REVIEW: The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

I heard people rave about The Thief for years, and I kept meaning to read it, really. But I got it out of the library once or twice, read the first few pages, and just wasn't feeling it. I finally decided that that was ridiculous, that this time I was pushing through no matter what - it's just over 200 pages! - and let me tell you, I am so glad I did. Its slightly slow beginning notwithstanding, this is an astounding novel. It's about a thief named Gen who is taken out of prison to go on an Epic Quest with the king's magus to steal something on behalf of the king . . . and actually, I'm going to stop there. I thought the book had slightly less of an impact than it otherwise might have just because of some things I'd read in reviews, so I don't want to risk ruining that for anyone else. Let me just say that the writing was lovely, the plot was impressively well-constructed, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

REVIEW: The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle

When you hear that Jennifer Castle's The Beginning of After is about a girl whose parents and little brother die in a car crash, you might think that it sounds a lot like If I Stay. But let me clear that up - though a few very basic facts of the premise are similar, this is a completely different book, both in tone and content. This one is focused on how Laurel starts to pick up the pieces and figure out what she can and should do with her life once her family is gone, and how her relationships change with the people who are left, including her best friend, her grandmother, her crush, and the bad-boy neighbor whose family is also involved in the tragedy. Castle also does a great job of showing how people's attitudes toward Laurel change, both individually and as a community, as she becomes instantly notorious as The Girl Whose Family Died. There was a little less romance than I expected based on some reviews I'd read, but that was actually completely fine, as it made sense for that to be on a back burner for Laurel given the circumstances. And the ending was satisfying and hopeful without being too sentimental or pat. This was an absorbing, haunting read. Highly recommended.

REVIEW: Tris and Izzie

I picked up Mette Ivie Harrison's Tris and Izzie because I'm a sucker for anything Arthurian, but honestly, this one didn't really do it for me. As the title implies, it's a retelling of Tristan and Isolde, which has never really been one of my favorites, I guess. But in this version, I didn't like EITHER of the main characters - Izzie was pretty obnoxious, and Tristan just didn't have any discernible personality. So it made it hard to be particularly invested in their story. The descriptions were good, and there was a lot of action, but the dialogue was stilted and didn't sound like any teenager I've ever met. And I wasn't wild about how drastically the ending was changed, but I guess, as Harrison mentions in her afterword, today's market demanded it. All in all, if you're looking for an Arthurian story set at a modern American high school, I'd go with Meg Cabot's Avalon High instead.

REVIEW: I Broke My Trunk!

I Broke My Trunk! is a book for beginning readers, so I'm not counting it toward my 100 for the year, but since I read it I thought I'd tell you what I thought. (I got it from the library because it's a Geisel honor book this year.) It's part of Mo Willems's Elephant and Piggie series. The story is simple but very cute and genuinely funny; the illustrations reminded me of an old comic strip. Overall, I thought the book was cute, but it didn't necessarily strike me as a stand-out. But then, I've never been as big a Willems fan as a lot of people are. Again - nothing against him! And the book was fine! But I feel like I'm just not seeing whatever element it is that makes this one of the best books of the year.

REVIEW: Imaginary Girls

Chloe has always had her big sister Ruby to take care of her - and Ruby has never had any trouble making Chloe and everyone else in town do exactly what she wants. But after Chloe finds a girl's body in the reservoir in their town, she's sent away for a while, and when she returns, she starts trying to figure out exactly what's going on with Ruby, the maybe-dead girl, and everyone else. It's twisty and turny and haunting and beautifully written.

But honestly, Imaginary Girls was one of those books that I admire but never quite warmed up to. For one thing, everything was really mysterious, and while I do like books that deliberately confuse me for a while (see also: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer), I get frustrated if things aren't explained to my satisfaction eventually. We do get some answers in this book, but not enough for me. This is an issue I always have with magical realism, and though I haven't seen this book classified that way, that's probably what I'd call it. I hated Ruby, which was probably intended but made it harder to keep reading, and I spent most of the book wanting to shake Chloe. By the end, the reasons why Chloe was acting in infuriating ways are explained, so I don't hate her in retrospect, but it still made for a frustrating reading experience.

On the other hand, the mysteries were compelling and kept me turning pages. There's a drowned city, which is an element I always like. And, as I mentioned, Nova Ren Suma's writing is completely gorgeous, so even though this book wasn't my favorite, I will definitely read her next book.

REVIEW: Anna Dressed in Blood

Kendare Blake's Anna Dressed in Blood was either the sweetest horror novel I've ever read, or the most graphically violent sweet romance I've ever read, or, probably, both, and more than that. I had heard a lot about this story of a ghost hunter who falls for a violent, deadly ghost, and yet I was still surprised by just how good it was. It reminded me a little of Supernatural, except set in a world in which women are equal characters. And it pulls no punches - people (and animals) are dying all over the place, and the main character, Cas, knows from long experience that he has to be pretty callous about using people. If he's trying to save the city from a ghost, does it matter whether he hurts some feelings along the way? Not really, and so he's trained himself to never care. Except this city is different: this time he starts caring about his schoolmates, and the ghost, so all bets are off. It's scary and beautiful and heartbreaking and I can't wait for the sequel. (August!)

REVIEW: Small Town Sinners

Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker is the compelling story of Lacey Anne Byer, a pastor's daughter who begins to question the worldview she's grown up with as she grows up. It features complex religious characters, a main character who undergoes significant but believable development over the course of the book, and a seriously swoony - but not perfect - love interest. You may be sensing a theme: Yes, the characters were much more well-rounded than I expected from a novel dealing with religion, as far too often either religious characters are all-good or all-bad. Here they're just people, which is refreshing. I found a few of the plot twists predictable, but it didn't take anything away from the book, because just because I had an idea of something that might happen didn't mean I had any idea how it would play out. And Walker maintains a wonderful amount of tension: I couldn't put this down. Bonus feature: a Hell House!

REVIEW: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Where to begin? This books has had an almost mystical position in my life - my dad loves it, and the BBC miniseries, and somehow I always accepted that it was a great book without ever thinking to read it. When I heard the new movie was coming out, I decided it was time, and I was a little worried that it wouldn't be as good as I'd always heard, but that worry was completely unfounded. It was amazing. I've been slowly working through Le Carre's novels, and I've enjoyed the other three (his first three) a great deal, but this one displayed a whole other level of complexity and skill. It was dense, and took a very long time for me to read, and I already want to reread it to pick up on the things I missed the first time, but that came across as a deficiency in me, not the book. I am not as smart as Smiley. I accept this.

A quick word on plot, for those of you who haven't seen the miniseries or the new movie* yet: George Smiley, retired spy, is secretly brought in to find out the identity of a mole that the Russians have placed in the British secret service. The story has several layers and puzzles and knots, and some amazing characters, and the writing is exquisite. If you haven't read Le Carre, you might want to try his first, Call for the Dead, as a kind of warm-up, but if you like spy stories, you must read this at some point.

* The miniseries and new movie are both extremely good and I highly recommend them!

REVIEW: Ten Miles Past Normal

You know that stage you go through when you read the Little House books or Anne of Green Gables and decide you want to live on a farm, but your parents say "That's nice, dear, but no way," and eventually you grow out of it? Well, in Frances O'Roark Dowell's Ten Miles Past Normal, Janie Gorman's parents actually went for it. Except then she eventually grew out of it, and they didn't, so now she's stuck on a farm as she starts high school and tries to have a normal life. My favorite thing about this book was how it recognized both that it's fine to be different AND that it's fine to want to fit in sometimes.

Other good things it had: a very different-than-usual love interest and a perfect (and unusual) resolution to that part of the story. A painfully realistic portrayal of the way it suddenly gets difficult to deal with your family and friends when you're about 14. A look at what happens when all those adorable kids of mommy bloggers start growing up. There are some unconventional role models and some interesting Civil Rights history thrown in. And there's a character who says this:

"I watch the History Channel while I knit. It's World War I week. I've decided that to truly understand World War II, you must have all the facts about World War I. And by tonight at ten o'clock, I shall."

So, basically, I HAD to love this book. It's a quick read, just over 200 pages, and makes for a lovely evening or - in my case - afternoon home sick from work, reading and wearing pajamas and drinking tea.

REVIEW: Claire de Lune

I finished Christine Johnson's Claire de Lune on New Year's Eve, and it was a really pleasant surprise! It's not that I expected it to be bad or anything, but werewolves just aren't my thing. I don't actively dislike them the way some people do, but I don't seek them out, either. But Christine and I had started chatting on Twitter, so I wanted to try her books. I didn't tell her when I had started the book so that if it wasn't my thing, I could just pretend the whole thing never happened . . .

But I wound up really liking it! Her heroine, Claire, felt very real, and though of course I always identify with unpopular YA heroines who read a lot, it was sort of refreshing having one who cared about boys and makeup and wanted to be normal. There are some very sweet dating scenes that lead to an awesome forbidden romance, and while often these romances with life-or-death stakes seem contrived or exaggerated, in this case, all of the conflict in the book grew organically from the rules of the universe that Johnson had created, so it worked. This didn't convert me into a werewolf fan in general, but I'll definitely be reading the sequel!

REVIEW: Death Comes to Pemberley

Since I love both Jane Austen and P.D. James, I was thrilled to hear that James was coming out with a Pride and Prejudice sequel that was also a murder mystery. Now, most Austen sequels are dreadful, but I figured if anyone could pull it off, James could. And I was right - this book was delightful. The language was right on, and James got the tone, too, which is rarer. Her characterization managed to stay consistent with the original while also allowing for growth and development, and I particularly liked how Elizabeth and Darcy had a good relationship but still cared about other things than standing around mooning at each other. James clearly spent a lot of time thinking through the consequences of the events of P&P, and had some interesting and plausible ideas, especially regarding what various people would think of Elizabeth. There are a few fun cameos I don't want to spoil, and the court scenes are particularly well-done. (Darcy has Ideas about how things should be reformed. It's pretty amazing.) Oh, and the mystery itself is solid and resolves in my favorite way: the solution completely surprised me but instantly made more sense than any of the other theories the characters or I had been considering.

REVIEW: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares was, I think, the third book co-written by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, but it was the first I read; I picked it up because a bunch of people recommended it for a Christmas books thing I was writing. It's a good one for when your Christmas feelings are a little mixed - especially because of the way the point of view alternates between the two characters. Lily's always been pretty into Christmas, Dash hasn't, and this year they're both at loose ends. I liked this way better than I expected, because at first I feared that Lily would be a manic pixie dream girl, but she's not, and that's practically the point. There's some bonus awesome bookstore stuff, a lot of humor, and a nice dash - hah, I crack myself up - of romance. I'll definitely be returning to this one in Christmas seasons to come.

(Disclaimer: I know David a little from working together at a conference, but he in no way asked for this review, blah blah.)

REVIEW: Once Upon a Winter's Eve by Tessa Dare

Once Upon a Winter's Eve is set in Tessa Dare's Spindle Cove universe, but you don't have to have read the first book to understand it - though this one did make me want to read the rest! This Regency Christmas romance novella has spies and spinsters and a practical heroine and people who learn languages for the fun of it. It's a good time. My only complaint was that it was too short . . . which I realize is sort of the point of a novella . . . but I guess I like long things. And with this, specifically, I thought there was plenty of plot and character depth to maintain a full-length novel. But that's okay! I will read Tessa's other full-length novels instead!

(Disclaimer: I've chat with Tessa on Twitter on occasion, but she in no way solicited this review, and I bought my copy - I should mention that this is an ebook - on Amazon.)

REVIEW: Alias Dragonfly

Jane Singer's Alias Dragonfly sounds like it should be right up my alley - history! Spies! Ladies doing awesome things! Alas, it wasn't quite as good as I hoped. The protagonist Madeline was interesting: a New Hampshire teenager with a crazy-good memory who winds up in the middle of Civil War espionage when her father joins the Union army. And some scenes of the book were well done, with lots of fun spy drama. But getting through other parts was a bit of a chore, and the writing was uneven. It broke the fourth wall way too often for my personal taste, but others might like that. I thought this book had potential, but it wasn't quite there yet.

(Note: I got my review ebook from NetGalley.)

REVIEW: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John Le Carré

John Le Carré is one of my father's favorite authors, so I've been meaning to read his books for years; with the Tinker Tailor movie about to come out, I decided it was time. (I read the first two books this summer.) The Spy Who Came In from the Cold was Le Carré's third book, and his most famous hero, master spy George Smiley, appears in it, though not as the protagonist. It's a short little book - the edition I have is only 212 pages - but that makes the complexity and precision of the plotting even more impressive. (My dad tells me that this one seems "narrow in scope" compared to the later books, so I can't wait to see what those are like.) It's about a British spy who pretends to be a double agent in order to bring down a top East German - or so he thinks. What's actually going on, and who's really betraying whom, is what he has to find out. It's quite a ride, and it all eventually comes clear - before it ends on a fascinatingly ambiguously note. I've been talking about the plotting, but Le Carré's language also makes his books stand out from your average spy thriller. His writing is spare and compact but gorgeous. This book would be a good introduction to Le Carré, I think - it's better than his earlier ones (which are quite good!) but shorter and perhaps more accessible than the later ones.