The Golden Compass the Graphic Novel Volume 2 by Philip Pullman and adapted and illustratrated by Stephane Melchior and Clement Oubrerie

Summary on Goodreads:

This second volume of the graphic novel finds Lyra in the far North. With the help of Gyptian fighters, newfound witch allies, and the armored bear Iorek Byrnison, she means to rescue the children held captive by the notorious Gobblers.

The stunning full-color art offers both new and returning readers a chance to experience the story of Lyra, an ordinary girl with an extraordinary role to play in the fates of multiple worlds, in an entirely unique way.

Published in 50 countries with over 22 million copies sold, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass are renowned for their engrossing storytelling and epic scope. These modern classics are must-reads for every book lover.

Review:

One of my favorite fantasy series of all times is His Dark Materials. I even dressed up as the third book in the series one year for Halloween. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to learn of the graphic novels being made. I was lucky enough to find the first one at BEA a couple of years ago. And I had to put a request in for the second as soon as I heard it was coming out.

I have to say, going into this review, that I am biased. The Golden Compass is one of those books I read over and over and over again growing up. This series probably comes in second to me, only after Harry Potter. I would probably love any version of this story I could get my hands on (as long as it wasn’t butchered and destroyed).

With that bias in mind, this was pure gold. I loved it. I loved getting a new perspective into this incredibly well written and complex world. I loved getting a visual for things I remember being described and working hard to get a clear image of before. Here, I get to see what a boy separated from his daemon actually looked like. I got to see a sky full of flying witches. I saw firsthand what Iorek Byrnison looked like when he first reunited with his armor.

Yes, I saw these things in the movie too. But, I kind of like to pretend that the movie never happened. Sometimes, I guess it’s okay to see things in graphic novel format, but movie formatting just doesn’t work.

I like that the graphic novels are being done in 3 parts. This is a big book, and I’d hate for things to be cut out because of time constraints. I like that I’m still getting all the details this way. It helps that there is no boring part of the story. Parts 1, 2, and 3 will all be equally compelling because the plot stays strong throughout. The artwork does a good job of showing the character’s movements and emotions.

Really, reading this feels like re-reading the book in a new perspective. And I’m so glad to have the opportunity to read this story again for what kind of feels like the first time. I love this reunion with one of my all time favorites.

I’m not sure if people who have not read the original text would enjoy this as much. It reads more like a special present for the already existing fans. It would still read as a high action adventure story with curious ideas and even more curious characters, but I do think the real magic here is in the re-read. I give it a 9/10.

Pax by Sarah Pennypacker and read by Michael Curran-Dorsano

Summary from Goodreads:

Pax was only a kit when his family was killed, and “his boy” Peter rescued him from abandonment and certain death. Now the war front approaches, and when Peter’s father enlists, Peter has to move in with his grandpa. Far worse than being forced to leave home is the fact that Pax can’t go. Peter listens to his stern father—as he usually does—and throws Pax’s favorite toy soldier into the woods. When the fox runs to retrieve it, Peter and his dad get back in the car and leave him there—alone. But before Peter makes it through even one night under his grandfather’s roof, regret and duty spur him to action; he packs for a trek to get his best friend back and sneaks into the night. This is the story of Peter, Pax, and their independent struggles to return to one another against all odds. Told from the alternating viewpoints of Peter and Pax.

Review:

Wow. The middlegrade books are killing it this year. This was one of my favorite reads in a long time. This book really had me thinking about a lot of things. It’s one of those books I wish that more people in my circle would read because I need to discuss it with people out loud. I need to dissect it and pull apart its greatness.

For starters, I loved all the chapters in Pax’s point of view. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t enjoy this book because I don’t have the best track record for finishing animal based stories. Also, so many animal stories end poorly, and I tend to stay away from that as a general rule. This was different though. This was learning how a tame fox can survive in the wild. This was learning about how foxes communicate with each other. And it was learning about just how much the lives of humans affect all the animals around them.

This was really powerful stuff. It’s not what I was expecting to get from this book. Add in a few more other deep, dark elements and well, I was hooked. I liked that this wasn’t a book about humans destroying the planet, a father abusing his kid, a boy running away from home, or even a country devastated by war. All these were components. But, the main focal point was the boy and his fox trying to find each other again. It was about friendship and doing the right thing.

I’m a bit of a sucker for a survival story. I loved Hatchet and The Hunger Games and this can definitely fit into that genre as well. The boy had to survive in the wild too, with a bad injury to boot. Pax had to learn to hunt, to talk with other foxes, to deal with predators, etc.

This is not a book I could recommend to any kid. There’s a lot of dark stuff here. One of my favorite characters has PTSD. War is in the background, so of course death has a role to play. And on another level, both main characters have a lot of learning to do. There were two devastating moments for me and they weren’t when anyone died. They were when both Pax and Peter (separately) came to major, life-changing realizations. Both these realizations hit me in the heart, and I couldn’t stop thinking about these characters all week because of this.

I don’t want to say too much more because if you read this book, it needs to be fresh and spoiler free. I think this would be a great book for a YA reader who hasn’t found a good middle grade book to hook them yet. This is a powerful story and I can see why it’s a front runner for the children’s book awards this year. I give it a 10/10.

Waiting on Wednesday (204)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week I am waiting on Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven (10/4/16):

 
Description on Goodreads:

Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed “America’s Fattest Teen.” But no one’s taken the time to look past her weight to get to know who she really is. Following her mom’s death, she’s been picking up the pieces in the privacy of her home, dealing with her heartbroken father and her own grief. Now, Libby’s ready: for high school, for new friends, for love, and for EVERY POSSIBILITY LIFE HAS TO OFFER. In that moment, I know the part I want to play here at MVB High. I want to be the girl who can do anything.

Everyone thinks they know Jack Masselin, too. Yes, he’s got swagger, but he’s also mastered the impossible art of giving people what they want, of fitting in. What no one knows is that Jack has a newly acquired secret: he can’t recognize faces. Even his own brothers are strangers to him. He’s the guy who can re-engineer and rebuild anything in new and bad-ass ways, but he can’t understand what’s going on with the inner workings of his brain. So he tells himself to play it cool: Be charming. Be hilarious. Don’t get too close to anyone.

Until he meets Libby. When the two get tangled up in a cruel high school game—which lands them in group counseling and community service—Libby and Jack are both pissed, and then surprised. Because the more time they spend together, the less alone they feel. . . . Because sometimes when you meet someone, it changes the world, theirs and yours.

Jennifer Niven delivers another poignant, exhilarating love story about finding that person who sees you for who you are—and seeing them right back.

Why I’m Waiting:

Basically, I could not take my eyes off the pages of All the Bright Places. I know this is an author who can write real, believable characters. She’s not afraid to play with my emotions, and I’m so excited to see what she brings next. I like how different her two new main characters sound, and I can’t wait to start reading about them.

What are you waiting on?

Ghostly Echoes by william Ritter

Summary from Goodreads:

Jenny Cavanaugh, the ghostly lady of 926 Augur Lane, has enlisted the investigative services of her fellow residents to solve a decade-old murder—her own. Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, Detective R. F. Jackaby, dive into the cold case, starting with a search for Jenny’s fiancé, who went missing the night she died. But when a new, gruesome murder closely mirrors the events of ten years prior, Abigail and Jackaby realize that Jenny’s case isn’t so cold after all, and her killer may be far more dangerous than they suspected.

Fantasy and folklore mix with mad science as Abigail’s race to unravel the mystery leads her across the cold cobblestones of nineteenth-century New England, down to the mythical underworld, and deep into her colleagues’ grim histories to battle the most deadly foe she has ever faced.

Review:

I wish I could put this book in more people’s hands. Seriously, these books are so amazingly good. Every time a new installment comes out, it’s like getting a free dessert added to your already excellent meal at your favorite restaurant.

I loved this book possibly even more than the first two. This is the book where I really got to see more deeply into the masterful craft that is William Ritter. The other installments could almost have worked as stand-alones because they were each separate stories. This book weaved together elements from the past two books in a way I was not expecting. And Ritter must have planned a lot from the beginning.

I loved getting to know Jenny more. And there was the added bonus of getting to know the mysterious Jackaby more too. I learned a little of his childhood. He even brought up his parents! Add this to the fact that Jenny’s murder is kind of connected to everything. Oh, and Abigail literally gets to journey to the underworld! What? How did one of my favorite fantasy tropes end up in this historic/paranormal mystery? Because this book is nuts in all the best of ways.

Also, there are new mythological creatures, new characters, new enemies, and new friends. A certain police werewolf comes to help. And there is a lot to learn about possessions, power, “seeing,” and machines. Is this novel missing anything awesome? If it is, it’s only because the dinosaur dig was in the book before.

I loved the story, the mystery, the historic New England setting, and the humor. I love the back and forth camaraderie Jackaby still has with Abigail. I love watching Abigail become stronger and stronger, and grow further into her role of investigator. And I’m so glad I finally learned what happened to Jenny and her finace. So much happens in this book. My only complaint is I want more.

The next book is setup to be really interesting, and will involve our favorite characters basically needing to save the world. And it’s all connected to the first two books. What a fun, well written, witty mystery! I can’t recommend it enough. I give it a 10/10.

A Good Week in Books (142) - The Boston Teen Author Festival Edition

I had a great book week. I finished 3 great books. But, also, I attended the Boston Teen Author Festival. It was the first time I made it to the festival (aka: the first time I wasn’t working that Saturday)! It was free and open to the public, thanks in large part to the Cambridge Public Library, which was a very cool place.

Basically, it opened with one, giant panel (of 35 YA authors). And from there, attendees were invited to purchase books by the authors. And then followed a day of panels, and a giant 2-hour signing session. I purchased 3 new books to be signed and I brought along 6 books from home to also be signed. I am so lucky to have such supportive friends because my two friends, who came with, took some of my books to get signed for me. Friends who support my YA obsession are the best friends out there.  I’m fairly sure I would not have been able to get them all signed otherwise. And I stayed in the lines of the authors I was excited to meet in person (pretty much the ones I hadn’t met before).

The panels were also super amazing. They are the panels I wished existed at BEA. Any way, we first went to one called “OMG There’s a Body in my Book: Writing Killer Mysteries” with authors: Brittany Cavallaro, Rebecca Podos, and Kim Savage. What a fun panel! Brittany Cavallaro is so cool, I wish I was friends with her. Then my friends and I had a yummy lunch outside at a fantastic Korean food truck, where we kind of made friends with the authors of the next panel, or at least talked about Korean foods for like 10 minutes with them.

We went back in for the panel called “Choose-Your-Own-Family Adventure” with Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Melissa Landers, Kate Scelza, and Jeff Zetner. Basically, if I have not read their books, now I need to like mad. They had such amazing stories to tell. The last panel we attended before the signing began was: “The Journey Toward Mental Health” with Kathryn Holmes, Emery Lord, Natasha Sinel, and Francisco X. Stork. That one was really insightful, and I think ended helping me out with the editing process of something I worked on last year.

All in all, it was an inspiring, fun-filled day. My friends and I ended the day in Plymouth, where we met up with my boyfriend and had a nice fall bonfire. Seriously, what a good day!

The books I took with me to be signed:

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa
Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill
The Archived by Victoria Schwab
Starflight by Melissa Landers

The new books I got signed:

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
Compulsion by Martina Boone
A World Without You by Beth Revis

How was your week in books?

Waiting on Wednesday (203)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week I am waiting on Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton (3/7/17):

Description on Goodreads:

The sizzling, un-put-downable sequel to the bestselling Rebel of the Sands!

Mere months ago, gunslinger Amani al'Hiza fled her dead-end hometown on the back of a mythical horse with the mysterious foreigner Jin, seeking only her own freedom. Now she's fighting to liberate the entire desert nation of Miraji from a bloodthirsty sultan who slew his own father to capture the throne.

When Amani finds herself thrust into the epicenter of the regime—the Sultan's palace—she's determined to bring the tyrant down. Desperate to uncover the Sultan's secrets by spying on his court, she tries to forget that Jin disappeared just as she was getting closest to him, and that she's a prisoner of the enemy. But the longer she remains, the more she questions whether the Sultan is really the villain she's been told he is, and who’s the real traitor to her sun-bleached, magic-filled homeland.

Forget everything you thought you knew about Miraji, about the rebellion, about djinni and Jin and the Blue-Eyed Bandit. In Traitor to the Throne, the only certainty is that everything will change.

Why I’m Waiting:

Yay! I’m so excited to know the sequel is coming soon! I adored the first book in this series. I love fantasy books with desert settings. And the first one was such a good fantasy. I have to admit that I will need to brush up on that first one again though before starting the sequel, because the names don’t sound familiar to me any more. I just know that I loved it. And the cover is so pretty. I cannot wait.

What are you waiting on this week?

The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Summary on Goodreads:

This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.

The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.

That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.

But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.

Review:

I’m getting a little tired of YA dystopias. That being said, I knew going into this, what this was. I wasn’t expecting it to all of a sudden shift into a sci-fi novel. Based off the description, I knew it would be formulaic. I wasn’t expecting to love it. Mostly, I was feeling like I was in a dystopia type mood. I needed something that wasn’t fantasy or contemporary, and this just felt like the right book at the right time. I was right.

I ended up liking this one a lot more than I was even anticipating. It turns out that I need a good dystopia every now and then –something dark and fast paced. It was hard to put the book down. I found myself running late to things because I’d want to finish a chapter and then another one. It was a compelling story.  And I never felt like putting it down.

The formula of the plot of this novel though was very familiar. There’s a chosen girl type trope. There’s a revolution brewing. There’s a love triangle/square. And there’s the girl who will spark the change for everything. I kind of called all the twists and surprises from the beginning because this is a formula I know very well. This is both a good and a bad thing. Bad, because I prefer to be surprised. But, good, because I kind of was craving a formulaic story like that after the destruction of my emotions from the previous book I had read. Sometimes, I need something I can easily swallow after a tougher/more emotionally intense book. It eased my pallet, so to speak.

That being said, I’m not sure I would have enjoyed this as much if I weren’t treating it as a YA pallet cleansers of sorts. It was really just the right book at the right time kind of scenario.

None of the characters particularly stood out for me. The bad guys were the typical bad guys. The main character was interesting, but I never felt super connected to her. Besides her being a great thief, there wasn’t a lot of back-story to her character. It was all about her learning to be an upper class silver blood. And I kind of didn’t care about all that stuff too much because I didn’t really get to see her as a poor red blood for very long.

The world was interesting, but I have seen similar worlds before in many dystopias. Generally though, I’m used to seeing the characters with abilities and supernatural powers being treated poorly and the regular humans taking charge (like in X-Men). So, the reversal of that was interesting. In this world, those with super powers were in charge. And, I guess this made a lot of sense to me.

All in all this was an okay book that I liked a lot more than I was expecting to. I read it at the right moment. It cured a book hang over from a much better, yet more emotionally devastating book. It served its purpose. I’m not sure how inclined I am to read the sequel. Though, I loved the fast paced action. I give this one 7/10.