Me on Waiting on Wednesday (151)

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

Title: Hollow City
Author: Ransom Riggs
Release Date: January 14, 2014
Publisher: Quirk Books

From Goodreads:

In 1940 after the first book ends, Jacob and his new Welsh island friends flee to London, the Peculiar capital of the world. Caul, a dangerous madman, is Miss Peregrine’s brother, and can steal Peculiar abilities for himself. The Peculiars must fight for survival, again.

Okay, the description leaves a lot to be desired, but it's okay. I know that this is going to be just as creepy and different and unique and enchanting as the first book. I hope there will be as many photographs in this as there were in the first. Half of the story is in the photographs, as odd and spooky as they are.

Me on Sorrow's Knot

Title: Sorrow's Knot
Author: Erin Bow
Release Date: October 1, 2013
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine (Scholastic imprint)

At the very edge of the world live the Shadowed People. And with them live the dead. There, in the village of Westmost, Otter is born to power. She is the proud daughter of Willow, the greatest binder of the dead in generations. It will be Otter's job someday to tie the knots of the ward, the only thing that keeps the living safe. Kestrel is in training to be a ranger, one of the brave women who venture into the forest to gather whatever the Shadowed People can't live without and to fight off whatever dark threat might slip through their ward's defenses. And Cricket wants to be a storyteller. Already he shows the knack, the ear, and already he knows a few dangerous secrets. But something is very wrong at the edge of the world. Willow's power seems to be turning inside out. The ward is in danger of falling. And lurking in the shadows, hungry, is a White Hand, the most dangerous of the dead, whose very touch means madness, and worse.

Sorrow's Knot is a beautifully crafted tale, haunting and eerie, filled with suspense, curiosity, and old magic. It's the story of a small village and one girl's ability to bind those who have moved on. This is a tale of life and death, of the magic that keeps the living safe and the dead from causing harm. This is about the dead coming back in dangerous and unpredictable ways. Otter knows she has power in her blood, she always wanted to be a binder, but the events that follow happen in a way she did not expect, and so she must find a way to save everyone she cares about from the White Hand.

Otter isn't a take-charge sort of character; those kinds of actions are left to Kestrel. Otter has her strengths, she doesn't just sit there and react, but she's more of an observer. Otter watches and only takes action when she chooses, when she knows deep down in her soul that something must be done. The hidden gem of this book is the friendship she has with Kestrel. A friendship based on affection and companionship without malice or secrets. An honest friendship. My heart was happy every time Otter was with Kestrel and Cricket. The friendship between the three of them is one I wish appeared more often in YA.

I found the magic of the binding, the knots, the wards to keep the dead at bay, to be so imaginative. It sounds so simple, but when put into practice in the book it's so complicated, so intricate. And Otter's village, as well. This small town of mostly women is filled with strength, with purpose and power in the blood that flows through them. Each one of them has a purpose, to heal, to protect, to share, to bind.

As this story unfolds, secrets from the past are revealed. There was a mistake made in the past that still haunts the world. Sometimes we keep secrets from others to keep them safe, but nothing stays secret for long. Sometimes we refuse to make a difficult choice, but running won't stop it from coming after you. The times we don't want to let go because it's too painful? They will always return, and they will come back to hurt those who remain in the future. I found that a large part of this book is knowing that you have to make that choice, that you have to let go, no matter how painful or heart-breaking, and that the choices we make in order to set things right are the most painful of all.

This is such a Canadian story. The voice is so crisp and clear, and the world is so familiar yet unlike anything I know. The people who inhabit this world are a people who will push on and persevere through hardship and struggle, slowly carving out a place for themselves and their families so they can live in peace. It's rather reminiscent of the tales, myths, and customs of the First Nations people, perhaps before the Europeans came, or perhaps after, in a distant future. There is a closeness to nature here, a simplicity to their lives that would not otherwise be there if modern technology was present. It's a story of the land itself, of a community of tradition and ritual that values storytelling, and of a young girl trying to find her place, trying to understand the world, and trying to right a wrong that happened before the moons were named.

(I received a finished copy of this title to review from Scholastic Canada. For those in the US, the release date is October 29, 2013.)

Me on This Week's Book(less) Week (75)

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. ;)

Short post this week because no books again. Sad face.

The 3 years of Me on Books giveaway is going on. Go here to enter! :)

I saw Maggie Stiefvater and Maureen Johnson during the week. Here is my recap of the event!

I saw there's only 1 YA book on the Canada Reads Top 40 list, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. While I'm happy there's a YA book on the list, I made a face at there being only 1 out of 40 books. So I got a bit rage-y on Twitter yesterday, and then spent the day suggesting Canadian-authored YA novels with the #CanadaReads2014 hashtag. And everyone is always welcome to suggest books at Canada Reads YA. :)

NaNoWriMo starts next week. I'll be doing it, but I'm sort of behind on reading and writing up reviews so the next week might be all full of reading and review-writing so I don't miss any dates or anything. :)

Reviews for the next week will feature Sorrow's Knot by Erin Bow (Tuesday) and The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Friday). :)

Me on Altered

Title: Altered
Author: Gennifer Albin
Release Date: October 29, 2013
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux (Macmillan imprint)

After a daring escape to Earth from Arras, Adelice thought she would finally be in control of her own destiny. She would be free to be true to herself and to her heart, to love Jost, the boy the Guild said she could not have. But Earth is not abandoned, as she'd always been taught it was. It's inhabited with survivors waging a war against Arras. The world that was supposed to offer a new beginning is still tangled up in the past. Now Adelice is being called upon to harness her phenomenal power and break Earth from the grip of the Guild. But even as she uncovers the truth about her parents and her former life, she discovers that nothing on Earth is as it seems either. Everyone has secrets, especially those she loves most. What's more, those secrets are driving Adelice and Jost away from each other, and Adelice into his brother Erik's waiting arms. Now torn between two brothers and two worlds, Adelice must decide what, and who, she's fighting for, before it's too late.

Altered is a return to an extremely unique world where different genres like fantasy, dystopia, and science fiction are woven together. It is in this world that a young girl finds herself after a thrilling escape, a girl who has a powerful gift that may make her the only one who can save Earth from Arras and the Guild. But secrets abound, both in Arras and on Earth, secrets that so many have worked so hard to keep hidden, and Adelice will have to make the most difficult decision of her young life. So far.

This is what's next for Adelice, but what will she do now in this world so unlike what she's been taught to expect? Who will she trust? What will she learn? So many questions to answer, so many secrets to uncover. But will she still take a stand against Arras once all has been revealed? All her life she was told to hide her talent, and now that she can reveal them, now that she can take down the Guild, will she?

Adelice is powerful in her own way, but Earth is different than Arras. Earth is really there, it's not the construct that Arras is. The threads are still there for her to see, to manipulate, to weave and re-work, but they feel different. Everything is different. There are more to her gifts than she knows. But not others, not those who hold the secret her parents never told her.

Perhaps I love the world-building so much because it is actual world-building. Arras is the crafted and spun world that hangs over the barren, desolate wasteland that Earth has become, but it's not just one world on top of another. It's one world taking from another, one world controlling another. I also enjoyed the contrasts between the two worlds, the advanced technology at odds with the subtle old world charm, style, fashion, and mannerisms, both in Crewel and in Altered. Everything has been so expertly crafted by the author.

When it comes to Adelice's personal life, her romantic life, she appears to be at a crossroads of sorts with Jost and with Erik. Each brother gives her different things, supports her in different ways, and each make her cautious. Cautious at what to do, what to say, how to act. She wants with Jost, but can he afford to give right now? Can she? As much as I was annoyed at the growing separation between them, and with the ways Erik grew closer to her, I had to remind myself that it had to happen. There is always a reason for separations, and in this situation, with time working against them in impossible ways, it's needed. Adelice needs to grow, needs to learn, needs to train to understand her abilities. Of course, being apart from Jost leaves her alone with Erik, who can rarely be trusted. As much as I don't like love triangles, as overused as they are, this is the best one I've come across. She needs both and she wants both, for important reasons and for different reasons. And so she's genuinely torn between the two.

How unique this book and its world are, both rich with technology and built on greed and corruption. The closer I got to the end, the more surprised I was at what I was reading and the more I knew I would dread the wait for the last book.

(I received an advance copy of this title from Raincoast Books.)

October 22: Maggie Stiefvater & Maureen Johnson

When I heard that both Maggie Stiefvater and Maureen Johnson would be coming to Vancouver, I was beyond excited. I adore Maggie's books, the magic and the realism and the adventure, and Maureen's books are so much fun to read. And so I went. (I knew it was going to be an entertaining 90 minutes when two teens from the audience went up to 'assist' with a reading from The Dream Thieves and stayed up there for the whole event. They were awesome.)

The event was mostly made up of questions, which lead to lots of funny stories. Here are some highlights (sorry about the length after the jump, I promise it's worth it) (I recorded the event so what's below is very close to what they actually said during the event). :)

When asked if it was difficult for Maggie to write male characters, she just said no. Maureen claims she has no line between reality and imagination. Maggie says that music keeps her in the mood, that noise-cancelling headphones are great on planes when she's still writing, how one song will come on and she's right back in the scene she needs to be in. Maureen mentioned that there's one song that she will hear sometimes and it's like she's been transported back to Suite Scarlett.