The Breathless by Tara Goedjen

I read it as an: hardcopy

Source: Blogging for Books

Length: 368 pp

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Year: 2017

So, I was hoping for super creepy, atmospheric Southern Gothic, maybe a YA version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. But this wasn’t remotely creepy. To be fair, I tend not to read a lot of YA – I find most of it simply too young (i.e., too immature, because I’m a grown woman with bills to pay and children to tend and I have little time for fictional teenage love triangles) – and I do read a lot of true crime and things that are actually scary. So I could be jaded. But this just wasn’t scary or creepy to me at all.

The writing style was rather off-putting as well, bouncing around between tenses and the changing perspective – the frequent use of you and we was just weird to me. Who is narrating? I thought at first it was pre-editing typos and such, but the copy I received appears to be a finished edition, not an ARC. However, the author does have some excellent descriptive writing of her scenery and it could be atmospheric and creepy if done in a different way. It’s like she was trying too hard and it just fell flat.

The racism that was laced throughout the novel is gross but should be taken with a grain of salt. I am not sure if it was because of the setting – it IS in the Deep South and there ARE parts set in antebellum South – or if it is because racism is still rampant in the country today and it was intended as some kind of social commentary. But, like, what diversity? Most of the characters were white. We have a more diverse society than that. I want my literature to reflect that.

Overall, I didn’t loathe this book, but I definitely didn’t love it. It just had too many unanswered questions, plot holes, unsympathetic characters, and just wasn’t my cuppa.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

 

I suck hard at updating my blog now that I write on Book Riot in addition to reviewing for Discovering Diamonds and HNS. That is all.

The Du Lac Chronicles by Mary Anne Yarde

I read it as an: ebook

Source: my own library

Length: 319 pp

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Year: 2016

 

 

 

 

 

Not really an Arthurian legend, more Arthurian-adjacent. It featured Alden du Lac, the son of a certain Lancelot du Lac. Set in the 5th century, it takes actual historical events and people and superimposes an Arthurian spin on them in a believable and not-grating way. I hate when authors take real events and fuck them up or change them and make it inaccurate, but that is NOT the case here. This was historically accurate as far as the events and people, inasmuch as it could be, and was a fun story.

I loved the characters. Alden was tormented and uncertain. His younger brother Merton is just plain old fun, but also flawed and broken. Annis is learning to be a woman unto herself and find her own value. These are not perfect people, nor would I like them much if they were written as such. This was a wonderful read and I am looking forward to the next in the series.

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

I read it as an: advanced reading copy

Source: Edelweiss

Length: 384

Publisher: S&S

Year: 2017

It’s been a long while since I was last as enraptured by a book as I was with The Rules of Magic. I don’t know if it’s because I really love Alice Hoffman or if I was just ready for a good magical realism or if this was just the book I needed to kick me out of the awful reading slump I’ve been in for months. In any case, I devoured The Rules of Magic like I was freaking Oliver Twist. Please, Ms. Hoffman, may I have some more?

I’m a sucker for back stories anyway. Aunt Jet and Aunt Frances are among my favorite characters in modern literature. So I was delighted to see them get their own entire novel. Their stories are tragic and beautiful, and both entirely unique to themselves.

Frances is the elder of the two, tall and coltish with blood red hair. She’s prickly and difficult and likes science and has exactly zero time for superstition or family curses. And yet she thinks nothing of the fact that she can call wild birds to her hand just by lifting it up. Bridget, called Jet for her long black hair, is sweet tempered and loves people, though I can’t for the life of me understand why because she has the Sight. They also have a brother, Vincent, the only boy ever born to an Owens woman. He is so charismatic that his delivery room nurse tried to steal him as her own. All the children are talented, as befits Owens children. The sisters are beautiful, but Jet is so gorgeous that boys do dangerous things to try to get her attention. When a flirtation with twin brothers results in their death, Franny, Jet, and Vincent decide the family curse is real and vow not to fall in love. The ways in which they manage to finagle their way around that are truly inventive, sometimes amusing, often heartbreaking.

The cast of characters throughout this gorgeous novel is complex and well rounded. The Owens have a long list of cousins and aunts who make appearances, most notably April Owens, the granny of Sally and Gillian of Practical Magic fame, and Aunt Isabelle. She filled the role in this book that Frances and Jet would later fill for Sally and Gillian: wise woman, mentor, role model, friend. She was the best.

The book was sprinkled with Hoffman’s typical vivid language and, appropriately, rules of magic. For example, uncross your knives if there is a quarrel at the table; do walk in the moonlight; wear red shoes; wear black; go barefoot; plant night-blooming flowers; read novels about magic. To mourn properly, you must drape all the furniture in white sheets, war a black silk band on your right arm, turn the mirrors toward the wall, sprinkle salt on the windowsills, leave sprigs or rosemary outside the doors, wear white to the funeral, go barefoot to it out of respect. Make a protection amulet with black cloth sewn with red thread and containing clove and blackthorn, or lavender. Wear a blue string coated with lavender oil, also for protection. I was inordinately tickled that I do a lot of these things by nature. Wearing black, going barefoot, wearing red shoes if I MUST wear shoes at all… are there people who don’t automatically do these things?

There are also references to various teas that I want to try blending, just because they sound tasty:

• Fever Tea: cinnamon, bayberry, ginger, thyme, marjoram
• Frustration Tea: chamomile, hyssop, raspberry leaf, rosemary
• Clairvoyant Tea: mugwort, thyme, yarrow, rosemary
• Travel Well Tea: orange peel, black tea, mint, rosemary

One recipe I really wish was included, like an actual recipe, and which I have wished for since I first read about it in Practical Magic, is the black soap all the Owens women use to wash their faces. I know it’s just soap and not magic – maybe – but I still want to try making some for myself. The only thing I can find that might possibly be similar is African Black Soap, but that still doesn’t seem quite right. Can anyone help us out? Bueller? Bueller? Ms. Hoffman?

Hoffman’s magical realism is as nuanced and ubiquitous as ever in The Rules of Magic. Birds coming to Franny’s call, Jet reading minds, plants flowering overnight and out of season, all abound. The real beauty of the book, though, comes from learning more about beloved characters, and watching them learn who they are. Through them, we discover that true magic comes from embracing our genuine nature and learning to love ourselves despite, or because, of it.

The Colour of Blood novella by Toni Mount was actually my entree into the the Sebastian Foxley medieval mystery series, and it was enough to whet my appetite for more. It is actually the second entry in the series, but each story is written with the intention of being able to stand on its own. The novella focuses on the weddng day of Sebastian and his sweetheart, Emily. The tradition of borrowing a livery collar from one’s guild is showcased in this story. Things go awry, however, when Seb’s livery collar turns out to be a fake. Seb, his brother Jude, and a fairly charming street urchin named Jack have to figure out where the real collar is before Seb himself is accused of stealing it and ending his marriage before it has a chance to begin. Continue reading “The Colour of Gold & The Colour of Cold Blood” →

In The Hour of Land, Terry Tempest Williams invites readers (or in this case, listeners) along with her on a journey celebrating a selection of her favorite national parks. She takes us from Grand Teton to Big Bend to the Gulf Islands, Acadia to Glacier. It actually made me interested in America, which almost never happens. This dumb fucking country. But it has some really pretty places, assuming the imbeciles in charge don’t ruin them all, and I would like to go see some of the pretty places now, in part thanks to this book.

This is the first book of Williams’ that I’ve read. I have When Women Were Birds on my TBR but haven’t gotten to it yet. I love her writing, the meditative quality of it. Her descriptions are quiet and lovely and thoughtful. Her social commentary is considerably less quiet and makes you want to take action.

Between The Hour of Land and the other book I’m reading, The Nature Fix, I kind of just want to say fuck it to everything and go run off and join the Forest Service and live in a look-out in the trees.

The Hour of Land

Author: Terry Tempest Williams

Format: Audio book

Source: Phoenix Public Library/ Overdrive

Time: 11h 1m

The Stranger in the Woods was a very compelling book and I have things to say about it. It is the tale of Christopher Knight, the hermit of the Little North Pond of Maine. When he was twenty, he packed up and went into the woods, made a camp, and made no other contact with people after that for nearly 30 years. He survived by stealing from unoccupied cabins and camps nearby the entire time.  Continue reading “The Stranger in the Woods” →

See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng

Publisher: Dial Books

Source: Audible book

Length: 6h 10m

I listened to this audiobook with my daughter. I got it because it had a child narrator and was a younger book, so I thought she might enjoy it. I admit that at times I wondered if it might be a little too old for her since it was for middle grade readers and she’s only six. But she LOVED it. I will be writing a longer post for Book Riot about my experiences with this later. If your child is an advanced reader, and precocious, they might enjoy this one as well.

The Hate U Give

Author: Angie Thomas

Format: Audio book

Source: my own Audible collection

Time: 11h 40m

This was one of the most important books I have ever read. And one of the most difficult. The murder of an unarmed child at the hands of a cop is never an acceptable event. Turning around and victim-blaming him, trying to say he was in a gang or was a drug dealer doesn’t make it ok. It doesn’t negate the fact that a cop shot an unarmed child. It doesn’t change the fact that, throughout history, we have been systematically taught that some lives matter more than others. 

Star Carter was the sole witness to the death of her childhood friend, Khalil, and is put in a position where she has to decide whether to speak out against the police who killed him, or to stay silent. If she speaks. she will turn the local gang lord against her and her family. If she stays silent, the cop will most certainly be acquitted of any wrong doing and result in race riots in her neighborhood. She also has to decide how much to tell her rich friends at her fancy prep school who could never understand what it is like for her to have grown up in a gang-infested area of town. 

This novel was superbly written, if a tad simplistic in some areas. I remind myself it is written for teenagers and move on. Star is a sympathetic character. I want to give her a hug. She has dealt with entirely too many traumas and hardships, and yet it is not an uncommon story. That is the saddest part of all. Teens should be teens, out worrying that their parents are going to catch them having a cigarette or having sex with their boyfriends and girlfriends or ditching school. They shouldn’t have to worry that cops are going to kill them for being black, or that their friends are going to die in their arms on the street, or that their neighbors are going to kill them because they’re gang lords who are trying to keep people from snitching. 

My only real gripe with the book was that I would have liked for Star to have gotten to confront 115 at the end. I wish the end had been different, but I know too much about history and politics and current events to be surprised by it. It just made me sad. 

 

 

The Thief Taker by CS Quinn

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer/ Brilliance Audio

Source: Audible books, my own library

Time: 11 h 28 m

Thoughts: I loved this book. For one thing, I have probably an unhealthy obsession with plague, so just about any book set during the Black Death or the Great Plague is going to grab my attention. Also, this was a gross, gripping mystery. So much gore and death and a genuinely interesting story! I loved Charlie Tuesday. He reminded me a kind of a lot, actually, of Crispin Guest, only a lot later in time. Not a perfect match but similar. The story was intriguing and I did NOT see the twist at the end – well done, CS Quinn! I usually spot the twist a mile away! I listened to this on Audible and the narrator had a dead sexy voice. Not a Benedict Cumberbatch level of knee-melt, but still an appropriately British level of sexiness that made me want to meet Charlie Tuesday in a dark alley sometime.

Tattoo Atlas by Tim Floreen

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Year: 2016

Pages: 370

Source: library hardback

Thoughts: I read this because it fit one of the 2017 Read Harder challenge tasks, and it just sounded good. Overall, I thought it was ok. I thought it could use a little more character development and back story. The ending was, admittedly, totally unsatisfying to me. I had kind of predicted it quite early in the book, but it was something I had hoped would not happen. I highly approve of it for its openly gay main character. More of these, please. In general, I think for teens, this would be a good read and probably have quite the twist. I enjoyed it but the ending ruined it for me because I predicted it and I thought so many other, more interesting things could have been done with it. For adult fans of YA, it left a little something to be desired.