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Jan. 9th, 2010 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furyofvissarionA Drop of Scarlet - Jemiah Jefferson. Vampires. They're beautiful & intense & so angsty from living so long. One of them, hoping to find a drug to cure her husband (a vampire who became mentally ill due to a botched transition to vampirehood), stumbles upon a drug that makes vamps really happy. Because vamps in the world of the book are more-or-less telepathically connected to all other vampires, a horde of them descend onto Portland to get some of this drug. The writing was skilled, but the story left me cold. I didn't really connect w/any of the characters & disliked a lot of them.
Graceling - Kristen Cashore. I've been hearing about this for months & finally have read it. So, so good. This YA fantasy novel takes place in a land where some people are Graced with a talent: for swimming, or cooking, for example. Katsa, the king's niece, is Graced with killing. The unscrupulous king thus makes her his reluctant enforcer. One day Katsa meets a prince Graced with fighting: someone she can train with, without worrying about holding back; someone who can understand the fear & revulsion with which non-Graced people view them (all Graced are viewed with disgust, but particularly those Graced with gifts like, oh, killing). I was afraid that Cashore would take this intriguing premise & do something ridiculous or offensive w/it, but the book didn't disappoint. Really good handling of adolescent sexuality among other things.
Invisible Touch - Kelly Parra. When she was 11, Kara Martinez died for 11 minutes in a boating accident that killed her father. Ever since, she's had strange visions that lead her to try to stop accidents and other bad things happening to people. Now she's in high school & in addition to dealing with that,she's struggling to keep her mother at bay--her mother, who keeps threatening to send Kara back to a hated psychiatrist or even put her back in a mental hospital, & who has tried to squelch down the family's Mexican identity ever since the death of her husband. One day Kara meets a guy from the wrong side of the tracks, & he just happens to be connected to the latest series of supernatural signs that Kara has to puzzle out.
This was a satisfying read; moments of clumsiness in the writing, but also very sharp & spot-on depictions of trying to re/discover your family's culture in the face of pressure to do otherwise, & also of how very strongly parents can cling to completely inaccurate images of their children.
Graceling - Kristen Cashore. I've been hearing about this for months & finally have read it. So, so good. This YA fantasy novel takes place in a land where some people are Graced with a talent: for swimming, or cooking, for example. Katsa, the king's niece, is Graced with killing. The unscrupulous king thus makes her his reluctant enforcer. One day Katsa meets a prince Graced with fighting: someone she can train with, without worrying about holding back; someone who can understand the fear & revulsion with which non-Graced people view them (all Graced are viewed with disgust, but particularly those Graced with gifts like, oh, killing). I was afraid that Cashore would take this intriguing premise & do something ridiculous or offensive w/it, but the book didn't disappoint. Really good handling of adolescent sexuality among other things.
Invisible Touch - Kelly Parra. When she was 11, Kara Martinez died for 11 minutes in a boating accident that killed her father. Ever since, she's had strange visions that lead her to try to stop accidents and other bad things happening to people. Now she's in high school & in addition to dealing with that,she's struggling to keep her mother at bay--her mother, who keeps threatening to send Kara back to a hated psychiatrist or even put her back in a mental hospital, & who has tried to squelch down the family's Mexican identity ever since the death of her husband. One day Kara meets a guy from the wrong side of the tracks, & he just happens to be connected to the latest series of supernatural signs that Kara has to puzzle out.
This was a satisfying read; moments of clumsiness in the writing, but also very sharp & spot-on depictions of trying to re/discover your family's culture in the face of pressure to do otherwise, & also of how very strongly parents can cling to completely inaccurate images of their children.
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Date: 2010-01-10 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 08:59 pm (UTC)