Buy it » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

REVIEW: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Posted by Anastasia on June 13, 2011 25 Responses »

Jun 132011

44. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Publication: Pocket Books (1966), originally published 1938, Paperback, 410pp / ISBN 0380730405 (modern ver.)
Genre: Fiction, Gothic Romance

Read: May 9-15, 2011
Source: Nabbed from a free book box

Summary from Amazon:

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten—a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house’s current occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim’s first wife—the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.

Review

Generally I don’t consider myself a gothic romance fan. I like gothic elements in books but basically every other time I’ve actually tried to read a gothic romance I’ve been disappointed by the characters or the plot or the writing. I keep trying to find a good gothic romance, though, because I’m masochistic like that.

When I saw Rebecca just sitting there in a free book box I thought “oh, that might be good,” and then I stuck it on my shelf for eight months. How was I to know that it’d turn out to be not only the best gothic book I’ve ever read, but one of my favorite books of all time?

The author

I’m actually slightly surprised at how much I enjoyed Rebecca. It’s got fantastic writing, and the atmosphere is terrific. I loved the plot and even the characters are decent. The romance was something that I was sure was going to squick me– 21 years apart? Yuck– but even that wasn’t a very big hurdle. The narrator (unnamed) is a bit of a drip, but I think she’s actually a lot braver than what you can see from first glance. If you had married a dude 21 years older than you, and then he brought you back to a creepy house filled with ghosts and sadness, and then the housekeeper started basically gaslighting you: would you have stuck around as long as Unnamed Narrator did?

Anyway, even the ending didn’t annoy me! It ends in just the perfect place, and I was left sort of gasping in shock. Awesome! In fact, I don’t think there was anything wrong with this book that I could find, even though it has several things in it I normally don’t like in a book (see above). It’s as if somehow Daphne du Maurier lured me into letting go of my prejudices and squicks through her writing. That’s pretty admirable, don’t you think?

Can I just mention the writing again? It’s great. I mean, the first couple of sentences alone:

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. There was a padlock and a chain upon the gate. I called in my dream to the lodge-keeper, and had no answer, and peering closer through the rusted spokes of the gate I saw that the lodge was uninhabited.

Yeah. The whole book’s like that! If you don’t like gothic romances I can understand that you may not have had chills going down your spine while reading that passage, but if you did get chills? You definitely need to read Rebecca. You won’t regret it!

Rating

I loved it! Recommended up the wazoo.

Buy

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog! Continue reading »

REVIEW: Dragon and Soldier by Timothy Zahn

Posted by Anastasia on May 17, 2011 3 Responses »

May 172011

34. Dragon and Soldier by Timothy Zahn
Previously: Dragon and Thief
Publication: Starscape (April 1, 2010), originally published 2004, ebook, 304pp / ISBN -
Genre: YA Sci-fi, Action/Adventure

Rating: Buy it
Read: April 8-9, 2011

Source: Bought

Summary from Amazon:

Draycos, a golden-scaled draconic K’da poet-warrior, was on a scout fleet ship when it was attacked, with him the lone survivor. Forced to find a new symbiotic humanoid host, he found Jack Morgan. Jack has been on his own, making his way by shipping interstellar cargo on the ship he’s inherited from his Uncle Virgil, a con-man and thief who met with a fatal accident. Draycos has vowed to uncover those behind a vast conspiracy to wipe out his people, while Jack is determined to find out who framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. Virgil, who survives as “Uncle Virge” in the ship’s computer, is against their plan. But Draycos once saved Jack’s life, so Jack feels an obligation to this strange creature who can slip onto the boy’s skin, pressing against it like a living tattoo. Knowing that mercenaries were involved in the ambush that killed Draycos’s fleet, Jack enlists in a mercenary outfit that practically enslaves adolescent recruits.

But the soldier’s life isn’t exactly what Jack had bargained for, especially when a mysterious girl is recruited into his group. Strange things are happening, and people and events are not always as they seem.

Review

First off: there’s a female character in here, and she plays an important role! I mean, it’s only ONE important female character in a sea of important male characters, but it’s still an improvement on the male-female ratio from the first book. Plus there’s two other side female characters, although I…can’t remember if they actually got a chance to talk or not.

Secondly: yay, character development! Not only in Jack’s case, either– Draycos is slightly different in this second book than how he is in the first. He says something about how he and Jack are changing to suit each other better as partners. Like, Draycos is learning to think a bit more like a thief, and Jack is learning to think more like a warrior. Also, there’s some interesting sections in here where Jack has to fight against his training as a thief in order to do the right thing, i.e. look out for people besides himself. It’s interesting watching him struggle to become a better person, especially because he has to navigate around his uncle’s “lessons” while learning Draycos’ warrior ethics and someone how lose himself in the process. Fun stuff!

Thirdly: I think there’s even more action in this book than in the first book. Things explode, people get shot at, I’m pretty sure someone gets punched and there’s a whole flying sequence where more things explode and everyone nearly dies. Exciting! Although mostly the action seemed to be in the second half of the book. The first half, despite it being set in a mercenary boot camp, is pretty tame. The excitement there comes more from the espionage/sneak thievery that Draycos and Jack try to do, but which doesn’t work out and really, that part in the camp? Was kind of boring. It seemed to be more in the story so Jack could get a bit of military training (albeit really crappy training) which I’m assuming he’ll need in later books…maybe. Or perhaps it was just there to introduce the female character, Alison. She seems important, though she doesn’t do much in this book but be snarly and mysterious.

I also think the sequence in the training camp wasn’t as good as it could have been because I knew that, while Jack and Draycos were temporarily trapped there, they had to figure out a way to get out (and un-mercenarized) so the story could advance. The “danger” element wasn’t ever really there despite it clearly trying to be “dangerous,” and so it felt more like a resting point between two bigger plot elements than a major plot element in its own right.

Fourthly (and finally): a lot of this book strongly reminds me of Ender’s Game, although that might only be because of the teenage soldier thing. But there’s other similar elements as well: lying adults, treachery, betrayal, and learning that your enemy might not actually be an enemy at all. (That happened in Ender’s Game, right? It’s been ages since I read it last; I can’t really remember details.) It’s a strong addition to what’s shaping up to be a really good series, but I have to reiterate: needs more female characters.

And

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog!

Other reviews:
Phil’s Rambling Rants: “Other than being excessively YA, the main weakness of this book is that the really interesting stuff — the nature of Draycos, who does require a fairly healthy suspension of disbelief, but is a truly novel sort of alien, very much in Zahn’s tradition of not handing out highly useful abilities without also including very real drawbacks — all happened in the first book. This book is just space opera with no new SF ideas. Its strength is that it’s short, fast, and fun.”

REVIEW: The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

Posted by Anastasia on May 10, 2011 8 Responses »

May 102011

35. The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Publication: Bloomsbury USA Childrens (December 1, 2008), ebook, 400pp / ISBN 1582349908
Genre: YA Fantasy

Rating: Buy it
Read: April 9, 2011

Source: Bought

Summary from Amazon:

Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, spends the first years of her life under her aunt’s guidance learning to communicate with animals. As she grows up Ani develops the skills of animal speech, but is never comfortable speaking with people, so when her silver-tongued lady-in-waiting leads a mutiny during Ani’s journey to be married in a foreign land, Ani is helpless and cannot persuade anyone to assist her. Becoming a goose girl for the king, Ani eventually uses her own special, nearly magical powers to find her way to her true destiny. Shannon Hale has woven an incredible, original and magical tale of a girl who must find her own unusual talents before she can become queen of the people she has made her own.

Review

This is my fourth attempt at writing this review, and while probably won’t be perfect I have to get something out so I can stop obsessing about it. This book? The Goose Girl? Is magnificent. It’s got everything I like in a book: characters with fully developed personalities and lives, character growth and development, excellent writing, a bit of romance, princesses who kick butt (although not physically in this book), intrigue, betrayal, and snarky geese.

I like revisionings of old fairy tales, not only because I think old fairy tales are boring and sexist and racist and etc., but also because I like the way that authors take those original stories and twist them into something that modern readers can appreciate. The original Goose Girl story is seriously boring, with the standard crap characters and questionable motives for everything. The remade Goose Girl story is fabulous, with– well, everything I said it had above. It takes the basic original story and give flesh and life to what before was really bare bones stuff. It makes everything so much more vibrant and fun to read but still retains that air of magic that all the best fairy tales have. I really enjoyed the whole thing.

This is my first Shannon Hale book and I can’t wait to read another. I love her writing, and I love her characters, and I’m definitely going to continue reading this series. I really want to know what happens to the secondary characters, and to Ani and her romantic whatsit! Also, I’m kind of wondering if something’s going to happen to Ani now that her magical secret is out– the need to keep quiet about her ability to talk to animals (and control the wind?) was made into this big deal in the beginning of the book, and then nothing happened once it was revealed to everyone. Is there going to be a backlash or what?

I look forward to finding out!

And

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog!

REVIEW: Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis

Posted by Anastasia on May 7, 2011 6 Responses »

May 072011

38. Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis
Publication: Atheneum (April 5, 2011), ARC, 298pp / ISBN 9781416994473
Genre: MG Historical Fantasy

Rating: Buy it
Read: April 16-17, 2011

Source: Publisher

Summary from Amazon:

Katherine Ann Stephenson has just discovered that she’s inherited her mother’s magical talents, and despite Stepmama’s stern objections, she’s determined to learn how to use them. But with her eldest sister Elissa’s intended fiancÉ, the sinister Sir Neville, showing a dangerous interest in Kat’s magical potential; her other sister, Angeline, wreaking romantic havoc with her own witchcraft; and a highwayman lurking in the forest, even Kat’s reckless heroism will be tested to the upmost. If she can learn to control her new powers, will Kat be able to rescue her family and win her sisters their true love?

Review

There’s one word that’s been showing up in every review of Kat, Incorrigible, and that word is “cute.” Is this book cute? Hell yeah this book is cute– this book is so cute it almost make my head explode from the onslaught of overwhelming cuteness contained within its pages.

But just in case you don’t like cute books, I’ll give you a few other words to describe Kat, Incorrigible: funny, entertaining, exciting, and fun. Kat, the title character, is quirky and sparky and, if this were an urban fantasy book instead of a historical fantasy and if Kat were an adult instead of 12 years old, would probably be one of those kick-ass heroines who wear lots of leather and never chafe.

Kat is now one of my favorite YA heroines. I love her to death, not least because she’s smart and clever but also because she’s human– she has faults and she can’t figure out everything for herself, and it’s obvious she has some growing up to do. Luckily she’s got two wonderful sisters to help her when she needs it! (I love her sisters. They remind me of Elizabeth and Jane from Pride and Prejudice. Or maybe Jo and Meg from Little Women.)

It’s the interaction between the sisters and their love interests that makes the book cute, really. The plot is where the excitement happens, with conspiracies and dangerous magic users and an almost gothic subplot involving a wife who was possibly murdered by her husband. There’s also a highwayman, and romance, and an evil stepmother who isn’t completely bad, and lots more interesting things besides!

Kat, Incorrigible is also the start to a series, so while the various subplots tie up rather neatly in this book, there’s definitely room for continuation of the main plot. I can’t wait to see what Kat does next, especially after what happened at the end of this book which I can’t talk about for fear of spoilers. But it was a clever and dangerous thing she did, and I hope she can actually pull it off. She probably will– in some adorable and feisty way, no doubt!

And

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog!

Other reviews:
Fyrefly’s Book Blog: “I hesitate to use the word “romp” for fear of cliche, but it really feels appropriate here; there’s plenty of sneaking around in crumbling abbeys and being threatened by highwaymen to go along with the period dresses and society etiquette and marriage negotiations. It was a little predictable in places, but overall, it was the perfect light-hearted read to improve my mood after a long day.”

Steph Su Reads: “Unlike other historical fiction heroines I’ve encountered in the past, Kat’s modern-day stubbornness and rebelliousness feels perfectly natural. She is at that wonderful age when she can resist societal conventions without appearing petulant or immature, and she defies all our expectations, much to our endless delight. She has moments, for example, when she consciously refuses to act like the silly, spineless heroines in her sister’s favorite gothic novels, the similarity to some 21st-century YA lit too good to go ignored. It takes great skill to write a historical character with modern appeal, but Stephanie Burgis does it like she was born to write this.”

Books, Movies, and Chinese Food: “While the story is pretty cute, I felt like it dragged a bit at times. I don’t mind books that have magic in them but there were places where I got rather confused about the use of it. Not that I think that I’m super intelligent or anything, but I wonder that if me, being a 20 something adult, got confused, would a reader of the targeted age group understand it better than I did?”

Lauren’s Crammed Bookshelf: “If there’s one thing that makes a book addicting, it’s action, and Kat, Incorrigible had plenty of it to say the least. There wasn’t a moment where I wasn’t dying to know what would happen next to Kat and her friends, family and foes, thanks to Stephanie’s Burgis’ writing, and if that didn’t happen, I was probably laughing out loud or possibly rooting Kat on…”

The next book isn’t coming out until April 2012 in the US! It’s coming out in August 2011 in the UK, though…I bet I can get it from BookDepository when it’s released! Right?

Also, in the UK Kat, Incorrigible is called A Most Improper Magick, which actually sounds a bit more fun to me than “incorrigible” does.

REVIEW: Dragon and Thief by Timothy Zahn

Posted by Anastasia on May 6, 2011 4 Responses »

May 062011

33. Dragon and Thief by Timothy Zahn
Publication: Starscape (July 1, 2010) originally published 2003, ebook
Genre: YA Sci-fi

Rating: Buy it
Read: April 8, 2011

Source: Bought

Summary from Amazon:

Orphaned, 14-year-old Jack Morgan, raised to be an assistant to his now-dead con-man uncle, Virgel, is on the run after being framed for a crime he didn’t commit. He is hiding out in his uncle’s spaceship–whose computer program, Virge, is a virtual Virgel–on a remote, uninhabited planet when another spaceship crashes after a fierce battle. The only survivor is the K’da warrior Draycos, a dragonlike being who cannot live apart from a symbiotic relationship with a humanoid host. Teaming up to clear Jack, the boy and Draycos embark on a fast-paced chase across space and into danger.

Review

What do you think when you look at the cover and title of Dragon and Thief? I know what I thought: I thought “okay, dragon, thief, illustrated cover– this must be some sort of fantasy, possibly urban, most likely set in the present day. I hope it’s not full of tropes. That’d be really annoying.” Finding out it was really a sci-fi action/adventure novel with aliens and space ships and other planets was really fantastic!

I haven’t read a lot of YA sci-fi books (if we’re not counting dystopia books as sci-fi), but the ones I have read have tended to be hit-or-miss. Either the balance between the characters and the setting is off, or the world is boring, or the plot is ridiculous. The ones that’ve hit, though, have hit hard– and Dragon and Thief is a hit! Everything, except for one thing, is perfect.

I like action/adventure books. They make me feel like something more exciting is going on than what normally happens in my life, which at this moment is coffee-internet-books-internet job-coffee. Soon it’ll be travel-ESL-foreign language-coffee-internet-books, but right now it’s a pretty tame life. Fast-paced adventures about a kid thief and an alien poet-warrior fighting against a corporate conspiracy and other Big Stuff brightens up my day!

As a bonus, Dragon and Thief isn’t just action-packed excitement. There’s also a heavy dose of That Emotional Stuff, with hint of future character development of at least the two main characters. Character development! The thing I love best! In sci-fi? Hell yeah.

I love the characters, who ring true to life (as true as a space alien poet-warrior who looks like a dragon can ring true, anyway). Jack is exactly the sort of character that I like: he doesn’t annoy me with pretending to be full-on adult and he isn’t so bizarrely naive that the fact that he’s still alive is a shock. He’s a thief, yes, which means he’s clever and precocious and a bit more adult than the usual 14 year old, but he’s also not an adult yet and it shows.

Draycos, meanwhile, is an adult, but he’s also an alien and way out of his element. He’s more stable and level-headed, and he sort of reminds me of the stereotypes of Japanese samurai, and yet for all that he, too, is vulnerable in certain ways. His development is more subtle and it doesn’t really show up until the next couple of books, but even in this one you can see how he’s adjusting to being partners with Jack and being in an alien world.

Also, on a completely different note, it’s nice to read a book where humanity’s journey into space doesn’t automatically mean dystopias and horror. Plus there’s aliens! I love aliens.

The only thing that was off about Dragon and Thief was the lack of female characters, which is a Big Issue with me. A single female character showed up at the end, but I think she got maybe one sentence of dialogue.

While we’re at it, can anyone tell me why there’s such a lack of female characters in action books starring male protagonists? Would it have been so difficult to make the villain in this book a female? Or the dragon– couldn’t the space alien dragon be a female? Or Uncle Virgel could have been Aunt Virgel! Why must every major character be male? Or every secondary character, for that matter? Where are the women?

I read this tip for writing stories once where the author said that for every character where you’d automatically think “female” or “male,” she’d switch it up. So a nurse character would be a dude, and a senator character would be a lady. I found her stories really fresh and exciting, and even though they starred male protagonists I never felt the lack of a female presence. Just because your protagonist is a dude doesn’t mean everyone else needs to be as well, see?

Anyway, I was disappointed about that whole thing but that’s really the only thing that I was disappointed about. And luckily in later books there’s more female characters that play larger parts in the plot! (Although they’re still way less in number than the dudes.) Dragon and Thief is a very good start to a series. It just needs more WOMEN.

And

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog!

Other reviews:
Shannon McDermott: “The universe of Dragon and Thief is basic, well-constructed sci-fi: other species, megacorporations, an international government, a level of technology set solidly between Star Trek and our own. The plot flows along smoothly and takes some quick bends. Some important questions are left unanswered, a consequence of being the first book in a series.”

REVIEW: Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

Posted by Anastasia on April 16, 2011 5 Responses »

Apr 162011

29. Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
Publication: Puffin (October 13, 2003), Paperback, 304pp / ISBN 9780142501849
Genre: YA Historical Fiction

Rating: Buy it
Read: March 26, 2011

Source: Bought

Summary from Amazon:

Accompanied by Miss Minton, a fierce-looking, no-nonsense governess, Maia, a young orphan, sets off for the wilderness of the Amazon, expecting curtains of orchids, brightly colored macaws, and a loving family. But what she finds is an evil-tempered aunt and uncle and their spoiled daughters. It is only when she is swept up in a mystery involving a young Indian boy, a homesick child actor, and a missing inheritance that Maia lands in the middle of the Amazon adventure she’s dreamed of.

Review

The previous Eva Ibbotson books I’ve read were two of her for-younger-readers fantasy books, and while I enjoyed them I wasn’t overly wowed by them. Perhaps I’m just too blinded by Diana Wynne Jones’ childrens fantasy books, but I basically had an idea that Eva Ibbotson was a subpar DWJ. Luckily that prejudice didn’t keep me from branching out into some of EI’s other books, as she didn’t only write fantasy and, as it turns out, I really effing love her other books.

Journey to the River Sea has two things going for it that the other EI books I read didn’t: first, it’s a historical fiction book instead of a fantasy, and second, because it’s not a fantasy I didn’t compare it to DWJ’s books (as I do with basically every other YA fantasy book, I should say). But most importantly: it’s just a really good book!

Perhaps because it was written for a slightly older audience than Which Witch? or The Secret of Platform 13 I connected with it more, but I also just think it’s got really good writing and fabulous characters. I adore Maia; I think she’s a fantastic heroine and if I was still 12 years old she would have been one of my childrens book heroines along with Harriet M. Welch and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

It’s not that she’s a physically ass-kicking heroine. Childrens books don’t always need heroines that can beat up adults and outsmart international spies and blow up a bank (although that’s fun to read about sometimes). Books also need heroines that have strong emotional/moral centers, who are kind and friendly and who aren’t afraid to take risks if they think it’s the right thing to do. Maia is one of those kinds of heroines, and as a bonus she never falls into the “saintly orphan” trap. She always seems like a real person, as do her closest friends– although the villains are somewhat less realistic.

Journey to the River Sea has firmly kicked up my Eva Ibbotson appreciation, and I’m definitely going to keep reading through her bibliography. I may skip over the fantasy books, but I’m going to grab hold of the other books like they were going out of style.

And

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog!

Other reviews: Reading Matters | Reviewing Books is Fun

REVIEW: Dead End Gene Pool by Wendy Burden

Posted by Anastasia on April 5, 2011 3 Responses »

Apr 052011

27. Dead End Gene Pool by Wendy Burden
Publication: Gotham; Reprint edition (March 1, 2011), Paperback, 288pp / ISBN 9781592406067
Genre: Non-fiction, Biography/Memoir

Rating: Buy it
Read: March 21-23, 2011

Source: Publisher

Summary from Amazon:

For generations the Burdens were one of the wealthiest families in New York, thanks to the inherited fortune of Cornelius “The Commodore” Vanderbilt. By 1955, the year of Wendy’s birth, the Burdens had become a clan of overfunded, quirky and brainy, steadfastly chauvinistic, and ultimately doomed bluebloods on the verge of financial and moral decline-and were rarely seen not holding a drink. In Dead End Gene Pool, Wendy invites readers to meet her tragically flawed family, including an uncle with a fondness for Hitler, a grandfather who believes you can never have enough household staff, and a remarkably flatulent grandmother.

Review

You know those family history-slash-memoir books that came out in the 1920s and ’30s? The ones with wit and style and humor, so much so that it all just screamed “flapper”? Well, that’s what Dead End Gene Pool reminds me of. It’s not a true flapper memoir, of course, not least because it’s not set in the 1920s. But the style reminds me of those flapper memoirs, and despite the edge of darkness it’s actually a really fun book to read.

Wendy Burden’s family has a long and somewhat sordid past. They did great things and spent a lot of money, and somewhere along the way they became infected with “bad genes” (hence the title). Nearly every member of Ms Burden’s family has got some sort of trouble, be it drugs, alchoholism, mental problems or a proclivity towards suicide, and yet Ms Burden manages to write of their lives in such a way that you feel sympathetic and a bit disappointed with the way things turned out, like watching a butterfly become stuck in a spider’s web. Everyone had so much potential– the Vanderbilt family was/is brilliant as well as rich– but the sticky strings of money, boredom, and an overinflated sense of self damned the Vanderbilt family just as the trapped butterfly is damned to being eaten.

Of course, not all of the Vanderbilt family is trapped. Wendy seems to have gotten away after a bit of fiddling with the sticky strings, so perhaps her genes have reverted back into the “good” ones and the family’s future isn’t entirely doomed to hungry spiders after all. Somehow I always think that if at least one member of a family can pull off writing a great book, that must mean that the rest of the family will be okay later, too. Like it’s by proxy, almost– although I don’t think it ever actually happens, sadly enough.

If you like family memoirs that showcase quirky, lovable, and slightly manical people but doesn’t ever get overly saccharine or cute, you should definitely check out Dead End Gene Pool. The combination of darkness and humor was just perfect.