If your last name is Morrigh*Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during For the Love of Book Clubs (February-August 2024)
If your last name is Morrighan you're going to have a tough time of it in Nothing, a town typically topping "most haunted" lists. Nelly Morrighan knows this all too well. She has been bullied and ostracized her entire life because the town believes all their woes can be laid at the feet of the Morrighans. All her sixteen years have been spent holding in the pain, keeping her head down, not thinking about her missing mother and her institutionalized father. Because the one time she lashed out at her bullies a kid ended up in the hospital. Her one reprieve is school, far away from Nothing, even if she's saddled with a roommate from home. Until her strict grandmother changes her mind and Nelly ends up boarding at the local school which is run by the mother of the boy she hospitalized. But these changes are nothing compared to the bigger changes ahead when she uncovers a secret. A secret that has been kept from her her entire life and revealed by two otherworldly figures she encounters on the Morrighan Farm late one night, Jack and Fig. Who just happen to be fairies. And Nelly's a half-fairy. And unlike almost all offspring of these forbidden interspecies liaisons she has power. And for someone who has spent their entire life cowering, you know when you are given power you must wield it responsibly. Which is why Nelly's off to the land of fairies. It was her powers that hospitalized her bully, and it was Fig's powers that has done the same to Nelly's grandmother. They can put things right by travelling to the other realm. Which is dangerous for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is what Nelly is and the fact that Fig is a wanted criminal and that the government assumes that she is dead, which is what she will be if she is found back in fairy. But Nelly's eyes are opened there and she feels free for the first time ever, the food tastes different, she feels powerful, and no longer haunted by her name. Will she be able to hold onto this feeling when she returns to Nothing or will the past come back to haunt her?
As one of my friends said about The Ghosts of Nothing it's cinematic. He put into one word what I was struggling to say with way too many. This book reminds me of epic eighties fantasy movies, you know, cinematic. The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, Return to Oz, The Secret of Nimh, movies that are part of my DNA. These films showed us wonders as well as horrors. Sure, they might have traumatized an entire generation, but I wouldn't have had my childhood any other way. Because these films made me believe in magic. The Ghosts of Nothing connected me to memories I had long since forgotten. Growing up I had a huge sugar maple in my front yard and I would spend hours under it and near it, carefully prying open the propellers while watching a very specific section of sky which, thanks to the eighties Serendipity books series, I was convinced was the only place where a pegasus could come through to our world. I saw a unicorn at the circus, so surely a pegasus would visit me! I mean, I now know that that wasn't a unicorn I saw, but there was still the magic of nature under that maple. And reading about the maple keys, the distinct turn of phrase the inhabitants of Nothing use for maple propellers, brought all these memories flooding back. It also made me wonder how the inhabitants of this town use such a fairy turn of phrase. I'm wondering if there's a lot more cross-pollination between the worlds that we will learn about in the coming books. And that again feeds into the fairy tale origins of it all. The way stories are passed down through the generations and are used to teach us lessons and morals. And the thing is, these lessons can be terrifying, and those morals, they might just mean you life. This book doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of life. The politics in particular in the fairy realm will feel eerily prescient to anyone following today's news. Which is what fairy tales are all about, telling us a story but reflecting the world around us. Dark and light. I can't wait to see how Nelly embraces her powers, but I think the real lesson she needs to take to heart is to not be too hard on herself. The world is dark and full of monsters, be the light even if other people can't see it....more
Bitter Rock, a small island off the coast of Alaska,*Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during Going Gothic (March 2023)
Bitter Rock, a small island off the coast of Alaska, is known for two things, it's unique birds and the fact that large numbers of people have disappeared from it. Sometimes all at once. Sailors, GI's, and in 1973 the entire village of Landontown. All thirty-one inhabitants. But anyone stupid enough to build on Belaya Skala, Bitter Rock's headland, should have known better than to take up residence on that blighted bit of rock. The founder of Landontown's widow didn't know what to do with this island she owned and decided to form the Landon Avian Research Center, LARC for short, that studies the island's unique birds, the red-throated tern. Sophie has lied her way into an internship at the LARC because it was there that her mother was working when she disappeared in 2003. This is recent news to Sophie because she always thought her mother died when she was three which resulted in her going into care. But ever since Abbey Ryder called and asked about her mother's disappearance, not death, she knew she had to return to the place her mother was last seen. Turns out Sophie's whole life has been a lie and those nightmares about drowning might be more real than she ever thought, because the moment she arrives on Bitter Rock she feels as if she's not just been here before, but has lived here. She knows the land, she knows the people, and there are some people her brain is screaming at her to avoid. Why would she react so viscerally to William Hardcastle? He just runs the LARC with Dr. Kapor, who approved Sophie's internship. She never knew him before, did she? And then Abby shows up. She comes out of the mist, the same mist that Dr. Kapor's son Liam could have sworn he saw Sophie walking into. But the locals are weird about the mist. Sophie, Abby, and Liam decide to ban together to solve the mystery of Bitter Rock. Sophie has never had friends before, no one else to rely on, so it's strange having people to help. People who won't look at her like she's crazy, people who don't freak out that her reflection doesn't quite match, people who see there's something in the mist and are willing to find out what it is, people who will help her until the bitter end.
Kate Alice Marshall's Rules For Vanishing felt uninspired, disjointed, and unoriginal to me. So why would I read the "sequel" you ask? I could say that it was because the teaser at the end of Rules For Vanishing felt more inspired than the rest of the book, which would be true, but really it was just because it was there. I can never seem to leave well enough alone and end up in situations that I completely put myself in. And yet I would say, for half this book, it really was something special and then it fell apart and my interest went with it. Because Kate Alice Marshall fell into all the traps she laid for herself in Rules For Vanishing. This book became nothing more than a mashup of other stories better told. Here was some more Annihilation, here was some Labyrinth, here was a whole hell of a lot of Stranger Things, and then there's Twin Peaks. I admit that the Twin Peaks comparisons are probably heavily responsible for getting me to pick up Out Last Echoes. I've been an addict since day one when I was probably too young to watch but my parents didn't really believe in censorship, and they also really wanted to watch it themselves, so they let little eleven year old me watch with them. I don't know how many times I've watched the original series since then, but every time I introduced a friend to the series I'd rewatch the whole show with them. I also wrote a paper on the show for my forestry class, which involved me rewatching the whole show again but this time taking notes. And my obsessive preparations leading up to it's return? Yeah, you could say I'm a fan in the true fanatic sense. I wasn't sure how this book would tap into the Twin Peaks vibe. Could it be location, could it be thematic, or could it go all out like Psych did with their episode "Dual Spires?" Turns out it was with doppelgangers, black oil, and music always being in the air. So yeah, I can see why Our Last Echoes is mentioned as being "like" Twin Peaks. But I would also strongly argue against this assessment as well because Twin Peaks has a very fixed and well defined mythology and meticulous worldbuilding. I have now read two books by Kate Alice Marshall set within the same universe and I have no idea what her mythology or worldbuilding is about. So there are what, seven worlds with some Gods and they want to gain access to our world again? This is vague and well confusing and what!?! I mean really what!?! I've read some eight-hundred pages of her work and that is all I've got. Will I pick up the inevitable next book? Probably, I'm a masochist. But seriously, just some cohesive worldbuilding would go a long way to saving this series....more
In the town of Briar Glenn the kids play *Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during Going Gothic (October-December 2021)
In the town of Briar Glenn the kids play a game. The game is innocent enough. You hold someone's hand, close your eyes, and take thirteen steps. Then a road will appear in the woods and you'll see the ghost of Lucy Gallows. Everyone thought it was just an urban legend. Everyone except Sara's sister Becca. A year ago Becca snuck out to play the game and disappeared. Since then Sara has become withdrawn and preoccupied with the origins of Lucy Gallows. She has pushed away all their mutual friends and obsesses about finding Becca. A few days before the anniversary of Becca's disappearance everyone gets an anonymous text to find a partner, find a key, find the road. In other words, to play the game. The REAL game. This could be what reunites the group. A chance to find Becca. Anthony has been Sara's best friend longer than she can remember and he's secretly in love with Becca, so he agrees to help Sara pull this off despite them barely talking for a year. Then there's Trina and her younger brother. Nick and his girlfriend. Anthony's douchebag best friend. And Sara's crush, Mel. Though Mel has apparently brought not just one but two dates along with her! After one of Mel's dates takes offense to the menage, the group is ready to take the first step. The only problem is, they're an uneven number. The game states you HAVE to have a partner. At this point Sara doesn't care, she's willing to bend or break this rule to find Becca and get on that road and once that road appears, things get real. As real as the stones beneath their feet. From Becca's notes they have to pass through seven gates to get to the end of the road and they are returned home, hopefully finding Becca along the way. The first gate though takes a toll. They lose two people. Because they broke the rules. Which means they can not break any more. But that gets harder and harder as the tasks required of each gate get more complex and dangerous. The road might be asking too much, but if they save Becca and Lucy too, is the price worth it? Only those who love Becca most could say that for sure...
Rules For Vanishing is a YA version of Annihilation. There's even a scene in a lighthouse for Pete's sake. That is the crux of my problem with this book, it's too much other things and never it's own thing. The whole time I was reading it I kept thinking, this reminds me of something but I just can't place it. Probably because the author draws from so many sources you'll see what you connect to most. Here's a bit of Dungeons and Dragons, here's a bit of The Goonies, here's a bit of The Neverending Story, here's a bit of Labyrinth, here's a bit of some other eighties movie that didn't let you sleep for months. On a side note, what was it about "children's" movies in the eighties that they seemed to be purposefully designed to traumatize us? If the story had leaned into the urban legend part of the setup and veered away from the very Lovecraftian named city of Ys as the road's destination, maybe this would have worked for me. And yes, I know it's actually a legend from Brittany, hence all those French books in the aforementioned lighthouse, but Dahut was doing it with Cthulhu wasn't she? Also, the faux-documentary style likened to The Blair Witch Project in the book's blurb... well, I've seen it done better. I like that they try to incorporate many forms of media from recordings to written transcripts to cellphone footage, it's just, as I said, I've seen it done better. There's something a little clunky about how it's handled here. It's like Kate Alice Marshall is trying too hard to keep certain things hidden and not show her hand that the writing suffers. The story should be first, the gimmicks should be second. But what I did like was the representation in this book. In the gang of teenagers that go into the woods we have at least two LGBTQ characters, two different minorities, and two different disabilities. I felt like that this not only gave anyone reading the book someone to identify with, but it also felt more real. My friends are diverse and it's rare that we get to see this in literature. So while there where things I didn't like, tropes that were overdone, at the same time I want to point at the book and tell others that THIS is what needs to be seen more often! THIS is true representation!...more
Nikolai thought the darkness within him was gone *Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during Bardugo Bash (February 2022)
Nikolai thought the darkness within him was gone like the Shadow Fold. But it has returned. When he falls asleep the monster awakens. He's been lucky so far in that those in his closest counsel have been able to locate and restrain him before he has done any real damage. No one has died. Yet. He is fearful that that day is quickly coming. But Ravka is his primary concern. The country is broke and war is looming. Again. Plus there are murmurs, rumors about saints and miracles. When Nikolai looks at a timeline of the so-called miracles he realizes that they started when the monster within awakened. This can't be a coincidence. What's more, the Darkling now has followers petitioning the crown to legitimize him as the Starless Saint. The eager monk Yuri brings evidence forward that all the miracles are converging on the very spot the Darkling died. Therefore that is where Nikolai must go. Taking Zoya, Tamar, and Tolya, they are ostensibly touring the miracle sites, but they are on a mission to purge Nikolai of his darkness. Something that seems possible according to ancient texts, but it must be kept a closely guarded secret. Ravka is weak and this will be an opportunity for their enemies to lash out. Which is why they have invited all their enemies to a giant party as a way for Nikolai to stabilize the country's finances through a political marriage. Something he does not want to do, but realizes must be done. The only problem is it looks like he's going to miss the biggest party of the year as he comes face to face with real saints. Can his friends and counselors keep the country going in his absence? Only time will tell. And one of his friends is far from home. Nina is undercover in Fjerda. She is rescuing persecuted Grisha and getting them to Ravka, for their own safety and also to help rebuild the Second Army after the bloodbath the Darkling unleashed on them. Only Nina's parem altered powers tap into a dark and dangerous game the Fjerdans are playing with their captured Grisha. They have long experimented on them but what Nina discovers changes everything. Including her own mission. Will her work be able to help Nikolai if he's lucky enough to survive the darkness? Who knows.
I won't say that King of Scars let me down, I feel about it the same way I felt about the Six of Crows duology when I first read it, I'll love it in time but on my first reading there were things that annoyed me. Things that I will now forever be forewarned about. I have to learn to embrace the new characters and the way the old characters have matured. When I first read Six of Crows the only two characters I felt a connection with were Nina and Matthias. Of course I love them all now, but for me Nina and Matthias's relationship makes a plot development in this book a bit of a sticking point for me. That point is Hanne. Leigh is setting up Hanne to be Nina's new love interest. OK, fine. I don't have a problem with this because Nina is young and I knew she'd eventually find love again. Here's the part I DO have a problem with, the eventually being so soon. This seems to diminish Nina and Matthias's love for each other. Here's Nina burying his corpse and oh look at that attractive young novitiate on a horse, I'm good to go! WHAT!?! NO! I know they are young, but does that mean their hearts heal that fast? This just took so much away from my enjoyment of the book that I can't even begin to say how much. Two books of Nina and Matthias fighting for their love and fighting against their love and it's just gone. I know some people will say that dragging his corpse around the countryside for a long time and then finally burying him is mourning followed by closure, but TOO DAMN SOON is all I have to say. I don't like unnecessary change. Like look at Nikolai, his personality change, from dashing rogue to haunted leader, while I didn't like it it made sense because he has changed from the darkness within and from the burdens placed on him. And as for that darkness...well...I really have a thing about vanquished enemies returning from the grave. It's a cop out. It doesn't matter how loved or loathed they were because it's just a stupid trope. I always think of the end scene in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Buffy vs. Dracula" where she just sticks around to repeatedly slay him quipping: "You think I don't watch your movies? You always come back." Yeah, stop coming back!...more
Jan Van Eck has to pay. Not jus**spoiler alert** *Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during Bardugo Bash (February 2022)
Jan Van Eck has to pay. Not just for breaking a contract with Kaz and his crew but for kidnapping Inej. Therefore he must pay in a way he will understand. It's not just the money at stake anymore, it's Van Eck's entire life. His reputation, his wife, his legacy. Everything must be destroyed. Brick by brick. And if Kaz and his crew happen to get rich in the process, well, it's only proper. But the problem is Van Eck's version of what went down has made Kaz and company targets and they've had to go to ground. It isn't safe for them to walk about the city, let alone their beloved Barrel. They are wanted and this makes every plan put in motion that much more complicated because extra precautions have to be taken. Despite Van Eck trying to keep the real reason for the falling out under wraps this is Ketterdam and nothing can remain a secret for long when people are willing to pay good money for it. So the whole world knows that jurda parem exists and that the inventor is in Ketterdam. This means the Shu, the Fjerdans, and the Ravkans, have all sent delegations overtly and secretly to the city. But of those delegations only the Ravkans have a pure intention with regard to Kuwei Yul-Bo. He is Grisha, he is one of them, and they will make sure he is safe. But Kaz isn't ready to just hand over such a valuable asset. He went to a lot of trouble to break Kuwei out of the Ice Court and he lost his Wraith in the process, so he's not about to let go of his asset so easily. But first Kaz needs his Wraith. Which means dealing with Van Eck. Which means knowing how that man thinks and being one step ahead of him. After that, well, brick by brick Van Eck's life will fall. But things never run smoothly...Nina is still in withdrawal from jurda parem and her Grisha powers are acting oddly, Mattias is worried sick about Nina, Wylan has learned his life is a lie, Jesper's dad has shown up in Ketterdam, and Kaz, well, Kaz is just Kaz...It will be a miracle if they pull this off, but they've been known to do the impossible before.
Crooked Kingdom picks up right after the betrayal of mercher Jan Van Eck in Six of Crows and is a headlong rush to the finish, some five-hundred pages later. That level of intensity is hard to bear for that prolonged a period, making it a book that's hard to put down but it's something that needs to be done because you just have to catch your breath every once in awhile. The first time I read this book the pace and plot twists were just too much for me. What I reveled in in Six of Crows were the quieter, more emotional moments, not those requiring a serial killer like board to follow all Kaz's schemes. But so much has already been revealed about our characters in the previous volume it's up to Wylan Van Eck to carry the weight this time around, and luckily he's up to the challenge. Seeing his life and the more rarefied world in which he lived gives further dept to Ketterdam as a whole. We see the city come alive like never before. It doesn't hurt that instead of haring off to Fjerda the entire narrative is contained within the city. And I really appreciated the city more. I recently read The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, and I really connected to Amsterdam and how that political microcosm of merchants worked. While that book let me down it added to my reading experience with Crooked Kingdom, once again proving that even a book you don't like has value. I felt Ketterdam come alive, a city that is Amsterdam at it's heart with just a dash of New Orleans as it's flash. So it might seem odd that I'm saying read the book for the location, but really the location in this instance is just another character, and this book lives and dies by it's characters. And yes, someone dies. In fact, Matthias's death might have been the predominate reason this book pissed me off the first time around. I ship Nina and Matthias so much it is painful. The way Leigh describes Matthias dying in Nina's arms is almost too much to bear. So while I can complain about this or that with regard to this book there is such an emotional wallop at the end that if you are prepared for it you will forgive every flaw that came before and just marvel at the fact you were so moved by a story....more
The Istorii Sankt'ya, The Lives of the Saints, is*Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during Bardugo Bash (February 2022)
The Istorii Sankt'ya, The Lives of the Saints, is given to children in Ravka to learn about the saints. When Alina was given a copy by the Apparat she brushed it aside as something meant for children. Yet she soon comes to realize that this book full of short lives and brutal deaths might be the key to defeating the Darkling and that saints might be synonymous with Grisha. All the saints are enumerated here, even Alina herself. The tales told are miraculous. Some are self-sacrificing, some are misunderstandings, but each is illuminating. And each only has a small aspect of the truth. Because truth changes over time. Truth morphs and becomes something palatable. Something that can be understood versus the true magic of what was. So even if you think you know what happened, perhaps you don't know the whole truth. Sankta Lizabeta, she of the bees and the blood red roses, she who was killed for not protecting others, she might have a dark little secret that was later revealed...Sankt Juris slayed a dragon or did he? Did he and the dragon become something more? But perhaps the most surprising saint is the Starless Saint, for those who seek salvation in the dark. The Starless Saint is none other than the Darkling. Because while a villain to all logical thinking people to some he is a hero. He did just want to keep Ravka safe and make it a haven for Grisha. If he had to kill a fair amount of Grisha to accomplish his goal, his long life could perhaps excuse his lack of empathy. His lack of understanding that every single life matters not just the welfare of the greater good. But here he is, among the pages of a children's book, there to worship and build alters too, like all the rest. And who knows, in the end maybe some of them were just as misguided as the Darkling...
This companion book to Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse is obviously a bit of a cash grab. They had to produce the Istorii Sankt'ya for use on the Netflix show as it's so important to the plot and figured since they already had it made there had to be fans who would fork over good money for a copy. And they were right. Yet the whole commercial aspect of this book doesn't diminish the fact that it is a beautiful little volume that adds so much to your understanding of the universe Leigh Bardugo has created. We learn the stories of the saints who Inej named her knives after. We get to finally hold in our hand the painting of Ilya Morozova, Sankt Ilya in Chains, that fueled Alina's search for the third amplifier. And we get to see how Alina herself was immortalized in the pages of this book she clung to so feverishly. As she pointed out, all saints live brutal lives that end in death, but it's the ways in which Leigh changes her narrative for each saint that keeps the stories fresh. Sometimes we get a straightforward tale of what happened to them, and other times we get stories that are about the people who worshiped the saint and because of their devotion they were saved, hello Yuri! This second example is what Leigh does with Sankta Alina, therefore giving us a story that is new to our favorite heroine and saint. But this book is full of surprises. As Alina herself pointed out when she was researching Ilya Morozova, there are so many variations and iterations of tales out there that perhaps we've heard it before. And here there is one we have if you happened to have read The Language of Thorns. Sankta Ursula's tale is the tale of Ulla from "When Water Sang Fire" about the creation of the Broken Heart islands off the northern coast of Fjerda. This little callback was a wonderful parallel that shows how perfectly built Leigh's world is. Almost as perfectly built as the Ice Court...but that was a different saint altogether....more
This was interesting for two reasons, one, actually seeing how others see Alina, and seeing how hard Genya's life was and the comfort and power the DaThis was interesting for two reasons, one, actually seeing how others see Alina, and seeing how hard Genya's life was and the comfort and power the Darkling gave her. ...more
The Apparat's plan to win the war is to bide his *Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during Bardugo Bash (February 2022)
The Apparat's plan to win the war is to bide his time underground in his white cathedral with his disciples and rise victorious when all Alina's enemies have killed each other. While this kind of strategy has led to his long and successful career in the halls of Os Alta, Alina is going crazy underground as his saintly prisoner. Her illness after the battle with the Darkling has left her sick and frail, but being so far away from the light she summons means she is unable to fully heal, unable to escape the Apparat and her growing fear that he might realize a dead saint is less work than a living one. Luckily for Alina her fellow Grisha are concocting a plan to release her from this underground tomb and resume their hunt for the final amplifier in the hopes that then Alina will have the strength to defeat the Darkling. Escaping though is the first and easiest step, and in truth, it wasn't easy at all. But working their way out of a labyrinth of underground caverns is quite easier than locating a rebel prince who has become a sky pirate employing guerrilla tactics or hunting down a mystical creature that may not even exist. All this just in the hopes that they might succeed. Yet with the Darkling striking out faster, sooner, and unexpectedly at every turn, Alina wonders how her small misfit band of Grisha can survive and how they even became compatriots in the first place. With despair driving them more than hope, Alina wants to be the light in the darkness but fears that her lust for power might make her more similar to the Darkling than she dares admit to anyone, even Mal. And what if victory is only possible by letting go of the only thing that matters to her?
A satisfying conclusion is the hardest thing to achieve. A delicate balance of all the possible outcomes while remaining true to the characters and giving the readers closure. Some might say it's impossible, others improbable, but Leigh Bardugo comes very close to a perfect ending with a relentless pace maintained until the final pages of Ruin and Rising. I will just miss the Darkling horribly though. Perhaps I should stop falling for the baddies and the rogues so that when they are vanquished or cast aside I won't be left here pining and brokenhearted. Yet my inability to stop falling for the bad guys was a foregone conclusion with the Darkling. What made Ruin and Rising so amazing and so fully rounded a book was the insight Bardugo gave us about him. Here we don't have just a mindless baddie whose sole goal is power and destruction. We don't have a cookie cutter villain with a goofy gimmick, like a bullseye iris (don't ask me why I'm thinking of Charles Dance in Last Action Hero, I honestly don't know.) Bardugo gets that bad guys can't be all that bad, there has to be more. Here we have a multifaceted villain. He's not black like Spinal Tap none more black, he's black like an oil slick or the night sky, there's rainbows and depth, there's hints of blue that make the black blacker, but a splash of light every now and then. His back story is gut wrenching, especially if you read this edition with the prequel story "The Demon in the Wood." To the rest of the world he's this improbable being of such destructive force that he is terrifying, but to Alina, he's just a boy, like calling to like. What wouldn't we do if we spent lifetimes alone and persecuted? Your only wish to be loved and safe and have someone tenderly say your name. Your true name. To learn at the end that you are in fact truly alone, that would destroy anyone....more
Alina and Mal only have each other. Orphaned in t*Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during Bardugo Bash (February 2022)
Alina and Mal only have each other. Orphaned in the wars they grew up looking to each other for everything. Now they are in the first army together, Mal's a tracker and Alina's a cartographer. But little does Mal know Alina's true feelings for him. The way her heart thumps when he's near or how she worries that they might be parted. Their parting is near at hand. The land of Ravka is divided by a darkness, a nothing. The capital is cut off from the ports and the country has been vulnerable for hundreds of years while creatures roam the blackness killing those who try to cross it. Mal and Alina are about to attempt the crossing with their units; only everything goes wrong. They are attacked and it looks as if they are both going to die, but then a light as bright as the sun shines out and cuts the creatures down. Little does Alina realize that the light emanated from her. Being called before the leader of the second army, the Darkling, Alina thinks that for some reason she is in trouble, but doesn't know why she is brought before the Grisha. The Grisha are masters of the small science, innate abilities in them that classify them as Corporalki, Etheralki, or Materialki, with powers ranging from stopping a human heart to metallurgy. Summoning the Sun means that Alina is an Etheralki who somehow avoided detection. Finding out that she isn't in trouble but is in fact what their country has been praying for since the arrival of this dark rift puts pressure beyond measure on Alina. Not only is she trying to forget the pain of being separated from Mal, she's dealing with the cosseted little world of backbiting Grishas, all while coming to grips with a power she never knew she had and hoping that it's all just a big mistake. Yet what if the Darkling has a different purpose in mind for Alina's powers than banishing the darkness? Will she be able to withstand his magnetism and the allure of life at court and find her way back to Mal?
It should go without saying that I obviously had to re-read this entire series before the Netflix adaptation hit the small screen. I wanted to reimmerse myself in the Grishaverse before it became something more, something else. Plus with the way the world has been it's a comfort to sink back into a series where you know what to expect. There's a reason I reread Harry Potter so much. This time around I wasn't thinking so much about the series being Tamora Pierce meets Buffy meets Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games meets The Neverending Story meets on and on and on with Malcolm Reynolds by another name. Instead I enjoyed it fully on it's own terms, even with some of the bizzarre naming choices which I hope are jokes. Fjerda HAS to be a Swedish Chef joke right? Børk Børk Børk! But it's the subtler undertones of Mother Russia that drew me in again and that coheres the book, versus the more absurd elements (Børk!) The mirroring of the political situation of Russia at the beginning of the last century was spot on. Strip out all the Grishas and the magic, take out an evil nothing and what have we got? We have a country with a widening gap between the haves and the have nots. The King is just a figurehead that no one respects and has a mysterious religious leader as counsel. The power of the country resides in the army and out of this a megalomaniacal leader will take the country's reigns for his own will. So the Darkling is Stalin or Lenin, with the Apparat as Rasputin. Yet by seeing this through a filter of fiction and fantasy it somehow makes it more real than less real. When we travel with Alina from her life of drudgery in the army to her life of splendor in the Little Palace we get to see in stark relief the widening gap between the haves and the have nots. Sometimes it takes another medium to filter events for us to get at the truth of something, and that is what Leigh Bardugo has done in Shadow and Bone. It might not be perfect (Børk), but it is memorable and echoes down the ages to our shared history....more
The time for diplomacy is at an end, the time for*Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during Bardugo Bash (February 2022)
The time for diplomacy is at an end, the time for war is nigh. But Nikolai, the too-cleaver fox, is never one to limit his options, so why not do both? Why not enter marriage negotiations with the Shu while stealing vital materials from the Kerch? Why not give the Kerch what they want while secretly allying Ravka with Novyi Zem? Why not have secret agents working in the heart of Fjerda while your general becomes a dragon? Why not negotiate with the greatest evil ever while trying to stop the west from seceding? He will try everything and anything to save his country, even leave it if that is what's best. Because once his country knows about the darkness within him, he's sure they will turn on him and jump at the chance to have a real Lantsov on the throne. And the Fjerdans have proof he's not a Lantsov as well as a few true Lantsovs laying about. But he's more worried about his people learning that the Darkling has returned, and not just that, but that he escaped and his powers have returned. That's not something to be taken lightly. But this is Ravka, nothing goes according to plan and a win is almost unheard of. Yet through Queen Makhi's own machinations she might have overreached and inadvertently set Shu Han onto the path of aiding Ravka. But it will take exposing her to her own family and hoping they do the right thing. As for what they are doing with regards to Fjerda? Nina is now ensconced in the household of the head of the Drüskelle, a man she has been dreaming of killing since she was a young student at the Little Palace. So while seeing him among the living gives her no joy, the fact that she's stealing his secrets and passing them onto Nikolai brings her great joy. She is also trying to seed a groundswell of religious fervor for Grisha by making Fjerdans view them not as demons but as the favored children of their God, Djel. Though she, like Nikolai, might have to choose between her heart and her homeland. But what's a little sacrafice for the greater good of their people?
And so the Grishaverse comes to a close until the inevitable third book in the Six of Crows series. Rule of Wolves has some problematic end of series issues, mainly the tropes of killing off someone vital and getting all the characters together for one last hurrah. Alina, really!?! You're smarter than this. But as you reach the last few pages the pros outweigh the cons and you realize just how much you're going to miss this world and the characters you've grown to love. And surprisingly I've grown to love Zoya. She has developed the most over time from an out and out bitch to a fearless leader, who I can't help but relate to. I also kind of want to give her a huge but I know neither of us would enjoy that. We're both to prickly. I also can't help thinking Zoya was written in such a way to make up for George R.R. Martin's failure to Daenerys Targaryen, but maybe that's just me. But despite a feeling of satisfaction at the end of the day I still have this feeling that the crucial question posited by the book wasn't answered. It's all about the old world and Grisha versus the new world and war machines. It's like progress is the way of the future but one dragon comes along and progress grinds to a halt. So is Bardugo saying that myth and modernization can live side by side or not? I feel like maybe even she doesn't know. And this leads to my least favorite aspect of the book, war and weaponry. Yes, the drums were heard for a long time now and I knew the reckoning was coming, but I just felt there was too much hand-wringing with regard to building bigger bombs. It's like with the creation of jurda parem, if the technology exists someone will create it, so someone will create these bombs therefore it should be the good guys right? It all felt too heavy-handed with all the allusions to WWII and the creation of nuclear weapons. The whole "what have we wrought" of it all got to be too repetitive and boring. Yes, the question needs to be raised, but so many times? It was like a broken record. State your objections, move on, and maybe bother to answer the bigger question; the dragon of it all....more
Eva Nine might be a human bu*Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during For the Love of Book Clubs (February-August 2024)
Eva Nine might be a human but that doesn't mean she's like their leader Cadmus Pryde. She doesn't want to exterminate all alien races, she wants to coexist. Which was originally Cadmus Pryde's dream. That is until Loroc convinced him that the aliens were a threat to humanity and that he should build weapons of mass destruction. Loroc though had other plans for Cadmus Pryde's warbots. He planned to turn them against their creator, killing Cadmus Pryde and all other humans in New Attica. Because Camus Pryde is nothing more than Loroc's puppet. Until he has no more use for him that is, pinning the warbot attack on Solas solely on Cadmus Pryde's shoulders and making himself look like their saviour. Loroc is a master manipulator and is voracious. He wants all the power for himself, consuming all those, even his siblings, who stand in his way. The added benefit of devouring his siblings is that he gains their abilities through the ancient ritual of Consumption. The longer he is unchallenged the more powerful he will become. And it's up to Eva Nine and her cohort to try to save all of Orbona. She is the advocate for Orbona, now being able to communicate with the world around her after her sojourn in the forest. But that means she has to emerge from hiding in order to get all the various factions, many of which have tried to kill her in the past, to come together for the sake of Orbona. One hope is Loroc's last remaining sibling, his brother Zin. Zin had taken refuge in the ruins of New York City that Eva Nine had previously discovered. Zin is willing to help Eva Nine talk to Queen Ojo to prove that humans didn't attack Solas, it was Lorac using the humans as a scapegoat. Sadly Zin's help costs him his life as his brother absorbs him. As all the players in this drama descend on Solas, it's up to Eva Nine to speak the truth, to show that forgiveness is possible, as is coexistence. Orbono can be a home to all if all will only just listen.
The Battle for WondLa holds a special place in my heart. Not just because it so perfectly finishes this series, but because I got to see Tony DiTerlizzi on tour promoting this book. My friend Janice and I headed to Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee ten years ago now to see Tony DiTerlizzi speak. Over the years I have spent my fair share of time at author events. They can be good, they can be bad, they can be so good or so bad that they come back around on you. Authors run the whole gamut of abilities when it comes to handling crowds. Some are confident and control the room, others almost totally disappear. There are those who totally don't understand their strengths and will read long-winded excerpts when they excel at questions and answers. Needless to say, there is rarely a perfect book event. But then, Tony DiTerlizzi is one in a million. His event was flawless. He had a wonderful presentation, he knew how to interact with the crowd in such a way that he didn't talk down to the kids but also didn't bore the adults. His enthusiasm for literature and art was infectious. And in the signing line he took the time to actually talk to everyone. No one was rushed and from that day forth I went from being a fan to being an acolyte. But even if I had never had this experience with him and getting to see the joy in the eyes of my friend Janice, I would be a fan. Because the WondLa series is just wonderful. It shows valuable life lessons without being preachy or condescending. And I know a lot of Oz fans were drawn to this series because of the connection, but, well, I'm sorry, L. Frank Baum could be a condescending shit. He often talked down to his audience and lectured them when they wouldn't buy his other books and he was "forced" to return to Oz. So yeah, I'm choosing this series of Oz anyday. But what's the biggest compliment I could give this series? It left me wanting more. I wanted to see what became of Eva Nine's life. I wanted to know more. Yes, the epilogues give us hints, but not enough. Though the Cadmus Pryde reveal at the very end? Oh, that left the series on just the right note....more
Eva Nine thought that her se*Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during For the Love of Book Clubs (February-August 2024)
Eva Nine thought that her search for humans had ended. That like New York City they were an ancient civilization whose time had passed. But just as she was ready to admit defeat a ship appeared in the sky and a boy walked out. A human boy. Hailey. Hailey Turner is the pilot of the Bijou and he's going to take Eva Nine to New Attica. New Attica is the hub of the Human Repopulation Project and where all the humans live in a utopic society led by their benevolent leader Cadmus Pryde. It's everything Eva Nine has been looking for, which makes her friend Rovender Kitt warn her to be wary. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is. But Eva Nine is ready to embrace her new life, getting a tour of New Attica from Cadmus Pryde's own daughter, Gen. She even gets a makeover to make her more like the three Gens, aka Gen and her friends. But soon she starts to see that not everything is perfect in New Attica. What's more shocking though is finding out she has an older sister! Eva Eight was raised in Eva Nine's sanctuary by the same Muthr. Eva Eight left the Sanctuary for New Attica hoping to start a family which sadly never happened. At one point she even returned to the Sanctuary for Eva Nine, but Muthr refused her the child. But Eva Eight knew that one day Eva Nine would come to New Attica and there they would meet. And one night, in the Aviary, Eva Eight approaches her sister and tells her the dirty secrets of New Attica. The aliens held captive, Cadmus Pryde's plans for the human race to once again spread out over the globe destroying all other life. Eva Nine agrees that this isn't right. They need to flee New Attica and free the prisoners. They need to warn the world about what Cadmus Pryde has planned. Eva Nine might have just discovered the wide world around her, but it's already time for her to step up and save it.
The middle book in a trilogy is always tricky. You have to advance the plot enough to make it worthwhile but simultaneously keep the really big action for the finale. For the most part A Hero for WondLa does this nicely. We get to see Eva Nine experience interacting with humans for the first time and learning what it is to have peers. What's more we learn she has family with her radical sibling Eva Eight. But we also learn the lesson humanity has learned over and over, that supposed utopias come at a cost. That those who are "different" or "other" aren't part of this ideal society and they must be exterminated. So yes, it explores the dark human need to expand and control, colonialism and all it's evils. Which makes sense here, but at the same time I felt it was too much of the same. We've heard this all before, sure turning Eva Eight into a sentient tree is something new, and yes, that does happen if you think I'm making it up, but humans killing everyone off is just the same old same old. The thing is, I'm trying to think if there are any dystopian novels that don't do this... And I'm coming up blank. It's kind of the go-to trope, survival at any cost. And the one trilogy in particular I keep thinking about is The Hunger Games. Now I'm a huge fan of that series and oddly enough think the middle book is the strongest, but all I can think about with the three Gens is that they belong in The Hunger Games. I mean, come on, robotails? When they take Eva Nine out to do her makeover I couldn't help thinking of when Katniss Everdeen met Cinna. Sure, lots of dystopian books have the elite wear impractical and fanciful clothing, but I felt like this was too much of a similarity with another franchise so that it made A Hero for WondLa a little less than it could have been. On the whole it's so original in how it uses the building blocks and tropes of dystopian fiction that I felt let down a little. And seriously, it's just a little. But it was enough to make a difference....more
Eva Nine has spent her entir*Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during For the Love of Book Clubs (February-August 2024)
Eva Nine has spent her entire life in an underground sanctuary. For twelve years she has been raised by "Muthr," Multi-Utility Task Help Robot 06, and hasn't wondered much about the world outside the sanctuary's eight rooms. Though she finds an image printed on cardboard that makes her question what the outside world contains. The image appears to be of a young girl with another human and a robot with words above them apparently spelling out "WondLa." Could there be others like her out there? Other humans with robot companions? Soon she will be thrust into that world when her sanctuary is attacked by a large creature named Besteel. Muthr gets left behind as Eva Nine flees for her life. She wanders the forest looking for safety and finds another sanctuary identical to her own. Only this one has been abandoned save for a Cærulean, Rovender Kitt, who is taking refuge in the remains. Sadly Besteel catches up to Eva Nine and her and her new companion are captured. Besteel is a Dorcean bounty hunter seeking out specimens for Queen Ojo's Royal Museum in Solas. Eva Nine and Rovender Kitt are brought to his camp, containing countless other specimens. But Eva Nine doesn't plan to be a embalmed and put on display in a museum. She and Rovender Kitt stage a successful escape, gaining Otto, a giant tardigrade, as their new traveling companion. Returning home Eva Nine finds Muthr in the wreckage and they are able to repair her and the unlikely crew decide to head out in search of clues as to what became of the human race. Which means traveling to Solas and the museum that wants Eva Nine as a specimen. It will be a harrowing journey, but in the end Eva Nine will have some answers. She will find her Wondla.
In the before times when I went to conventions and saw people I loved going to WisCon. I mean, who doesn't want to go to a science fiction convention with a feminist agenda? The authors I have met there over the years have filled my bookish heart with glee. But one aspect of the con I loved more than any other was the arcs you were able to get your hands on. They'd be on a large table and they all cost a dollar. Though prized arcs often ended up in the Tiptree Auction, named after famed science fiction author James Tiptree Jr., the pen name of Alice Bradley Sheldon. In my second year attending I had recently devoured the entirety of The Spiderwick Chronicles and I saw this book in the auction that seemed to conflate the titles of children's classics The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland hopefully creating a new classic written AND illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi of Spiderwick fame. I needed The Search for WondLa but was worried I wouldn't win because I had to put in an absentee bid because I couldn't be there for the auction. But someone knew I needed a win and I was surprised to find out that I was the winning bidder when I showed up to the final day of the convention. And the thing is, I was right about the title, to an extent. He was setting out to make a modern classic on par with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, only heavier on Oz. But the real takeaway is that he succeeded magnificently. It's not just the two-tone illustrations reminiscent of W.W. Denslow that are spot on. But the story feels timeless. There's the joy and wonder of what a child experiences the first time they encounter something new. As a kid I loved exploring museums, and when Eva Nine sees history all in one place for the first time, I felt that connection to my childhood. In that moment I was Eva Nine. But by far the best scene is at the very end. In an homage to the original Planet of the Apes when Eva Nine discovers that what she has been holding onto as a talisman is the cover of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz while in the remains of the main branch of The New York Public Library I actually cried. I knew it was coming but somehow it still shocked me. And that's what the best stories do, make us so invested that even if we see what's coming it hits us hard and it becomes a part of us....more
Coriolanus Snow's life is about keeping up appearances. No one must know how far the great and illustrious Snows have fallen since the Dark Days. ThatCoriolanus Snow's life is about keeping up appearances. No one must know how far the great and illustrious Snows have fallen since the Dark Days. That Coriolanus, his cousin Tigris, and their Grandma'am struggle daily to put food on the table and clothes on their back. Coriolanus is a top student at the Academy but if he has any hopes of continuing on to the University he needs a full ride, something The Hunger Games could give him through the Plinth Prize, a monetary reward set up by the father of one of his classmates. If the tribute Coriolanus is assigned to mentor in the tenth annual Hunger Games wins all his worries will evaporate. But then he gets a slap in the face, he's assigned District 12's female. He knows he has no chance of winning with a tribute from this district, but he must try. This might just involve rewriting the rules but he will do anything to succeed. Lucy Gray Baird might seem unlikely to win, but she captured the hearts and minds of the Capital during the reaping with a song. He decides this unique individual needs a different approach than is traditional, so he greets her when she arrives and treats her like a human being. He makes sure she is taken care of and fed. She rewards his kindness by saving his life when the Capital Arena is bombed during a tour organized for the mentors and tributes. He knows he can't let Lucy Gray be just more fodder in the arena. If she can stay alive long enough she has a chance. Luckily Coriolanus's scheme to allow inhabitants of the Capital to bet on and sponsor tributes has been enacted by the Gamemakers and Lucy is a favorite of the viewers. The only problem is Coriolanus is starting to have too much of a personal investment in Lucy. He doesn't just care about the Plinth Prize anymore, he cares about her, and that makes him reckless. He cheats. He's caught. He's punished. He must find a way to rise again. No matter the cost.
It is a sadly rare occurrence when one of the year's most anticipated books is actually worthy of that accolade. But maybe that's just my jaded opinion because I so rarely agree with all those "best of" lists. Yet another reason for why I make my own. Therefore I was delighted when The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes actually exceeded my expectations as well as proving to all those people who said the title seemed to be randomly generated by a YA book title generator how wrong they were because it makes so much sense in context! IT MAKES SENSE PEOPLE! And yes, I'm dredging up arguments I had with people online almost two years ago over a title of a not yet released at that time book. It's what I do. You'd think a prequel starring an anti-hero who by the time we've met him later is an out and out villain would lack any way for the reader to connect and be invested in the character's journey, but you'd be so wrong. It's not that I felt emotionally invested in Coriolanus, it's that I felt pity for him and became invested in how he manipulated the world around him and those in his orbit to survive and thrive. It was a peak behind the curtain, seeing that this man, at one time, had vulnerabilities and how he exploited his connections to armor himself. There was even a glimpse at redemption, that maybe we had judged him all wrong, until the worm twisted. This isn't A Christmas Carol people, Coriolanus isn't going to give a goose to a poor family after a pleasant memory of charades. He's a tyrant who will die a tyrant after the violent overthrowing of the Capital. What's more we see how Coriolanus's need to grasp the golden ring leads him to make connections that others wouldn't. He finds ways to make The Hunger Games not just a punishment for the other Districts but something those in the Capital can be invested in. Again, this is all backstage stuff, we're seeing how the Capital suffered in the wake of the District uprisings and how they were ravaged and how revenge then festered and bloomed into The Hunger Games as we know them in Katniss's time. This is about the complete human experience, deprivation, desire, determination, and death. This is a prequel not just worthy of the original series but perhaps even better....more
Elizabeth (Miss Eliza)
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