Review: Unearthly

Title: Unearthly
Author: Cynthia Hand
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 448
Series: Unearthly #1
Rating: 5/5
Description from Goodreads:

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

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I don't even know where to start. School and travel made it hard for me to really get started with this one, but once I started, I barely put it down (exceptions: participation-required school events, such as a physics quiz. Stupid school). It was fantastic. Unearthly sucked me in and wouldn't let me go.

The summary seems a little off to me; at the beginning of the novel, Clara already knows she's part angel. In fact, she is receiving her Purpose - the big mission that is basically the point of her life. Her family (Clara, her mom, and her brother Jeffrey) moves to Wyoming so that she can find the boy who she believes she must save from a forest fire, but she doesn't have a clue about the particulars. Christian is everything she imagined the boy of her dreams to be, and then there's Tucker - her best friend's brother, who picks on her incessantly from the moment she arrives and who just might really like her. And while Clara is figuring out her Purpose in life, she's also learning more than she thought there was to know about her angel heritage...

Cynthia Hand has created a world that is absolutely riveting. I love, love, love her idea of angel-bloods and their Purposes, and just everything about the supernatural world she has created. And the characters are really fantastic - not just Clara and Christian and Tucker, but also Wendy and Angela and Jeffrey and Clara's mom (and, and, and...). Any one of them could easily be real; they're multifaceted and flawed, and the relationships between the characters seemed genuine too. Not to mention the story itself, which was simply captivating -- I needed to keep reading, to find out what would happen next, what else the characters would face.

I'm trying hard not to just go into a gushing rant about Unearthly but apparently that isn't working so well. At any rate, I loved this book, and I absolutely recommend it. Go forth and read!

Links:
Cynthia Hand's website
Cynthia Hand's blog

Waiting on Wednesday

*Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.*

This week, I'm waiting on Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. It was the title, not the cover, that first made me want to pick this one up (although it also has a pretty cool cover), but the story sounds awesome too:

Description from Goodreads:
Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story. . .

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

**********

Ghost story! I love ghost stories. And this one sounds excellent. When September rolls around and it comes out, I'll have to get my hands on a copy. Plus, I love that tagline: "Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story..." Amuses me a lot for some reason.

What are you waiting on this week? Leave a link in the comments and I'll stop by!

Series vs. Standalones

Several times recently, I've had the same conversation with one of my friends: which is better, series books or standalone novels?

It's not exactly a debate, because I haven't picked a side. I think both sides have their pros and cons, and I don't think there is a right answer - there are standalone books that I like better than some series, and there are series that I prefer to any sort of standalone. I think which option is "better" depends on the individual book.

Harry Potter is one of my favorite book series of all times, and those seven books are some of my absolute favorites. That absolutely would not have worked as a standalone. It needed to have all seven books, all the many thousands of pages. Other examples: Percy Jackson, the Mortal Instruments, Series of Unfortunate Events... the list goes on.

I love series books. I tend to get really attached to characters, and I love that I get more than one book to get to know the characters and the world and to experience their story. But if the story arc peters out after book two and the only reason the series continues is to make money, then -- NO! Leave it! This is what I think happens too much with movies, but it applies just as much to books. Shrek, for example - I thought it was a great movie: cute, funny, just fun to watch. But the rest of the Shrek films? No, they were just there to make money. The second one was still pretty good, but the third one? Meh. And the fourth one? I wouldn't even watch it. It happens to books, too. If it's only got a story for one book, leave it that way!

Of course, there are exceptions. To use a kiddie example, the Boxcar Children: each book told its own story, its own mystery, but the characters were the same. Magic Tree House was that way too. Actually, now I think about it, most kids' series are... hm. Better example: Redwall. I personally haven't read all of them, but my brother has (multiple times). There are something like twenty Redwall books out now, and that's okay - each one does tell its own story, it's not one story arc spread way too thin or adding sequels just to make money.

I have no objection to series. Generally speaking, I love them. I just think that creating a series for the sake of creating a series usually means that the quality of the writing is not as good as it could be.

But of course, I also love standalone novels. Paper Towns and An Abundance of Katherines, both by John Green, are right up there on my very-favoritest-books list -- and they're both standalone novels. People constantly ask John whether there will be sequels for his books, and despite my love for those characters and those worlds, I'm glad the answer is no. Those books don't need sequels. Their stories are complete. And if it's not clear what happens to the characters afterwards, well, that's okay -- it's good to leave some things to the reader's imagination. The same is true of all of the books I've read by Sarah Dessen and Deb Caletti and Laurie Halse Anderson; it's true of Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why; it's true of many books.

The way I see it, series vs. standalone only has a right answer in relation to an individual book or series. But that's my opinion. What do you think?

Review: Vesper

Title: Vesper
Author: Jeff Sampson
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 304
Series: Deviants #1
Rating: 4/5
From the back cover:
Emily Webb is a geek -- and happy that way. She's never been the kind of girl who sneaks out for parties. And she definitely doesn't start fights or flirt with other girls' boyfriends. Until one night Emily finds herself doing exactly that... the same night a classmate -- also named Emily -- is found mysteriously murdered.

The thing is, Emily doesn't know why she's doing this. Every night, she gets wilder, until it's not just her personality that changes; she's also becoming strong, fast, and utterly fearless. Has she been bewitched by the soul of the other, murdered Emily? Or is Emily Webb becoming something else entirely -- something not human?

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Vesper surprised me, and it confused me. It bothered me in places. It made me laugh out loud, and it made me shudder. It definitely was not what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it.

Our story begins with shy, geeky Emily Webb dressed in an outfit she would never wear and attempting to climb out of her bedroom window. A few minutes later, she snaps back to reality, horrified by what she has almost done. Then she gets a phone call: Emily Cooke, a girl from her school, has been shot and killed. Her body was found barefoot, pajama-clad, three miles from her home.

Emily Webb is affected in a way she can't explain by the death of the other Emily, and even as she grieves the loss of a classmate she barely knew, she is changing. Each night, she is hit with a crippling pain, and then she changes into someone different - still Emily, but an Emily who is bold and brazen and maybe even a little slutty. And then she changes even more, into something that may not even be human. Mixed in with the story are transcripts of a conversation Emily has with someone called "F. Savage" describing her adventures.

At first, based on the transcripts, I was expecting a straight-up science fiction novel, but that wasn't what I got. It's a mystery - a murder mystery and a who-am-I mystery all wrapped into one. The plot was excellent. I just kept turning pages, eager to find out what was going on and what would happen next. I hope it doesn't take too long for the sequel, because I want it (a problem, since this one isn't even out until next week).

The only problem I had was Megan. I'm not sure why Emily and Megan were actually friends; it definitely wasn't the kind of friendship I'd want to have. I just didn't like her at all, and I wished we had gotten to know a little more about who she was.

Despite that, Vesper was an intriguing story that kept me reading and left me wanting more. I recommend it, especially if you like a nice dark blend of fantasy, science fiction, and murder mysteries...

Vesper comes out one week from today (on January 25, 2011), so be looking for it soon! :)

Vesper counts towards the Debut Author Challenge and my Missing Letters challenge.


Links:
Jeff Sampson's website

In My Mailbox (9)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren in which we bloggers talk about what books we got during the past week.

I have 3 new ones this week, all from the library:

-Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler
-Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (this book just won a Printz Award, so congratulations to the author!)
-Unraveled by Gena Showalter


What did you guys get this week?

Books from Before (4)

Books from Before is my own weekly Saturday meme, in which I talk about books that I read and loved before I started blogging. You're welcome to participate, but please credit me and leave your link in the comments!

This week I want to talk a little bit about Percy Jackson. If you haven't read The Lightning Thief, turn off your computer right now and go read it. Seriously. Go. It is that awesome.

Percy, Grover, and Annabeth (the protagonist and his two best friends) find themselves caught up in a prophecy -- and the mystery of who stole Zeus's lightning bolt. Our heroes are campers at Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods. Every camper there has one parent who is an Olympian, a Greek god. Book one is about the lightning bolt mystery, but the prophecy carries them through five books of danger, mystery, mythology, and hilarity.

These books make me laugh so much, and I learned a lot of Greek mythology from them, too. Plus, engaging, action-packed stories with incredible characters. I love them. And you should read them.

Oh, but I haven't seen the movie. Has anyone else? Was it any good? I'm a little skeptical...

Review: Misguided Angel

Title: Misguided Angel
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Pages: 265
Series: Blue Bloods #5
Rating: 4/5
**WARNING: Spoilers from earlier books (not this one)**
From the book jacket: 
After inheriting the dark Van Alen Legacy, Schuyler fled to Florence with her forbidden love, Jack. Now the two of them must embark on the mission Schuyler was destined to complete: to find and protect the five remaining gates that guard the earth from Lucifer, lord of the Silver Bloods.

Back in New York, Mimi has been elected Regent of a crumbling coven. Struggling with her heartache over the loss of Kingsley and with her overwhelming desire to destroy Jack, she must focus all her energy on a perilous new threat. Vampires are being abducted and their captors are planning to burn them alive online... for all the world to see. Help arrives in the form of Deming Chen, a Venator from Shanghai, who must untangle the web of deceptions before the killers strike again.

As the young vampires struggle for the survival of the coven, they uncover a deadly secret, a truth first discovered by Schuyler's mother during the Renaissance but kept buried for centuries. And as the Blue Blood enclave weakens yet further, fate leads Schuyler to a terrible choice that will ultimately map the destiny of her heart.

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A warning before you read this book: Make sure you've read the previous books in the series, and recently. I've read all the other Blue Bloods books, but apparently not recently enough, because I spent the first sixty pages of Misguided Angel being seriously confused. I couldn't remember why Schuyler and Jack were in Italy or where Oliver was.

At first, I was prepared to give this book a "meh" rating or maybe not even finish it -- I thought maybe I'd go back and reread it once I had refreshed my memory of the earlier books. But Melissa de la Cruz sucked me in with her writing and I couldn't put it down. It almost didn't matter that I'd forgotten a lot of what happened: this novel tells a story in and of itself. (Of course, it also helps a ton that I did eventually remember most of the earlier books...side note: I really do love these books, I just haven't read them recently enough. I did not forget them because they are bad; they're awesome.)

Anyway. Before I go on getting distracted, the book: Schuyler and Jack are in Italy looking for the Gate of Promise. Mimi wants revenge on Jack and she's torn apart by her love for Kingsley, but as the Regent, she can hardly spend her time on that. Not when Blue Blood lives are in danger -- which they are. A new threat has arisen... well, sort of new. The Silver Bloods are very much involved.

Instead of switching between characters frequently, Misguided Angel is divided into thirds. The first third is told from Schuyler's perspective, the second from Mimi's, and the third from Deming's. I thought Deming was an interesting addition to the cast of the series, and even though I'm not a fan of her name ("Schuyler" I just love, "Deming" not so much), I loved her character. Mimi...I just don't like her very much. Schuyler didn't seem very real to me, but I wished there had been more to her part of the story.

What I loved was that even though the three sections of the book are told from very different perspectives and one takes place on the other side of the globe from the others, they still worked together to explore ultimately the same mystery. Obviously, I don't think you should read this if you haven't read the earlier ones in the series...but if you have, read this one! (Before you forget!)

One thing is for sure, Melissa de la Cruz can write. I will be eagerly awaiting the next installment of the series...

Links:
Melissa de la Cruz's website
Blue Bloods website