
Posts Tagged 'two out of five stars'

Book Review: Blackfin Sky, by Kat Ellis

I know that young adult literature is undergoing a revival, both in publisher interest and popular culture. I know that everyone, young and old, has been enjoying “new” YA, from Twilight to The Book Thief to The Fault in Our Stars. I know that there is some fine YA out there, and that I’ve been lucky enough to have read some of it when I was actually a young adult.

I also know that I personally struggle to appreciate the current trends of YA sometimes, and that I am basically a grumpy old curmudgeon, yelling at kids to get off my lawn.

All of this to say that I am not the target audience for Kat Ellis’s debut YA novel, Blackfin Sky, but  it’s not because it is YA; it’s because it is not a well-crafted novel overall. In fact, I think it is pandering and insulting to its intended audience of young adults, many of whom are critical and discerning readers themselves.

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Blackfin Sky starts off promisingly enough: Sky Rousseau is dead. Or rather, she was dead–for three months. Now, to the shock of the town of Blackfin, she’s alive and well, with no memory of the time that she spent “dead.” This part of the book was enjoyable, as Sky’s family and friends tried to deal with her apparent resurrection, and Sky struggled to unravel the mystery of what really happened the night she supposedly drowned. Then things start getting a little bonkers, as Sky discovers she has certain special abilities, that the burned-down circus on the edge of town holds importance to many of the secrets of her past, and that someone out there is hunting her down. This summary makes the disparate elements sound more cohesive than they actually are. Thrown into that main plotline are narrative cul de sacs like a missing little boy at the circus, a murder mystery, a “haunted” house, and some truly distracting attempts at a French accent.

Continue reading ‘Book Review: Blackfin Sky, by Kat Ellis’

Book Review: Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks

Rarely have I read a novel that self-destructed as spectacularly in its conclusion as Geraldine Brooks’ Year of Wonders. In my experience, at least, if a book is going to go sour, it happens quickly and early on. You probably know the feeling: you crack open a book you’re excited about, or that’s been recommended to you by someone you trust, and start to read, and it dawns on you almost immediately that you are going to hate this book, but you gamely struggle on, hoping against hope that it will get better. And when it doesn’t, you’re disappointed, but not necessarily surprised.

Year of Wonders is different, in large part because it starts out so strongly–making that fact that it ends so poorly feel almost like a betrayal.

year_of_wonders

Year of Wonders is, on the one hand, an impeccably-researched historical fiction novel about a small English town that, when faced with an outbreak of the bubonic plague, chooses to isolate itself to prevent the disease from spreading. Inspired by the true story of Esam, this novel follows the journey of one woman in particular: Anna, handmaid to the wife of the village’s rector, who has lost both her husband and her children. Rather than becoming broken due to the circumstances, Anna is built up. She steps into the vaccuum left by many of the town’s traditional leaders and becomes a powerful force in her own right. Anna learns to read and write, and–along with her employer and friend, Elinor–learns about herbal remedies that may be the key to stopping the devastating sweep of the plague.

Cool, right?

Continue reading ‘Book Review: Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks’

Book Review: The Bitches of Brooklyn, by Rosemary Harris

Thanks, Thranduil. 

I always say, when asked, that I read “everything,” and I do usually mean it. My tastes are pretty wide ranging, from hard sci-fi to poetry, from literary fiction to true crime. Upon reflection, however, there are some genres that I have tended to avoid: romance (of all flavors, paranormal and otherwise), mysteries, and what is often somewhat-pejoratively referred to as “chick lit.” Not because I think poorly of those genres, but because I know myself and my tastes. And as you can see from previous reviews, when I’ve been fooled into reading romance in the guise of sci-fi or fantasy, I’ve been…less than kind.

With all of that in mind, you might wonder why I decided to read mystery writer Rosemary Harris’s latest, The Bitches of Brooklyn. Three words: title and cover. They were eye-catching and kind of hilarious, and I couldn’t help myself. Additionally, I live in New York City and enjoy reading books that take place here, especially in the boroughs. So I thought, “ah, what the hell,” and clicked to download The Bitches of Brooklyn e-book.

It didn’t take me too long to realize I had made a mistake, but I’m too stubborn to stop reading a book I’ve started.

Continue reading ‘Book Review: The Bitches of Brooklyn, by Rosemary Harris’

Book Review: Hemlock Grove, by Brian McGreevy

My honest reaction upon finishing Brian McGreevy’s debut novel Hemlock Grove:


See more on Know Your Meme

And I was so, so disappointed, because I had wanted to read it since it first came out, even moreso after I heard it was being adapted into a series on Netflix. I love werewolves, I love post-industrial town settings, and I love creepy paranormal murders, all things that I was promised in this updated take on the Gothic novel.

Instead, I got lackluster characterizations, a slow and frequently-lost plot, bizarre allusions to concepts that were never resolved, tortured writing, and some final twists that were eyeroll-inducing.

Continue reading ‘Book Review: Hemlock Grove, by Brian McGreevy’


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