Six of Crows was surprisingly fun. It’s not particularly original – six mismatched almost-adults are thrown together to break into an un-break-in-able prison. Will they make it? How will they do it? Who will pair up?
But it’s a good world – there’s a previous trilogy I’m going to go hunt down to learn more about the various lands and their people and exactly who has magical powers and how they got them.
Also: Two strong female characters. Adventure! Excitement! Cunning and derring-do! Escaping an impossible situation or two!
Rose Under Fire, ultimately, is about female friendship. It starts with a group of young women pilots in WWII* in Britain and how they support each other through war times. One of the pilots, Rose, is captured during a run to France. The second bit of the book is about Ravensbruck, a concentration camp where women were held, and the group of friends she finds there, and how they all support each other through an absolutely horrible experience. And then the third part is about how Rose re-integrates herself back into the world, with the help of her family and friends. Their care for and love of each other comes through throughout the book.
This is a sequel of sorts to Code Name Verity, which was excellent. It’s tempting to say it’s not quite as good, but really, it’s just different. Rose Under Fire is equally as moving and captivating.
* This podcast about WASPs will enlighten you more about women pilots serving during WWII. It’s fascinating.
Rollergirl is a not-quite-YA book about a girl who signs up for roller derby camp one summer. Her best friend doesn’t. And so, while it is about the awesomeness of roller derby, it’s also about friendship and growing up and growing apart and taking risks and developing who you are. It’s good if you’re 11 or if you have an 11-year-old.
Paper Towns is about a girl and a boy who live next door. They aren’t particularly friends, but they used to be. This is, in some ways, about how they become friends again. It’s also about how she takes him on a prank-filled night and then disappears. He decides to find her.
It’s a fun YA story, and it references Whitman a lot. If I were a real book reviewer, I’d’ve gone off and read Leaves of Grass so I could understand those. Alas. It was still enjoyable.
What’s it about? Saint Anything is about a girl who feels invisible. Sydney is 16 and her older brother Peyton is a criminal. He’s handsome and troublesome and he occupies all their parents’ attention. So when he goes to jail for permanently disabling a boy, she’s ready to be done. With all of it. She switches schools and starts making new friends. Her parents only tangentially realize what’s going on with her – she’s always been the quiet, good one. Other than the school switch, their attention is still occupied by her brother. But when she starts figuring out who she is and making new friends, her parents (of course) only see the bad side of it, not the good. How do they go from here?
Why should you read it?
Sarah Dessen has a great way of making everything relatable. Sydney is one of those kids who is quiet and will always fall through the cracks of a system because she is good at taking care of herself and not bothering others. But she needs to figure out who she is. These are not wild circumstances, she isn’t doing anything spectacular or amazing, other than standing up for herself. She could be your friend; in fact, you’d be proud to have her as your friend. She’d get you pizza (many of her new friends work in a pizza restaurant), help you with your homework, and you could help her have a little more fun. Overall, it’s a touching book.
This was a well-loved library book. It had been read so much that the pages were soft and the corners had been worn off. It was amazing.
What’s it about? I first heard of I Capture the Castle on the boards of the Go Fug Yourself book club, where it was described as “people having romantical problems during wartime.” It was published in 1948. It’s about a poor family, the Mortmains, living on not very much in an old castle that they’d secured a long-term lease on back when their father’s famous book was still paying the bills. An elderly, wealthy neighbor dies and his heirs are wealthy American half-brothers. The older sister, Rose, immediately sees that marrying one of them would keep the family from starving and convinces herself that she’s in love with him. It… it doesn’t work out so well.
Why should you read it?
It’s so old that it’s lack of an automatic happy ending (spoiler) is refreshing. (It’s not that the ending is unhappy. But it’s not a standard Hollywood ending either.) The Mortmains are charming and artistic, living the Bohemian lifestyle that you’d expect from poor artists: the father is a writer, as is Cassandra – the younger sister who’s POV the story is written from – Topaz, the step-mother and former model/current painter. Rose is the one who wants to not worry about where their next meal is coming from all the time. Ms Smith’s love of the English countryside also comes through loud and clear – the setting is amazing and lovingly described.
Overall, there’s so much affection in this book for the place and the characters and the impossible situation they’re in – really, where *is* their next meal going to come from – that you can’t help but also enjoy it. (In fact it’s a bit odd, because the book contrasts affection and love so very well. But the book’s love and affection of everything and everyone in it is what makes it so wonderful. Hm.)
What’s it about? Going Vintage is about a young lady, Mallory, who’s adopted her boyfriend’s life as her own. Which is fine as far as it goes – she was new to the area and met and fell in love with him before she made a lot of other friends. It’s realistic if not particularly feminist. But then he cheats on her online. So she dumps him and goes fully retro: everything must be from the mid-60s. Mallory starts a pep club and hosts a dinner party and only wears her grandmother’s vintage outfits. Her helpful sister takes all of her technology away – she’s not allowed her phone or anything that wouldn’t have existed in the mid-1960’s. She rides her bike to get places and has to buy a fully corded phone. But it’s never portrayed as better – in fact, much of the time, it’s about how inconvenient life used to be.
Why should you read it?
The idea of comparing and contrasting life in the past with now is one that warms my heart. What was better before the internet? What was worse? I like that the author doesn’t sugar-coat the nostalgia, but I wish she hadn’t been quite so pessimistic. None of Mallory’s friends can figure out her phone number and call her? It’s like it was an excuse for the author to not flesh out any of those side characters.
That aside, it’s a cute story for anyone who likes a dose of YA, but you won’t remember it in two months.
What’s it about? The Shadow Cabinet is the third in The Shades of London series. They are not stand-alone books. The premise of the series is that a young woman, Rory, has been sent to London to boarding school. After a near-fatal accident, she can see and talk to ghosts. This is A Thing in the series: she ends up joining a little-known branch of the London police made up of three other people who can also see ghosts. Sometimes the ghosts are good, sometimes not. They sort it out and take action when needed. In this episode of the story, they uncover more about the cult that Rory has discovered in the second book. It doesn’t end the series (I’d thought it was going to be a trilogy. It’s not.)
Why should you read it?
It’s not a book to read on its own. Start at the beginning with The Name of the Star. You should read the series because it’s a good adventure – Rory leaves her Louisiana home for London and is almost instantly plunged! into! adventure! The story is scary enough (says the person who hates being scared, ymmv) and the mystery is the right amount complicated. Overall: I enjoy it. (Plus Maureen Johnson has a fabulous twitter account. You should follow her.)
What’s it about? All Fall Down is a story about an ambassador’s granddaughter, Grace. There has been an accident and her mother is dead. She, however, is convinced that it wasn’t an accident. But no one will believe her. How will she ever prove that there is more going on than meets the eye?
Why should you read it?
You should read it if you, like me, are an Ally Carter fan (the Gallagher Girls and Heist Society series are fun). Otherwise, I might give it a pass. Ms Carter is a practical person – it helps her write no-nonsense characters who are good at getting things done. But All Fall Down should be about glamour. There are grand balls, tuxedoes, gowns, and secret tunnels. There is diplomacy and doublespeak and old European cities. Grace should remind me a bit of James Bond; but she is damaged in a way that isn’t, to my mind, alluring. (Her mother is dead. It would be weird if she were normal.) There is a way to make a character damaged and still fascinating – La Femme Nikita comes to mind. Grace should be competent but off her game. Instead she just came across as blundering. I didn’t get the underlying competence.
I will read the sequel – I am sure Grace has underlying competence. This is an Ally Carter series. I look forward to Grace finding it.
What’s it about? Just One Year is the sequel to Just One Day. It picks up the story after the boy leaves the girl in Paris (with a good explanation – he’s gone out to get breakfast and is severely beaten by skinheads on the way) from the boy’s point of view. He figures out who he is over the year, looking for her and becoming more responsible and less spoiled.
Why should you read it?
Completion or closure or whatever you want to call it. I don’t know that it’s necessary, and I have issues with the whole we-grow-closer-even-though-we’re-apart theme. But it’s a nice balance to the first book, and the abrupt ending to Just One Day is a bit more satisfying with this half of the story added in.
