3.06.2013

Book Review: The Snow Child


Despite its standing on the bestseller lists, I doubt I would have ever picked this book up if my sister hadn't gifted it to me with rave reviews that sounded something like "best book I've read in years!!!!". It's not that it looks like a bad book, but I spent 2012 thoroughly engrossed in fantasy and most of it rereads of my favorite series so I haven't been in the right mindset for a more literary book. I am so so so glad that this ended up on my to-be-read shelf. And my sister was right, this is one of the best books I've read in years. Probably the best bit of literary fiction I have read since The Poisonwood Bible over a decade ago, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is going into my permanent collection for sure.

(Image via Goodreads)

This book is chocked full of raw emotion. From the very first page of the very first chapter right up to the very last page of the epilogue this book made me feel things. Powerful things. Overall it's a bittersweet book; I've heard it called sad, but I don't think that's quite right, there is happiness and new beginnings to celebrate after all. But if you are at all emotional, so human, if you're human, be prepared for some tears. I was absolutely sobbing, but I do cry at almost every emotion.



The story is set in 1920s Alaska and follows Mabel and her husband Jack as they attempt to save their homestead and their marriage from collapse. In a moment of pure, completely out of character whimsy (there's a lot of whimsical-ness in this story) Mabel starts a snowball fight with Jack that culminates with the creation of a snowman they have shaped to look like a little girl. The next morning, the snow child is destroyed and Jack glimpses her bright red hat and mittens on a flesh-and-blood child running wild in the nearby forest. The journey that follows touches many lives and teaches Mabel and Jack a lot about themselves and each other.

The snow child folktale from Russia and eastern Europe is woven beautifully throughout. The Alaskan wilderness is as much a character as it is a setting. And the plot is completely unpredictable; I'm rarely surprised at the culmination of a tale and I was in the dark on this one until the very end. All I can say is Eowyn Ivey, congratulations, this is magic.



Read this one for sure.


3.02.2013

Book Review: Cinder


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Let me preface this by saying that I love Young Adult literature, but that a lot of enjoyable YA is pretty much fluff, the literary equivalent of watching the Kardashians. So when I say I picked up Cinder by Marissa Meyer because it looked like some YA I would enjoy I didn't have astronomical expectations of this book. I was wrong. This is possibly one of the best YA books I've ever read and definitely the best in the past couple of years. AMAZING.


This is actually the first book I ever picked up based purely on a Goodreads recommendation, but the premise caught my attention: A retelling of Cinderella as a cyborg. 

This is genre mashup to rival Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The book is set in a dystopian future more than 100 years after World War IV and is centered around a 16 year old cyborg mechanic named Cinder Linh (or Linh Cinder if you want to follow the Chinese-style name standard that the book uses) who has a chance run-in with the Imperial Prince that sets her world on end and starts an irreversible chain of events. There's a global plague, an impending war with the Lunars and an icy, evil stepmother to contend with if Cinder is going to make it to the ball on time, that is if she wants to even go.

You will be able to predict several plot events based on your knowledge of the classic fairy tale; but, if you're like me, you will revel at how seamlessly Marissa Meyer works all of the classic elements into her futuristic setting and story line. And, I'll admit, the major reveal in the last chapter was glaringly obvious to me within the first couple of chapters, but I didn't care. Watching the story weave towards the reveal was fascinating and beautiful. And Ms. Meyer, if you ever see this, Iko is so freakin' awesome! 



All in all, I am extremely excited to get my hands on Scarlet which is the the next book in this four book series, the Lunar Chronicles. If you like fantasy or scifi or both you will thoroughly enjoy this tale.