. The monsters are THE best part of the book. There's creepy undead things, skittering humanoid creatures that lurk in the night, and faeries (were they faeries?) so dark you shiver at night thinking about the descriptions Kittredge gave.

Aoife (apart from having a ridiculously difficult name to pronounce) is a believable character. She studied engineering and machinery - yay intelligence - and, for the most part, she barrels through events without needing much of anyone's help. She is anything but helpless. Instead she needs her friends for moral support. I liked this apsect of her character. Not dependant on the boys around her.

Yes, there's boys. Of course. It's young adult. First, there's Conrad her mad brother who's disappearance takes her away from the city in the first place. Then there's Cal, her best friend. He's an incredible annoying character, with a chip off his shoulder, and he's there for her through thick and thin. And finally, Dean. With a name like that, you're sure shootin' he's the romantic interest. Oh, he's a rebel, a dark mystery about him, and he's totally into Aoife.

The story. At the core, it's a great story. A great set up for a trilogy I will not read. There was too much side stuff. Cut about 150 or 200 pages from this book and you've got a story that's action-packed and moves at a clip. Looking at the second and third book, looks like the publishers, or the author, realized  that the story needed to be more compact - the last book being 304 pages.


This book was NOT for me. Every time I sat down to read it, my mind wandered elsewhere. I found myself skimming half the time. After all that skimming, I lost nothing. I still took in the details of the world and the twists and turns of the characters' journey.

Venture into this dark, steampunk world and try not to have nightmares about the monsters. I know I am happy to have left it, never to return.


2/5 STARS

Gah, that cover is gross.

Lush Prince of Palmares Tres

The Summer Prince
By Alaya Dawn Johnston

Probably the best dystopian, future-society book you'll read in today's YA.

Set in a fictional city named Palmares Tres, Brazil, June wants to make art and be the best artist in the city. Political intrigue and high tech surround the world she lives in. Then she meets Enki, the charismatic and lush Summer King. He explodes with life itself and reinvigorates the city with raw passion. At the end of his short reign, he will die. Which makes their team up to make an artistic statement to the citizens all the more poignant.

While reading, listen to some Brazilian music to get you in the mood. Bossa Nova perhaps?

I finished this a few days ago. I needed time to gather my thoughts and steady my emotions. There is no doubt this will be on my Top 5 for 2015.

The thing I liked the most about the characterization was that you could never quite figure out the characters. They were so multi-dimensional. No one seemed cardboard. Not even Bebel (June's rival at school) who at first was cardboard became more complex as the story went on.

One downside, this world took a while to get into. Like any sci-fi or fantasy, there's always a hiccough stage where the author is trying to reveal slowly the completely new world and in a way that's not overwhelming. Once I got about 70ish pages in, the story began to flow.

I realized its wonder and devoured it slowly. Sipping each description, breathing it it.

June's relationship with the Summer King, Enki, is something more than romance. Romance seems like a juvenile word to describe what their connection is. In a sense, this book is full of romance, but it's not your typical heart-pounding, swooning kind.

LUSH. That's a good word to use to describe the story, characters, and world. It had me wanting to find out more. Johnson does this wonderful hinting at other places in the world, but never gives you enough to sink your teeth into. It's great! Some people might find this annoying - those people don't understand that sometimes the mystery is greater than being told outright. Unknown might seem like the author was lazy and didn't want to tell us more, but we have to be intelligent readers. We can't be handed things on a silver platter a la Divergent explain-ese. Trust your imagination.

I wept. No shame. The last 30 pages promptly took my heart out and put it back in. I couldn't breathe. For a story to do that is a great undertaking. It spoke to me on a human level. Isn't that what books are meant do. 

5 STARS

When you finish the book, listen to the song that Bebel sings at the end. It adds another dimension to the story. If you need some reference.Translated to English.

Classroom: Please note, sexuality is discussed in an open manner. Recommended for 16+.

Running in Circles

The Maze Runner
By James Dashner

The Glade is home base in the centre of the maze. There Thomas awakes to a crowd of boys he does not know. They have a whole community, working together, trying to figure out why they are in the middle of a maze and looking for the escape. Who put them there? How can they figure out the maze when it changes every day?

I'm jumping on the bandwagon, wanting to know why this book is so beloved that it would be made into a movie.

A fast read, each chapter was short and almost always ending with a cliff hanger to keep you reading to the next chapter. The premise was very cool. I think if I hadn't heard such disappointing things about the next two books, I would read on.

I didn't particularly like the main character, Thomas, but he was written as a very flawed character. Sometimes in Dystopian books, the protagonist is saint-like because they are "the chosen one" - the one who will save the whole world from distraction (think "The Hunger Games"). He was intelligent, but his anger bubbled to the surface more often than not.

Certainly I liked it, but it won't stick with me as one of my favourites.

3.5/5 STARS

Alive and Thriving

Wither

By Lauren Destefano

Rhine lives with a death sentence – after the world is cured of cancer, the next generation born lives extremely short lives. Women live to twenty and men to twenty-five. She is kidnapped and sold as a wife to a rich young man who lives in a sheltered fantasy world. All Rhine wants to do is escape, but she is trapped in a mansion, forced to marry someone whom she does not love.

While an interesting concept, this book is limited to a singular setting – the mansion – which makes the realities of this cruel world difficult to explore. We are only given Rhine's perspective and she is someone who thinks. Perhaps I wasn't too captured by the story because it felt like her thought processes were information dumps: a great amount of back-story told at once. I admit to skimming over them often. However, when there was dialogue, I wanted to know more.

I thoroughly enjoyed the main character, she had the practicality to know that she needed to do something about her situation. It wasn't all cream puffs and pretty dresses. Her brother kept her tethered to the desire to return to home. And too, the secondary characters I enjoyed as well. This would be considered a character driven novel, as opposed to plot driven.

It moves slowly and all the same I enjoyed this light read.

3/5 STARS

Classroom: Content not appropriate.

Persuade Me, Win Me

Unravel Me

By Tahereh Mafi

Earlier in the year, I reviewed the first book of this trilogy, Shatter Me. I was on the fence about reading this sequel. The first book did not capture me. I felt nothing for the characters. I liked the writing. Not the plot.

*spoilers from the first book*

Unravel Me starts exactly where we ended. Juliette just got a fancy “superhero” suit and feels, for the first time, like she's a part of something. She is accepted and loved, not feared and hated. The underground movement, Omega Point, is gearing up for a counter attack. Above ground, the Reestablishment is wreaking havoc on civilians in an attempt to find Omega Point. To top it all off, there's drama – SO MUCH DRAMA – between Juliette and her boring love interest, Adam.

Unexpectedly, I was hooked. I stayed up way too late to finish the story. It was more gripping, there were consequences, things were finally explained, characters were given more depth, and Juliette took action (some of the time).

Juliette's character does bother me. We are in her mind the whole time. The language is beautiful in her head. She cannot seem to emulate the flowery thoughts into her words. I wish she did.

The drama between her and Adam is ridiculous. It's exactly how teenage drama and miscommunication play out. However real it is, I tended to skim those parts...

The most captivating character is a tie between Kenji and Warner. I am hopeful there is more of these two in book three, Ignite Me. I will continue with the series, for these two. Most people are “Team Warner”. Kenji has my heart.

Overall, Tahereh Mafi you have converted me. I will finish the series.

4/5 STARS

Classroom: Nope. Too “girly”. Also, a little racey.

Cover comment: THIS cover is the reason why I picked up the series in the first place. Beautiful. Even the detail of the bird in the eye.

Interest, Intrigue, and Excite Me

Shatter Me

By Tahereh Mafi

Juliette has a power. She cannot touch anyone without killing them. For several years, she has been languishing in a prison until the futuristic government, The Reestablishment, wants her on their side.

The cover is bland and forgettable. I have an irrational hatred for “girls in ballgowns” covers. Thank goodness the publisher changed the scheme for books 2 and 3. In fact, the only reason I wanted to read this series in the first place is the second book's cover. Now I'm not so sure I want to read it.

I struggled through the first 200 pages of this book (338 total). Nothing was really grabbing me – the characters, the setting, the plot, or the pace. Then last night, something happened! I finished the rest of the book speedily. At the end, I'm still confused. I liked where it went, but I wish it had arrived there sooner.

Warning: this book is HEAVY on romance. I've no objection to romance. It just got in the way of the trajectory of the plot. It felt like “something's happening! something's happening! Oh, they're making out again...”. The feminist in me would have liked Juliette to have more development than just the romance.

I felt that little was explained and when it was the explanation offered more questions than answers. The world is a mystery to me. Though that might be part of our perspective through someone who's been incarcerated for three years.

What's most redeeming in this novel is the beautiful writing. Little snippets of pure poetry sprinkled throughout.

Here's hoping book 2 explains more.

3/5 STARS

Classroom: Skip this one.

The Darkest Plague

The Darkest Minds

By Alexandra Bracken

Genre: Dystopian

A dark, dark world where there is little hope we meet our main character Ruby. A plague has ravaged America, killing most of its children between the ages of 8-14. Some of those children survived, and for some reason those survivors have been gifted with incredible powers (think X-Men). However, scared of these children, the government has gathered all the children into internment camps.

Before reading this book, know that it is not the happiest of books. Ruby deals with poor treatment and torture in the camp she was sent to. She meets friends, Liam, Chubs, and Zu, who are all running from various organizations bent on using their powers for their own agendas. Without giving too much away, the story revolves around Ruby and these friends running, finding sanctuary, and having it ripped from them again and again. The heart of the story is how they deal and how they stick together.

Truly, I enjoyed this book. It is dark, it is heart-wrenching, but it is good. Ruby has such a fantastic character arc, that she's fast becoming a favourite character of mine. It reminds us of how easily we can mistreat the people that we do not understand. We've seen it in history - World War II, with Hitler's “Death Camps”, and in Canada, the Japanese Internment camps.

One itty-bitty complaint comes from not being American. The whole novel it talks about the plague in America, but rarely (if at all) does it give us a glimpse at what is happening with the rest of the world. I want to know how the world is dealing with this plague. I find it highly improbable that it would only strike American-born children. Understandably, Ruby has no way of knowing about the rest of the world, but outside non-interment-prisoner characters could easily give us little tidbits or brief tv news casts.

In this series, book 1.5 “In Time”(a novella), book 2 is “Never Fade”, and the concluding book 3 is coming out this year, 2014.

 5/5 STARS

Classroom use: This novel is lengthy (488 pages) and is therefore not practical for classroom use. However, for students interested in dystopian, I would recommend this one for sure.

Cover Note: I love the cover. Before reading the book it was only ok. I read the book, it's perfect. The trident on the front is symbolic.

The Satiated Games

The Hunger Games

By Suzanne Collins

Genre: Utopian/Dystopian

Upon the insistence of my students, I read this book. I can be a bit of a snob when it comes to reading books that are “all the rage”. Mostly because I've read horrible books that people love and I was afraid to say something because of their EXTREME loyalty. Here's where I was wrong. This is a fantastic book. I have not read the 2^nd or 3^rd. Do not give them away. And, I am slightly excited for the film (2012).

North America has been divided into 12 districts. The Capitol, the central place of power, keeps these districts in line by forcing them to send one boy and one girl, every year, to fight in the arena. These children must fight, to the death, on live TV for the sake of punishment, entertainment, and tradition. Katniss Everdeeen steps forward to take her sister's place in the games. She quickly becomes a fan favourite, both in the world of Panem and in reality.

Every book seeks to offer background on the main character, and the first part of this book does this is in a slow fashion. I was not at all grabbed until the contestants were thrown into the arena. From there on in, I was hooked and could not put the book down. 

Overall, I loved this book. It pushes the limits of what young adult reading should be. The topic of the book can bring many debates into the ring, such as the morals behind throwing children into a fighting arena or bringing to light the realness of this entertainment in the Roman Empire through gladiators. I highly recommend this for any young adult reader.

4/5 STARS

** My only reservation about reviewing this book highly is that it's been done before. Most notably in the Japanese book, Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (copyright 1999). It takes place in an alternative time, where Japan is under totalitarian regime and to create paranoia and fear, students are taken to an island where they are told they must fight one another to the death. I find this version to be much darker, less toned down, and like anything Japanese, pushes the boundaries of what it is to be human. You can find more info on the wikipedia page here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Royale and on the movie here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Royale_%28film%29.

Use in the classroom:
Already this book has gained recognition through young people, however, it is very graphic and a very mature topic. Think carefully about the class you are presenting this to as well as contacting the parents. It presents many gripping open ended topics that can be debated. I would also offer the debate about books being popularized, the "Harry Potter Effect". We want critical thinking adults, not commercial zombies. An excellent springboard for that discussion. Highly recommended for individual, would definitely use in a literacy circle, and would be a great class novel.