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MINI-REVIEWS: Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel, Boxer, Beetle, The Dollhouse Murders

Posted by Anastasia on November 18, 2011 5 Responses »

Nov 182011

129. Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel by A.B. Sina
Publication: First Second (September 2, 2008), Paperback, 208pp / ISBN 1596432071
Genre: Historical Fantasy, Graphic Novel

Read: October 22, 2011
Source: Bought | Buy your own copy at Amazon.

Mini-Review

Things this book has: pretty graphics, lovely coloring, a very confusing story and vaguely interesting historical fantasy/magical realism stuff.

Basically I have no idea re:what the Prince of Persia video games are about, but I do know there’s time travel and princesses who need rescuing. The graphic novel has one princess (I think she’s a princess, anyway), who basically rescues herself, so that’s cool. But there’s no time travel and I have no idea if the story is actually related to the video games or if they just have the same characters. I don’t even know if that’s important– but I do know that I was seriously confused for most of the book and though I loved looking at the pretty pretty peacock I wish I understood wtf was actually going on and how it relates to the whole Prince of Persia franchise.

Rating

Pretty drawings, confusing story.

132. Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman
Publication: Bloomsbury USA; Reprint edition (September 13, 2011), Paperback, 256pp / ISBN 1608196801
Genre: Fiction/Historical Fiction

Read: October 25, 2011
Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewers | Buy your own copy at Amazon.

Mini-Review

Things this book has: a gay Jewish boxer, Nazis, people who collect Nazi memorabilia without actually being Nazis themselves, a gay(?) eugenicicist, a deficit of decent female characters, some excellent historical fiction stuff, and an enthralling writing style that ties all the weird stuff together in such a way that it’s somehow both entertaining and not at all confusing.

What I liked best about Boxer, Beetle was how it felt like your standard literary fiction story written by a dude, but it managed to skip all the annoying stuff lit fic mostly does. There’s sex, but it wasn’t disgusting (for all that it was often degrading to whoever was having it). There’s weirdo loser protagonists, but they weren’t SO weirdo loser that I wouldn’t sit next to them on a bus, for instance. The ending is depressing but that actually doesn’t annoy me all that much, and the rest of the story is so entertaining that it almost makes up for only having one female character who gets a shot at the POV train.

Rating

I liked it a lot!

134. The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright
Publication: Live Oak Media (September 1998), originally published 1983(?), Paperback, 149pp / ISBN 0874995205
Genre: Children’s Horror

Read: October 27, 2011
Source: Library Book Sale | Buy your own copy at Amazon.

Mini-Review

Things this book has: haunted dollhouses, a murder mystery (sort of), interesting family dynamics, seriously dated and/or cheesy dialogue/writing.

I’ve been meaning to read this book for years, and now that I’ve done it I can’t see what the big deal it. Yes, it’s scary (especially if you’re afraid of ghosts, like I am). Yes, it’s got a nice family relationship thing in it. But other than that it’s really, really, 1980s in both writing style and feel (in a bad way), and I think that most people who adore it are remembering it through a haze of nostalgia.

Rating

Meh.

MINI-REVIEWS: The 14th Dalai Lama and Gandhi manga biographies

Posted by Anastasia on October 5, 2011 4 Responses »

Oct 052011

Click on the book cover to go to its Amazon page.

116. The 14th Dalai Lama: A Manga Biography by Tetsu Saiwai
Publication: Penguin (Non-Classics); Reprint edition (September 28, 2010), Paperback, 208pp / ISBN 0143118153
Genre: Children’s/MG Graphic Novel, Biography

Read: September 29, 2011
Source: Publisher (thank you!)

Review

It’s always difficult to compress a person’s life story into a book that’s less than 200 pages, but The 14th Dalai Lama: A Manga Biography made a decent effort. It highlights the important parts of the Dalai Lama’s life, from childhood to adulthood, and it gives a good overview of the situation with Tibet and China. The art was nice, if not overly detailed, and the writing was pretty compelling. Maybe some scenes were a little melodramatic, but they kept the story from getting boring.

I do have some issues with other aspects of the book, though. There’s no info on who translated the book, there are no page numbers, and the pages have been flipped. I’m guessing the flipping happened because it’s easier for people who aren’t familiar with manga to read, but why the exclusion of the page numbers? Why no translator info? It’s just weird.

Rating

Not the best manga ever, but it’s pretty good.

117. Gandhi: A Manga Biography by Kazuki Ebine
Publication: Penguin (Non-Classics) (September 27, 2011), Paperback, 192pp / ISBN 0143120247
Genre: Children’s/MG Graphic Novel, Biography

Read: September 29, 2011
Source: Publisher (thank you!)

Review

Since I enjoyed The 14th Dalai Lama I was hoping for something similar with this one, but unfortunately it’s not that good. There’s still the same issue with compressing 70 or so years into less than 200 pages, but I think The 14th Dalai Lama‘s author did a better job at doing it. Gandhi‘s author put emphasis on the world-changing parts of Gandhi’s life, sure, but he skipped over a lot of the personally important parts. The 14th Dalai Lama has bits with the Dalai Lama’s family, and his friends, etc., and it makes for a more compelling story. With Gandhi, almost all that personal stuff is either skipped over or visualized with maybe one page, and it made his story feel very cold. I don’t think the stilted dialogue helped, either.

Like The 14th Dalai Lama, there are no page numbers or info about the translator, and the pages are flipped. Even worse, however, are the multiple errors in the text, including a misspelling of “perhaps.” There also isn’t any punctuation except for exclamation and question marks, which makes reading it pretty terrible. The art is also less interesting than in The 14th Dalai Lama, which, considering how light on the details that one was, is saying something.

Rating

Good for the very basics of Gandhi’s life, but it’s got mediocre art and questionable copy-editing.

REVIEW: Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham

Posted by Anastasia on September 23, 2011 7 Responses »

Sep 232011

108. Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham
Publication: Starscape (September 13, 2011), ARC Paperback, ?pp / ISBN 0765327929
Genre: MG Fantasy

Read: September 3-4, 2011
Source: BEA 2011

Summary from Amazon:

Max “the Wolf” is a top notch Boy Scout, an expert at orienteering and a master of being prepared. So it is a little odd that he suddenly finds himself, with no recollection of his immediate past, lost in an unfamiliar wood. Even odder still, he encounters a badger named Banderbrock, a black bear named Walden, and McTavish the Monster (who might also be an old barn cat)—all of whom talk—and who are as clueless as Max.

Before long, Max and his friends are on the run from a relentless group of hunters and their deadly hounds. Armed with powerful blue swords and known as the Blue Cutters, these hunters capture and change the very essence of their prey. For what purpose, Max can’t guess. But unless he can solve the mystery of the strange forested world he’s landed in, Max may find himself and his friends changed beyond recognition, lost in a lost world…

Review

At this point, three-and-a-bit-more months after BEA, I’d pretty much forgotten what Down the Mysterly River was about. I knew it was an MG fantasy, and I knew what sort of fantasy things BW does with his Fables series¹. For all that I’m familiar with the genre and with BW’s stuff, it’s a little bit silly how thrown I was by the first couple of chapters.

A boy detective with a cutsie nickname? A talking badger? A mad barn cat with a vaguely Scottish name? It was like a weird mix of Redwall and Encyclopedia Brown, and I wasn’t entirely sure I liked it.

Then the Cutters were introduced, and from then on I was hooked. I also started getting a little smarter re:what was actually being done, here: BW was writing metafiction about children’s fantasy stories! Awesome!

Also, everyone was totally dead, and that was both terrifying and thrilling. Continue reading »

MINI-REVIEWS: Jane-Emily, Mechanique, Hounded

Posted by Anastasia on September 5, 2011 7 Responses »

Sep 052011

As always, click on a book’s cover to go to its Amazon page.

83. Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp
Publication: Harper Paperbacks (August 7, 2007), originally published 1969, Paperback, ~130pp / ISBN 0061245011
Genre: Children’s Horror

Read: July 26, 2011
Source: Bought

Review

Things that scare me: evil children, ghosts, haunted houses, evil child ghosts haunting houses, evil child ghosts haunting houses and trying to kill people. Jane-Emily has all that and more! It’s a short book, but I got so freaked out during the course of reading it that I was sure a ghost was hovering right behind me waiting to pounce.

For all that it’s a ghost story, it’s more psychological horror than anything else. If you like that sort of thing then you’d no doubt enjoy Jane-Emily. I think it’d make a great book for RIP VI, too!

Rating

I nearly couldn’t sleep after reading this book. It’s great!

89. Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine
Publication: Prime Books (April 23, 2011), ebook, 320pp / ISBN 1607012537
Genre: Sci-fi

Read: July 30, 2011
Source: Gift

Review

This was a surprise gift from someone. Thank you, someone! I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while, as I’m familiar with the author’s blog (which I love) and I adore stories set in a circus environment. Mechanique was great because not only did it have a circus, but it’s got steampunk/futuristic/apocalyptic elements as well, all tied together with some rather lovely poetic writing.

I really enjoyed Mechanique. It’s kind of a weird book, but it’s weird in a way I can appreciate. It’s kind of spooky, it’s kind of quirky and cool, and it’s also kind of tragic in a way. It’s not really a fast-paced, exciting plot, but it’s enthralling nevertheless and I think partly that’s because of the setting and the characters. Anyway, if you like circus stories with tragic characters and a bit of a steampunk/dystopia thing going on, you’d like Mechanique.

Rating

Well who wouldn’t enjoy a steampunk circus dystopian tragedy?

91. Hounded by Kevin Hearne
Publication: Del Rey (May 3, 2011), ebook, 320pp / ISBN 0345522478
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Read: July 31, 2011
Source: Bought

Review

I’ve been hearing really good things about Hounded for a while now, and so I finally decided to just go ahead and get it so I so find out if those good things are true. (I think it was on sale a while ago? Anyway–) Those good things are totally true, and I think Hounded is basically my new Dresden Files.

I guess I just have a soft spot for stories about snarky, heroic geeks and their supernatural friends. I also appreciate a bit of action, a bit of drama, some mystery and some romance (sort of). I also liked the emphasis on Celtic mythology, as that’s a bit different from what other urban fantasy books are doing. Unlike the Dresden Files series, there’s no noir-ness to Hounded, and I think there’s less emphasis on the mystery in favor of the characters (which could be either a good or a bad thing, depending on your story preference). It is, however, still a lot of fun, and I’m for sure going to continue reading the series.

Rating

Now that I’ve reviewed this I can finally read the second book. Huzzah!

REVIEW: Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier

Posted by Anastasia on August 31, 2011 2 Responses »

Aug 312011

88. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier
Publication: Amulet Books (August 1, 2011), egalley, 436pp / ISBN 1419700251
Genre: Children’s/MG Fantasy

Read: July 29, 2011
Source: NetGalley

Summary from Amazon:

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is the utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old blind orphan who has been schooled in a life of thievery. One fateful afternoon, he steals a box from a mysterious traveling haberdasher—a box that contains three pairs of magical eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel to the dangerous Vanished Kingdom and rescue a people in need. Along with his loyal sidekick—a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate combination of horse and cat—and the magic eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable, swashbuckling adventure to discover his true destiny.

Review

When I requested this book for review, I was under the assumption that (based on the title and the cover) it was a lighthearted MG fantasy with whimsical whatevers stuck in. And, yeah, it’s an MG fantasy with whimsical whatevers, but it’s not exactly lighthearted.

Not that it’s dark, exactly. It’s just that it’s a lot less slap-happy than most MG fantasy books I’ve read. In fact, in certain places it’s even gory and horrible and depressing. Continue reading »

MINI-REVIEWS: Jack’s New Power, Villain School, Decline & Fall

Posted by Anastasia on August 2, 2011 4 Responses »

Aug 022011

Click on a book’s cover to go to its page on Amazon.

50. Jack’s New Power by Jack Gantos
Publication: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (September 30, 1997), Paperback, 214pp / ISBN 0374437157
Genre: MG Fiction

Read: May 30-31, 2011
Source: Library Book sale

Review

This is less like a novel and more like a short story collection of vaguely related events, and unfortunately it’s kind of boring. After the greatness that was Dead End in Norvelt I wanted to really like this one, too, but for the most part I was, well…bored. Oh, it’s got some funny bits in it, and some sad bits and some “oh that was clever” bits, but on the whole, when I think back on it, I remember a sort of bland gray color. I wouldn’t recommend starting with this book if you’ve never read a Jack Gantos book before, although you might like it if you like JG’s other books.

Rating

Just okay.

58. Villain School: Good Curses Evil by Stephanie S. Saunders
Publication: Bloomsbury USA Childrens (August 30, 2011), ARC Paperback, ? pp / ISBN 1599908484
Genre: Children’s/MG Fantasy, Adventure

Read: June ?-25, 2011
Source: BEA 2011

This title will be released on August 30, 2011.

Review

I think if I was younger I’d like this book more. It’s got a magical school where vampires and werewolves and monsters from Scooby-doo movies learn about being “villains,” and there’s a quest and a princess (who is actually pretty wonderful) and it’s kind of funny, but in a way that comes off as trying too hard. It’s not a bad book, it’s just one that severely tests my powers of ignoring things that don’t make sense (why must vampires/werewolves/etc. be villains? Because they just are, apparently). I’m sure if I was younger– more in the range of readers it’s targeted for– I wouldn’t have a problem just going along for the ride. But as an adult reader, I was disappointed.

Rating

It’s not bad for what it is, but I wanted it to be something more.

61. Decline & Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Publication: Dell (1972), originally published 1928, Paperback, ~270pp
Genre: Fiction, Satire

Read: July 1, 2011
Source: Free book box

Review

The bad thing about reading so many books in one month is that one tends to forget things about the books you read at the beginning. Decline & Fall was the first book I finished during my July book-a-day plan, and I’ve almost forgotten everything about it. That’s not a good thing! I can’t remember anyone’s name, I barely remember the plot, and all that’s left is a vague impression that I enjoyed reading it. I had to read the summary on its Wikipedia page to refresh my memory, and even then I was like “oh, did that really happen?” I feel really bad about this, as I do like Waugh’s books and considering that I rated this one 4.5 birds I must have really liked this one. Unfortunately I keep getting bits of it mixed up with A Handful of Dust; I guess it’s a good thing this is a mini-review instead of a full one.

Anyway, despite my memory problems, I did really like Decline & Fall. It’s got that same sort of hard-edged satire that AHOD has, only without the downer ending (although I did like AHOD’s ending). It’s also kind of more surreal than AHOD, which was a lot of fun, and though I don’t think I laughed out loud I did smile widely for a large portion of it. After reading three of Waugh’s books I think I’m getting a feel for his type of humor, which is good, and I think also I’m starting to see a pattern with the characters, which is less good. I prefer it when authors mix up their tropes and whatnot, and Waugh doesn’t seem to be doing that. Then again, I’ve only read three of his books– maybe the fourth one will have more variety.

Rating

An excellent book, despite my having almost entirely forgotten it.

Review Notes: Janitors, Assassinating Shakespeare, A Traveller in Time

Posted by Anastasia on July 9, 2011 4 Responses »

Jul 092011

60. Janitors by Tyler Whitesides
Publication: Shadow Mountain (July 20, 2011), ARC Paperback, ~300pp / ISBN 1609080564
Genre: MG Fantasy

Read: June 30, 2011
Source: BEA 2011

Summary from Amazon:

The magical, secretive society of JANITORS will sweep the country in the fall of 2011. Have you ever fallen asleep during math class? Are you easily distracted while listening to your English teacher? Do you find yourself completely uninterested in geography? Well, it may not be your fault. The janitors at Welcher Elementary know a secret, and it s draining all the smarts out of the kids. Twelve-year-old Spencer Zumbro, with the help of his classmate Daisy Gullible Gates, must fight with and against a secret, janitorial society that wields wizard-like powers. Who can Spencer and Daisy trust and how will they protect their school and possibly the world? Janitors is book 1 in a new children’s fantasy series by debut novelist Tyler Whitesides. You’ll never look at a mop the same way again.

This title will be released on July 20, 2011.

Review Notes

- Started off a bit clunky, but by the time the mystery/fantasy stuff started popping up it was really moving.
- I love that the “sidekick” character isn’t automatically the prettiest, most unattainable girl in class (and I love that there’s no romance). I also love that she (Daisy) is smart and kind and generally possesses wonderful characteristics.
- There’s a twist halfway through that basically means I can’t talk about half the book for fear of spoilers, but that twist? Makes the book WAY better than it was in the first half.
- The interaction between the adult characters and the kid characters was great. The adults didn’t just let the kids go off and do whatever without help/supervision/etc., but at the same time the kids didn’t hesitate to sneak away when they knew they HAD to do something that the adults couldn’t help with. I like the dynamics, I guess.
- However, I do think that the end, where a lot of people (maybe) died, wasn’t handled in as serious a manner as it should have been. It was sort of like, “oh that one guy who we liked maybe died, but who cares about the DOZEN OTHER PEOPLE because they were the bad guys.”
- Basically it’s a great little action/adventure/fantasy book that I think kids would like. Also: janitors. Maybe.

Rating

65. Assassinating Shakespeare by Thomas Goltz
Publication: Saqi Books (November 1, 2006), Paperback, 256pp / ISBN 9780863567186
Genre: Travel Memoir

Read: July 2-4, 2011
Source: Bought

Summary from Amazon:

Work your way around Africa putting on one-man Shakespeare performances? It’s the type of escapade that could only have sprung from the restless, feverish mind of the young Thomas Goltz, then a naïve twenty-one-year-old in 1976 looking for adventure and an errant brother.

Goltz is now an acclaimed author and journalist who has reported extensively on the upheavals of the post-Soviet Caucasus, and this impulsive trip of his youth saw him wandering through the cities and villages of east, central, and southern Africa.

His first port of call after hitchhiking through Eastern Europe and the Middle East is Ethiopia, where he is greeted by a civil war in full flame. Close encounters follow with bandits, guerrillas, missionaries, prostitutes, savvy street kids, bureaucrats, unrequited loves, and, of course, ordinary, Shakespeare-loving Africans.

Review Notes

- Uh, yeah. I don’t know what it is about this book, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to. Normally I like memoirs about travel before travel was the “cool” thing to do, but this one was…lacking.
- I said this in my Goodreads updates, but I think it had a distinct lack of any personal insight. Or, like, any insight at all. There was a lot of “and this is what was going on while I was on Botswana,” but not any “and here’s WHY it was going on.” There wasn’t even any “and here’s what I thought about it.”
- It was basically just a catalog of movements from one end of Africa to the other. They were interesting snapshots, but I wanted something deeper.

Rating

67. A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley
Publication: Olympic Marketing Corp (February 1981), originally published 1939, Hardcover, 331pp / ISBN 0571061826
Genre: Children’s Fiction, Sci-Fi (time travel!), Historical Fiction, Romance

Read: July 7, 2011
Source: Library Book Sale

Summary from Amazon:

Penelope Taberner Cameron is a solitary and a sickly child, a reader and a dreamer. Her mother, indeed, is of the opinion that the girl has grown all too attached to the products of her imagination and decides to send her away from London for a restorative dose of fresh country air. But staying at Thackers, in remote Derbyshire, Penelope is soon caught up in a new mystery, as she finds herself transported at unforeseeable intervals back and forth from modern to Elizabethan times. There she becomes part of a remarkable family that is, Penelope realizes, in terrible danger as they plot to free Mary, Queen of Scot, from the prison in which Queen Elizabeth has confined her.

Review Notes

- A time travel book! I like time travel books.
- This sort of reminds me of the Green Knowe books with the house being the only place where the character time travels/meets family members from her past.
- It’s seriously pro-Mary Queen of Scots, which is fine…but it WAS a little weird with how fervent the book/characters were of how amazing/beautiful/wonderful Mary was. (I tend to side on Elizabeth’s camp more, myself. I love Liz I.)
- The slight romance was just perfect, although the ending was heartbreaking.
- Edit: I forgot about the “rural life will heal all thing”! Yes, that’s in here, too. It was kind of funny how quickly the city kids took to country life (and how competent they were at it, too).
- All in all, it was a good little historical fiction/sci-fi book. All the characters seemed like real people, and the history bits were interesting.

Rating

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