The Diviners: This Book Has Shirtless Boys

The Diviners by Libba Bray
(Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, September 18, 2012)

Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City--and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls ad rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult--also known as "The Museum of Creepy Crawlies."

When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. and through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer--if he doesn't catch her first. (summary courtesy of amazon.com)

Laura: So, Kelly...What did you think of The Diviners? Wasn’t it just perfect?

Kelly: I read 137 pages. *hides*

Laura: WHAT?

Kelly: IT IS LONG (578 pages long, in fact).

Laura: AND PERFECT. IT WAS PERFECTLY LONG (578 pages of PURE AWESOME).

Kelly: I have this thing about backstory... it tends to bore me. I *know* it is necessary, but it bores me. I will say that Libba properly puts you in the 1920’s though.

Laura: She does indeed! And while there is a lot of backstory, you do end up needing all of it. Which you will find out...When you FINISH THE BOOK.

Kelly: Yes, yes. OTHER BOOKS were calling my name. But the backstory is all necessary. I see that. Libba does a great job of introducing all the characters and the occult... THINGS that occur.

Laura: And you do need all of that. It is VITAL later. You cannot forget who your characters are, because each independent storyline ends up intertwining as the book progresses.

Kelly: Sometimes I thought she jumped a little too quickly. I had to remind myself that Memphis was in Harlem while Evie was Upper East Side with Theta.

Laura: And I have to say, it really helped that I read this book right after visiting New York City, because I would have had no idea where people were. And I would have thought they were a street away from each other, and it is actually a bigger city than that...

Kelly: Oh, yes! It is a BIG ISLAND. There should have been a map in the book.

Laura: We both have the ARCs...so it possible that there is a map in the finished copy. Someone with the hardcover will have to tell us if that is so in the comments (Imagine, Reader, I am staring pointedly at YOU). Maps are good. I like maps in books. Especially when I have never been to a place! And when walking across my hometown is barely a two mile trip.

Kelly: I am not a map person. I tend to just WANDER. But sometimes I need them in books, because I cannot see the place where I am. Even in The Name of the Star, though I have been to London, the map helped. There was a map. Right?

Laura: I think maps should be standard literary practice. Although I hate them and can barely read them in real life. And there is totally a map in The Name of the Star. I just checked for you.

Kelly: And that is why I love you. Sometimes there should be maps! Not always. But sometimes, the map helps. Especially when you have multiple characters scattered around the city.

Laura: Also if you are Thomas Hardy and you make up your own geography, despite the fact that you use real settings. Stupid Hardy, ungeography-ing England to suit his evil purposes...

Kelly: Um... okay. We should focus. Characters! Evie! She is so 1920’s it almost hurts. I loved it, but I could never have been friends with her.

Laura: I spent the first half of the novel wanting to hit her with an occult antiquity in the museum. She really needs a good clout in the head with a heavy object. It will ground her, and cause her to maybe be less...airheaded. Or traumatic brain injury. We don’t want that, though.

Kelly: No. Because she is very important. I see that. Libba did well in the backstory showing how the characters relate to their powers. I’m excited to see how they’re going to use them to solve the murder.

Laura: YES. You will love it. You will love watching all their stories intertwine. And you will love Henry, who is my favorite. KEEP READING FOR HENRY!

Kelly: I will! Henry seems sweet, but it seems out of place that his character is so openly gay. I feel like that wouldn’t happen in the 1920’s.

Laura: You’re probably right about that. But the reason he’s so open with Theta will become CLEAR as the story progresses. My mystical powers of foresight tell me this.

Kelly: So tell me more about the plot! I feel like Libba has primarily concentrated on the character’s backstory and I have only graced the surface of what’s going to happen.

Laura: NO SPOILERS. But you are right. The focus of this book seems to be primarily to introduce you to everyone and show you how their powers are going to make MAJOR THINGS happen in the coming books. However, you will get to enjoy lots of SCARY MURDEROUS OCCURRENCES and eventually, you will find sleep impossible.

Kelly: Oh, my goodness, yes! The murder was VERY SCARY! I just kept screaming at my book. It’s like what you do while watching a scary movie. But then we get the Law & Order side of the story, which I always love!

Laura: Get used to the scary feeling, Kelly. IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE. You will stop sleeping. And you will jump at small noises and never walk alone anywhere ever.

Kelly: I do not do well with scary. This is why I read romances. NOTHING BAD HAPPENS IN ROMANCES. Or John Green books. Except for killing amazing characters.

Laura: Nothing bad happens in romances? Like Romeo and Juliet, that was a happy story for you?

Kelly: TRUE LOVE! HE KILLED HIMSELF TO BE WITH HER. But in my teenage love stories, there is rarely brutal murder. I like it this way.

Laura: Brutal murder/suicides, Twin. Murder/suicides. But really, you will get your love story as you continue reading. There is a fantastic love triangle. Well, love QUADRANGLE, as the story continues. All the peoples, they love each other.

Kelly: I LIKE THE LOVE STORIES. I see it already. Sam Lloyd and Evie. Mabel and Jericho. LOVE. I NEED THE LOVE.

Laura: Now what you need to do is take those names, and throw them in a hat, and shake the hat around, and dump the names on the ground. Because it is not so simple. LOVE QUADRANGLE. Plus hot and shirtless boys, Twin.

Kelly: Shirtless boys? YOU DID NOT TELL ME THIS. I need to carry on now. Any story that has a shirtless boy is a GOOD STORY.

Laura: I AGREE. Now go read!!!

Kelly: OKAY!! *flies away*

Laura: Since Kelly is now... gone, you guys should watch this amazingly funny (drunken) review of The Diviners.

Black Heart Left My Heart Racing

Black Heart by Holly Black (Margaret K. McElderry Books, April 3, 2012)
Review by Kenzie Helene

Nearly two years since the series began, we are finally getting the magnificent conclusion to Holly Black’s Curse Workers series. Now, if you haven’t already read White Cat and Red Glove, you should leave this review, since it will contain spoilers for the first two books. But your lack of preparation for Black Heart can be fixed! All three books have been released, so it’s the best time to launch yourself into this brilliant series.

Summary

Cassel Sharpe knows he’s been used as an assassin, but he’s trying to put all that behind him. He’s trying to be good, even though he grew up in a family of con artists and cheating comes as easily as breathing to him. He’s trying to do the right thing, even though the girl he loves is inextricably connected with crime. And he’s trying to convince himself that working for the Feds is smart, even though he’s been raised to believe the government is the enemy.

But with a mother on the lam, the girl he loves about to take her place in the Mob, and new secrets coming to light, the line between what’s right and what’s wrong becomes increasingly blurred. When the Feds ask Cassel to do the one thing he said he would never do again, he needs to sort out what’s a con and what’s truth. In a dangerous game and with his life on the line, Cassel may have to make his biggest gamble yet—this time on love.*

Musings

Red Glove left Cassel -- and us --in a few too many awkward situations. Shandra Singer is in trouble for making the governor of New Jersey fall in love with her. Lila has joined her father’s mob gang. And meanwhile Cassel and Barron, Cassel’s older brother, have gotten involved with the Feds. Left with this big mess to clean up, I eagerly awaited the arrival of Black Heart. On April 3rd, I woke up early, headed straight for the bookstore, purchased my copy, and was a 87 pages into the novel before classes swept my time and attention away.

In my opinion, Black Heart is the perfect ending to this series. Not every character got their happy ending (or, at least, the ending that would have made them the happiest), but even the complicated ones are heartwarming. Cassel’s dysfunctional relationships with Barron and Shandra held the most interest for me-- seeing the family dynamic change through their interactions and discoveries in Black Heart was great.

Holly Black is an undeniable master of back story, so the characters in the Curse Workers series have never been flat, and yet she manages to add more depth throughout Black Heart. The new motives and emotions that emerge from characters who had minor roles previously offer the reader a more engaged experience during this last book.

The plot is spectacular, not that anyone would expect less from Holly Black. Every time I thought I had a grasp on Cassel’s intentions, he’d turn ‘em around and leave me with my jaw on the floor. It isn’t just Cassel, though. Every character seems to have secret, unexpected plans, and I wanted to facepalm several times for not jumping to the right conclusion the first time... or second time... or third time.

While the end pairings were predictable, the journey to get there was more than worth the trip.

I’m sad that I don’t have anymore Curse Workers books to look forward to now, but I’m certainly happy with how things work out for Cassel, Lila, Sam, and Daneca. I’ll just have to keep rereading these great books, while I wait for new genius plots from Holly Black.

*Taken from Barnes and Noble Website.

Legite Librum!

Even the cover is MYSTERIOUS

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman (Random House, April 10, 2012)
Review by Laura Beutler

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up.  When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love.  When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead.  His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

I read the description of this book and thought...This is MY KIND OF BOOK. And I was right. From the first sentence to the last, I was caught up in Nora’s story and her search for her friend Chris’ killer. What makes The Book of Blood and Shadow especially interesting is the way in which Nora’s story is told. There are two main plot arcs within The Book of Blood and Shadow. One is narrated by Nora, explaining how she first came to study the Lumen Dei (which is a book on alchemy dating back hundreds of years) with her friend Chris and his roommate, Max. The other is that of a young woman, Elizabeth Weston, who lived in the 16th century and also studied the Lumen Dei. Nora learns about Elizabeth by translating Elizabeth’s letters. Through them, she is able to discover more about the Lumen Dei than any living scholar. By the end of the book, Nora and Elizabeth’s stories have proven to be linked.

Above all, The Book of Blood and Shadow is a mystery. The Lumen Dei, or The Book, as Nora’s professor refers to it, is a mystery. No one knows what secrets the Lumen Dei contains, but for centuries, scholars have worked to make sense of it. Nora and her friends are no different. They begin to study the Book as part of a college class. In the process, Nora discovers what she thinks is a clue in one of Elizabeth’s letters. The next thing she knows, her friend Chris is dead and the police think it was Nora’s boyfriend, Max, who killed him. But no. Nora doesn’t think that’s true. She thinks--she knows--that Chris’ death is her fault. She gave him the Elizabeth’s letter he day he died, and she’s certain that information contained in the letter could finally make sense out of the Lumen Dei. She thinks someone must have wanted to find out the truth hidden in Lumen Dei enough to kill for it, so Nora goes to work tracking down Elizabeth’s clues in an effort to find Chris’ killer. Plot twists abound, and by the end of the novel, figuring out who Nora can trust is as difficult as forming gold out of lead*. A lesser writer than Robin Wasserman would not have been able to pull off a plot this complex, but she does it beautifully.

I tend to love books in which a character’s research is an integral plot device. I can just hear all of you out there saying, “What on earth is this girl talking about?” or “Gee, she’s a whole lot weirder than I thought she was.”  I’ll explain myself a little better. Nora needs to find out who killed her friend Chris. Since Chris’ death is wound up in the history of the Lumen Dei, Nora needs to work out what the Lumen Dei exactly IS in order to save Max from jail, her best friend Adriane from the crazy, and probably her own life. And to do that, she needs to do lots of translating. The effect of all this research-related amazingness is a book told across time, through several voices.

“But Laura,” you say. “That sounds boring! Why should I read a book about translating a book?”

1. Because I said so.

2. Because it is freaking amazing. The characters, with all their different motivations, are captivating, and there are plot twists left and right. That is a recipe for greatness.

3. Because any book that opens with the sentence, “I should probably start with the blood,” cannot possibly be boring. So there.

Nora’s translations take her across Europe and lead to lots of MURDER. This is why Kenzie should pay attention in her Latin class instead of tweeting and reading fanfiction. Hear that, Kenz?

I also love Latin. I like my languages good and dead, which is too bad, because that makes it a whole lot harder to learn them (The closest my high school came to offering Latin was Spanish. Spanish and Latin are not the same. Not even close). The instant Nora described sitting down with her father for Latin lessons, I was hooked. Robin Wasserman made Nora and her father’s love of Latin transcend the page. Nora uses Latin as an escape from her home life and the grief she feels after the loss of first her brother, then her friend Chris.

When I finished reading this book (on my Kindle thanks to NetGalley), I immediately pre-ordered a copy of my very own so I could pet it and cherish it and put it on the Favorites Shelf. So, to say I strongly recommend The Book of Blood and Shadow would be a bit of an understatement. Robin Wasserman really raised the bar with this book. I look forward to see what she comes up with next!

* That’s an alchemy thing.

If Wishes Were Gavriels...We'd Visit the Dentist More Often

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
(Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, September 27, 2011)
Review by Laura Beutler

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a perfect blending of urban fantasy and fairy tale. Laini Taylor manages to take two subgenres (which have become a bit played out for me of late) and make something completely unique. I started hearing buzz about Daughter of Smoke and Bone months before its release, leading me to snatch up a copy despite my complete ignorance about the plot. I was not disappointed. In fact, I am now urging every library patron I see to check out Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It is a little bit of everything: complex, fantastic, beautiful, stark, and, quite frankly, one of the best novels of 2011.

Laini Taylor’s vivid, cinematic prose brought Karou’s home city of Prague to life so completely that I found reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone akin to watching--or living--a brilliantly-directed film. Within the first chapter, I was hooked. But really, if you can write as beautifully as Laini Taylor, you could get away with just writing a novel filled with descriptions of Prague’s streets, and I would sing its praises. Taylor goes beyond that, creating real, complex characters that lift themselves from the page and lodge in one’s imagination.

Giving a succinct summary of the plot of Daughter of Smoke and Bone has proven next to impossible. Taylor employs non-linear storytelling to great effect, jumping back and forth in time to give the reader a full grasp of Karou’s story and of the battle raging between the seraphim and the chimera. This wasn’t at all confusing, instead, it built suspense and drew me so deeply into Karou’s world that I sometimes felt my world was the imaginary one.

Here are the basics. Karou is an art student living in Prague. But she is also something much more. She works for Brimstone, who collects teeth and, in exchange, provides people with wishes. Wishes that come true. That's right. Give Brimstone teeth, he gives you wishes. Kinda gives going to the dentist a whole new meaning... In fact, wishes are used as currency, from the tiny scuppies Karou wears on a necklace to saucer-sized gold gavriels. Brimstone is a chimera, which is to say, he is made up of seemingly incongruous parts of various animals, blended seamlessly. Brimstone, along with fellow chimera Issa and Kishmish, make up the only family Karou has ever known. Then she meets up with Akiva, who is gorgeous in an extremely-deadly sort of way, and her loyalties are challenged in more ways than one.

Yes, that’s all you get. Spoilers...

Karou has all the qualities that make up a great female protagonist. She’s strong, brave, loyal, intelligent, and dedicated...but she’s also impulsive, at times fearful, and devastatingly curious. Her curiosity resonated most with me. As I craved further knowledge of the chimera world, so did Karou. And Karou isn’t invincible, which is fantastic. Too many fantasy novels have protagonists that can dodge bullets and survive unscathed through explosions and magical attacks and what-have-you. That isn’t Karou. She has to be very careful of the criminals she comes in contact with--and sometimes, careful isn’t good enough.

Easily my favorite parts of the book were in Taylor’s descriptions of people and places, such as the enormous puppet Karou’s friend Zuzana creates as an art project, or the streets of Marakesh. I found myself thinking, “This part would be PERFECT in a film, or an anime, like Howl’s Moving Castle!” And if I’m holding something up to Howl’s Moving Castle, you know it’s good. More than good, it’s worthy.

For a while, I lived the book, and it was all-consuming. I neglected my friends, my family, odd library patrons. I detested interruptions, like sleep. It really is fortunate that I read as quickly as I do, because a person does need to eat once and a while, something I forgot altogether while I read this book. And yes, it was worth it. I doubt I’m the only person affected this way. Seriously--try reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone without thinking over what wish you would choose if Brimstone offered you one. Go ahead. You won’t make it past the first twenty pages.

MY wish would be for the second book. Now. This instant. Too bad I don’t have any gavriels.

Yellow Tastes Like Sunshine

Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson (September 1, 2011, Carolrhoda Books)

Review by Kenzie Helene

The line between having the reader understand the plot and connect with the protagonist is a subtle one when the narrator is unreliable. R.J. Anderson, however, is accomplished at using the unreliable narrator as a tool in her new novel, Ultraviolet. From the very first page, Ultraviolet hooks you right through the gut and pulls you into a story that is fresh and mesmerizing. You're presented with a character who is flawed in a way that compels you to sympathize with her. Simultaneously, you’ll be awed at Alison’s increased senses, due to her sensory disorder, synesthesia. When she describes the sound of red, or how the number fourteen is seductive, you just have to smile and wish you could experience the the world and its values in the same way. At the same time, you mourn with Alison because of how hard it is for others to comprehend what she's going through. Alison is a strong main character, despite the fact the reader doesn't know whether she's completely sane or not.

Plot Summary Time!


Alison wakes up in a mental hospital after claiming she killed a popular classmate, Tori. The problem is that she remembers dissolving her, which is clearly not possible. While in the institution, she battles with her increasing problems with synesthesia, which the doctors tell her is just her brain blending her senses together. Colors don't actually have sound. It doesn’t help that her mother is starting to find her dangerous and doesn’t want her at the house. She also struggles with doctors who seem to be against her, until a new doctor shows up, understands Alison, and claims to know what happened to Tori.


Throughout the book, Alison feels that she must hide her synesthesia in order to fit in. She loves her extra senses, but has been taught that being viewed as different can ostracize a person. This relates to a lot of teenagers who feel the need to hide their differences in order to fit in and remain included in all those reindeer games. Anderson uses synesthesia to show an exaggerated difference that separates Alison from both her family and peers; a difference that is hard to hide. Young adults reading Ultraviolet feel the ultimate connection with Alison, since most people have traits they choose to conceal, whether it’s a disorder, their sexuality, family issues, or anything else in between.


Musings:

Doctor Faraday, who starts to convince Alison that her synesthesia is a beautiful talent, is written so the reader is pulled into his words and believes in him as Alison does. Just as the reader burns and hurts with her every time her mother cannot understand that Alison has no control over her ability, no way to shut it off. The characters are written to haul the reader into a story that relies on the connection between them and Alison.


Along with strong characters, this book offers a solid plot. Each plot point leads into the next one perfectly, leaving no strings to pull on. Still, the book remains unpredictable until the finishing chapter. Despite having a clean and wrapped up plot, the reader must decide whether or not to trust Alison’s narrative. Managing to do both of those is an admirable feat for any author, but Anderson pulled it off and made it look easy.


After finishing Ultraviolet, I feel significantly deprived of the senses I felt while reading. I want the characteristics of numbers back. I want to be able to read it for the first time again. I’ve been walking around for days envisioning what color my food would taste like, or what shapes certain music would bring out. It was odd that Alison constantly describes things that taste good as blue, but also intriguing because there aren't many edible things that are naturally blue. Sure, you have blueberries and blue potatoes, but that's really it. Ultraviolet challenges the way you think and encourages you to reevaluate things that you would have considered disorders to instead be gifts, but also makes you re-imagine your senses and how you perceive the world. It is not just about rethinking how to use our hearts or our heads or eyes, but how to use our fingers, our tongues, our nose and ears to the fullest extent.

Alan Ryves for Life

The Demon's Surrender by Sarah Rees Brennan (June 14, 2011; Simon & Schuster)

Review by Laura Beutler

Bailey has written us up a policy for spoilers, which you should go read if you haven’t already. Before we go on, though, I’d like to take a moment to remind you that while this review of The Demon’s Surrender is spoiler-free, you shouldn’t read it unless you’ve already read The Demon’s Lexicon and The Demon’s Covenant. The content of those books is fair game.

3:34 p.m. Tuesday. June 14, 2011. Post Office. Somewhere in Indiana.

“I was wondering if you could help me,” I said with as much disarming sweetness as I could muster. “I have a package I’ve tracked with UPS. This morning it said it would be delivered today, but now it says it will be sent out with the mail tomorrow.” I smiled. “I was hoping I could just pick it up from here, since I was in town. Then no one would have to bother delivering it.”

The postal worker stared at me a little. In fact, all four of them did. One of the women smiled back at me, and I took this as a sign of hope, hope that she would go back, pick up the box, and bring it out to me.

If I just could get that package, everything would be okay.

“Here’s the problem,” said a postal worker I was sure had to be the manager. “UPS gives us these packages in pallets. Pallets that are shrink-wrapped. Then, they update their tracking information. But right now, we have no way of knowing your package is even here.”

This was bad news.

“So,” he continued. “We will find out when we next sort the mail.”

I took this to mean he wasn’t going to bother checking. The smiling woman smiled a little wider, as if to say, “We’ve heard this before and are very sorry your hopes have been dashed in this fashion.” The look on the man’s face said, “Your pain means nothing to me, pathetic, obsessive human girl.”

“Laura,” you’re thinking. “What was in this package? Was it the special medication that keeps you from keeling over dead? Was it insulin, or an antidote for some rare toxin you picked up on one of those twenty mile hikes your father forced you to go on back when you were too young to steal the family station wagon and drive as far away as possible, the kind of toxin that takes ten years to kill you?”

Nope. The package was from Barnes and Noble. And inside it was The Demon’s Surrender by Sarah Rees Brennan, the final book in her Demon’s Lexicon trilogy. Inside the package was Alan. And Nick, Mae, Jamie, Sin, Gerald, and Merris. (But mostly Alan.)

I lasted about another hour. Then I bought the Kindle edition of The Demon’s Surrender, so I could read it while waiting for the hardcover to come in the mail.

I love The Demon’s Lexicon books so much, I want to write their names in little hearts on all my notebooks. I love it so much, I bought an Alan t-shirt on CafePress, so I could walk around expressing my love for the series, attracting fellow readers for impromptu book discussions. I love The Demon’s Surrender so much, I’m not even mad at Sarah for making me cry on four separate occasions while reading it, even though I was at work in the library at the time, and patrons were giving me funny looks. I’m hugging my copy right now, which is tough while typing.

If you haven’t picked up the books yet, take this as your official command from MHLit. I want you to read this series. I NEED you to read this series. Honestly, it’s a friendship requirement. How could we relate to each other when this vital part of my reading life is a mystery to you? Do yourself a favor and go pick up the first book, The Demon’s Lexicon, and start reading. When you finish, get The Demon’s Covenant. Then come back here, and we can chat.

All done?

Good.

If you’re reading this, then you’ve read the first two books already, because you would never disregard my instructions about avoiding spoilers by reading Lexicon and Covenant before you read my review. I’m not going to do in-depth character descriptions and analysis, because you’ve read the first two books, so you already know everything I could possibly tell you about them. And I’m not going to give you a plot summary, because you’ve read the books preceding this one, so you know what happened in them, I would hope. What I am going to do, though, is give you my overall impressions of the series so you can understand WHY I love this series so much.

Where were we?

When we left our heroes, they were deep in what Bailey calls a “tortured middle” (I love that term). Brothers Nick and Alan were struggling with the changes in Nick’s life, what with Nick’s unbridled demon powers and his lack of, well…conscience. Mae made out with Alan then Nick, all while giving Nick Human Lessons. Jamie was trying to choose a side, then got more or less abducted by magicians (even though I’m not so sure he didn’t want to go with Gerald all along so he could go learn magic-y things). Oh, and he also made a new friend: Nick. If only Nick could remember that friends don’t menace friends with swords. Seb was a jerk, but I kind of felt sorry for him anyway. Gerald kept himself busy by playing everyone, abducting children, marking Alan, and being straight up evil. Sin trusted no one but Merris, then no one at all. And Merris went and sold Liannan a time share in her body, so now they share. Just when you thought life couldn’t get any harder, Merris drops a bombshell: Sin and Mae have to compete to see who will inherit the Goblin Market.

The Demon’s Covenant leaves you with a thousand different questions, and The Demon’s Surrender is one exhilarating answer to all of them.

Musings

Sometimes, when the final book of a series comes out, I don’t even want to read it, for fear that the author will use the last book to rip my heart out of my chest, stomp on it, and then watch with sick pleasure while I curl up into a ball and grieve. *cough*deathlyhallows*cough* I know it must be hard to write a series, since you have to work so hard to stay consistent from book to book. One installment can’t fall flat, characters need to remain true to themselves, even as they grow from book to book. It must take a massive amount of planning, plotting, and living vicariously through your characters. I don’t know how I would handle it. I’d probably snap, start living in a tree, and insist that people call me my protagonist’s first name. If I tried writing three books in the same series with three differing viewpoints--I’d end up writing the last book in a straight jacket with chalk clutched between my toes.

Sarah Rees Brennan makes it all look like a cakewalk. I have a huge respect for her as a writer. I think, had the post office understood my love for her work, they would have opened up those pallets and gotten me my Barnes and Noble box. Don’t you?

I’ve read quite a few different reviews of The Demon’s Surrender in the last week, and many reviewers talk about how the trilogy is all about the bond between brothers Nick and Alan (despite how twisted that relationship seems, once you stop and think about it). I would agree Nick and Alan’s relationship is quite important to the plot. But to say that brotherhood is the most central theme to the trilogy is to overlook Mae and Jamie’s bond, the connection between Nick and his adoptive father, Sin and Merris, and all the other characters we meet. The series is really about family, the family we are born to and the family we build ourselves.

As I was reading, I found myself thinking a lot about the definition of love. Nick doesn’t have emotions as much as he has states of being: calm, and killing people. Mostly, though, the “calm” is only there to prepare for the killing. Nick doesn’t have emotions. He’s a demon; demon’s don’t have human emotions. They don’t even have words. Reading about Nick and Alan, it’s clear that Nick is bound to Alan by something. Whatever one calls that bond, it’s strong enough for both brothers to deny their very natures for the other. My thought, at the end of the book, was that love doesn’t need to be a feeling, it can be a choice, and it’s a choice Alan and yes, Nick, made.

My advice to you is this: Take a day off from your life. Get cookies, milk, tissues, tea, chocolate, and any other munchies you require. Put them in an easy-to-reach location, then start reading. Preferably, keep a cell phone on hand, ready to text a friend that’s already finished the book (I don’t know how I would have made it through the emotional roller-coaster without my friend Kate). Know that when you are required to go somewhere, you will go there while reading. If you need to stop reading, or if someone tries to force you to stop, you will have to menace them with a sword, if you’ve got one, because there is no way you’ll be able to walk off and leave your book behind, especially not in the last 135 pages. Frankly, it’s cruel for them even to ask.

Your Smiles Make Us Smile: A MHLit Giveaway

Now, there is a certain black pearl necklace that is featured heavily in The Demon's Surrender, so we're bringing you a giveaway to win a black pearl necklace of your own! In addition to the fancy necklace, a la Celeste, we're throwing in a copy of the Demon’s Lexicon book of your choice. We don’t do things halfway around here.

Rules:
US only
Must be a follower
Must be 13+
Must fill out form to be officially entered
Enter only once
Giveaway ends at midnight, EST, Tuesday, June 28th
Winners will be chosen using Random.org
Good luck!

Book Noir

Red Glove by Holly Black (April 5, 2011, McElderry Books)
A review by Bailey Kelsey

Being that this is a review of a sequel, please read our spoiler policy here. But basically, if you haven’t read White Cat, don’t read this review.

If you’re a reader like me, you enjoy happy endings, but you love tortured middles. I just can’t seem to help it: the more crappy a character’s middle is, the happier I am as a reader. If you catch me sobbing and throwing my book against a wall (which has happened once or twice), this is a sign of unadulterated reader joy.  Holly Black does right by me with Red Glove, the sequel to White Cat, in her Curse Worker’s series.

Cassel Sharpe has all his life’s dreams coming true at the end of White Cat.  The girl he is madly in love with is madly in love with him; his older brother, Baron, is finally watching out for him; and his mother is finally out of jail and back at home. And, his biggest secret--that he’s the most powerful, and dangerous, worker around--is still his biggest secret.

But unfortunately for Cassel Sharpe, Holly Black is his creator and she believes in providing pure joy to her readers.

QUICK RED GLOVE NON-SPOILED SYNOPSIS

For Cassel, magic and the mob have always gone hand in hand.  But when his eldest brother is murdered, the cops turn to him to help unravel the only clue: a woman wearing red gloves entering the crime scene.  

But the mob is trying to recruit Cassel, too. One family knows exactly how powerful and useful Cassel would be to them. He is a curse-worker, after all. He belongs with the mob.  

Cassel must stay one con ahead of both sides. But when your mother preys on emotions and your brother plays with memories, pieces of your life tend to be lies.  Who can he trust when he can’t even trust himself?


A NOIR-STYLE TORTURED MIDDLE

Cassel’s tortured middle is a skillfully written Noir murder investigation.  But Black doesn’t leave it at just dark clues wrapped in beautiful prose.  While Casel is busy confronting very confusing and important personal and moral dilemmas, the real world is still spinning and affecting everyone.  There is a political and moral background against which everything is set; the events in this very real world only amplify the entire plot and a few twists.

In Red Glove, Cassel ends up losing so much--of himself, of his family, of his friends--but he gains a hell of a lot more, with the potential to keep on gaining in book three.  Because that’s what the torturous middle is all about: self-discovery through trial. There really isn’t anything more delightful.