Killian

At times charming, but lacks something...

Revisado: 12-27-15

There were parts of this book that I found truly charming. I think it's a book with good writing, but the storytelling could have been improved upon. Too many conflicting events, too much milling and stalling without a good reason, too much internal machinations by the heroine over the same darn things. Nevertheless, an interesting iteration of witches.

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Somewhat frustrating, but ultimately satisfying

Revisado: 08-03-15

You have to come to this book with a good supply of historical context, otherwise you're likely to detest the protagonist. At first glance, it seems this is going to be the classic scenario of a young woman from an old family with a good name and no money marrying into a unancestored merchant/capitalist family with lots of wealth. This illusion is quickly dissolved as the events and reality of the Brand siblings begins to unfurl. Nella in a modern context would seem a door mat: she soon discovers that her marriage is a mechanism of keeping up appearances and, while her husband Johannes is kind, compassionate, and supportive of her in general, he has no interest in playing the role of "husband" behind closed doors. And yet, Nella develops a peculiarly strong affection for both Johannes and his somewhat prickly sister, Merin. One thing I can say for this book: it did not turn out in any way I could have predicted, and I'm not sure I appreciate the big question that isn't answered at the end: Mainly (view spoiler) Still, an enjoyable read, with just enough a touch of the supernatural to inspire an introspection of the human condition.

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Good premise gone awry

Revisado: 05-11-15

It's hard to make vampires unique, so I can't knock the author for bumping into some clichés. I like when a story can clash worlds together and iron out conflicts, but this one failed to deliver on that. If you want to read a story about a human PI who gets the hots for a big bad vampire lord because, well, he's hot, this is your story. Outside of that, there wasn't really much to their "relationship." (Quotes because outside their professional need for each other, you don't get a sense that they're doing much more than indulging in attraction. Their interaction certainly never grows beyond that.) Pair this with poor world building, canned dialog, two-dimensional side characters, a jack-in-the-box antagonist, and a poor vocal performance (narrator could handle female voices okay, but her Raphael sounded too much like a woman trying to sound like a man by over exaggeration and stereotype. Made me a laugh in several places where I surely wasn't meant to), and all in all a disappointing audiobook. Also was really annoyed by the portrayal of Malibu (she made it sound like a small coastal community, when it's a nearly 18-mile long stretch of coastline).

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Powerful and Painful

Revisado: 04-16-15

This was a short but immensely powerful installment in the Elemental Universe. You need to know this is not a happy book. It is dark, horrifying, painful, and gut-wrenching. But it is a well-executed book. Tenzin's origins come from a time and culture that western readers will find foreign and, without proper heuristic interpretation, despicable, but it is historically accurate. The insights it provides to the complexity of her modern iteration are intense and multifaceted.

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Beautiful bouquet seeks the proper vase.

Revisado: 02-20-15

Oh, how to address this one?

Okay, let's start with the writing. And I'm not talking here about the mechanics of plot, characterizations, etc. I'm talking about lining up words like ants and making them work, work, work. In this way, the writing worked, worked, worked. Mafi uses words like Di Vinci used paint. It's utterly beautiful. She's a maestro of metaphors, a savant of simile. In every chapter, there were at least ten turn of phrases that could be framed and hung in a gallery. I'd put her ability to make language her minion right up there with Fitzgerald's. At times, she transcends the borders of poetry and prose.

But...

In that other kind of writing, the one that involves tone and progression and conflict... That one wasn't as clear. I kept thinking the whole book about this beautiful bouquet of verbal roses she brought to the table, and kept picturing her trying them out in different vases. She just couldn't find the right shape to hold her art. This book seemed confused about what it wanted to be. It's not that I'm opposed to genre-bending, but I don't think it worked here. It was like, as readers, we kept driving on in the same car through different microclimates, and suddenly discovering we didn't dress in layers. Is it the examination of a girl's psychological state? Is it a dystopian adventure? An environmental manifesto? A teen romance? A superhero action/adventure tale? It just couldn't seem to decide, rather trying to be all of them and succeeding in being none.

Plus there's the fact that Juliette, while basically socially isolated for at least three years, physically isolated for almost a year, and shunned her entire life due to her gift/curse, comes off as way too mature, knowledgeable, and aware of what's going on around her. She gives us occasional background on how her society ended up where it is, on the events leading to it, yet it's not clear how she would have knowledge of such things. Despite having no more than a middle-school education, she has an exceptional vocabulary that exceeds many literary scholars. There's clearly been a complete breakdown of society including massive death and destruction, but I couldn't buy that things transformed so dramatically, so quickly, and were reestablished in such short order. A lot more time needed to be spent here on world building.

In all, I'm intrigued enough to add the second book to my TBR list, but I sigh when I think how this book could have been so much more than what it was. Mafi's gift for language, however, will keep me reading no matter what.

AUDIOBOOK NOTES: EXCELLENT narrator on this. However, given the specialized format of text I've now discovered was used in the print book, I'm not sure it adapted well to audio. The strike-through approach particularly didn't translate well. There really should have been an adapted script for the audio production, or a more experimental use of audio special effects.

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Slow start, but ultimately enjoyable

Revisado: 07-29-14

It starts out slow, but builds nicely. A good alternative historical work, massaging a bit of fantasy among facts. My only disappointment was that the author developed so few characters, that when the villain is revealed, it's no surprise, nor are his motives at all a mystery to the reader.

Audiobook notes: the reader was well suited to the text. I enjoyed her performance.

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GREAT STORY, Ok Audiobook

Revisado: 05-16-14

Ladies and Gentlemen, this book has been sold to us all wrong. Show of hands: who among you has heard mention of either The Iliad or The Odyssey and rolled your eyes over yet another "classic" work of fiction forced on unsuspecting high school students meant to bore us into submission? Dudes, this is seriously one of the most exciting books I've ever read. It's practically a ... Um, who's the current go-to action hero actor? Anyways, this is the movie he would star in. It's like if you took Quentin Tarantino to ancient Greece, told him to find inspiration, then let him go gonzo on the script without limits.

What's weird is that I thought I hadn't read this, somehow escaping it through my academic career. What I realized later was that I had read parts of it in my "Gender in the Classical World" honors lit class my freshman year of college. (I remembered only when I came on the tale of Circe. I remember having a quiz on this and failing horribly, because I didn't understand the context, but let's not go into a discussion of how poorly my high school prepared its students for the world of higher education.) Even then, I didn't enjoy the book, because the focus was on analyzing. No fault on the instructor; that's appropriate for a college course. But seriously, I feel like I missed out on taking in a landscape painting by a master, because someone blotted out all the canvas excepting a single blade of grass.

I have to admit, there were a few points that made me cringe as a modern reader, but one has to remind themselves that Homer reflected the values and morals of his time, not mine. Still, it was hard to stomach that Penelope is exalted for her commitment to Odysseus, remaining true to him for twenty years. Meantime Odysseus while trying to get home to her has no qualms about being sexed up by whatever goddess or nymph takes a fancy to him, and that's considered okay. Different times, different expectations...

You know why Homer has been passed down and survived through the centuries? Not because he gives us a picture into an ancient culture, religion, and history. Not because of its consequential anthropological richness. Not even because of its lyric quality for those who can read it in its original tongue. (ee cummings proved that language could be beautiful for beauty's sake without being purposeful.) It's because it's one hell of a story, and takes you on one-- actually numerous thrilling, epic adventures.

AUDIOBOOK notes: Ian McKellen's rendition was superior. However, I can't give the audiobook performance in whole 5 stars due to production value. This seriously needs to be remastered. It was obviously adopted for digital format from a copy of the tape production. Numerous times between chapters there was a huge change in the audio quality (getting softer, slowing down, sounding warped, etc.) There were even a few parts where there were "hiccups" in the flow, ie where a few words blotted out.

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How in Hades does she do it?

Revisado: 03-05-14

How the Hades does she weave such fantastical prose? Another knock out installment of the intelligent, engaging series.

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To know so much in the heart in so few years.

Revisado: 03-05-14

What a humbling story. It was a little difficult to get into the book at first, as it was hard to think of it as the voice of a teenager. It's obvious the co-writer played a heavy hand in structuring much of the historical context. However, the narrative of Ms. Yousafzai comes through strong enough that one is left with an undeniable impression of how valiant her cause is.

Audiobook: I appreciated that the reader selected for this production was a native voice of the region from which Ms. Yousafzai comes. Her ability to effortless present terms and mention places which gave her no qualm made the narrative liquid and flowing. It also was good that the producers chose not to placate the western ear by choosing a reader with an American or British accent. I believe something would have been lost if they had.

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Brilliance with a caveat

Revisado: 11-13-13

Hoover has a nearly unparalleled ability to write intimacy and a scope for treating the tragic with tenderness. Very dark, not meant for readers looking for something uplifting. But, if you're looking for something that shows the power of love to heal, this pins the tail on that donkey. I did keep coming back to two issues, though: no matter how much I tried, and no matter what the two MCs went through that forced them to grow up young, I still questioned that they could have that much maturity and wisdom. Especially Skye. Being that's she's had such an isolated life, I found it difficult to accept she carried such wisdom of the world. Also, some dialog, particularly near the end where the last threads were tied up, sounded very unnatural and as though the characters were speaking in essay form.

Skye's friend, Brecken(Spelling?), seemed to be an afterthought by the end of the book. He was my favorite secondary character, and I really enjoyed the scenes in which he appeared.

Still, one hell of a book, written by one hell of a woman.

Audiobook notes: The performance on this was good to very good, but where the book had a flashback scene spoken first person by Sky as a child, she made her voice so stereotypical little girl sappy it sounded like she was using baby talk. These chapters are few and brief. She did, however, put in a powerful performance with Holder. It's difficult for a woman to pull of a sexy male lead sometimes, but definitely not the case here.

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