Critique

These are fast-paced can’t put it down until your finished kind of books, and this edition to the series is no exception. However, I find myself wanting a lot more from them and the world that Scott is creating.

Don’t get me wrong, I really do love these books, but I have a lot of general qualms with them. I want more magic, and I want to know how the magic is being created. When we all were transported to Hogwarts, there was an explanation of how the magic worked throughout the world, which had very particular rules about what one can do when and how long it takes to acquire that knowledge.

So, ok, I know that Scott is not trying to recreate the Potter world, but it would be nice to know what rules the magic of this world operates from. The best explanation that we get at any point from either of the twins is, “I don’t know, somehow you just know how to do it.” I think this is a travesty and is missing out on a crucial element of drawing us into the story. How are they developing these abilities? How do they feel as they’re creating the magic?

Every once in a while we get a peek into the whole thing, but it’s not nearly often enough. Even the other immortals have cool spells that I’d like to get a little more depth on. Most of the time, they simply say, a shaman taught me this, or I learned this from Circe. You learned what from Circe? Is it a spell that you cast? How are you creating the magic?

Anyway, past all that, it’s a fun read and, in my opinion, more engaging than the first two, but not as good as the third. Josh and Sophie have generally become less whiney and are starting to jump into this whole being special and having magical abilities thing. They seem more willing to tackle the adventure set before them. I like the thickening plot between what Dee is doing and how it relates to all the elemental swords. However, I really do get tired of Josh waffling between sides. It adds some layers of conflict to the story, but I think Josh’s reasoning is pretty weak and somewhat unbelievable. He should either stand in his convictions one way or the other.

Critique

Prose does an excellent job of handling what is likely to be considered a difficult topic to address in young adult literature. Even though the main character is 14 and books featuring 14 year olds are typically read by 10-14 year olds, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone younger than 14.

The aspects of Maisie’s life regarding growing up, trying to find independence with two separate sets of parents, and her changing body are explored with tact and honesty, but everything involving ‘the incident’ takes it from about 10mph to 70mph in no time flat. There is a level of ambiguity about the incident that plays up the story overall in an interesting way. However, personally I didn’t enjoy reading the book, but I suppose that’s not necessarily the point. I commend Prose on her courage in addressing difficult issues like sexual harassment and her honesty regarding all parties surrounding them.

Critique

This book definitely had me at “Hello.” Starting with such an in your face statement about a thirteen-year-old girl being caught in by her father in the back of a car having sex with a much older boy can’t help but catch your attention. However, I digress. It did actually take me three attempts to read it all the way through because that initial page is both engaging and off-putting. I thought, “Do I really want to read a book that starts out like this?” Eventually, I overcame my prudish tendencies and delved in. I mean, it did get a Newbery nod, after all, so there must be more to it.

In fact, there is much, much more to the text. It’s not about a promiscuous teenager at all, but rather a young girl searching for an identity that shatters at the beginning of her teenage years, and she spends the next several years overcoming the sense of poor self worth and insecurity that such an incident would cause. 

Her cold and insensitive father and overbearing and somewhat neurotic mother don’t really help, but in the end, Deanna is able to work up the courage to become the person she’s always wanted to be, and drastically effects the lives of the people around her in a positive way because of it. Ultimately, it’s laced with redemption in the midst of disparaging circumstances, and Zarr leaps into the fray of reality throughout the text. I recommend this book to readers 14 – 18, skewing more toward girls.

Critique

Collins has created a gripping epic of a story, which is an arguably darker combination of the already dark stories 1984, Lord of the Flies, and the short story The Lottery. I certainly couldn’t put the book down from beginning to end, however I found myself thinking the text was very dark and not suitable for younger readers. In fact, I was reminded of stories like The Bluest Eye, which is a text involving children as the main characters, but is often banned from various school reading lists and regarded as a book not suitable for kids.

That disclaimer aside, this is one of the better books that I’ve read in a while, and it certainly deserved all the press and awards that it’s received. I’m sure that several production studios will consider it for a film, which is bitter sweet in my opinion. This would make a great movie, but it would be incredibly dark.

On the literary front, this is a perfect example of a dystopian society, which is the best kind of science fiction. Also, what makes any good science fiction novel really good is the subtle or not so subtle hint that all of the terrible things going on in the story are palpable at some level. It seems a little farfetched that our society could turn into this, but it’s not far from where Rome was just before its fall and the degradation of art and culture had reached its limit with rampant incest and duels to the death in the Coliseum. Even now, reality TV is not a far cry from the gladiator games. How long will it be before we want to be entertained by watching people compete by killing each other?

However, what makes this book amazing, in my opinion is that Collins has taken a relatively original idea (possibly pulling from sources like the Japanese film Battle Royale) and really flushed it out in a phenomenal way. The great travesty with science fiction and fantasy books is that many of the authors have great concepts, but are terrible writers, leading them to flood the market with books that have great elevator pitches, but are, in reality, not that great. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think that Collins has given us a truly original story, but what made Chaucer and Shakespearre so great, among other things, is that they took well-known stories and rewrote them with their literary genius.

The way that Collins writes the story through the eyes of Katniss creates empathy for the reader, and makes the dark world tangible and the characters she’s interacting with three-dimensional. Katniss is always believable in every action and decision, making her a reliable narrator, and therefore, making the other characters reliable as well. In doing so, the story’s underlying messages are communicated clearly and effectively, showing our own society a mirror of itself and what it can become if we don’t start moving in a different direction. I recommend this book to all readers 14+.

The other books in this series so far are Catching Fire (book 2).

Critique

These are fast-paced can’t put it down until your finished kind of books, and this edition to the series is no exception. However, I find myself wanting a lot more from them and the world that Scott is creating.

Don’t get me wrong, I really do love these books, but I have a lot of general qualms with them. I want more magic, and I want to know how the magic is being created. When we all were transported to Hogwarts, there was an explanation of how the magic worked throughout the world, which had very particular rules about what one can do when and how long it takes to acquire that knowledge.

So, ok, I know that Scott is not trying to recreate the Potter world, but it would be nice to know what rules the magic of this world operates from. The best explanation that we get at any point from either of the twins is, “I don’t know, somehow you just know how to do it.” I think this is a travesty and is missing out on a crucial element of drawing us into the story. How are they developing these abilities? How do they feel as they’re creating the magic? 

Every once in a while we get a peek into the whole thing, but it’s not nearly often enough. Even the other immortals have cool spells that I’d like to get a little more depth on. Most of the time, they simply say, a shaman taught me this, or I learned this from Circe. You learned what from Circe? Is it a spell that you say? How are you creating the magic?

Anyway, past all that, it’s a fun read and, in my opinion, more engaging than the first two. Josh and Sophie have generally become less whiney and are starting to jump into this whole being special and having magical abilities thing. Also, not to spoil it, but there’s an interesting plot twist that happens right at the end of the book.

The other books in this series so far are The Alchemyst (book 1), and The Magician (book 2).

Critique

Alexie’s work is both surprisingly delightful with beautiful and hilarious moments and shockingly dark, giving poignant commentary on the current state of a once thriving cross-continental culture. To compare it to some current works, the tone of the narrative is a blend between Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Wednesday Wars, replete with drawings that aid the story and give comic relief and rife with intellectual wit that gives insight into White culture, Native American culture and the growing pains of youth. 

It’s not surprising that this novel won the National Book Award, and it’s rare to see Native American narratives that delve inward to delineate an entire group of people who have lost their dreams and the hope to accomplish them, who’s communal addiction to alcohol steers both their futures and their deaths, and who view themselves as a broken people who pine for the past. I recommend this book to all readers 12+, however, be warned that there are many elements throughout that will make it a good candidate to be banned from reading lists.

Critique

A step up in some ways from the previous book, Scott seems to delve a little deeper into the education of the world of magic. Some of Perenelle’s abilities are explained, and the reader gets a better grasp on much of the world as a whole. However, one of the flaws with books like these with several books in a series is that they’re more like one continuous story than they are a story in themselves. As such, the arc for the characters and the plot will take place over the six planned books in the series, rather than each book having its own.

I would still like to see more into the world itself. The fast-paced action is great, but some education would be nice as well. The fun part about this series, which will always be prevalent, is the insertion of historical and mythological characters into the story. Since Scott has created a world in which all of the major mythological characters throughout history, no matter which culture they come from, are interrelated in some form or another, it makes for a delicious mythology/fantasy soup of sorts. 

The other books in this series so far are The Alchemyst (book 1), and The Sorceress (book 3) with more to come.

Critique

I must admit that I was expecting more out of this book. The kids aren’t all that eager to engage in the world of magic, and even though they have the potential for ultimate power, they just want to be normal. It’s difficult to be excited about the world Scott has created and the magic therein if the heroes are, at best, apathetic towards it. I just don’t feel drawn in. Also, since Scott rushes through the plot so quickly, the educational elements that dip into our own history and mythology is lost on the reader. 

One of the things he could have done in order to make this world come alive more was to go into a bit more detail about the elements of magic that are presented. Who is Bastet, where does she come from, and what are her powers? I would ask the same about any of the characters, and it’s unfortunate that magic just kind of happens rather than showing the intricacy of it. That element alone would help the world to come alive and make the text more interesting.

The kids could use some more detail as well. There’s a lot of internal dialogue within each of the two main characters, but little of it is related to the learning experiences they’re having. I was excited to start reading this series because, in many ways, I thought it would intricately introduce us to another world of magic. What is alchemy and how does it work? How does it differ from sorcery or necromancy? How does one become a necromancer vs. a magician? These kinds of details were what I was looking for, and I came up shorthanded.

However, in his defense, Scott has certainly written an entertaining book, and the series seems as though it will continue to engage the readership in an edge-of-your seat sort of read. Also, there are some interesting historical and geographical details that come up throughout the writing, which can serve to educate.

The other books in this series so far are The Magician (book 2), and The Sorceress (book 3) with more to come.