Unfinished and Abandoned books [1]

What do you do with books you haven't quite finished yet?
I'd been flip-flopping on that until I saw Enna at Squeaky Books' feature called Unfinished Friday. This post is inspired by that.

Over the last year, I've changed my reading views a bit. Used to be that I was absolutely determined to finish a book, even if I didn't like it (or whatever reason)...just to be finished with it.
Now, too many books and not enough time have resulted in way more DNFs and (temporary) DNFs. And really, I read for fun, pure and simple.
But just because I abandon or set aside a book doesn't necessarily mean I don't like it. It just for whatever reason, that book didn't hold my interest. Other books, though, I definitely did not like.

Matched (Matched, #1) - Ally Condie
Unfinished since: January 2011
Commentary: The number one gripe I have with these "I'm-the-next-Hunger Games!" dystopians is that their storyworld is 1) underdeveloped, 2) implausible, 3) boring.
With Matched, I found the whole setup rather boring. Actually, the society seems to run perfectly fine with everybody getting matched together. Authors, please understand: you cannot have revolution if there's nothing to revolt against. And why is it, after _____ years of running successfully, does it take 1 teen girl for everyone to start 'seeing the light'? That's a bit implausible.
That, and I just found the characters very tepid. There's nothing really wrong with this book, and I do plan on finishing it, since I have the second installment, but it was just hard to keep focused.
Positive: There's nothing really wrong with Matched. In fact, I love Ally Condie's writing and I completely respect her for writing a clean story, one that I can still recommend to friends and young adults.


Firelight (Firelight, #1) - Sophie Jordan
Unfinished since: April, 2011
Commentary: It's been harder and harder for me to get through a paranormal book, and I think it's because the formula is getting old. Somebody's some sort of paranormal creature, but we mere mortals are unaware of said creatures' existence. Somebody is "inexplicably drawn to" somebody else. There's a kissy scene before a fight scene (boo). Somebody is a paranormal creature who has any number of abilities/powers, whatever, and yet they're bested by this fearsome institution known as high school. The main character is supposedly some sort of dragon-shifting princess or whatever, and yet she can't seem to handle prissy teenage girls.
All the love interests are all the same - modern day Adonises who are nice but neeever pushy, because we can't have an attentive guy cramping the heroine's style! Oh, the horror, someone who actually has an opinion and isn't afraid to stand up to you! We can't have that in a love interest. Guys are supposed to stand around, be pretty, and let the heroine save the day. (Where have we seen that formula, roles reversed, before?)
Oh, and there's a love triangle. 'nuff said.
Positive: At least Wesley, the love interest, wasn't one of those 'bad boys.' I feel like an '80s made-for-TV-movie just typing that phrase. :S



Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1) - Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Unfinished since: November 2010
Commentary: It's more than a little intimidating to be unable to finish a book that so many people love, that's for sure. For one thing, this book is just long. I mean, it ambles along and truly fascinating things like magic and spell-casters and curses and so on are bogged down by day-by-day reports made by the narrator, Ethan. A day-by-day commentary of high school is not a good way to write a paranormal book about witches. It's unnecessary. But what I just could not get over was the unreliable voice of the narrator. I've seen many reviews accuse Ethan of sounding like a middle-aged woman. And guess who wrote Beautiful Creatures...?
For example, it's normal for a teen boy to be bored to death living in a small town and want to leave in pursuit of other, more exciting things. But Ethan's constantly whining about how horrible, backwards, and bigoted his South Carolina town is, and I find it hard to believe that any teen boy would be that concerned or aware. And really, as someone who lives in the South, it seemed to me like the authors were trying to make some kind of statement, which I most certainly did not appreciate. This, coupled with the authors' insistence on reminding us how mean everyone is to Lena just because she's different was, to say the very least, over-the-top.
I do not like agendas in the books that I read, and Beautiful Creatures turned out to be one of the most heavy-handed books I've ever read. Screaming about tolerance to the reader is not classy, in my opinion.
Positives: The take on magic in this book is fascinating, when it's actually the focus of the story.
Also, this book is pretty clean, so I could still recommend it.


And last and least -
the first and only BEA book on the list,
All These Things I've Done - Gabrielle Zevin
Abandoned since: July 2011
Commentary: I'm only 100 pages away from the ending, but it's highly likely I will never reach those final pages. If you look this book up on Goodreads, you'll see that there's already a sea of 4-and-5 star reviews. And nestled in there, somewhere, is a 2-star rating from myself.
You see, quite a few books have, over the years, bored me or annoyed me, but only a very few have offended me on a personal level, as this one has. This book is a prime example of why I don't like religion (or religious characters) in young adult novels - because I don't really trust authors to not misrepresent it. The only religious character in this book is also one who simply abandons her previously-held beliefs soon after she starts dating for the first time, because, you know, moral beliefs are just a cramp on a girl's style.
Besides what you may or may not believe about religion specifically, do we as readers really want to get happy-clappy over a girl who just drops her beliefs or principles (whatever they are) because some guy comes along? That it's okay to change who you are and what you believe just because somebody pays attention to you? I certainly don't think so.
So that's my soapbox-problem with this book. But this book started out so well! I absolutely loved the main character in the beginning, as the daughter of a deceased crime boss who tries to live on the outskirts of her family's illegal chocolate trade, because chocolate and caffeine have been banned. There really weren't any major reasons given as to why these substances were banned, which made it hard to really get on board with the futuristic society presented.
This is more of a small-time dystopian, because as of now, the focus is primarily on the girl, Anya Balanchine (*love* that name) and her average life, instead of society as a whole.
It's just a futuristic New York City that's barren and dry (for some reason), with limited electronic technology and a mysterious ban on caffeine products.
Positive: I'm predicting that most people won't have an issue with what I mentioned here, or will overlook it, so that's a positive, I guess.

Review - QUEEN OF ATTOLIA

The Queen of Attolia (Queen's Thief, #2) - Megan Whalen Turner

Genre: YA Fantasy (in a somewhat historical setting)

Publisher: Harper Collins
# of pages: 362 (pb)
Recommended for: EVERYONE

When Eugenides (yoo-JEN-ə-deez), the Thief of Eddis, stole Hamiathes's Gift, the Queen of Attolia lost more than a mythical relic. She lost face. Everyone knew that Eugenides had outwitted and escaped her. To restore her reputation and reassert her power, the Queen of Attolia will go to any length and accept any help that is offered...she will risk her country to execute the perfect revenge.
...but
Eugenides can steal anything. And he taunts the Queen of Attolia, moving through her strongholds seemingly at will. So Attolia waits, secure in the knowledge that the Thief will slip, that he will haunt her palace one too many times.
...at what price?
When Eugenides finds his small mountain country at war with Attolia, he must steal a man, he must steal a queen, he must steal peace. But his greatest triumph, and his greatest loss, comes in capturing something that the Queen of Attolia thought she had sacrificed long ago...

----

Sometimes it happens. Sometimes I read a series out of order. Sometimes, like in the case of the Twilight series (where, for reasons that are still unknown, I dove into Breaking Dawn first and got to about page 100 before admitting that I was as confused and lost as Admiral Stockdale in that VP debate). Thankfully, no such confusion occurred due to opting out of reading The Thief, the first book in the series, first.

The gist of the story is easy to figure out. Eugenides is an infamous thief wanted in three separate countries. Luckily for him, his status as a cousin to the Queen has been enough to keep him safe, until a botched mission early in the novel results in a shocking and devastating punishment. The rest of the story, in large part, deals with Eugenides picking up the pieces of his life and attempting to recover from that event. Against the strong character-driven emotionality if the story is an elaborate backdrop of political intrigue, treacherous double-crossers, and war.
Megan Whalen Turner's fantasy geography is stunning and equally intricate. She creates a world reminiscent of Greek city-states (the fictional kingdoms of Sounis, Attolia, and Eddis supposedly based on the geography of ancient Greece), with a more Byzantine-era style, and featuring such early-modern technology as gunpowder, clockwork objects, and printed books.

I have to admit that some of Turner's storylines didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Most of the events in the novel revolve around this three-party war, which started out easy to understand, but soon seemed to delve into murky political motives with a lot of loose ends.

I love military tactics, perhaps more than the average reader, but I was thoroughly confused by a lot of the goings-on. And I think that all the attention given to the politics of the countries detracted from the most enjoyable part of the story, the characters.

Honestly, I think the thief Eugenides is now one of my all-time favorite characters. This is what I consider a successful, lovable, cheer-worthy character: someone who is both highly intelligent and extremely witty, physically capable (without being the brawniest dude in the room), and someone who undergoes some sort of emotional maturity over the course of the story. I definitely noticed a different character at the novel's end than at the beginning, and I like that. And I liked that Eugenides had to pull himself out of a depressing and practically insurmountable ordeal. It's okay for characters to get into a funk, but they need to be able to pull themselves out of it. :) The two rival queens of Eddis and Attolia are the other characters of great importance, and I liked how Turner portrayed the familial interactions between Eugenides and his cousin, Eddis. But since the Queen of Attolia is also the title character, I expected her to be a little more rounded and to play a bigger role in the story. But we don't see her except occasionally, until the last 100 or so pages. In that time, I didn't buy into the character transformation that Turner says she went through.

And really, the main reason this book is 4 stars instead of 5 is because of Megan's writing style. On one hand, I love her creativity and I love how brilliant she obviously is. She had a seemless ability to make three fictional countries come alive with extensive histories and geographic elements. But I feel like most of the book was told to me, not shown. Her characters are obviously meant to be highly rounded and with a lot of depth, but because of the fact that her narrative was more of a "telling narrative," I didn't feel much of a connection to what was going on. Even a 3rd person narrative can have some emotional exploration and insight, and I found that lacking here. I wish she would have just kept the 1st person narrative that she started in The Thief...

But I'm saying all this as a 20something reader. I have no doubt that kids/teens will be fascinated by the detail of this series and the literal nonstop action (I'm serious. This is one of those books that is just flat EXCITING to read). And it's definitely a series that I wholeheartedly recommend, especially to young readers and boys.

Final Rating

My Mailbox [13]

Traded
Don't Expect Magic - Kathy McCullough
Thank you to the Flashlight Reader!

Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories

Ordered
The Steampunk Bible: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Imaginary Airships, Corsets and Goggles, Mad Scientists, and Strange Literature - Jeff VanderMeer, et al

&
Special Edition 2 Disc of Aladdin!
Heck yeah! For $10 you bet I ordered this! Pooh on Disney and their whole 'Disney vault' thing!
When I was a kid, I had the hugest collection of animated movies, but curse it, they were all video, and with the rise of DVDs, well, you know. I don't even think we have a VCR anymore (sad day, I loved those big ol' videos and the big boxes they came in, *sigh*)

Very productive couple of weeks! What did everybody else get?
& do you find yourself watching the occasional animated movie or two every once in awhile? Because if you ask me, they just can't lose their value.

inspirational pictures - BOOKS

haha :)

Review Me Giveaway #1!

It's time for another GIVEAWAY!

I brought back a lot of books from BEA a few months ago, and mostly due to time constraints, I won't be able to read and review each one before they are released...this makes me feel a wee bit guilty. Also, when you're at BEA, a lot of times people offer you books and you say, 'Yes please, thank you' without always knowing if they will be your cup of tea or something you would have picked up on your own.
And why should they sit on my shelves when they could be enjoyed by you guys?

So here's my BEA Review Me Giveaway #1 (yes, that means there will be more!)
There's really only 1 criteria for entering: you must have either a blog or a Goodreads page, as the purpose of this giveaway is for the book to get some exposure.

And what's up for grabs?


I have an ARC of Circle 9 by Anne Heltzel, published by Candlewick

Synopsis via Goodreads:

She knows only Sam, a mysterious teenage boy. He is her sole companion; her whole life. She was born, already a teenager, lying outside a burning building in soot-stained clothes, remembering nothing, not even her name. He showed her the necklace she had on, the one that named her: Abby. Sam brought her to live in his cave-palace, where he gives her everything she needs. He loves her. He protects her from the world outside, from everyone who wants to hurt them, like the denizens of Circle Nine, Dante’s deepest circle of hell. But even in a charmed, brand-new life like Abby’s, change will come. Sam falls ill. A new girl comes to stay, and Abby begins to question Sam’s devotion. With doubt comes emotional turmoil, changes in perception, and glimpses of her past identity. In this courageous psychological thriller, Abby tells the story of living her new life and discovering her old one, while grappling with an ever-changing reality.

Please note: Despite what the synopsis says, this book has nothing to do with Dante or the Inferno...
The giveaway will run until Sunday, August 7th.

Review - ONCE EVERY NEVER

Once Every Never - Lesley Livingston
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin
Recommended for: Everyone
Buy @ AmazonThis was one of the relatively few books that, upon its release, I was absolutely desperate to have.
I loved Lesley Livingston's Wondrous Strange trilogy about modern day faeries, so I knew I would love this one too.
And I did.
Lesley is like a literary version of King Midas, only instead of turning stuff into gold, she turns her ideas (any idea) into a successful story with a winning combination of characters, strong plot, quality writing, and that little glimmer of magic that - I believe - is unique to the Young Adult genre.
Plus, this is just my kind of book. The main character has an aunt who works for the British Museum, has access to artifacts in said museum, and literally has the ability to make history come to life. And what period in history? Roman Britain, first century AD.
Excuse this part of the review, as the geektastic Amelia is about to take over. So, it is extremely hard to write about this period in British history, pretty much because as far as primary sources go, you have the Romans (biased) and...little else. Even though we're in the Anno Domini years, this part of Britain is still considered 'pre-history' due to the lack of written documents.
How in the world, then, is an author to write about a time period with little source material? Those druids? Technically, there's no hard evidence that they even existed. The daily life of the Iceni and other Celtic tribes? Not a lot of information.

Too many historical liberties, though, and the book will lose its believability. This is where Livingston really scored a touchdown in my eyes - she took a really mysterious part of history and turned it into something believable. If Once Every Never even had anachronisms, I certainly didn't catch them. The book read like the author did her research, and for a history major like me, that is a gargantuan plus.

The story begins with two girls spending the summer in London. The main character, Clare, is intelligent, but she kind of slacks off and is easily distracted, so she comes across as just a wee bit shallow. She is pretty grounded, but as soon as she sees one or two cute guys, she turns into a googly-eyed goof. Clare actually struck me as a calamity Jane kind of character - she's not a troublemaker, but trouble seems to find her anyway.
Here's a passage that really gave me a feel for her personality:

"In her ordinary life, surrounded by extraordinary people, Clare had never really taken much of a chance with anything important. Everyone she knew - everyone in her family, Al, Al's family, Maggie - they were all so...so effortlessly competent and accomplished. So she'd learned at a young age not to risk doing anything too complicated. She could handle failing. She just couldn't handle failing spectacularly." (24)

I identified way more with her best friend Alice, who pretty much lives on the far right side of the Bell Curve. In all honesty, it took me awhile to warm up to Clare, but that's only because a full-access pass to the most famous museum in the world, and being within touching distance of some of the oldest, coolest artifacts (like the Snettisham Torc and the Bog Men!) would be my idea of paradise on earth, because you see, I'm completely geeky for history like that, and Clare...well, she was bored out of her mind. I'm serious, Clare's life had me salivating like one of Pavlov's dogs.
She can't stay bored for long, though, because she absentmindedly becomes a catalyst for some kind of time-traveling centuries-old "curse," and she finds herself smack in the middle of occupied Britain, coming face to face with the formidable Boudicca, and finding herself in the midst of a bloody war. Boudicca, queen of the Iceni, was definitely the most energetic character, and I like the way Lesley chose to portray her: not as a wounded, martyring queen, but as a bloodthirsty, prideful warrior who may or may not be one scout short of a posse (which apparently is a cool euphemism for 'crazy'). Whoa, this gal was ferocious! I mean, she'd have the White Witch sniveling into her inhaler gasping 'omg ur so meanz!'
Also, Boudicca's story, at least historically, is pretty tragic/graphic, and I do appreciate how Lesley didn't draw attention to certain aspects of it. The only reason I'm mentioning it is because it makes Once Every Never a book I could give to my students, too (with just a little comment on the language)

Just like in the Wondrous Strange series, Lesley populates her novel with a wide variety of well-crafted characters, and I won't spoil them for you by going into big detail, but everyone brought something to the story, and I liked that. There was a teeny weenie bit of a love triangle here, but it wasn't very pronounced. Still, I wouldn't have minded if Clare was maybe a little less boy-centric. She kind of switched affections from one guy (a Druid warrior...in this case, they're not freaky-weird, but actually sensitive and handsome) to another (a buffed up nerd...still waiting for one of those to pop up in real life!), and I wouldn't have minded a little less of that, but still...it wasn't an integral part of the story.
The only other character I *must* talk about is the villainy guy, another character who may or may not be one scout short of a posse - vain, eccentric historian (and white collar crime extraordinare), Dr. Morholt. This guy totally reminded me of a cross between Sherlock Holmes' Moriarty and real-life historian personality Simon Schama (the guy is like Beauty and the Beast's Cogsworth and Gaston rolled into one). I absolutely loved this guy. He was so entertaining :)
I think I've spazzed enough for one review. Excellent characters (Lesley did what I thought was impossible - she made a slacker into a lovable character for me!), a brilliant story (loaded with historical awesome juice, and quality writing.

Books for sale/trade

I try and do posts like these every few months, just because there's such a high turnover.
As of right now, I cannot ship internationally.

I will accept Amazon giftcards in exchange, OR I've listed some of the titles I'm looking for at the bottom...

If you see something you're interested in, please email me at
imaginefocusedreviews@gmail.com
& we'll talk!

These are the current books I have -

• Candor - Pam Bachorz (HB)
  
• Pastworld - Ian Beck (HB)
  
• Pretties (Uglies, #2) - Scott Westerfeld (PB)
  
• Beastly - Alex Flinn (PB)
  
• Timeriders - Alex Scarrow (HB)
• Secondhand Charm - Julie Berry (HB)
• The Darlings are Forever - Melissa Kantor (HB)
• Viola - Adriana Trigiani (HB)
• Awaken - Katie Kacvinsky (HB) - 2 copies
• Lock and Key - Sarah Dessen (PB)
• Impossible - Nancy Werlin (PB)
• Saving Francesca - Melina Marchetta (PB) - slightly worn
• Need - Carrie Jones (HB)
• The Cinderella Society - Kay Cassidy (HB)
• Life as We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeffer (PB)
• The Secret History of the Pink Carnation - Lauren Willig (PB) - adult
• The Masque of the Blak Tulip - Lauren Willig (PB) - adult

Some of the titles I'm looking for:
What Happened to Goodbye - Sarah Dessen
Between the Sea and Sky - Jaclyn Dolamore
The Forgotten Locket - Lisa Mangum