Me on (Don't You) Forget About Me

Title: (Don't You) Forget About Me
Author: Kate Karyus Quinn
Release Date: June 10, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins imprint)

Welcome to Gardnerville. A place where no one gets sick. And no one ever dies. Except there's a price to pay for paradise. Every fourth year, the strange power that fuels the town exacts its payment by infecting teens with deadly urges. In a normal year in Gardnerville, teens might stop talking to their best friends. In a fourth year, they'd kill them. Four years ago, Skylar's sister, Piper, was locked away after leading sixteen of her classmates to a watery grave. Since then, Skylar has lived in a numb haze, struggling to forget her past and dull the pain of losing her sister. But the secrets and memories Piper left behind keep taunting Skylar, whispering that the only way to get her sister back is to stop Gardnerville's murderous cycle once and for all.

(Don't You) Forget About Me is bizarre and complicated, a trip to a town hidden away, a town where anything can happen. A town where you're extra cautious every four years because you don't want to be the one who goes off. Intriguing but strange, more depressing than entertaining.

Skylar is lost, still floundering after her older sister was taken away four years before. All she has are her memories of Piper, of their time together, and all she wants is to get her back. But nothing is as it seems in Gardnerville. Even Skylar, with her taste for secrets and her drug habit. All she has are her memories, and all she wants to do is forget.

A lot of this book has to do with memories, with what has happened in the past coming back to impact the present, and with burying those memories in order to continue living. Even if it means living a lie. Sometimes it's easier to forget, sometimes it's not as painful, but it never lasts. The memories must always be faced, must always be confronted.

I knew going in that this was going to be strange book, that things would be weird, but it quickly turned into the kind of weird that I'm not necessarily a fan of. It reminds me of a number of books. It reminds me of Bleeding Violet without the humour or unique personality of Hanna. It reminds me of Teeth and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer in that I was never sure of the absolute truth, even when the story ended. The vagueness keeps this book mysterious and haunting, but still weird, and I don't think it's the kind of weird I like.

(I received an advance copy of this title to review from HarperCollins Canada.)

Me on This Week's Book(less) Week (106)

This Week's Book Week is rather similar to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews only with far more rambling and a less witty title. ;)

No books this week, I'm afraid. Maybe next week.

It's been really nice and summery here lately. We're probably going to have a long and warm summer this year, which is good in some ways but not so good for rivers and reservoirs and flowers and small plants. And people, what with sunburns and heat stroke.

Reviews for the coming week will feature (Don't You) Forget About Me by Kate Karyus Quinn (Monday), Dreamwood by Heather Mackey (Wednesday), and Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis (Friday). :)

Since I have no new books to share with you, here's a list of what I'll be reading next. :)

Royally Lost by Angie Stanton
Dark Metropolis by Jaclyn Dolamore
Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica
Rise and Snakeroot by Andrea Cremer (I got these for my birthday almost 6 months ago and still haven't read them. *hangs head in book nerd shame*)
Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne
Idols by Margaret Stohl

Me on The Strange Maid

Title: The Strange Maid
Author: Tessa Gratton
Release Date: June 10, 2014
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Signy Valborn was seven years old when she climbed the New World Tree and met Odin Alfather, who declared that if she could solve a single riddle, he would make her one of his Valkyrie. For ten years Signy has trained in the arts of war, politics, and leadership, never dreaming that a Greater Mountain Troll might hold the answer to the riddle, but that's exactly what Ned the Spiritless promises her. A mysterious troll hunter who talks in riddles and ancient poetry, Ned is a hard man to trust. Unfortunately, Signy is running out of time, and she and Ned take off across the ice sheets of Canadia to claim Signy's destiny.

The Strange Maid is an epic journey if there ever was one, a journey through destiny and fate, through riddles and dreams. The journey of one girl racing toward a battle that could change everything.

Signy searches for an answer to a riddle she can't solve on her own, a riddle that speak of her destiny. There is no part of her that doesn't not want to be a Valkyrie, but like a Valkyrie of old. A warrior, one of power and strength, of doing battle against enemies. But that's not what a Valkyrie does anymore, not so much, and it seems to bother her. There is a core of strength and fire that runs through Signy, and it felt more and more that not being like a Valkyrie of old, a death maiden, a strange maid, would be wrong.

I find Ned to be rather interesting. Like Signy, I'm curious about him. Where he comes from, what his secrets are. Why he seems to speak the truth but in riddles. It's also interesting thinking about what's said as truth, what Signy believes to be true, and what Signy knows is true. How trust works, how we decide who to trust for different reasons.

I love the world-building, the alternate Norse mythology-centric world, the gods and goddesses, the epic tales of heroes and monsters. This felt different than the previous book. Deeper into the mythology, darker. The thrill of battle and revenge, the purpose behind a sacrifice, the mournful wails and knife-sharp pain of death. The allusions to Beowulf and the epic feel of Signy's journey.

Gratton's writing is filled with story and description, nothing unnecessary given and nothing important left behind. I would recommend reading The Lost Sun before this, though, the two are connected in some ways. Even though the book takes place over the course of some months, it felt like no time had passed from beginning to end. When I reached the last page, I wished it wouldn't end, that the journey would continue. That I could read more about Signy Valborn, the strange maid.

(I received an e-galley of this title to review from Random House through NetGalley.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (180)

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

Title: The Darkest Part of the Forest
Author: Holly Black
Release Date: January 13, 2015
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

From Goodreads:

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

This sounds so good and so weird and kind of creepy and I just want it.

Me on While We Run

Title: While We Run
Author: Karen Healey
Release Date: May 27, 2014
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette Book Group imprint)

Abdi Taalib thought he was moving to Australia for a music scholarship. But after meeting the beautiful and brazen Tegan Oglietti, his world was turned upside down. Tegan's no ordinary girl. She died in 2027, only to be frozen and brought back to life in Abdi's time, 100 years later. Now, all they want is for things to return to normal (or as normal as they can be), but the government has other ideas. Especially since the two just spilled the secrets behind Australia's cryonics project to the world. On the run, Abdi and Tegan have no idea who they can trust, and when they uncover startling new details about Project Ark, they realise thousands of lives may be in their hands.

While We Run is a return to a shocking future filled with fear, hatred, despair, and secrets. The first book shocked and scared me, and this one did the same, making me wary of what may come to pass, even though hope remains, tucked away to be wished for but never voiced.

Here, the reader is led not by Tegan but by Abdi, a foreign student and singer in migrant-fearing Australia. His is a quieter voice, a thoughtful voice. In the beginning he is separated from Tegan, putting on a show for the public. The perfect puppets of a government that's crushed their hopes and ruined their exposure of the truth. At times I missed being in Tegan's head, her attitude and her 21st century way of thinking. Abdi has his moments, his strengths, his own pain and suffering, but there was a time or two when it felt like both he and Tegan were pulled along with everyone else, running, reacting instead of acting.

Like the first, there is a fair amount of fear and hatred in this book. There are still groups calling for answers, for an end to the migrants and refugees trying to enter Australia, for Tegan's death because it's not right for her to be alive. But it felt different than the first. Perhaps it's because of the point of view change, perhaps because some time has passed from the end of the first book. Perhaps it's because this is the aftermath. Now some truths are out, revealed in defiance of a controlling government, and Tegan and Abdi are suffering because of the consequences.

Both this and its predecessor are the only books to have frightened me so much. I am genuinely afraid of a future like this, where people are treated like nothing, where governments move further and further to the right, becoming more conservative, more isolationist. When visitors from other countries are feared, hated. If this is what the future could bring, I hope I'm not around to see it.

(I borrowed a copy of this title from the library.)