The House of Hades, by Rick Riordan (Heroes of Olympus #4)

Via.

Genre: Fiction, YA

Rating:  ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Published: 2013

Publisher: Hyperion Books

Pages: 583

Okay, so I know that I'm like a year late to the House of Hades party (and that The Blood of Olympus just came out), but I told myself that I was going to catch up with my reviews, and anyway I can't help it if I forget to read my books sometimes. (Plus, it was totally spoiled for me on at least two counts, so forgive me if I wasn't super desperate to learn major plot development.)

The House of Hades is the fourth book in Rick Riordan's "Heroes of Olympus" series (the follow-up to the "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series), and immediately follows the events of the previous book, The Mark of Athena. Annabeth and Percy are in Tartarus, fighting their way towards the Doors of Death (along with every other monster and titan they've basically ever faced). The rest of the crew (Leo, Nico, Piper, Hazel, Frank, and Jason) is on the lookout for the House of Hades, where they expect to close the (aforementioned) Doors of Death. Basically, drama llamas abound as the eight demigods continue on their quest to prevent the giants from raising the awakening Gaea.

I really enjoyed this book, although I do wish that there had been additional characters that had received their own "point of view" chapters (I'm looking at you, Nico and Reyna...). I think that sometimes the action in this book came and went in bursts — which was alternately refreshing and irksome. I think I really appreciated hearing more about the Roman and Greek gods and goddesses, and also really enjoyed glimpses of Camp Half Blood, as well as (my gurl) Reyna. I do expect there to be more of Reyna (and Nico!) in Blood of Olympus, so I'll just have to wait a little while longer...!

I also liked how House of Hades explored Percy and Annabeth's relationship. Percy/Annabeth is obviously R. Riordan's main ship, but it was nice (in my opinion) for the author to explore his reasoning for the couple's coupledom while examining Percy and Annabeth's thoughts about the other. I feel like in a series like Heroes of Olympus (and Percy Jackson & the Olympians) where there are characters with a history that spans several books, it's really useful to sometimes stop and take a breather and question characters' motives and opinions. 

I would definitely recommend House of Hades to those familiar with the series, or anyone who is  interested at all in Greek or Roman mythology. (Honestly, the mythology aspect is probably what interests me most in the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series.) I look forward to reading the next one when I get back home for break, and will hopefully have my fill of Reyna and Nico then. 

The Name of the Star (Shades of London #1), by Maureen Johnson

Thanks for sticking with me for the last few months, guys. School has been insane, and now that it's spring break I've finally had some time to read a bit more and work on some backlogged blog entries. Anyways, all of that aside, here are my thoughts on Maureen Johnson's The Name of the Star. 

Genre: Young Adult, Supernatural

Rating: ★★★

Published: September 29, 2011

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 372

So, I've been aware of Maureen Johnson since maybe middle school? That's about six years. And in all of that time, I've only read two things by her: her short story in Let It Snow, and this: The Name of the Star (three, if you count her blog...). It isn't that I haven't been totally interested... I just don't usually find her books when I'm out browsing. I don't really read books because they're by a certain author  (unless it's Sarah Dessen, in which case my system has proved to be imperfect), so I often stumble upon books by authors that I like by mistake.

The Name of the Star came out a little over two years ago. I became aware of it sometime last year, when I started following Johnson on Tumblr. All I really remember is that some readers were messaging her, saying that now they were totally afraid of using bathrooms, or something like that. (After reading the book, I can say that I'm any more afraid of bathrooms than I was before, so...) It piqued my interest, but I quickly forgot about it. Then, this past Friday night before I left on spring break, I saw that one of my friends had a copy in her room. She let me borrow it, and I spent most of Monday reading it.

The Name of the Star is about a 17 year-old girl, Rory Deveaux, who moves to London in order to spend a year at a British boarding school while her parents teach at a university in Bristol. Coincidentally, the day that she arrives in London is the same day that a murder victim is found, the details of which mimic Jack the Ripper. While Rory learns more about her new home and slowly gets acclimated to English living, "Rippermania" takes over the city. As the body count increases, London police are left with few leads and no suspects - until Rory spots a person who could be the very killer the police are looking for. The problem? No one else can see him, and he's made Rory his next target.

I feel very...average...about this book. It reminded me a bit of Libba Bray's The Diviners in that there were supernaturally creepy murders going on, and a cracking team of juvenile ghostbusters was needed to solve the case/catch dat ghost. (Which isn't bad; gimme supernatural thrillers any day, I say!) But The Name of the Star, in my opinion, started very slowly. It took around 70 pages for me to feel like the plot was really going somewhere, and that the action had finally "started." (However, I will say that once things got moving, all of the action was ramped up and got very thrilling very quickly.) 

Johnson also did a good job at introducing facets of English life - what A-levels are, pubs being a part of regular life, "college" vs. "university," etc. - without overwhelming the reader with information. The reader learned about these things as Rory did (unless the reader is British, in which case - sorry), as she slowly became accustomed to living in London. I was pleased to note that London, as the setting of the book, wasn't blown out of proportion as some magical place inhabited by queens and Doctors and wizards. Rory lived in London without acting like a giant tourist or aggressively trying to assimilate. Her life was just very...normal. And as an American reader (with friends going abroad to study in England next year), it was nice to be able to read about Rory without being reminded over and over "Hey! She's in England! How neat is that? England England England *insert "clever" pop culture reference here*."

I also appreciated how the book's English setting continuously undermined Rory as she worked out the cultural differences between her old life in Louisiana and her new life in London. Rory was reminded frequently that she was an "outsider," and that there was some information she was not going to be privy to due to that status. (Well, at first. Obviously not everything was kept from her forever.) Her outsider status also made her a more sympathetic and interesting character. It gave me a chance to see how she responded to non-supernatural change, which I think was important in revealing parts of her character and personality.

As for some of the things that kind of bothered me as I read the book (no spoilers): 

• There were some organization issues; basically, information that could have or should have gone in the beginning of the book was added in at the end. I feel like - at least as far as character development goes - this should have been addressed in order to further develop Rory's nuances and personality.
• Halfway during the book, certain characters were abandoned as the plot kind of shifted towards ghost hunting. (Is that a spoiler? I hope not.) While I understand that Rory's priorities changed during this portion of the novel, I feel like Rory (as the narrator) could have addressed that shift better. Said characters had been kind of major up until that point, and so having them suddenly shunted to secondary status was... pretty abrupt.
• I didn't really care for the interval chapters; I felt like they interrupted the pace of the plot somewhat. While I do think they provided a "behind the scenes!" look at the murder investigation, I also feel like they could have been treated better. Maybe the characters that the interval chapters were about could have been referred to after their appearance? In the ending, to give a sense of closure?

These issues aside, I'll probably pick up the next book in the series. I'm interested where things will go for Rory post-TNotS; namely, who the villain will be. (The same friend who let me borrow this book has the sequel, so as soon as she's done with it, I'll be trying to get my hands on it.)

Has anyone else read The Name of the Star? I'd be interested in reading more books by Maureen Johnson, so if anyone has any recommendations, they can leave them in the comments.

The Moon and More, by Sarah Dessen

Via.

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Rating: ★★★

Published: June 4, 2013

Publisher: Viking Juvenile

Pages: 435

Emaline has grown up in the small beach town of Colby, and is more than familiar with the mechanics of summer vacation. Living in a vacation town, she is a permanent fixture, working at her family's beach resort company and interacting with tourists. The summer before she leaves for college, Emaline is left wondering about the "summer vacation" myth - summer romances especially. It's during this summer that Emaline experiences her first summer romance in the form of the energetic, ambitious New York film student Theo. Theo and his boss, Ivy, have come to Colby in order to make a documentary about a reclusive local artist. The contrast between insiders and outsiders comes into play frequently during the course of the novel. Dessen explores Emaline's small town mentality, although not in a negative way. 

I've been reading Sarah Dessen's books since probably middle school, and for the most part I've really liked them. Just Listen is probably my favorite, but I have absolutely no problem with re-reading This Lullaby, Keeping the Moon, whatever. I love finding the Easter eggs she sprinkles throughout her books, making connections between characters and stories. I think she portrays female friendships really well, and I like how her characters are flawed, funny, motivated people. Which is why I guess I was a little disappointed by her latest book, The Moon and More. 

I liked that Dessen kind of flipped around her usual formula. You know - girl meets boy, boy is funny and smart and different and shows the girl a whole new world/side to her and girl starts living her life or something and there are reflections on friendship and family. (That sounds kind of mean, but trust me - I really do adore Sarah Dessen's books.) However, I feel like The Moon and More had less of a clear direction than her other works. I didn't connect very well to Emaline, which I think is due to the fact that I could never figure out her characterization very well. I understood her main conflict to be that of the Colby/not-Colby world, but where romance and family matters came in, things were more unclear. I felt like it took a really long time to get to the actual plot of the story - or maybe I couldn't figure out what the plot was, which is equally as bad. I liked some of the side characters - Benji and Morris especially - but I felt like others were kind of flat (Daisy, Ivy), or lacked any personal progress (Theo, Ivy).  

If you're interested in reading Sarah Dessen's books, I would recommend you start with something else (Just Listen, This Lullaby, etc.). I feel like the reason I kept on reading the book was because every so often I caught a glimmer of her usual charm. I think this book was really interesting based off of the fact that - like I said above - it was different than her usual shebang. But I don't know if I'll be re-reading this any time soon.  

Update from the Gates of Hell, or: Let's All Do the Charleston! (The Diviners, by Libba Bray)

I'm going to update this blog today, because apparently starting tomorrow, my life will be handed over on a silver platter to Arabic language (which I will be devoting myself to for the next eight weeks). This is, of course, going to be a huge time commitment for me, so updates (and reading) will slow down for the next while.

But before I go down that path, here's what I finished reading (and almost forgot to blog about!):

When I was in middle school, I read as much Libba Bray as I could get my hands on which, at the time, consisted of her Gemma Doyle trilogy. Since then, I've also read Beauty Queens and some of Going Bovine... and while I liked them, they didn't have the same flair as the Gemma Doyle books. 

The Diviners, however, made me squeal with joy. I mean, it's a supernatural book that takes place in 1920s New York City. (Right??? How awesome does that sound?)

The Diviners is about a young woman named Evie who, after a disastrous display of her psychic abilities in her small Ohioan (is that even a word?) hometown, is made to move in with her Uncle Will. Her Uncle Will not only lives in New York City (which is a heaven for this young flapper), but also runs the Museum of the "Creepy Crawlies" (or, of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, if you want to get technical). He is unsuitable to take care of young Evie, but as he is more preoccupied with a serial killer (of the supernatural persuasion) on the loose, Evie (and the reader) is allowed to roam the streets of New York.

There's a wide range of characters in The Diviners, who also encompass some growing social issues and trends from the 1920s; Socialists, African Americans, gays, etc., are all represented. The "melting pot" that is New York (and, on a larger scale, America) is shown to be new and electric, but also dark and unstable. Older, darker forces are establishing a hold on the country despite scientific and social change. 

Obligatory Josephine Baker doing the Charleston. Via

Another totally necessary flapper. Via

While my description of the novel can sound a little limiting, the story is told by several people, so nothing gets too stale. This also means that, with many characters' fates up in the air, the reader is left wanting more and desperate to get back to Evie's New York. The reader is also left with the impression that something is most decidedly wrong, although whatever the cause of the terror and unease is as of yet unknown. 

It was SO SCARY; like, I had to go into the basement where my brother was killing people on the XBox just so I knew that, if Naughty John somehow managed to kill me through the book, someone would know. (I put up with my brother's "I seriously can't believe that we're related, what, are you fucking kidding me" look just so I could finish.) I don't get scared by books often/almost never, so I'm going to just make a special note of that. Well done, Libba Bray *claps*

Bray obviously did her research, with all of the '20s slang that is woven through the novel. It's sometimes cheesy, but she doesn't overdo it, and by using slang, she's able to establish characters such as the flapper girls Evie and Theta more easily. 

I had been struggling with keeping up my reading for a while before reading this book; I wasn't super interested in anything I had gotten from the library, and I was easily distracted from what I was reading while I was reading. I think it was because I had gotten so wrapped up in trying to read books that I felt like I should read, I had forgotten to read something because I wanted to. And I think that's what made The Diviners such a fun, pleasure-filled read for me; no one was expecting anything from me, and there was no expectation I was trying to meet. Does that make sense?

Anyways, I'm back to reading things I want to for a change, and it feels great. All too easily, I feel like I have to be reading something specific at a certain time, and my increased time on the internet (on Goodreads, reading other blogs, etc.) doesn't help my feelings of constant inferiority. I've talked before on here how I so desperately want to be well-read; and, in the process of wanting to be so, I make myself lists of "classic" and "good" books, when I should be the one deciding for myself what's good and what isn't. For someone like me who loathes people telling her what she should and shouldn't be reading (unless it's a friendly reading recommendation, I love those!), I use websites like Goodreads an awful lot to make sure that what I've read will pass muster. 

That's probably enough from me at this point; hopefully y'all haven't died of boredom. Closing statement: read Libba Bray's The Diviners! (but, of course, only if you want to...)

Peace,

-M

Eleanor & Park & the 1980s

Not a very creative title, but whatever; it speaks for itself.

A book that I read a few weeks ago that I hadn't been able to post about until now is Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell. I had only heard about it once before (through the blog of an author I like), and decided to put it on my "to read" list. Lucky for me, a few days after I saw that it was on sale at the Kindle store for less than $3! I snapped it up instantly.

Eleanor & Park is, at its heart, a story about first love and all that it entails. A lot of people, when reviewing this book, notes its ordinariness; how it isn't groundbreaking, or different (in terms of the characters, situation, etc.). Some people criticized the 1986 setting; some people claimed that they could relate the Eleanor and Park, and the Midwestern setting. Some say that while it isn't the story that's new and amazing, but the way that it's told. (I don't exactly agree with that idea, but that could be because I haven't really read YA Fiction in a while.)

I thought that it was kind of brilliant. And not like "yeah, I mean, it was almost brilliant." No. "kinda," as in, "well, goddamn. She's got me pegged."

Too often, when I read YA books about romance and love, it becomes more "adult" than I think authors mean to. And that isn't their fault; but I want to say that Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell has come the closest to captioning what I felt when I fell into like, and then into love. And that, for me, makes it groundbreaking.

I read this book on my Kindle (one of my first, might I add!), and as my boyfriend can attest, I brought this book everywhere with me. Hell, I brought it with me while driving to see Jurassic Park: 3D when with our friends, and they probably thought that I was acting like an antisocial nutcase. But that's OK, because for this book I would do it all again! This book filled me with sympathy, sadness, and dread as much as it filled me with excitement and longing.

I felt like I really connected with the characters; like them, I often experience the frustration that comes with practically being an adult, but still living by someone else's own rules, and feeling restricted in expressing myself as a result. But maybe that's just a trademark of the Midwest? (Kidding. I love the Midwest.) I understand what it's like to come into an insulated community as a newcomer, someone who has "I DON'T BELONG" written in red ink on their foreheads. Making the transition, as Eleanor did, from community to community, is hard because all of a sudden your own rules and standards are invalidated by those around you. I'm not from "the Neighborhood" in Omaha, Nebraska, but my mom did live there for a time when she was going through her own family drama, and her experience sounds very similar to Eleanor. I'm from Kansas City, myself, so while I am not intimately familiar with Nebraskan life, I do feel like the area that I moved to in elementary school (and later high school) is very similar to the one in Eleanor & Park. 

While some people really liked the settling, other reviews I've read criticized the use of the '80s in the novel, claiming that it wasn't "utilized" properly. To that, I say "seriously?" Because here's the thing about teenagers living in any time period: we don't care. We don't care that it's the '40s, '80s, '90s, whatever. We don't stop and think, "You know? I think that America is at an interesting cultural point; considering of course the ongoing Iran-Contra scandal (What was it being called then? Same thing?), the fact that Lady Gaga - oh it's ok if you don't know her yet - has just been born, and all of these other things." Did I lose my point? Let me start again.

Teenagers don't often think of the significance of the time period they were in in the same way that adults do. We think about things generally, sure, but we don't analyze. The fact that Eleanor & Park took place in 1986 but didn't mention at every available opportunity that the time period was 1986 is in itself significant. When John Hughes made Pretty In Pink and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, one could argue that the 1980s weren't really exploited in the way that they are now.

the 1980s, as imagined by youths today. Via 

Did Ferris and Andie and Blane and Duckie and Cameron really think about the "big picture" of the period they were living in? No! They were doing what every other 1980s teenager was doing: ditching school to sing on parade floats and New Wave-ing it out. They were just living life; they were just being teenagers.

Living every 1980s teenager's dream. 

Ferris Andie

(I'm assuming my point was made. Hopefully the visuals helped.)

I would definitely recommend Eleanor & Park to anyone that's interested in YA fic. And hell, if I found the right adult, I'd probably recommend it to them, too. I think that this novel has a lot of heart and a lot of truth to it. (Also, a lot of comics. It seriously made my little nerd-heart sing.) I felt like I really connected to the characters, and like I really identified with them and their struggles with their bodies, their families, etc. And not to sound totally cliche, but that doesn't happen very much for me anymore. 

I don't want to say that this book will change your life. It will, however, hopefully reaffirm yours. 

-M

Have something to say about Eleanor & Park? Feel free to leave a note in the comments!