Gretchen C. Hohmeyer's Blog, page 40

Thesis Thursday: Big News that has Nothing to do with My Thesis

Thesis Thursdays is a weekly(ish) feature where I rant, love and talk about young adult books I’m reading because I’m conning my college into thinking this is all for academia! Find out more here!

Alright, full disclosure: while this has nothing to do with my thesis, it has everything to do with my future. As you all may know, I’m graduating from Ithaca College in May. As with many grads, I have little money and many loans. As of Tuesday, I also have a (potential) job.

I’ve alluded to this several times over the past year, but now it’s (mostly) official. Taylor and I–yes, your two favorite fighters–are headed off to South Korea together to teach for a year, starting in the fall. We don’t know where yet, but we’re about to get started with our Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificates and background checks and all that fun stuff.

I’ve never been this terrified and yet excited about something. Sure, I went abroad to London and did a lot of traveling there, but … well … they mostly all spoke my language. The culture shock wasn’t terrible. I did okay. It was also only for four months, and I had a bunch of friends as back up and we were going to a university run by my home college. Everything was as safe as can be.

Don’t tell Taylor, but I wouldn’t have agreed to go without him. I’m not THAT brave. But this is an opportunity that I really, really want and have for some time now. I want to be scared. I want the adventure. Sure, there are going to be obstacles along the way that I am NOT going to enjoy, but I welcome them. I don’t want to be safe anymore. I really want to travel, and I also get to teach.

There aren’t many other times in my life were I would get to do this. That’s the main thing that keeps running through my head. It’s the reasoning that reminds me how disappointed I would be in myself if I didn’t take this chance. So. In a few months … here we go.

Oh yeah – I’m still going to be blogging as much as possible. It just may end up being a lot about South Korea.

Worth It Wednesday: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Worth It Wednesdays is a weekly post where I feature my favorite YA titles. Find out more about it here!

Title: Vampire Academy

Author: Richelle Mead

Goodreads Description: Only a true best friend can protect you from your immortal enemies . . .

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth’s magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires – the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa’s best friend, makes her a dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir’s Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger . . . and the Strigoi are always close by.

Rose and Lissa must navigate their dangerous world, confront the temptations of forbidden love, and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever . . .

Why it’s worth it: In honor of the release of The Glittering Court, I wanted to feature the series that got me started on Richelle Mead. I picked up the first books in this series kind of on a whim, back when vampires when all the rage. The original covers weren’t all that great, but I did it anyways.

I’m so glad.

My favorite thing about these books is that they aren’t just another vampire novel. There are vampires in it, but there is a lot more focus on relationships and friendships than in a lot of other “vampire” books. The world is exciting and new, and the books are full of adventure.

Rose, the main character, is the kind of person I would love to be friends with. Without a doubt, she makes these books for me. Whether it is her constant sass, her unflinching loyalty or her realness as a person and not just another archetypal character, she is always the highlight of each of the six books. She makes as many mistakes as she fixes, but she always works through it in the end.

An extremely realistic and interesting love interest/story always helps as well. Yes, not realistic in the sense of VAMPIRES but realistic in the sense that it’s messy and fraught but in the end I’m convinced that it is worth fighting for. These books will amuse, hurt and excite you in all the right ways. Not just another vampire novel.

Read it if you’re looking for: vampires, strong female characters, strong female friendships, swoon worthy romance, not another love triangle, magic, humor, sass, action, adventure

Intimidating TBR Tag

Hey guys! It’s that time again, when Michaela and I do some tags! We’ve been talking a lot recently about TBRs–and how bad we are at them. BUT, they are important and we have very long ones. This is my version of this tag, and Michaela’s will be out soon as well!

Posts Mentioned in the Video

What Happened to my TBR
Top 10 Series I Need to Finish
Review: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Worth It Wednesdays: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
My Epic Quest to See Cassandra Clare, Holly Black and Sarah Rees Brennan
Ithaca College New Voices Literary Festival
Review: Black City by Elizabeth Richards

Release Day Blitz: The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead (Excerpt + Giveaway)

If you follow this blog, then you know that I LOVE me some Richelle Mead – and of course her newest book, The Glittering Court, is right up my alley. I’m super excited to be able to participate in this release day blitz, which also comes with an excerpt from the book and a giveaway!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book by Author Richelle Mead, be sure to check out all the details below.

This blitz also includes a giveaway for a signed copy of the book and a $25 Sephora Gift Card courtesy of Richelle, Penguin Teen, and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

About The Book:

Title: THE GLITTERING COURT

Author: Richelle Mead

Pub. Date: April 5, 2016

Publisher: Razorbill

Format: Hardcover, eBook, & audiobook

Find it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Goodreads

The Selection meets Reign in this dazzling trilogy of interwoven novels about three girls on a quest for freedom and true love from #1 internationally bestselling author Richelle Mead.

“Brilliant and original, Mead’s new series starts off with a bang and will leave readers on the edge of their seats until the very end.” —School Library Journal

For a select group of girls, the Glittering Court offers a shot at a life they’ve only ever dreamed of, one of luxury, glamour, and leisure. To high-born Adelaide, whose wealthy family is forcing her into a loveless marriage, the Glittering Court represents something else: the chance to chart her own destiny, and adventure in an unspoiled, prosperous new land across the sea.

After a chance meeting with the dazzling Cedric Thorn, Adelaide poses as a servant to join the crop of impoverished girls he promises to transform into proper ladies. But her familiarity with upper class life comes with a price: she must hide her identity from her new friends, mysterious refugee Mira and fiery former laundress Tamsin, and most importantly, from Cedric himself—even though she’s falling in love with him.

Everything begins to crumble when Cedric discovers Adelaide’s ruse, and she catches the eye of a powerful young governor, who wants her for a wife. She didn’t leave the gilded cage of her old life behind just to become someone else’s property. But nothing is as daunting—or as wonderful—as the potent, forbidden attraction simmering between Adelaide and Cedric. One that, if acted on, would make them both outcasts in a wild, dangerous, uncharted world, and possibly lead them to their deaths.

Exclusive Excerpt:

Click this link to read!

About Richelle:

Richelle Mead has written over twenty-five novels for teens and adults. She is the author of the international #1 bestselling Vampire Academy series and its spinoff series, Bloodlines. Her recent standalone novel, Soundless, draws upon Chinese mythology and history, and her forthcoming series, The Glittering Court, follows the adventures of girls destined for arranged marriages in a fantasy world inspired by colonial America. A lifelong reader, Richelle has always had a particular fascination with mythology and folklore. When she can actually tear herself away from books (either reading or writing them), she enjoys bad reality TV, traveling, trying interesting cocktails, and shopping for dresses to wear on tour. She is a self-professed coffee addict, works in her pajamas, and has a passion for all things wacky and humorous. Originally from Michigan, Richelle now lives in Seattle, Washington, where she is hard at work on her next novel.

Website| Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a hardcover of THE GLITTERING COURT & a $25 Sephora Gift Card. US Only.

Ends on April 15th at Midnight EST!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

From the Notebook: A Brief History and Analysis of YA Book Covers

Okay, so this isn’t so brief, but bear with me here. This is a continuation of a discussion that Michaela and I were having at the end of last week’s livestream on genre hierarchy and literary snobbery. It also dovetails perfectly into all the work I’ve been doing on my most recent thesis chapter. It is by no means as in depth or inclusive or explanatory as I could be, but that kind of thing would also require 17 million videos that are all an hour long. I’ve tried to sum up as much of my research and thoughts as I can, but PLEASE share your own so I can continue this conversation!

Posts mentioned in video (not linked above):

Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Thesis Thursday: Babbling About YA Book Cover Trends
Re-Review: The Falconer by Elizabeth May

From the Notebook: Where is the YA for Boys?
Review: The Selection by Kiera Cass
Review: Rapture by Lauren Kate
Review: Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton
Thesis Thursday: Sources Book Haul
ARC Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Weekly Wrap Up + What We Read 4/3/16

Better late than never! The weeks are only getting crazier for Michaela and me, but never fear! We will never abandon you. This week we managed to be very impressive with the blogs, but not so much with the reading. This is fine. Next week we might even manage to read something!

Monday:

Gretchen’s From the Notebook on What Happened to My TBR
Michaela’s Call for Help with Time Management

Tuesday:

Betwixt the Books Discuss! Genre Hierarchy and Literary Snobbery

Wednesday:

Gretchen’s Worth It Wednesday: Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Michaela’s advice on How to Find a Comic Book Store

Thursday:

Gretchen’s March Wrap Up

Friday:

Gretchen’s ARC Review of Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan
Michaela’s March Wrap Up

ARC Review: “Tell the Wind and Fire” by Sarah Rees Brennan

Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan

Goodreads | Amazon

In a city divided between opulent luxury in the Light and fierce privations in the Dark, a determined young woman survives by guarding her secrets.

Lucie Manette was born in the Dark half of the city, but careful manipulations won her a home in the Light, celebrity status, and a rich, loving boyfriend. Now she just wants to keep her head down, but her boyfriend has a dark secret of his own—one involving an apparent stranger who is destitute and despised. Lucie alone knows the young men’s deadly connection, and even as the knowledge leads her to make a grave mistake, she can trust no one with the truth.

Blood and secrets alike spill out when revolution erupts. With both halves of the city burning, and mercy nowhere to be found, can Lucie save either boy—or herself?

Two and a half stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Clarion Books for this eARC! This title will be released on April 5th, 2016.

I wish this was an April Fools joke. I wish I could say that I did not really rate a SRB book this low. Especially a book with this much potential and thought behind it – which is honestly the reason it’s rated as high as it is. But as much as I desperately wanted to love this book, it was impossible.

My problem with this book wasn’t that it was dark. In fact, that’s what I wanted from it when I read the description. I know that some people read SRB for her humor. Right now, don’t read this if you’re looking for humor. Don’t do it.

Our main character Lucie, is a Light magician who only escaped the Dark city a few years ago. After her mother was killed and her father was captured, she managed to create a celebrity kind of persona in order to get the attention of the Light City’s rulers (the Light Council) and get them both rescued and brought to the Light City. Now, she’s dating the city’s richest golden boy, Ethan, and everything seems to be just fine. Until her golden boy is almost killed for treason and she finds out that he has a doppleganger–a perfect physical copy of Ethan with a different personality, that may or may not have a soul. Dopplegangers are created with Dark magic to save people who are dying, and also illegal to create. So now not only is Ethan accused of prison, but also his family–the city’s most prominent–has to hide that they committed one of the biggest crimes.

Are you confused yet? I’m not writing my opening that way to be confusing; I’m doing it because I’m still confused. World building in this novel sets up a lot of really, really cool ideas, but very rarely fleshes them out or brings them into a cohesive whole. I spent the entire novel frustrated because I didn’t really know how things connected or worked or even what some things meant. Worse, some things that I thought could be really cool are never expanded upon. They’re just convenient in the moment.

The characters were also frustrating beyond belief. My Goodreads chronicles the fact that I spent the first fourth of the book slogging, almost convinced I couldn’t make it through. While the story gets better, the characters don’t really. Lucie is smarter than she pretends, but at the same time she keeps making really stupid decisions. Ethan is just a 2D golden boy trying to be a hero. Carwyn, his doppleganger, had the most potential for character depth, and has it in places, but often just reverts to the smart-mouthed sass-boy that readers of YA are too familiar with.

Speaking of too familiar, don’t even get me started on this romance. It was so 1 dimensional and frustrating–and that’s just for Ethan and Lucie. Add in the weird love triangle that develops with Carwyn and I just … ugh. It was a poster child for everything that I hate.

The story is where everything good happened–once you get around the iffy world-building. This is not a happy story, as I have said, and that in itself was so important to me. It was not here to provide a trite happy ending. Lucie is a symbol for both the Light and the Dark cities, but not because she has a messiah complex. She just wanted to save her father, and now she wants nothing to do with the persona she created. She used peoples’ sympathies to get what she wanted, outside of the larger political context. But there IS a larger political context, and she is embroiled in it whether she wants to be or not. Like I said, both cities use her as a rallying cry for their causes (revolution AND the stability of the old order), which is really cool. There is also the matter of dopplegangers, how they are created, and whether or not they have souls. This is only scratched instead of explored deeply, even though the end of the novel would claim that it was one of the story’s Big Ideas. I wish it really had been. THERE WERE SO MANY GOOD IDEAS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXPLORED.

I think, in the end, this is a novel where I see what could have been. It could have been SO GOOD. Especially as the story goes on, and the warping of the politics and the relationships towards the end … guys. There was so much richness and depth of idea here. It was not just another YA novel about dystopic revolution. It wanted to be so much more. However, between the characters, the setting and the romance … it set itself back. This novel is constantly fighting against the way that it is written versus the way that I could have been written. I wanted to love the setting and the characters, and I wanted them to interact with the plot in so many other ways. But they didn’t. And that is just … so, so frustrating.

I respect what SRB was going for SO MUCH. I’m thrilled that she had this idea and tried to go for it. Unfortunately, in execution, I just couldn’t get into it. It didn’t take the ideas far enough and fell back hard into some really bad YA tropes. I won’t go as far as to say that you shouldn’t read this, because I think the plot presents some important ideas on how to write a YA revolution novel that we all haven’t read 16 times before, but … beware. It won’t be as good as you want it to be.

March Wrap Up + PopSugar Challenge Update

Wasn’t it kind of March to end on a Thesis Thursday day? Especially because I don’t have a thing for a Thesis Thursday as of yet? Yes, yes it was. Unlike my February wrap up, I’m doing this one as a post because this is about the amount of time I have right now. GO COLLEGE!

I read 9 books in March. This is two down from last month, which is super depressing because February is so much shorter than March. Whatever. Spring break got in my way, if you remember.

The first three books I read in March were all for my thesis. By Goodreads’ match, the first one I finished was Judging a Book By Its Cover: Fans, Publishers, Designers and the Marketing of Fiction edited by Nicole Matthews and Nikkianne Moody. While I originally picked this up for it’s section on book cover design, it will also be very helpful in my last chapter that talks about marketing and publishing books for young adults.

Then, I finished By Its Cover: Modern American Book Cover Design by Ned Drew and Paul Sternberger. This book was not at all what I expected, as it was a coffee table sized book with almost more pictures than words. It spanned decades of American cover design, but often only for the most “literati” books for the most popular of designers. I still managed to quote it though!

Wrapping up this month’s thesis work, I read Theodor Adorno’s The Culture Industry. If you are into theory about the mass production of culture, this is very interesting and I was so happy that one of my professors lent it to me. However, while the previous two books are nice reading for the lay-reader … this one is not. Don’t pick it up unless you want a headache.

In actually exciting news, Taylor and I both finally finished Mermaids

and Other Mysteries of the Deep, a short story anthology edited by Paula Guran. We had been promising this video since we did our review of After: 19 Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia, but it took us FOREVER to finally get done. While it is a longer video, we both found this anthology better than After. Very worth the watch and read!

I re-read three books while I was on spring break, two of which were by Tellulah Darling. I read the 2nd and 3rd books in her Blooming Goddess trilogy, My Date From Hell and then My Life From Hell. When I came back, I did a series review of all three because I wanted to talk about them all so much. While these are hardly the best books I’ve ever read, they’re the kind of fluffy mind candy that you just NEED to read sometimes. I also enjoy a new take on the Hades and Persephone myth any day.

The last book that I re-read on break was Aimee Carter’s Goddess Interrupted. This is the 2nd book in her Goddess Test series (another Hades and Persephone retelling) and my favorite. I fully plan on doing a series review of this very soon because re-reading this reminded me just how much I love AND hate this series.

I got through one single ARC read this month, which was Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan. This is a standalone novel that is far darker than anything you might expect by SRB. I don’t want to say too much, because the review is coming out tomorrow, but … oh dear guys. I really, really didn’t enjoy this one at all. I was so disappointed.

Last but not least, I read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. This was for our spectacular March Imbibliomancy episode, in which me, Taylor and Michaela get drunk and talk about themes–or try to. I am so angry, but I really like this one. Like, a lot. I almost gave it five stars. You should really, really check out that video for more on that and also serious hilarity!

For my PopSugar update, I only ticked off two more boxes. I decided to count Tell the Wind and Fire as my “book published in 2016” because I was so proud that I didn’t DNF it. Station Eleven also counted as my “book from the library.” That makes it 10/40!

Here’s to more reading in April! Or at least attacking the “currently reading” list on my Goodreads that is 7 books long right now. YIKES!

Worth It Wednesday: “Graceling” by Kristin Cashore

Worth It Wednesdays is a weekly post where I feature my favorite YA titles. Find out more about it here!

Title: Graceling

Author: Kristin Cashore

Goodreads Description: Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight – she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.

She never expects to become Po’s friend.

She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace – or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away…

Why it’s worth it: Honestly, I’ve been giving this book so much love lately … I thought I’d already done this. An exhaustive search of my own blog proved this to be untrue, so I KNEW it had to be this week’s pick.

I’ve just recently re-read this book, because I used it for my first thesis chapter. Out of the five books that I read, only this one and Throne of Glass stood up to the test. While it has it’s issues, it was easily leaps and bounds better in every category than any other book than Throne of Glass.

Katsa is not a shirking violet, afraid of herself and her powers. She also isn’t a bloodthirsty killer. She is, somehow, both, in a way that makes her more human than a lot of other stereotyped assassins. The world around her is rich and deep, as Cashore really thinks about her world as a true globe, not just a few places. It’s interesting and engaging, and it all makes me want to live there and be Katsa’s best friend.

Katsa, however, doesn’t have many friends, and that’s what makes Prince Po special. Yeah, you can tell from just the blurb that there is going to be a romance there, but GUESS WHAT! It is actually a friendship first. A real one, not a pretend friendship that was always a romance but tried to trick you into something otherwise. When the romance comes, it comes naturally. Even better, Katsa debates even taking their relationship in that way, because she doesn’t want to sacrifice who she is or what she wants to be the girlfriend of a prince. Po and Katsa meet in the middle to create a romance that is real and fantastic.

The plot itself is not the most shocking thing, but it is entertaining and you’re invested because you love all the characters. It is lots of action and adventure and struggle that is supported by the romantic story line, not smothered by it.

All in all, what’s clear is that Cashore REALLY thought about Katsa as a strong female character, and it works. I have a longer review for more, but … do you need it? READ THIS.

Read it if you’re looking for: strong female characters, romance, action, adventure, fantasy, friendship, strong world building, strong cast of characters

Betwixt the Books Discuss! Genre Hierarchy and Literary Snobbery

Technically, this livestream happened last night. Sorry guys! It ended up happening after my roommate went to sleep and I didn’t want to bother her anymore than I had to, so this is coming at you this morning. It happens! (This is why you should follow us on YouTube or Michaela’s Twitter. The links always go out automatically there.) Anyways, Michaela and I discussed the differing hierarchies of genres and literature and where certain kinds of genre snobbery come from. We were both so into this topic that it’ll probably spill out into my From the Notebook this Monday, at least, and probably beyond!