Llew's Reviews

Bitter chick lit for the hardcore potty-mouth young adult slut contingent.

Naturally, I couldn’t put it down.

“I do adore that Westerfeld, but he always kills me with his epilogues. Did you read Midnighters? I LOVED that series–it just built and built until book three was so amazing! Till you hit the epilogue. Why, Scott, why?? He creates such amazing and original worlds. Someday he’s going to accidentally write a happy ending.”

When I read the above in a letter from a friend, it made me think – of all things – Buddha. From Buddha’s teachings, the first of the “The Four Noble Truths” is that life IS suffering. However, once we see this truth we can transcend it. Thus, by truly knowing that life is difficult it ceases to be difficult. Because once you accept this truth, then the fact that life is suffering no longer matters.

I was trying to decide if the same thinking could be applied to reading Westerfeld’s works. That by knowing and accepting that the endings to his novels are going to suck it up big time – that they then cease to do so. I have no idea if applying Zen Buddhist teachings to young adult fiction will work, but I’m willing to give it a shot!

As for this stand alone novel, meh – it wasn’t even really worth a shot. I’ve already ordered Midnighters though and am willing to move on to bigger and better things than some overly wrought underwritten story about technology and the levels of innovation and trendsetting.

Stephenie Meyer (of Twilight fame) is the one who recommended this to me. In fact, I have found that I quite enjoy her YA suggestions – almost more than I enjoy her actual novels. Don’t tell her that though – I’d hate to ruin my chances with Edward. I can’t take that Bella girl DOWN – I just know it.

Back to Goose Girl – a good read! A slow start but with a nice fairy tale pace which made it all worthwhile.

I read this one less than a day after it had been released. Oh yes, I had to wait for a week while I stood inches away from boxes of the book before I could get my grubby hands on it to read it. The stress of having to be patient might have caused both ulcers and hives.

Scholastic and Rowling: expect to receive my angry missives in your mailbox soon!

I can’t believe I unwittingly got myself involved in another YA fantasy series – foiled again!

Also, it took me until the second book to realize the author must be LDS. Double-suckered – my book-spidey senses are failing me!

An incredibly crafted children’s story set in London, or rather, Un-London. With various wordplay and inventions it’s an incredibly clever tale. Almost too much so. If I were into clever, I would have never gone to school in Utah (bum-dum-dum).

I wonder if all of Mieville’s work is like this. I had wanted to try more of his novels which is normally geared toward adults, but this is my first delve into his work. I like his style overall but if it’s all so overly-stylized in turning words and ideas around I could see it getting tiresome in a Piers Anthony kind of way rather quickly. And if it’s one thing a fantasy author should strive for it’s being the Anti-Anthony.

As a bookseller, it gets tiring to hear every other book lauded as The Next Harry Potter. Whenever I read the fantasy section of the YA catalogs, my eyes are permanently set on “roll.”

And this one is not the next Harry Potter – but it sure is good. I still haven’t gotten my grubby hands on the second installment. However, the first one works well by itself and is a good recommended read – especially on the middle school level. Also, there’s no way I would drink unpasteurized milk from an overgrown cow – no matter what it allowed me to see.

At least it wasn’t a vampire novel! Although, I don’t know in the fantasy hierarchy where wolverines fall. Perhaps I was taking a step down after all.

A customer bought this book from me two years ago and then tried to return it. She explained to me it was a reading list book (huh?) from Mr. X. I know very well the AP English teacher never assigned this semi-tawdry tale, but I was so very amused and I generally like this customer. Thus, I accepted the return. Then, I read it for myself. It was fun – like the wolverine version of Robin McKinley’s “Sunshine” but not as great.