Revel by Maurissa Guibord

TL;DR weird mythology stuff happens

(finished 10/9/15)

TBR #208, added Feb 25 2013

Revel's been on my TBR list for a long time. The fact that it was 208 out of about 1500 is pretty impressive. I'd actually forgotten about it, and I think I just picked it up from the library on a whim without realizing it was on my TBR. (But let's be honest, I have about 75% of my library's YA section on my TBR, so the chances were pretty high.)

The worldbuilding was nice, but I'm not sure that is was necessarily completely unique or believable. It had a good aesthetic. I've only been up on the New England coast once, but every book I've read that's set there seems to be creepy / foggy-unsettling, and that's not what it was like when I went. (Maybe my experience was out of the ordinary. I don't know.)

I didn't really understand what the plot was supposed to be about when I picked Revel up, so I kind of went in blind. With that, I had a weird mix between "what is going on" and "I'm pretty sure this is foreshadowing" (and being right about that). The foreshadowing was kind of heavy-handed -- I'm not sure the plot twist at 55% was supposed to be surprising to the reader, but Delia's reaction fell short because I'd seen it coming from pretty early on.

After that 55% mark, though, everything took a really weird turn that I wasn't expecting when I had picked up the book. There was very little indication of it in the blurb and in the beginning (which I guess can be explained with kind of being a mystery), and I'm not sure I would've picked the book up if I'd known about it. The second half of the book wasn't bad, considering I got through the last 45% in about an hour, but it was a strange mix between taking an aspect of YA Paranormal I hadn't really seen before and yet still feeling like all the fairly mediocre  YA Paranormal books I've read.

I was really indifferent to the romance. I didn't really like Delia and Jax's romance, but there wasn't necessarily anything bad about it other than them being fairly insta-love-y. Even at that, though, it wasn't necessarily instalove.They took a few chapters. (The fact that I'm giving the romance the benefit of the doubt because of this is really depressing. Why is the standard for romance in YA so low?) Some of the reviews on Goodreads mentioned an attempt at a love triangle, but I either didn't read it that way or it was so poor I completely missed it.

Unrelated to the main romance aspects, there's a cw for mentions / attempts of sexual assault. Nothing really happens within the narration but it does kind of tie into the plot. I'm very conflicted as to how I feel about it being a bigger part of the plot than I expected. It reflects human corruption and all that, and I don't think the topic is really misused, per se, but I think the plot could've also worked just as well without it. It does seem like it was used as a kind of shock factor.

The characters felt kind of flat. I made a note that they were kind of inconsistent, but the only example I can think of is Delia's grandmother. Her behavior changed significantly over the course of a few chapters, and there was a reasoning for it in the beginning, but the reasoning kind of just got tossed aside. I never connected to any of the characters, and none of them seemed very human, but they functioned. I think a lot of the plot would've functioned better if they had been a little more human instead of just feeling like characters, but that might just be me.

Jax and the other characters of his kind (were they ever given a name?) were kind of baffling to me. There's apparently supposed to be Greek mythology tied into the plot, but almost my entire understanding of that comes from Percy Jackson, so I was very "???" for a good portion of the story. Besides, Percy Jackson has a better explanation for their setting than Revel does. I was pretty disappointed with how Revel's setting and tie-in to the mythology were described and built up.

The ending was really open-ended, which I actually was kind of disappointed with. I mean, it's kind of to be expected since Revel is a standalone, but the ending didn't really establish anything. Stuff happens and then it's like "well alright we're done".

I only have two sticky notes, so I'm just going to add them into this post:

He bounced back and I let out the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. (pg 5)

I'd never seen a dead person before and really, really wished I could erase the picture from my mind. (pg 113)

The first one is fairly self-explanatory. In regards to the second quote: I'm pretty sure she had to have seen her mom after she died. There's no way she could've gotten around not seeing her mom after her death if she was the only living family left. I'm really surprised this quote managed to stay in despite the fact that it directly contradicts the premise of the story.

TL;DR it was a pretty standard YA Paranormal, nothing ground-breaking and honestly a little more confusing than satisfying.

Boys Don't Knit by T.S. Eaton

TL;DR good fluffy contemp with an awesome MC

(finished 10/6/15)

TBR #1220

When I added Boys Don't Knit to my TBR, I was expecting a delinquent with at least a minor history of getting in trouble that ended up in a knitting class as almost a last resort. That's not what I got at all, and honestly, it made it so much better than what I was expecting.

Ben was quite the opposite of what I thought the main character was going to be like, and that included his sense of sass. I love him. He's great. He's also a pretty flawed character, which I really appreciated, especially since he didn't try to write any of it off. He gave into peer pressure and he lied to try and save face but got caught up in a web of it, and he had realistic reactions to everything. He read as a realistic eccentric kid and I really connected with him.

"People would, like, get up in the morning and go, 'I simply can't start the day without a double vodka and oatmeal.' You know, instead of a cup of tea or whatever?" [Gex] 

 [...]

 "I think there's already a term for what you're describing," I said.

 "Really?" Joz asked.

"Yes, it's called alcoholism." (pg 102 - 103)

(I've typed up some other good quotes into a spreadsheet like normal. They're mainly just ones I was amused with instead of having any real comments.)

The format of the book is interesting in that it's a journal that the program he's in requires in addition to the knitting thing. It's a really good way to document the passing of time and allow Ben to include a retrospect to everything that could seem a little out of place in a normal 1st person past tense. It's definitely more in-depth than a typical journal would be, mainly because of how detailed it has to be to really show the plot and development, but I think it also helps bring out Ben's character. Ben is definitely more introspective than anything and the journal format boosts his voice and particularness (almost OCD-like, though I don't know if that's a correct comparison) without ever really having to be said. The journal actually shows more than it tells and I loved that.

The romance was low-key and while it was a big part of the plot, it didn't overtake the plot. Most (if not all) of the romance was based around crushes and not formed relationships. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that -- I'm so sick of reading about instalust and quick-forming relationships that last despite having poor foundations. Ben's crushes seemed very realistic based on my understanding of high school-aged boys.

The plot is mainly character-based, I think, but it still moved along at a good pace without dragging. I think part of that also has to do with how the book was formatted -- being a journal let Ben skip over anything that wasn't crucial to the story without becoming unrealistic.

Boys Don't Knit is a standalone, so the ending felt a little too "happy ever after" for me, but I'm not going to complain. I was happy with the ending despite it being almost saccharine.

TL;DR it's really good. Please try it out.

Percy Jackson's Greek Gods by Rick Riordan

TL;DR PERCY'S NARRATION IS BACK, THANK THE GODS

(finished 10/2/15)

I talked my grandmother into buying this book for me back in, like, February, made it most of the way through the book, and then let it sit until October. I am a horrible PJO fan. (My copy also has a terrible "Target exclusive 20% off" sticker on the dust jacket. If you needed any more proof.)

Anyway, because my TL;DR for once is pretty useless, Percy Jackson's Greek Gods is Percy narrating a bunch of different Greek mythology stories. Like what they teach in 6th grade history, but better, because it's Percy. All that sass that people say they miss from the Heroes of Olympus? It's back!

Honestly, there are a bunch of different stories included in this, so I'm not going to tackle them individually. The stories go in a vaguely chronological order (though I think some overlap, so it gets a little convoluted by the end). My very limited experience with Greek mythology before Percy Jackson was pretty boring, so let me tell you, this would've been amazing to have back in middle school.

(I said 6th grade history, since I know we learned about ancient Greece (and Rome and China), but for the life of me I can't remember if we actually touched on any mythology. Which is stupid, since that's a big part of their culture, but whatever. I went to public school.)

The book covers a lot of Greek mythology, and I've learned a ton, even more than I thought I learned from the PJO books. Schools should incorporate these books into their world history classes if they cover Greek mythology. I can't think of a better way to get kids' attention than disguising actually learning something with Percy's constant sass.

There are also pictures, too, which is really nice. The book is the size of a coffee table atlas, which is really unwieldy, but it didn't seem like it took forever to read. I actually think I got through a page in this book faster than I did with These Broken Stars, but that might also be because the text wasn't as densely printed. Percy's comments also definitely made it really engaging. The only reason it took me so long to finish is because I buried it in my room for half a year under all the stuff I've brought home from conventions and haven't put away yet.

There's also Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes, which I got the chance to flip through when I spent the night at my friend's house a while back. (Which was also the reason I finally sat down and finished Greek Gods.) I'm hoping to get a copy of Greek Heroes eventually, most likely after the new year when my "Fall releases to buy" list finally ends and I finish reading all of them.

I feel like I didn't establish much in this review. But do I really need to? C'mon, it's Percy Jackson and it's educational. You don't need any more than that. I literally could not have asked for anything better than this.

NaNo Plans 2015

It's that time of year again!! (ﾉᐛ )ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

I got lazy with the design. Don't judge me. 

If you're new here, NaNoWriMo is essentially a challenge to write 50,000 words for a story in the month of November. This is my fourth time attempting it and hopefully my third win! (My first attempt back in 2012 was really half-hearted and I can't even remember which story I worked on for it ...;; )

The past two years I worked on Aperture; in 2013 I wrote 70k as part of Marissa Meyer's NaNo challenge, and in 2014 I wrote just over 50k. I have well over 200,000 words in total for Aperture (this calendar year alone) and I still have no real "novel" to prove for it. This is mainly because of where I draw my inspiration from and the fact that I keep going back and tweaking the plot and creating butterfly effects.

A lot of Aperture's inspiration comes from my life, and because of that, I've hit a metaphorical wall with it recently. I crossed the two a little too closely and I feel like I have to take a step back and re-evaluate a lot of things. (This has happened at least once before, so I'm not too worried about it.)

Because I'm feeling so conflicted about Aperture, I decided to use one of my numerous other story ideas I've been collecting since sophomore year. Back when I started Aperture, I had no idea it would last this long; I had a tendency to start and abandon projects quickly. I grew to love Aperture too much to do that, so I focused solely on it up until senior year.

Even with my focus on Aperture I still hoarded new ideas like they were going out of style. I have about four or five now that I've developed past hypotheticals and actually started writing for. (These line up almost exactly with the Pinterest storyboards I have.) This is a huge accomplishment for me and I'm excited to explore a new world past the couple thousand words I have per said new projects.

So, what am I going to be writing this year?

I decided to work on Casanova this year because it was the idea with the most solid plot at the time. It's a compilation of a couple different plot bunnies I've had, and I'm still working on a lot of the details, but I'm really excited to get this story out.

The basic premise: Toni earns back Carter's soul after it's wrongly taken by a demon known as the Casanova.

So far my writing playlist is all country songs, mainly picked up from when my dad listens to country radio stations while he's working, but I have a feeling I'm going to be adding some Halsey songs in, too. The strongest inspiration songs so far have been "American Kids" and "Cowboy Casanova" (go figure).

Casanova is going to be a challenge for me in a couple different respects, but I'm really looking forward to tackling it. I've got a lot of research and worldbuilding ahead of me since I decided to set the story in Texas and I included a little too much religion in my initial ideas. It's also going to be difficult to switch gears from Aperture to Casanova for an entire month, but I'm also looking forward to it.

So far, it's been really fun to work on preliminary world- and character-building. I've mostly moved out of that phase for Aperture and only started to scratch the surface with all my other ideas. Casanova's been the only one recently where I've had to sit down and anticipate stuff that might come up in the plot that I should know beforehand. I also have a few days' worth of writing from before I decided to use Casanova for NaNo this year.

Keep a lookout on my Casanova Pinterest board and my NaNo stats page! I'm going to be updating both a lot over the course of November, and I'm (hopefully) going to have a mid-NaNo blog post go up around Nov 15th.

Good luck to everyone else participating in NaNo this year! Please feel free to add me as a writing buddy ♥ None of my friends seem to have made plans to do NaNo this year, so I'd love to have company!

Love by the Morning Star by Laura L. Sullivan

TL;DR WWII era identity mixup

(finished 10/3/15)

Love by the Morning Star was actually a really lucky library pick for me. It wasn't on my TBR, and I'm actually kind of surprised by that! It was really nice, and the only reason why I think it wasn't on my TBR is that I don't look at historical fiction often enough to go through and find related books. 

The plot was definitely unique, which I really liked. I don't think I've ever read a story about mistaken identities like this before. It definitely had tension running the entire time and kept everything going, but personally I kind of felt stressed about it. Not like super-bad stressed but like "how far into a hole is everyone gonna get before this is resolved". It stayed interesting despite mainly being about the characters' mundane day-to-day lives, which was actually pretty impressive to pull off. The pacing was good enough to establish the mundane stuff without having to really focus on it; you knew it was happening but you didn't have to suffer through it. 

The characters were nice! A lot of them seemed close to tropes, I guess, with Hannah being able to ramble without a problem and Anna being very proper, but they still had unique qualities and flaws that made them more human. Teddy was also a very nice love interest. It frustrates me a little bit that all the characters ended up letting the identity mix-up happen, whether by accident or by a lie of omission, but that was also most of the plot.

And it all worked out in the end. The climax was a little unreal with how everything turned out, but at least it was interesting. It all wraps up a little too nicely by the end, but that's to be expected from a standalone.

As for the romance, it's nothing extraordinary, and I don't know whether it's more funny or sad that the two main romances were also victim to the mistaken identity thing. The two couples were just all-over clueless. 

The reviews on Goodreads are pretty mixed. I went into it expecting something fairly light-hearted and almost kind of sitcom high jinx-y, so I was happy with what I got. I have to agree with a few reviewers though that it's a little anachromatic (though I'm sure that's not quite the right word I want). Hannah didn't seem as worried as she should've been about her parents' well-being. I don't know if this is because as a reader I've learned stuff that Hannah had no possibility of knowing at the time or because Hannah trusted her parents to manage their own safety. Anna's father also put a lot of responsibility on her without actually explaining what all he was expecting her to do, which I don't think someone in that position would've done. He would've made it a lot more clear what end goal he was working towards instead of just sending his daughter off with some vague instructions. 

TL;DR if you're not actively looking for a historical fiction, it's a pretty good fluffy book. If you're looking for a historical fiction, you should probably skip it.