Review: Gilded

Gilded by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I dunno about you, but I'm sad to say that Marissa Meyer, in recent years, seems to have been losing her touch. Don't get me wrong, this latest book of hers, a welcome return to her fantasy and fairytale roots (after her strange turn toward contemporary-with-a-touch-of-magic in last year's Instant Karma), is as compulsively readable as ever - and, not unlike years past with the likes of Winter or Renegades, I spent a lot of time reading it on Thanksgiving morning while waiting for the real festivities to come. But this time, Meyer also shies away from her sci-fi roots in favor of a darker, grimmer (pun not intended) retelling, this time of Rumplestiltskin, though with the Erlking as the main villain trapping Serilda and the mysterious Gild. And while it's nice to see Meyer try something different, it's also a bit dismaying that she isn't doing it as a one-shot the way she did with Heartless in 2016 - no, this time, it's the start of yet another YA duology. (Seriously, I will never understand why the duology trend is even a thing.) Also, there's the fact that the last time I read a story with the Goblin King in it, it was S. Jae-Jones' Wintersong duology, with an increasingly gossamer-thin plot over time in favor of dreamy prose. Meyer isn't nearly as dreamlike or surreal in her story, but unfortunately, this book is far too long to have such little plot, and I'm pretty sure, looking at the list of reviews here, I'm not the only one who thinks this about Gilded. Such a shame, but hopefully the conclusion to this two-parter will prove that this one was really just little more than Prolonged Prologue.

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Review: Daughter of the Deep

Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rick Riordan may have taken a bit of a break from the world of Camp Half-Blood (though he'll be back with Mark Oshiro on the long awaited Nico di Angelo and Will Solace spinoff, of course), but now it looks like he's gone off and started a whole new series that works pretty well in the style to which his fans have grown accustomed. This time, it's also got its roots in the old "fantasy/fairytale retelling" trend that was so big about 5-10 years ago, but with a very unique twist - a modern-day continuation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, with our protagonist Ana being a distant descendant of Prince Dakkar, aka Captain Nemo. So in this universe, while Verne's book (and its sequel, The Mysterious Island) were published for real, they were based on much more real events than the world knew. And now, in the present day, there are still those who want to steal Captain Nemo's legacy for themselves - namely, the Land Institute, named of course for Ned Land, and their own deadly attack sub, the Arronax. Though a little too herky-jerky in its pacing and occasionally predictable in its plotting (the big twist is nothing new to longtime Riordan fans, let's be real), this book is also pretty timely with its social commentary (particularly re: colonialism, and you can thank Roshani Chokshi for that) and stays Riordan-style without relying too heavily on some of his usual (pop-culturally) humorous touches, indicating a certain evolution in his style. While there's been no sequel announced yet that I know of, I'd be willing to guarantee one will happen...and is it too much to hope that in the next one, Riordan includes some lines in the Maltese language after he referenced it in this book? This Maltese boy hopes not.

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Review: Firekeeper's Daughter

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'll admit, I made the mistake of thinking this one was a fantasy novel at first due in part to the style of its cover art (that the title is written in a near-identical font to the one used by Leigh Bardugo on Six of Crows, from the same publisher no less, doesn't help), as well as its title (to which I kept mentally adding "The" at the start when it's not actually there). But this Reese Witherspoon-approved YA thriller is a real curveball in a lot of ways. Not only is it pretty well-rooted in the author's background as an Ojibwe woman, not only does it deal very frankly with issues of drug dealing and abuse on the reservation and the ways in which main character Daunis, being mixed race, is truly torn between two worlds, but it's also very subtly set in the mid-2000s. While not the first recent YA contemporary to be set in that particular near-past period (Tahereh Mafi's set two novels there so far), Boulley is careful to not actually reveal this until Daunis finally says around page 250 or so that her senior year began in 2003. Until then, she lets certain subtext - such as the ways all the teenagers' cell phones still have minutes, and they text in the sort of shorthand that's long since gone extinct except for when my buddy Koda messages me - do all the heavy lifting. I'm glad this book is getting as much push as it has - my local library put it on a pretty prominent table in the front, which is where I found it - because it deserves it.

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Eternals: Ignore The Anti-Hype, Please.

**NO SPOILERS FOR ETERNALS, BUT SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS MCU MOVIES APPEAR WITHIN. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.**

For the third time this calendar year, Marvel gifts us with a long-delayed movie, and this time, it's rather unusual this time in that we also have the first officially "Rotten" MCU movie on Rotten Tomatoes, earning only 48% at the time of this writing. Well, I'm here to tell you that in a world where the likes of Thor: The Dark World exist, and where Amazing Spider-Man 2 is also rated "Rotten," such classification is seriously misleading about Marvel's latest. It ain't a perfect movie, but it keeps up pretty well with Marvel tradition - stunning visuals, all-star casting, a left-field choice of director previously known more for low-budget and/or indie fare (and while Chloé Zhao is a well-deserved Oscar winner now, it still feels like quite the leap from Nomadland to Eternals), and an increasing commitment to diversity of talent before and behind the camera.