Gretchen C. Hohmeyer's Blog, page 35
July 4, 2016
From the Notebook: June 2016 Wrap Up
Hey guys! Back this week with my June wrap up, even though it’s a bit later than I wanted. I only read 5 books this month, and only 1 for my PopSugar challenge, BUT I’m 50% of the way there and on track for my 100 book overall Goodreads challenge goal!
ARC Review: Risuko by David Kudler
Bibliomancy for Beginners: Invisible Fault Lines by Kristen-Paige Madonia
ARC Review: And I Darken by Kiersten White
Nostalgia Junkie: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Bibliomancy for Beginners: A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry
June 27, 2016
Bibliomancy for Beginners Season 4 Episode 3: “A Fierce and Subtle Poison” by Samantha Mabry
ON BACK TO BACK NIGHTS, WE APPEAR! After the rousing success of yesterday’s opening episode of our Nostalgia Junkie season two, we’re back without regular season of Bibliomancy to bring you A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry. This is our final episode in our month of YA picks. If you missed one, the first two episodes were:
Invisible Fault Lines by Kristen-Paige Madonia
Our next episode will begin our month of sequels, starting with Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex. Join us in two weeks for that!
June 26, 2016
Bibliomancy for Beginners Nostalgia Junkie: “The Golden Compass” by Philip Pullman
A week late, but not for lack of great content! Tonight, we’re live streaming our first of three episodes in our latest Nostalgia Junkie special. This is where we take books that we all read as kids and re-read them as adults to see if they are better or worse than we remember. This time around, we have all three original Bibliomancers PLUS the wonderful Casey from The Drunk Librarian, who was with Michaela and I when we did the inaugural 10 part Nostalgia Junkie series on DJ McHale’s Pendragon books
This series will come out once a month for the rest of the summer! Next, we read book 2!
June 24, 2016
ARC Review: “And I Darken” by Kiersten White
And I Darken (The Conquerers Saga #1) by Kiersten White
NO ONE EXPECTS A PRINCESS TO BE BRUTAL.
And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.
Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, who’s expected to rule a nation, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.
But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.
3 1/2 stars
Thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the eARC! This title will be released June 28th, 2016
As someone who has read almost every Kiersten White book in existence, I still don’t know what to make of this one. It opens up with a disclaimer that this is like no other Kiersten White book you’ve ever read, and that’s fair. But it’s for all these good AND bad reasons that are jumbled in my head and have left me mightily confused.
Structurally, this book is kind of a mess. You know that Ottoman captives bit the blurb starts with? Well, that doesn’t happen until you’re basically a fourth of the way through the book. This book covers a HUGE span of time, beginning right with Lada’s birth, and that makes the opening rather slow. I dropped it at about 11% and wasn’t interested in picking it up until about a month later because, well, it’s a Kiersten White book and I got it to review.
I’m really glad I did. I think.
Yes, the opening is slow and it takes forever to get somewhere of substance. Also, in trying to cover so much time, a lot of the background characters feel like they’ve been tossed into a revolving door, and just as you get used to them they vanish. A lot more do come back around, but–as someone who isn’t great at keeping track of large character casts–sometimes it felt like I was getting whiplash.
The plot is also super complicated. I genuinely am not sure if there is one overarching plot, since it does take place over such a long period of Lada’s life. There’s her brief time in her home country, followed by a very short flee to the Ottoman capital, then a crazy amount of ping-ponging back and forth between two Ottoman cities. It tries to be really involved, but sometimes I think at the loss of deep character development. Characters, like the readers, are being tossed around a lot.
That being said, I did come to love Lada and Radu once the plot settled down a bit between a fourth of the way and halfway through. I really didn’t think that I was going to, because the changing narration between them often privileges description of actions over emotional characterization. I had them pegged for certain character stereotypes in the beginning, but as the book went on those were constantly being complicated. Once I hit about halfway through, I couldn’t put the book down. Seriously. I was reading on my Kindle app at work.
I have to give props to Kiersten for her vision for Lada’s character. In the end, I think that it is her character–and the way that she is portrayed–that really warmed me to this book. Lada is unapologetically strong and fierce, but in ways that both help and hinder her. Her fierceness makes her unlikable to other characters (and, even sometimes, to the reader), but she also reveals self-doubts and curiosities that allow her to be more than just a girl who can fight as good as a man. And her decision in the end of the book? *makes high pitched shrieking sounds of happiness*
Also, I have to mention the character development of Radu. Talk about something that went somewhere I did not expect. I don’t mean the fact that he ends up being a prong in a love triangle (yes, his sister is in this love triangle. It does not involve incest, I swear). He really grows into his own as the book goes on, in strong ways of his own that rival Lada’s fierceness but are something completely different. I loved that build a lot.
After I put the book down, I felt conflicted about how I should rate it. I still do. 3 1/2 stars seems like a safe bet. I do seriously want to read the next book in this series–like now–but this first book suffered mightily from structural issues. If I hadn’t been reading this for review, I’m not sure that I would have kept going. Then, even when the book sped it, it was still trying to do too much, cover too much ground, and include too many political plots, conspiracies and characters. I used the word whiplash earlier, and I meant it.
This is not like any Kiersten White book you have ever read before. In some ways, it’s better. In others, it’s worse. But if this sounds appealing to you, and you’re willing to wait out the beginning, I do recommend reading it. Kiersten is clearly going for something new for her, with a great vision behind it, and I am ready to go on this journey with her.
June 20, 2016
From the Notebook: ChLA TBR & Recommendations!
I swear this video went up on the YouTube channel on time. Just not here on time. Anyways, this video is all the books that I have been inspired to put on my TBR due to the Children’s Literature Association conference that Taylor and I attended a few weeks ago. There’s a lot of goodies on here–some you’ve probably heard of, some you haven’t! AND, there’s a sneak peek at a joint review from Michaela and I that’s coming soon!
June 17, 2016
Review: The Mirror King by Jodi Meadows
It has finally arrived. When I reviewed The Orphan Queen (the first book in this duology), I said that my final feelings on TOQ would depend on how some things were resolved in TMK. Well, they’ve been resolved, but not in the way I wanted. Also, I really need your guys’ help talking about TOQ novellas and how important they were to actually read!
June 16, 2016
Bibliomancy for Beginners Season 4 Episode 2: Invisible Fault Lines by Kirsten-Paige Madonia
While this may be days late, it is no dollars short. Michaela is hellishly sick, Taylor is so apathetic he doesn’t even want to listen to himself speak and me? I just like to poke the bear. This may be our most dysfunctional episode to date. HOWEVER that means it’s good fun to watch and you should totally do so.
MONDAY we are starting our Nostalgia Junkie series with The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.
If you missed episode one of this season, check out our hangout on The Bone Gap by Laura Ruby.
June 14, 2016
Weekly Wrap Up 6/12/16
HEY GUYS LOOK! A weekly wrap up! On … Tuesday. And only with Michaela’s face. I had a really good reason for this, I swear, and I’ll be talking about that next Monday. Anyways! It’s also like one of our shortest wrap ups to date so you can enjoy that.
Monday:
Michaela’s Review of Girls in the Garden by Lisa Jewell
Gretchen’s From the Notebook: Are Genres False Labels?
Tuesday:
Nostalgia Junkie Season 2 Annoucement
Wednesday:
Michaela’s Comic Art Project
Friday:
Gretchen’s Review of Risuko by David Kudler
June 13, 2016
From the Notebook: My First Bookshelf Tour!
Happy Monday! This week I’m bringing you guys my first bookshelf tour, showcasing mostly my TBR books plus some of my favorites. It also functions a little bit like a haul too, because I put my most recent acquisitions in a special place. It’s a little bit of everything awesome, honestly! …it’s also the most editing work I think I’ve ever put into something, so there’s that. I hope you enjoy!
June 10, 2016
ARC Review: “Risuko” by David Kudler
Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale (Seasons of the Sword #1) by David Kudler
Can one girl win a war?
My name is Kano Murasaki, but most people call me Risuko. Squirrel.
I am from Serenity Province, though I was not born there.
My nation has been at war for a hundred years, Serenity is under attack, my family is in disgrace, but some people think that I can bring victory. That I can be a very special kind of woman.
All I want to do is climb.
My name is Kano Murasaki, but everyone calls me Squirrel.
Risuko.
Though Japan has been devastated by a century of civil war, Risuko just wants to climb trees. Growing up far from the battlefields and court intrigues, the fatherless girl finds herself pulled into a plot that may reunite Japan — or may destroy it. She is torn from her home and what is left of her family, but finds new friends at a school that may not be what it seems.
Magical but historical, Risuko follows her along the first dangerous steps to discovering who she truly is.
Kano Murasaki, called Risuko (Squirrel) is a young, fatherless girl, more comfortable climbing trees than down on the ground. Yet she finds herself enmeshed in a game where the board is the whole nation of Japan, where the pieces are armies, moved by scheming lords, and a single girl couldn’t possibly have the power to change the outcome. Or could she?
Two and a half stars
Thanks to NetGalley and Stillpoint Digital Press for this eARC! This title will be available on June 15th, 2016.
If you read that blurb, like I did, you might be under the impression that a lot happens in this book. It doesn’t. This book was a constant push and pull for me, where I really wanted to like it … but nothing ever really happened. While Risuko was an interesting character, the cast around her fell flat and the overall plot seemed underdone. I was intrigued by the world and the overall politics, but they were never dealt with overmuch. All in all, this book had all the elements–it just didn’t use them.
The book certainly opened up in a promising manner. You briefly see what Risuko’s life is like before she is abruptly sold to and spirited away by an older noble lady. This lady says that she will be teaching Risuko to become a miko, or shrine maiden, but her other traveling companions hint that this is not the case. While on the way to her new home, their traveling party is attacked by the forces of a neighboring warlord and Risuko is instrumental in helping to save the day. By the time the whole party arrived at the training facility, I was ready for an action packed book like the opening I’d just experienced. The stage was set for a politically complicated plot with an interesting cast of characters.
The problem is that it all goes downhill from there. I understand that there does need to be a training period for Risuko, but the confusion that she exhibits during her training is extremely frustrating to a reader. For goodness sake, this book is called “A Kunoichi’s Tale” but the nature of what a kunoichi is–and the fact that Risuko is not actually training to be a shrine maiden–is supposed to be one of the huge reveals of the climax. That’s not even a spoiler because it was so obvious.
While that may be overdone, other aspects of the plot are underdone. While she is training, some “fox spirit” is clearly searching through the camp, stealing things, and poisoning people. This is supposed to be the major mystery of this book, but it falls flat. For one, the way it unfolds makes very little sense. For two, the cast of characters does not support it at all.
This is a larger issue with the huge cast of characters. There are a lot of them, and there is very little depth. Most of them were pretty interchangeable and unnecessary to me. Therefore, when a character or two is put forward as a red herring, I don’t believe they’re the culprit because I don’t know they’re motivation. When the actual culprit is revealed, I still don’t understand their motivation. It just kind of happens.
The larger political, world changing plot that’s hinted at in that blurb does not exist. It’s hinted at, but in a way where it is being introduced for the next book, not actually useful for this one. This book is Risuko training, catching a thief, and finding some stuff out about her past. That’s it.
That said, I left this at 2 1/2 stars because there was something weirdly compelling about this novel. It may well have been just the fact that I kept waiting for something to happen, but I couldn’t stop reading it. I planned to finish it over four days, but I actually did it over two. Kudler’s writing hooked me in a way that I can’t explain. All of the elements for a fantastic story were there, just not fleshed out to any kind of satisfactory level.
If this book sounds like something you’d enjoy, I’m going to suggest waiting for book two. While, obviously, I haven’t read it yet, I feel confident in saying that so little happened in this book that you could probably start with the next one and only be missing a small bit of exposition. While I will not go out of my way to read the next one, I am interested enough in the story that I might request the sequel if I see it on NetGalley. We’ll see if that one can live up to the potential that this one missed.
