Review: Marked

Marked: House of Night – P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Zoey lives in a world where vapirism isn’t inflicted upon you, it’s just something that randomly manifests itself during some kids’ teen years.  Vampyres are the most famous, charming and talented people around, but they’re also feared and treated like freaks.  When  Zoey is marked as a vampyre she immediately leaves her old life behind and moves to the house of night, a boarding school where you are trained and either turn into a full-fledged “vamp” or you die.  But before she can get there, she gets an extra mark, from the goddess of night that they worship.  It singles her out as a possibly powerful new force, making her enemies and possible allies.  And other than drinking blood and not liking to go out during the day, the vampyres are much more like witches (the modern, Wiccan conception of it) than they are vampires.

I hate to bite the hand that feeds me (and supplied me with a free review copy of this book) but this really wasn’t any good at all.  I can see the appeal to a younger teen, there are elements of an interesting story here, but it’s really just no good.  It’s common for vampire stories to be an exploration of fears about female sexuality, but this book just reinforces those fears in a weird way.  There is a lot of slut-shaming and the use of someone’s sexuality as a weapon against them.  There is a lot of talk about gay acceptance, but it’s always framed in a way that shows that while the characters accept their gay friend it’s in part because he doesn’t hang out with any of the other gay students.  Those boys are all too faggy feminine, which is gross and wrong and luckily Damien’s not like that!  And of all the “bad” things that happen throughout the course of the book, the most scarring to Zoey is an almost blow job she witnesses at the beginning of the book:

Yes, I was aware of the whole oral sex thing.  I doubt if there’s a teenager alive in America today who isn’t aware that most of the adult public think we’re giving guys blow jobs like they used to give guys gum (or maybe more appropriately suckers).  Okay that’s just bullshit, and it’s always made me mad.  Of course there are girls who think it’s “cool” to give guys head. Uh, they’re wrong.  Those of us with fuctioning brains know that it is not cool to be used like that.

She seriously never shuts up about it.  But I think the above paragraph kind of shows how the authors are trying hard to be both purient and preachy.  For a book with such a squeaky-clean, sex-negative viewpoint there is a lot of cursing.  Which I have no problem with, if used well.  But all of the “fucks” in this book were just weird.  Especially when Zoey also says “poopie” a lot.

I don’t generally worry about what parents will think when I give kids books.  Working in a public library in a liberal city, I’m lucky that way.  But I don’t know of any parent who might read this book and find it appropriate.  Conservative or religious families would find the Goddess-worship and religion-bashing upsetting, liberal families would find the tone-deaf use of minorities (besides the homosexual weirdness Zoey’s Native American, and it’s not necessary or handled in a non-stereotypical manner at all), sexuality and thin fetishization offensive.  It’s writing and plot are best suited for younger teens, but the content is often more mature than that.

To me this is the exact opposite of the Vampire Academy series. The plot of which is more twisted and fun, and the romance is well, more twisted and fun.  The “bad mother” plotline is meatier (she’s a fierce warrior who didn’t want to sacrifice her independence to raise her daughter, vs a weak woman who stopped caring about her kids when she married a fundamentalist) and the questions about sexuality are actually interesting.

Review: Frostbite

Frostbite – Richelle Mead

This sequel to Vampire Academy starts out with a step by step, plodding recap.  Helpful if you want to start in the middle, painful if you’d already read the first.  I’m sure I’m not the only person who falls for these recaps: Babysitter’s Club got me every time.  For some indefensible reason, I just felt too guilty skipping that part at the beginning.  But since Vampire Academy is the stranger book, it’d be a shame to skip it even though you could be all caught up without it.

The deadly, evil Strigoi vampires seem to be organizing and collaborating with humans to execute royal Moroi families.  So what’s to be done?  A ski resort vacation!  All the kids and their families will be safer in one place than unprotected out in the world.  Unfortunately, the family that Rose’s mother works for will be there as well, forcing Rose to come to terms with her mother’s decisions and legacy.  Confronted with the threat of an organized enemy, the Moroi finally begin to contemplate learning offensive magic but will discover that their ingrained rules against it will be hard to shake.  Rose is headstrong, and very heroic in this book, but ends up pretty broken because of what she does and what she loses.  As short a timeframe as these books take place in, Rose is maturing a lot and belivably so.

Sex is not as much of a theme in this book as it was in the first, but it’s still a pretty mature book.  Other than the cursing, a lot of it is likely to go over the heads of younger kids who read it.  As I was reading it, I was thinking I would probably stop with the series after this, but by then end I was caught up again.  I’m sure once the third book is published next month, I’ll be grabbing it as soon as it comes in.  There’s something really solid about these books that keeps them from being merely a guilty pleasure.  Which is a nice surprise considering how little more than their concept they could have ended up being.

Review: Vampire Knight Vol. 2

Vampire Knight – Matsuri Hino

I’ve heard this recommended as a Twilight read-alike, and that makes sense (and the backhandedness of the compliment is deserved).  But I’ve also heard librarians say they love it.  And that doesn’t.  I’m very aware of the fact that while I enjoy reading YA books for myself, I’m also reading them as a librarian.  And I’ve had great luck recommending books that I’ve reviewed here but haven’t liked.  I’m not every reader, and I’m not a teenager.  So I just don’t get why an adult would like this series.

The over-the-top sexual nature of the bite is the most notable feature of this volume.  And from a feminist perspective, it’s problematic.  There is an overly willing girl offering herself up to a boy who doesn’t want to succumb to his animal instincts but can’t resist.  And they talk about how it’s dirty and no one can find out.  And I’m bored.  Even if some of the artwork is pretty sexy.

Review: Vampire Knight Vol. 1

Vampire Knight – Matsuri Hino

On the heels of finishing Vampire Academy, I thought reading another book about vampires at boarding school would be fun and help round out the experience.  I haven’t read much manga, but have about 20 library shelves full of it at any given time.  So I try to be at least a little aware of it.  And read what I can when it seems interesting to me.  I enjoyed Death Note, and it was less inscrutable to me than the shojo (girls’) manga that I’ve read.  Though the conventions that trip me up may be standard to the form and not just the shojo genre.  About half the time I have no clue what’s going on.  Because: it’s takes huge effort for me to decode the visual cues, I can’t tell the characters apart, I get confused by the little meta plots and notes from the author happening in the background, and I don’t respond to the drawing style, the big eyes/spiky hair thing.  And the serial nature of this story, and the manner in which it would recap what had happened before, kept cracking me up.  Repeated over and over in black panels with white lettering was, “The night class is not just an elite group of good looking students…There is a secret that the day class does not know…The night class consists entirely of vampires.”  I wanted it to be followed by “dunh dunh dunh!”

The story so far is that when Yuki was a little girl, she was saved from a vampire attack by another, good vampire.  He took her to live at the Cross Academy where the headmaster adopted her and made her a guardian of the school.  That consists entirely of protecting its secret that “the night class consists entirely of vampires.”  These are good vampires who take blood pills that they themselves developed in order to coexist peacefully with humans and to work to bridge the gap between vampire and human.  There’s another guardian, Zero, who was also adopted by Cross after vampires killed his family.  He hates and distrusts all vampires.  In this world, only pure-blooded vampires can turn humans into vampires.  Being bitten by a human-turned-vampire either has no effect or kills you if you’re drained dry.  Saying anything more than that would spoil the plot, such as it is.

But I think I will give it a chance to grow on me, thanks to the little authorial asides, I am assured that now that characters have been set up, the fun is really going to begin.

Review: Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy – Richelle Mead

Vampire boarding school? Yes, please. Starting off by breaking down the world of the book, there are the Moroi, full-blooded vampires, who study magic at the Montana school, though they (boringly) only use it for the good of humanity. There are the half-vampire Dhampir, who train to be Guardians, the protectors (and consorts) of the Moroi. The Moroi are so busy being good, they don’t bother to protect themselves from the Strigoi, immortal and cannibalistic vampires (which seems as if it will be a theme of the series, not fighting back despite the ability to do so).

Rose, pictured, is a Dhampir who starts out the book in hiding with her best friend and Moroi Princess, Lissa. Their reasons for running away from the Academy are slowly revealed throughout the course of the book, all we know is that when they’re captured and sent back, both girls are terrified, even if just because the machinations of Moroi society rival those of any Court. Rose and Lissa share a psychic bond, one that allows Rose to sense Lissa’s emotions at all times, and to fully enter her consciousness with effort. Lissa’s magical abilities aren’t manifesting in any of the normal ways, but are instead more dangerous and powerful than those of other Moroi.  This leads to rivalries, plotting, and romance.

For me, the most notable aspect of the book is Rose’s expansive and bawdy sexuality. She is curvy and sexy and strong with a large appetite for danger and adventure (she’s also witty, and really good at flirting). Though most of all she wants to serve and protect Lissa, she isn’t beyond having some fun in the process. But the politics of Dhampir sexuality are complicated. Dhampir women can only mate with Moroi men. Dhampir men cannot mate at all (though the most sexual and attractive character in the book is an adult Dhampir Guardian). Moroi men only marry Moroi women, but often impregnate Dhampir women in their youth or on their visits to “blood whores,” single Dhampir mothers who live in communes and prostitute themselves, allowing the men to feed on them during sex. Rose is sexual more than she is slutty, though she struggles with her desires and her internalized fear of doing anything “dirty.” In this aspect, it can be hard to separate Rose’s thoughts from those of the authorial voice, but other characters call Rose out on certain things enough that the implied author seems to be a trustworthy one. But trusting in the author means sometimes harshly judging an otherwise sympathetic character. And I don’t know if younger teens will catch those layers. Because of the language and how much about sex and sexuality this book is, I think it’s probably a better fit for high school students.

Review: Fabulous Terrible

Fabulous Terrible – Sophie Talbot

Found out about this while looking around for my YA page who was asking about books written in the second person.  I had heard that Choose Your Own Adventure had been resurrected, but couldn’t find any in the library.  So I jumped at the chance to get a free copy of this from the publisher when I saw one offered.  The cover of mine is different than the one pictured at left, instead of the Choose Your Own Adventure stamp it has “The Adventures of You.”  You know why?  This isn’t a Choose Your Own Adventure!  It’s just written in the second person.  So that was disappointing.  From what I can tell, the rest of their new books are, but that this one is merely supposed to be “interactive.”  Theoretically there was supposed to be an internet component, but other than a facebook quiz, I didn’t see anything.

So the deal is that you’re an orphan and foster kid who has never been able to fit in, in large part due to these psychic fits you have.  So instead of being sent back to a girls’ home, you apply to a bunch of boarding schools and not only get accepted to the best of them, but get a full ride.  The first, and best, half of the book deals with how you begin to make friends and adjust to being surrounded by wealth and privilege.  This would all be hard enough, but from the beginning someone seems to be sabotaging you.  And there are hints that the reasons for it are bigger than you or anything you can imagine.  But you make a couple of really good, true friends, and they help you figure out what’s going on.

I didn’t find the second person narration distracting, it was handled well and actually helped gloss over what might have otherwise been shortcomings in the storytelling (it made it easier to tell, not show.)  And I genuinely enjoyed and got caught up in the story.  The “you” character (I think a name might have been mentioned, but I forget it) is interesting and complex, especially in the first half of the story.  She’s wary and a bit damaged from her experiences in the foster system, but not permanently so.  She’s anxious to begin a better life, but doesn’t blindly want to become like the worst of her spoiled classmates; the future life she envisions for herself and the women she wants to emulate are all worthy of the effort.  Where the story loses a little bit of its steam is in the unfolding of the treacherous plot.  But luckily the book doesn’t fall into the A-Great-and-Terrible-Beauty trap of making her question her powers too much or of having friends who don’t back her up.  For the most part, when she does falter it’s just for a second and then she acts sensibly again.  Like with the Lemony Snicket books, one of my biggest dislikes is when plots are advanced because the main characters stand passively by while bad things happen.  They hem and haw and are scared even though they are meant to be exceptional.  I’ve come to realize it’s a personal preference, and try not to judge books as being badly written just because of it, but I really can’t enjoy many books because of it.  Grumpy Harry Potter I’m looking at you.

It’s a fun book, and may be good for younger teens or older ones who are reluctant readers.  It’ll be a series, with the next one told from the perspective of one of the minor characters.  There is one F-bomb that gets dropped, but to good effect.  It comes as a shock in this otherwise squeaky clean book, and it’s meant to.

Review: It Girl

The It Girl – Cecily von Ziegesar

I have little faith that von Ziegesar is actually writing any of these books at this point, but I had hoped that the tone and wit would find a way to continue. Sadly I can’t say they have. Maybe later in the series the characters will develop into more than broad stereotypes and there will be something meaty worth both the mockery and love shown to the Gossip Girl characters.

GG ended when everyone graduated high school, but younger sibling Jenny Humphrey is just a sophomore now. After getting pushed out of fancy Constance Billiard, she’s been accepted at Waverly Academy, an equally fancy boarding school. Starting over is not as easy as she thought and the girls here are just as manipulative as the ones she left behind, and the boys just as attracted to her large boobs.

What this book did well was in showing how a different type of rich kid acts, a more New Englandy type who wears frayed shorts and old flip flops. Whose family has a yacht, but wears the same designer bikini from five years ago. It wasn’t a bad book, just not a sparkling one.

I miss Blair, and even Serena.

Review: The Sixth Form

The Sixth Form by Tom Dolby

Plucked out of boredom and obscurity by wealthy, popular Todd and sexy, free-spirit teacher, Hannah, Ethan is a senior and new student at a prestigous New England boarding school. An intellectual and an artist, Ethan sees in his new life all the glitter and romance that was missing at home with his dying mother in California. But both Todd and Hannah want more from him than he can give, while giving him little of their true selves. Todd, because he’s only beginning to figure it all out himself, but Hannah’s over-reliance on Ethan grows selfish and sinister. Ethan’s journey is more about learning how fundamentally unknowable everyone is than figuring out anything about himself. Which is one of the shortcomings of the book: things happen to Ethan but he never grows or changes. Neither does he get knocked down a peg or two, his artistic pretensions are heralded as amazing by everyone around him.

The language of it was hard to get into and could have used some semicolons (but word on the street recently is that they’re a feminine kind of punctuation and falling out of favor. Well, a comma is a very different thing. Use a period if you must). I was about to put it aside about 50 pages in when I finally got a hang of its rhythms, and when the story got past the first, improbable stages of Ethan’s friendships. Because it’s never really clear what his appeal is. But my biggest problem with the story was that Ethan’s fear over keeping his relationship with Hannah a secret at all costs is never shown to be false: only an affect of her manipulations. Barry Lyga’s Boy Toy did a better job with showing the consequences of teacher/student relationships. Ethan never figures it out. Some of his teachers and administrators know or suspect what’s going on, and they keep it a secret so that he doesn’t get kicked out of school and lose his Yale acceptance. Even if Ethan is 18, that doesn’t seem like the correct response. Especially when the teacher in question is known to be a bit deranged and suspected of having a history of seducing students.

Some of the ambiguity may be because this is a “literary” novel written for adults, but I think it’s also lazy storytelling. It’s a rare, older teenager who would enjoy this book. Maybe Dolby gets a bit of a pass for writing interesting gay characters and I am in the minority of readers looking to heterosexual Ethan for signs of something worthwhile. The Secret History is a better pick for someone attracted to this story for it’s elements of fish-out-of-water in a dangerous and seductive new world, Boy Toy for the pedophile teacher angle, and even Prep, which I wasn’t a huge fan of, for dorky kid bumbling through boarding school awkwardness.

Review: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Sophomore and former Debate-Club geek Frankie is tired of being overlooked and underestimated at her posh boarding school. Freshman year her problems were an older and more popular sister, a cheating boyfriend, and an unmemorable face. Now the issue is how very noticeable she became over the summer, growing up and out in all the right places. Almost immediately she snags a popular boyfriend, but her age and her gender conspire to keep her seeming innocuous. Frankie knows she should demand better treatment from her gorgeous, entitled, but still generally nice, boyfriend Matthew. But she doesn’t want to rock the boat because of how much she looks up to him and his golden-boy friends. When she discovers they all belong to the same secret society as her father, she is jealous not because of any power or influence they wield but because of the bonds they are forming that will help them throughout their lives. She knows that while she might be allowed to eat lunch with them, she will never fundamentally be one of them. Determined to earn their respect, she shadows Matthew and learns the secrets of the group. Seizing an opportunity to control their behavior without their realization, she begins orchestrating large-scale pranks meant as commentary on the role of privilege and control in all of their lives. Though sadly few students seem to understand the significance of the pranks, least of all the boys carrying them out.

Lockhart has always been one of my favorite YA authors and all of the reviews and mentions I’ve seen of this book have raved about it. I didn’t find it quite as compelling. It’s ideas, and they were Big Ideas, often overwhelmed the story and characters. Frankie is a type of feminist I am glad exists, one I would never want to be, but would probably enjoy arguing with at a dinner party. She is so thoroughly steeped in the norms of the patriarchal power structure that she thinks the only way to succeed is to be a better boy than the boys. And yes, “patriarchy” is a word used often in this book. Frankie also loves Foucoult’s Discipline and Punish which inspires in her the idea of fighting against the panopticon. With all the Big Ideas in the book, it was easy to get thrown off when I disagreed with the author/narrator’s point of view, though I probably agreed twice as often as I didn’t. Frankie is tired of feeling powerless and only feels like she isn’t when she gains the upper hand over the powerful men around her. Which she finally feels she has done by the end of the book when a friend and adversary admits he no longer likes her, but respects her. An interesting but flawed book for intelligent and socially conscious teens.