Sixteen year old harpist Deirdre Monaghan meets Luke Dillon at a music competition. He offers to play a duet with her and they win the competiton. That is when her life starts to change: she begins to find four leaf clovers everywhere, becomes able to move objects without touching them, and begins to see the faeries. They are watching her, and as the story unfolds it becomes clear why; their Queen wants her dead. Luke may be a faerie killer, even her dog may be fay. Can she survive? Can Luke? Can her best friend James? If you liked Impossible you will enjoy Lament. Beautiful and haunting, it is one of the best faerie tales I have read, and I mean faerie tales. Faerie tales and fairy tales, in my mind, are not the same thing. Fairy tales to me are things like Cinderella and Peter Pan, while faerie tales are things like Lament.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception
By Maggie Stiefvater
Sixteen year old harpist Deirdre Monaghan meets Luke Dillon at a music competition. He offers to play a duet with her and they win the competiton. That is when her life starts to change: she begins to find four leaf clovers everywhere, becomes able to move objects without touching them, and begins to see the faeries. They are watching her, and as the story unfolds it becomes clear why; their Queen wants her dead. Luke may be a faerie killer, even her dog may be fay. Can she survive? Can Luke? Can her best friend James? If you liked Impossible you will enjoy Lament. Beautiful and haunting, it is one of the best faerie tales I have read, and I mean faerie tales. Faerie tales and fairy tales, in my mind, are not the same thing. Fairy tales to me are things like Cinderella and Peter Pan, while faerie tales are things like Lament.
Sixteen year old harpist Deirdre Monaghan meets Luke Dillon at a music competition. He offers to play a duet with her and they win the competiton. That is when her life starts to change: she begins to find four leaf clovers everywhere, becomes able to move objects without touching them, and begins to see the faeries. They are watching her, and as the story unfolds it becomes clear why; their Queen wants her dead. Luke may be a faerie killer, even her dog may be fay. Can she survive? Can Luke? Can her best friend James? If you liked Impossible you will enjoy Lament. Beautiful and haunting, it is one of the best faerie tales I have read, and I mean faerie tales. Faerie tales and fairy tales, in my mind, are not the same thing. Fairy tales to me are things like Cinderella and Peter Pan, while faerie tales are things like Lament.
Friday, February 19, 2010
The Rose and The Beast: Fairy Tales Retold
By Francesca Lia Block
There are nine short stories in this collection. I'm not sure what fairy tales all of them are supposed to be but I love them anyway. I think the fairy tales in here are: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, Thumbelina, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Rose Red, Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, and the Snow Queen. They are all retold to be either modern or timeless, and some of them are hard to recognize. The author has a dreamlike writing style, and by dreamlike I mean just that, like a dream, slightly fragmented, slightly surreal, slightly incoherent and just a little hard to understand, but great nonetheless. I love this book and also what I've read of her other work. I love retellings of fairy tales and I loved these ones. Read it and love it. Tell me if you think I got anything wrong.
There are nine short stories in this collection. I'm not sure what fairy tales all of them are supposed to be but I love them anyway. I think the fairy tales in here are: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, Thumbelina, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Rose Red, Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, and the Snow Queen. They are all retold to be either modern or timeless, and some of them are hard to recognize. The author has a dreamlike writing style, and by dreamlike I mean just that, like a dream, slightly fragmented, slightly surreal, slightly incoherent and just a little hard to understand, but great nonetheless. I love this book and also what I've read of her other work. I love retellings of fairy tales and I loved these ones. Read it and love it. Tell me if you think I got anything wrong.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Sunshine
By Robin Mckinley
In Sunshine's world, vampires, weres, and demons are a fact of life, even for a baker. But when Sunshine heads out to the lake by her home, she doesn't expect what happens. She doesn't expect to be captured by vampires, taken to an old house by the lake, and chained in a ballroom with one. When she helps him escape with her she does two things that have never before been done: protect a vampire from sunlight, and escape from them. Sunshine's life may not ever be the same, but she will still show up every morning at four thirty to make cinnamon rolls, muffins, Bitter Chocolate Death, and Sunshine's Killer Zebras. Unless of course she is being held prisoner by vampires, in the custody of the S.O.F. after staking a vampire with a table knife (supposedly not possible), or facing down the evil leader of the gang of vampires that took her prisoner. I love Sunshine, with her crazy life, facination with Others, hundred and one recipes, and her matter-of-fact attitude about everything that happens to her. Her world is completely believable and awesome. Vampire fans- get it, read it, love it. Robin Mckinley is one of my absolute favorite authors.
In Sunshine's world, vampires, weres, and demons are a fact of life, even for a baker. But when Sunshine heads out to the lake by her home, she doesn't expect what happens. She doesn't expect to be captured by vampires, taken to an old house by the lake, and chained in a ballroom with one. When she helps him escape with her she does two things that have never before been done: protect a vampire from sunlight, and escape from them. Sunshine's life may not ever be the same, but she will still show up every morning at four thirty to make cinnamon rolls, muffins, Bitter Chocolate Death, and Sunshine's Killer Zebras. Unless of course she is being held prisoner by vampires, in the custody of the S.O.F. after staking a vampire with a table knife (supposedly not possible), or facing down the evil leader of the gang of vampires that took her prisoner. I love Sunshine, with her crazy life, facination with Others, hundred and one recipes, and her matter-of-fact attitude about everything that happens to her. Her world is completely believable and awesome. Vampire fans- get it, read it, love it. Robin Mckinley is one of my absolute favorite authors.
Monday, February 8, 2010
The Blue Girl
By Charles de Lint
Seventeen year old Imogene Yeck has an imagination with a tendacy to spill out of her mouth, a prefrence to find clothes at thrift shops, the opinion that two things that will take you far in life are a spunky attitude and a vocabulary of interesting words, and a reputation for being wierd. As if that wasnt enough, her old imaginary friend is showing up in a reccuring dream and trying to warn her about something, the school ghost has a crush on her, and the anamithim are coming for her. That last is a very bad thing; the anamithim are soul-eaters, they kill you, and then you're gone. Normally when you die you just go somewhere else or become a ghost. Did I mention that faeries are real? And that they might be the reason that the anamithim are interested in Imogene?
An interesting thing about this book is that it is told from three different points of veiw: Imogene, Adrian (the ghost), and Imogene's best friend, Maxine. It skips between them; one point of veiw picks up where another left off for the whole story. A modern faerie tale, The Blue Girl is a great book, and if you can tell me anything about other books by this author I will be very happy. Oh, yeah, and about halfway through Imogene turns blue. I'm not telling you why, so if you want to know read the book.
Seventeen year old Imogene Yeck has an imagination with a tendacy to spill out of her mouth, a prefrence to find clothes at thrift shops, the opinion that two things that will take you far in life are a spunky attitude and a vocabulary of interesting words, and a reputation for being wierd. As if that wasnt enough, her old imaginary friend is showing up in a reccuring dream and trying to warn her about something, the school ghost has a crush on her, and the anamithim are coming for her. That last is a very bad thing; the anamithim are soul-eaters, they kill you, and then you're gone. Normally when you die you just go somewhere else or become a ghost. Did I mention that faeries are real? And that they might be the reason that the anamithim are interested in Imogene?
An interesting thing about this book is that it is told from three different points of veiw: Imogene, Adrian (the ghost), and Imogene's best friend, Maxine. It skips between them; one point of veiw picks up where another left off for the whole story. A modern faerie tale, The Blue Girl is a great book, and if you can tell me anything about other books by this author I will be very happy. Oh, yeah, and about halfway through Imogene turns blue. I'm not telling you why, so if you want to know read the book.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
The Hollow Kingdom
By Clare B. Dunkle
Book one in the Hollow Kingdom trilogy
For centuries young women have been vanishing from Hollow Hill, and locals belive that goblins are to blame. When Kate and Emily's father dies and they are sent to live at Hollow Hill, Kate begins to get a feeling of being watched. Soon it is revealed that she isn't imagining things when Marak, the goblin King, tells her that the goblins have indeed been stealing girls, and that she is to be the next. He doesn't take her then, but when she tells her guardian and aunts no one believes her exept for her sister. She manages to remain free until Emily suddenly disappears and their guardian tells her that the goblins have taken her. She then bargains her freedom for her sister's release, but it turns out that the goblins don't have her. Who is holding Emily and what happens next will remain a mystery until you read the book. Painted against a backdrop of shadowy forests and caverns, The Hollow Kingdom is surprisingly funny and light in parts, exiting and magical in others. Wonderful, just wonderful. I loved is and consider it something anyone who likes fantasy should read.
Book one in the Hollow Kingdom trilogy
For centuries young women have been vanishing from Hollow Hill, and locals belive that goblins are to blame. When Kate and Emily's father dies and they are sent to live at Hollow Hill, Kate begins to get a feeling of being watched. Soon it is revealed that she isn't imagining things when Marak, the goblin King, tells her that the goblins have indeed been stealing girls, and that she is to be the next. He doesn't take her then, but when she tells her guardian and aunts no one believes her exept for her sister. She manages to remain free until Emily suddenly disappears and their guardian tells her that the goblins have taken her. She then bargains her freedom for her sister's release, but it turns out that the goblins don't have her. Who is holding Emily and what happens next will remain a mystery until you read the book. Painted against a backdrop of shadowy forests and caverns, The Hollow Kingdom is surprisingly funny and light in parts, exiting and magical in others. Wonderful, just wonderful. I loved is and consider it something anyone who likes fantasy should read.
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