Book Review: A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness

To be honest, I'm not sure how to classify this book. There are monsters, but it's not really horror. There is magic and dreaming, but it's not really fantasy. It's in that strange place between children's and YA fiction, but it is also mature enough for adult readers to get something out of reading it. I do know that I loved it unreservedly and will definitely read it again.

Conor's mother is receiving treatment for cancer, he's being bullied at school, and he feels like he's been betrayed by his best friend. Patrick Ness writes a beautiful, poignant, heartbreaking, honest story about how Conor confronts his own personal monsters, aided by the help of the monster that was the yew tree growing in the church yard across the street.

I can't think of anyone I wouldn't recommend this book to. I let it sit on my shelf for almost a year before reading it, and I regret that immensely. Read this book immediately. You'll be glad you did.

Rating: 5 stars

Short Story Saturday: Fade to White, by Catherynne M. Valente

I read "Fade to White" when it was nominated for a Hugo last year, and it stuck with me all that night and through the next week. It was just one of those sticky kinds of stories. It had so much to say, and it did it in such a unique (to me) way.

It's a sort of alternate history of the post-WWII era. Something went entirely wrong with the war, and California was completely obliterated, in what sounds like some kind of nuclear bomb or disaster. It left most American men completely sterile, and many American women as well. In a sort of reversal of The Handmaid's Tale, the few men who are still potent become Husbands who have four or more wives. The story is told in three ways: first, there's advertising copy with the editors changes included. It's upbeat government-funded advertising that's meant to reassure Americans that as little as possible has changed. The second aspect of the story is in the point of view of Sylvie, a 15-year-old half-Japanese girl who is about to go to her Presentation, the ceremony where she submits to dozens of tests and finds out whether she's fertile and what careers she's eligible for. The third aspect of the story is told by Martin, a 15-year-old boy who daydreams about nothing but becoming a Father and is preparing for his Announcement, the corresponding ceremony and test for boys. These three views alternate, telling a tale that is extremely chilling, in part because of its believability.

I pretty much adore everything Catherynne Valente has ever written. She's amazing with words, writing things like, "she could cut glass with the diamond of her mind," and she always has a fascinating and beautiful story to tell, or a new observation to make about the world.

I would recommend that pretty much everyone click on that link above and go check out this story. It was published in Clarkesworld Magazine, and it's available for free online. It was nominated for a Nebula and a Hugo, and it was a Sidewise Award finalist. I would especially recommend it to alternate-history fans and people interested in the 40s, WWII, and the changes the war made by bringing women into the workplace.

Rating: 5 stars

Book Review: The Magicians, by Lev Grossman

I loved this book. It's been on my to-read list for a very long time, but for some reason, I never managed to pick it up. Actually, I know the reason. The cover is uninspiring, and I have always been a girl who judges a book by its cover. If you're not supposed to do that, what's the cover for, anyway?! After having read the book, I'm rather unclear on exactly what the crooked, badly "pruned," yellow-leaved tree on the cover has to do with the story whatsoever. But I don't make those decisions, so...

As I said, I loved this book. The Magicians is divided into four parts. In the beginning of the first part, Quentin Coldwater, a brilliant high school senior obsessed with a series of fantasy books set in the magical world Fillory (a sort of Narnia-like place of clear-cut good and evil, talking animals, and ram gods, accessed at random through clocks, closets, etc., and in which children always seem to go on exciting quests), has one of his closest-held dreams come true. He is told that magic is real, and he's offered a position in the only American university that teaches it. The first part of the book is reminiscent of Harry Potter, if only because it is a bunch of young(ish) wizards learning how to do magic. But instead of seeming like a pale imitation of something else, Lev Grossman acknowledges the inevitable similarities and creates something entirely his own.

One deliberate reference to the similarities was when Quentin went to look for a member of his welters team (welters is a sort of magical man-sized chess game in which teams try to capture squares on a giant board using magic). Josh is talking to a dealer in magical items when Quentin finds him, half an hour after the game started. Josh looks at the dealer and asks, "Got anything for time travel? Time-turner or something?" When the dealer says he'll look into it, Josh says, "Awesome. Send me an owl." Later in that same scene, he says, "Gotta get my quiddich costume. I mean uniform. I mean welters."

But instead of being a book about becoming a wizard, The Magicians is a book about becoming a man. Quentin has everything. He's incredibly smart, he's probably headed to Princeton, his parents are still married and live well enough in Brooklyn...but he's unhappy. When he is told magic is real and offered the chance to learn it, his dreams come true. But he's still unhappy, feeling like his real life hasn't really started yet. At its core, The Magicians is an exploration into the follies of living for some more desirable future, rather than being happy with an already amazing present. Lev Grossman does this by writing about what it would be like for someone to get everything he ever wanted, only to realize that bringing his fantasies into the real world changes them, or changes his perception of them, and once he gets everything he wants, he has to find something new to desire, or feel directionless.

I think Lev Grossman's use of Harry Potter and Narnia references is incredibly smart, because those are the worlds that today's young people fantasize about. He hands those dreams to Quentin with no strings attached. And then he asks the question: Now what?

I would recommend this book to anyone who's ever fantasized about being spun into another, more beautiful, magical world.

Rating: 5 stars!

Short Story Saturday: The Chapel Perilous, by Kevin Hearne

This week, I was in the mood for an anthology with multiple authors, and Unfettered, edited by Shawn Speakman, was the perfect book to pull off the shelf. For those of you who have never heard of Unfettered, it's a volume that only exists because of the generosity and friendship of some of the most talented writers in Sci/Fi and Fantasy, who donated stories for the anthology to pay off the medical debt of Shawn Speakman after his second bout with cancer in 2011. There is no theme to this anthology. Instead, the authors were given the freedom to submit whatever short stories they wanted.

Kevin Hearne's story takes place in the same world as his Iron Druid Chronicles and features the druid Atticus as the main character (and Oberon as the usual show-stealing wolfhound). Atticus tells the true story of the quest for the Holy Grail (which he features in heavily...well, pretty much almost exclusively), and in its telling, reveals that the history of the Grail began long before Jesus' time.

I was fascinated by the new-to-me origin story of the Grail (or Celtic Graal). I read "The Chapel Perilous" with the expectation of being entertained, and Kevin Hearne did not disappoint. In spite of Atticus's obvious run-in with the Chapel Perilous (given the title), what could be very dark and macabre tale maintains its lighter mood. Kevin Hearne has a wry sense of humor, and Atticus's interactions with Oberon and with the horse he rides in the story were some of the best (and funniest) parts of the tale. I loved that it ties in with the other Iron Druid books as well, but that you don't need to read them to love this story.

I'd recommend this story to any reader who likes Kevin Hearne, but also to any readers who enjoy a new take on an old tale, or a lighthearted story with a little action, magic, and history mixed in.

Rating: 5 stars!