Me on Marco Impossible

Title: Marco Impossible
Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Release Date: March 19, 2013
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (Macmillan imprint)

Thirteen-year-old best friends Stephen and Marco attempt a go-for-broke heist to break into the high school prom and get Marco to confess her love for (and hopefully steal the heart of) Benji, the adorable exchange student and bass player of the prom band. Of course, things don't always go as planned, and every heist has its share of hijinks.

Marco Impossible is an adventure of epic proportions, at least from Marco and Stephen's point of view. It won't be an easy adventure, and there might be times when they want to give up, but this is one of those life-changing adventures they won't ever regret if they follow it through to the end.

Stephen and Marco are two best friends, different in the ways that work, Marco plans the schemes and Stephen records everything. They work well off each other, Stephen as the cautious sidekick with Marco as the sometimes fearless sometimes battered wildly creative leader who desperately wants to confess his love before it's too late. An awesome pair with their own set of problems.

They're on a mission, a very important mission, like two detectives who never believe they could be in over their heads at any point (well, Stephen thinks they're in over their heads, Marco's too focused on the goal). But what would they do if they happen to end up involved in something sinister?

What I enjoy most about Hannah's books is they're about people, people with big flaws, big hearts, big problems, big dreams, big plans. Gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, genderqueer, questioning. Even fishboy. It's about people, it's people that matter. And Hannah writes about people in such a wonderful way.

Like any Hannah Moskowitz book, reading this was an unexpected surprise. Her books are always honest, always emotional, often brutal, and always heartfelt. This is something more sweeter than Teeth, her most recent YA novel, but it is by no means any less complicated for its characters.

(I received an e-galley to review from Macmillan through Raincoast Books.)

Me on The Madman's Daughter

Title: The Madman's Daughter
Author: Megan Shepherd
Release Date: January 29, 2013
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins imprint)

Juliet has built a life for herself in London: working as a maid, attending church, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one proved the rumours about her father's gruesome experiments, but when she learns he's still alive and continuing his work, she's determined to find out if the accusations are true. Accompanied by her father's assistant Montgomery and castaway Edward, both of whom Juliet is drawn to, she travels to the island only to discover the depths of her father's madness. His experiments live on, animals operated on until they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. What's worse is one of the creatures has gone wild, murdering the others. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island descends into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius, and madness, in her own blood.

The Madman's Daughter is a return to gothic horror with a twist on a piece of classic literature. This book is what one would expect, it's dark, dangerous, gruesome, and mysterious. On the island, Juliet is forced to confront with a number of terrifying things, such as her father's research and the fact it borders on insane and monstrous, the secrets surrounding the island and its inhabitants, and the truth that unknowingly lurks in her blood.

This book takes me back to proper gothic horror, horror in the vein of Dracula and Frankenstein. It is a new twist on The Island of Dr. Moreau, Wells' exploration of scientific ethics and gruesome experimentation, the struggle of one man to become God and have it all turn horrifically wrong. It's very faithful to the original, to the wild island setting, to the realization of danger and the wildness that lives in the hearts of those who walk not only on four legs but also on two. Wells is considered to be one of the co-founders of the science fiction genre. Here, Shepherd takes us back, back in time, back to the island, back to the howls and the screams that travel through the jungle's trees.

But retellings are complicated. A new story must be shaped from the existing, both must find a way to live together between the covers. Here, the original is everywhere, coating each and ever page, but so is the new. Juliet brings new life, new connections, and new complications that twist the story into something more. Juliet must be strong enough to stand on her own or else she runs the risk of being swallowed up, both by Wells and his creations and her own fear and dread.

I dreaded the love triangle between Juliet, Montgomery, and Edward, but Shepherd dealt with it well. She's drawn to both of them, yes, but it seems to be in different ways. Montgomery she knew before, Edward she just met. But she fears what might be inside her, in her blood, in the blood she got from her father, and so that complicated things. Until she learns the truth and must make a decision.

The idea that there will be two more books to follow, that this is a series, makes me both curious and intrigued. With this, Shepherd showed she could stay faithful to Wells' original, but the next two books will be a harder battle, I think. I'm sure more than one reader has wondered what would happen next after reading The Island of Dr. Moreau, and it's possible that with Juliet, we could see one interpretation of what could happen.

(I acquired an advance copy at ALA Midwinter.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (119)

Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: The Lost Sun
Author: Tessa Gratton
Release Date: June 25, 2013
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

From Goodreads:

Fans of Neil Gaiman's American Gods and Holly Black's The Curse Workers will embrace this richly drawn, Norse-mythology-infused alternate world: the United States of Asgard. Seventeen-year-old Soren Bearskin is trying to escape the past. His father, a famed warrior, lost himself to the battle-frenzy and killed thirteen innocent people. Soren cannot deny that berserking is in his blood—the fevers, insomnia, and occasional feelings of uncontrollable rage haunt him. So he tries to remain calm and detached from everyone at Sanctus Sigurd's Academy. But that's hard to do when a popular, beautiful girl like Astrid Glyn tells Soren she dreams of him. That's not all Astrid dreams of—the daughter of a renowned prophetess, Astrid is coming into her own inherited abilities.

When Baldur, son of Odin and one of the most popular gods in the country, goes missing, Astrid sees where he is and convinces Soren to join her on a road trip that will take them to find not only a lost god, but also who they are beyond the legacy of their parents and everything they've been told they have to be.

I adore Tessa's books, I love how she tells stories. That's what her books are, gorgeously crafted stories. And I know I'm going to love this next book of hers. Norse mythology and gods walking around like celebrities, a tweaked USA setting, a teenage guy battling bloodlust, a teenage girl dreaming of the future and people she doesn't know. I want to read this so much. I want more books like this, more books that don't fall back on the Greek mythology standard that I'm starting to get tired of. :)

Me on Every Never After

Title: Every Never After
Author: Lesley Livingston
Release Date: March 12, 2013
Publisher: Razorbill Canada (Penguin Canada imprint)

Despite their vow, best friends Clare and Allie once more find themselves in trouble, and traveling through time. Indulging in a low-key vacation at Glastonbury Tor, taking part in an archeological dig while soaking up the sights of summertime England, the girls promised each other three things. No time travel shenanigans, no involvement with dangerous Druids or villainous museum thieves, and no weirdness about the fact that Clare is now dating Allie's super hot genius cousin, Milo. But when Allie makes a discovery at the dig site, the skull transports her back in time to a Roman encampment besieged by rampaging Celts. Caught between the Legions and the war band, Allie is rescued from certain death by Marcus, a young Roman soldier with a secret. As she struggles to survive in the past, Clare and Milo race against time in the present to bring her back before she loses her head or her heart.

Every Never After is a welcome return to an entertaining series with witty and intelligent characters. A return to Clare and Allie means a return to 1st century Britain with a little time travel to help them along, a return to blood magic and raging Celts and Druids, a return to complicated time streams and ingenious teen girls. But things are different now, this time it's Allie who travels back in time, and it's up to Clare to help bring her back.

Things are a lot more complicated this time around. Now Allie is trapped in the past and Clare and Milo are racing to find away to bring her back without bringing two worlds together and crashing everything into everything else. The stakes are so much higher than they were before, merely a month ago to Clare and Allie, and so much is at risk of disappearing.

It's never easy for Allie and Clare. Time is fickle, working against them along with Druid magic and villainous thieves. But what makes this book so entertaining is Allie and Clare themselves. They're passionate and sometimes foolish and headstrong, but they're smart, they're ingenious and intelligent, and they always seem to find a way to fix what was broken by a rather pompous time-traveling man.

Time travel is so complicated, so intricate and delicate. There are consequences to messing with time, there are paradoxes, and every loose thread must be tied off. Or everything Clare and Allie have done with be for naught.

With both this book and its predecessor, Lesley Livingston combines history, science fiction, and witty characters to bring readers something entertaining, cleverly disguising a possible British history lesson with a lot of action and intrigue. This book turns up the suspense, the excitement, the danger, the time travel complications, and at the end left me breathless and desperate for a third book.

(I received an e-galley to review from Penguin Canada through NetGalley.)

Me on This Week's Book Week (42)

This Week's Book Week is like Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews but not as cleverly named. ;)

Yesterday I did a book purge of all three of my bookcases (2 in my room in the open with 1 hidden in the closet) because I needed to do a spring book purge. I needed to purge the books I hadn't read in years, I needed to purge the books I wasn't going to read again, but I still held onto the ones I loved. The battered and well-read books that make me love reading, that let me escape into a different world.

I also had a weird neurotic moment where I needed to count how many books I brought back from ALA and how many I had left to read. Out of 70 books, I have 46 books to read, which means 24 have been read, sent off to good homes, and/or are waiting for me to contact the library about giving them to their teen readers.

I've tweeted pictures of all the free books (with the exception of a few already claimed). Local bloggers and other people I know have first dibs at the books I'm getting rid of. For others across Canada and in the US and elsewhere, we might need to work out something so I'm not the only one paying shipping. Fair is fair, you know.

Remember my weird infected finger? Well, I saw my doctor this week. We've reached the 'send nail clippings to the lab' stage and 'get an x-ray done to make sure it's not an infection that's settling into the bone' stage. In a few weeks, we might be at the 'go see a skin doctor' stage. How fun. Stupid plague finger. At least all it cost me this time around was parking at the outpatient clinic for the x-ray.

My sister's starting to hear back from grad schools she applied to. Which is awesome for her. :) But she's been stressing over which one to go to and how much it'll all cost and if she'll get some kind of grant or fellowship to help with costs.

3 weeks until the Cassie Clare signing. :) It'll be nice to hang out with book people again.

Received: (I linked to each book on Goodreads because these are not the final covers.)
The Originals by Cat Patrick (from Hachette Book Group Canada)
Icons by Margaret Stohl (from Hachette Book Group Canada)