Previous SFF Author: John Wyndham
Fantasy Literature for Young Adults (over the age of 12).
Through the Veil by Isobel Bird
Through the Veil is the ninth book in the Circle of Three series, which chronicles three teenagers’ journey through a year-and-a-day of discovering and exploring Wicca. If you haven’t yet come across these books, I suggest you stop reading now and head back to book number one So Mote It Be, as the books are very closely tied together and it’s near impossible to read them out of chronological order (which is annoying, but there you go).
March 31st, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Isobel Bird | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Red Queen’s Daughter by Jacqueline Kolosov
I don’t buy hardbacks all that often, but as soon as I saw that The Red Queen’s Daughter was about Mary Seymour, and included magic to boot, I knew I had to have this book.
Mary Seymour is, historically, a question mark. The daughter of former queen Catherine Parr and her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, Mary was orphaned and taken in by the Duchess of Suffolk. There are no records of Mary’s existence after the age of about two.
March 17th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Jacqueline Kolosov | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
This is a difficult review for me to write. Nancy Werlin makes several plotting decisions that don’t quite work for me, even though I can see the ways these decisions serve the narrative.
Impossible is a book I should have loved. I adore plots that hinge on the exact wording of curses and prophecies: “none of woman born,” “when two Mondays come together,” that sort of thing. Here is a whole novel based on that concept. Our heroine,
March 11th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Nancy Werlin | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu
The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, according to the back flap, is the “basis for an album that [Mathias] Malzieu wrote.” I’d like to hear the album because I’m thinking his source material may have been better served in that medium. The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart isn’t a bad book, but even for a novella there isn’t much there and too much of it is either implied, assumed, or not earned;
March 1st, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Mathias Malzieu | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
I confess that I’ve read nothing by Salman Rushdie before, and any knowledge I have of him stems from the controversy that surrounds him. Most are probably well aware of this already, but in 1988 his novel The Satanic Verses was published, resulting in a call by Muslim extremists for his execution. Consequently, he has been forced to spend many years under police protection. I only mention this in the context of this review, because I doubt Haroun and the Sea of Stories would exist had Rushdie not experienced this concentrated effort to have him permanently silenced.
February 16th, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Salman Rushdie | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Ratha’s Creature by Clare Bell
Anyone who has a cat can tell you that they are amazingly intelligent. Imagine if they could talk. Talking cats are the central conceit of Ratha’s Creature, the tale of the female cat Ratha and her fight for respect in the clan of cats that make up her family. Ratha is a challenge to the leadership of her clan, especially the misogynistic Meoran. But when she learns to tame fire, she is a threat that can no longer be tolerated.
I’ve heard books called workmanlike,
February 15th, 2010. Ruth Arnell´s rating: 3 | Clare Bell | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Sorcerers of the Nightwing by Geoffrey Huntington
After his father’s death, fourteen year old Devon March is sent to his new home in New England — the huge and forbidding mansion Ravenscliff, that all the townspeople he meets on his way warn him against travelling to. But Devon is not as afraid of his future as others in his shoes would be: he knows he is gifted with a special power, a power that protected him from the very real demons and monsters that he had dwelling in his cupboard and under his bed as a child.
February 7th, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Geoffrey Huntington | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent
My Soul to Save begins at a pop concert. The opening act is Addison Page, an up-and-coming singer who dated Kaylee’s reaper friend, Tod, back when he was alive in the normal sense. After her set, superstar Eden takes the stage. When Eden collapses mid-concert, Kaylee doesn’t feel the urge to scream, so she’s sure the pop star will be fine. But Eden dies, and when Kaylee sees the sludgy substance that wafts from the body, she learns that Eden didn’t have a soul.
February 6th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Rachel Vincent | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Mad With Wonder by Frank Beddor
Mad With Wonder is the second geo-graphic novel that chronicles Hatter Madigan’s 13-year search for Princess Alyss, who was lost on Earth after escaping through the Pool of Tears. This time around, Madigan’s quest takes him to America during the Civil War and finds the Milliner crossing paths with circus freaks, a group of outlaws, Mr. Van de Skülle, a child gifted with the power of healing, and a vampire as well as being imprisoned in an insane asylum.
The first Hatter M volume was nominated for an Eisner Award and won the 2009 Silver IPPY Award for Best Graphic Novel,
January 31st, 2010. Robert Thompson´s rating: 3.5 | Frank Beddor | Comics, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Just as Gail Carson Levine‘s award-winning Ella Enchanted tackled the story of Cinderella, giving the story depth and meaning whilst simultaneously treating the reader to one of the best heroines and most realistic romances in all of Young Adult literature, Fairest purports to retell the fairytale of Snow White with a few twists.
Aza was abandoned as an infant at the Featherbed Inn and adopted by the innkeeper and his wife. Though loved by her family,
January 30th, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2.5 | Gail Carson Levine | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Previous SFF Author: John Wyndham
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.