I'm Now On Twitter!

Influenced by the latest webcast of The Corner Booth (they swear by it, they really do), I've gone and joined Twitter. You can find me here.

Yes, that's a slightly different avatar there - I thought I'd use the one that's really based on me instead of my usual Andrew Garfield picture. Let's see if it gets me followers and/or potential readers...I have faith in the power of my avatar! :D

Review: Winger

Winger by Andrew Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been neglecting this section of Andrew Smith's bibliography for quite a while, and having managed to read it all in less than two hours, I wish I'd gotten around to it sooner, for several reasons.

First, the fact that the primary couple in this story is named Ryan Dean (the Dean is required when invoking his name) and Annie. Since I have a pair of siblings in Red Rain named Ryan and Annie, this is a hilariously disturbing coincidence, one I may have to rectify soon enough.

Second, the use of silly-ass comic strips to liven up the story's already wackadoodle sense of humor. Hey, it's Andrew Smith - the sense of humor is always wackadoodle. It's not as blackly comic as some of his more recent works, though. Because while those other books mostly just make humor out of catastrophic injury to a guy's man-bits, this one actually subjects poor Ryan Dean, among others, to numerous such catastrophic injuries, with far-from-pretty results.

Third, the fact that unlike all the other Andrew Smith books I've read, this one has no genuine horror/sci-fi genre trappings involved. Just the odd joke about how much of a demonic hellspawned witch Mrs. Singer is.

But it wouldn't be Andrew Smith without making you feel like steaming dog shit in the end. Because hey, it can be hard to be a barely-pubescent dweeb like Ryan Dean (and, being a post-pubescent dweeb myself, I mean that in the nicest of ways, of course), and you will know it from reading his account of life. I almost wish I could have lived his life, though. Maybe I'm just that sheltered that I need a more hardcore break from my own reality. Could someone shell out the money to build a Star Trek holodeck and allow us to experience the life of Winger, just for a change of scenery to the Pacific Northwest? As well as to remind us all why rugby is truly the sport of madmen? And that it can, in fact, be cool to wear Pokemon underwear after the age of ten, if you're in the right circumstances (read: Halloween when wearing a miniskirt of a caveman outfit)?

What really makes you feel like steaming dog shit in the end, though, is the actual ending. Not only does it come pretty much out of nowhere (although there are some pretty subtle foreshadowings that make sense only when you finish the book), but it's just too bloody brutal. Emphasis on "bloody." And "brutal." It's so sad you might forget to cry at first - and don't feel bad if that happens, because Ryan Dean (I almost typed "Ryan Dead" there - Freud Was Right after all!) did that too. It's like Spud all over again, but worse. Infinitely worse. This man, this guy who wrote this book - people say I hurt their feels with my writing? Something tells me they wouldn't be able to handle this one.

I find it very hard to believe Andrew Sith (totally intentional slip there, BTW) is about to publish a sequel to this. Should I read it? Will it be part of the increasingly disturbing trend of Grasshopper Jungle and The Alex Crow? Or will it be a breath of relative fresh air and sanity in comparison?

We'll just have to wait and find out. Until the next ridiculously long Andrew Smith-induced review, peoples...keep calm and FOR GOD'S SAKE, DON'T DRINK THE GATORADE!

View all my reviews

Review: Tunnel Vision

Tunnel Vision by Susan Adrian
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

File this one under "2015's Undiscovered Gems."

This high-octane, high-stakes story fuses Miss Peregrine (a young man with creepy powers inherited from his Eastern European refugee grandpa who always calls him "Yakob," but thankfully Dedushka doesn't die like Grandpa Portman did), The Adjustment Bureau (guy can't be with his dream girl because The Powers That Be have so decreed it, except they're government and not supernatural entities), and Little Brother (severe government lady who serves as the book's primary antagonist and gives DARPA a bad name, but without the Bush-era politics to further influence her portrayal) in a crazy intense way. Once the story starts, it refuses, and I mean REFUSES, to stop - right down to its ending, in which there's definitely room for a sequel. And speaking of that ending...no spoilers, but there's an even Bigger Bad than Liesel, one you'll probably not see coming. And even if you do, prepare to be shocked beyond belief.

My one hope is that this doesn't become the next Soulbound (series initially cancelled, then revived as a stupid e-book exclusive), or the next Archived/Unraveling/President's Vampire (amazing high potential, but the series just seems to stop after Book 2 for no reason.) There needs to be a nice, complete series here. Please? Pretty please?

View all my reviews

Generation Icarus: Hawk and Kestrel

I promised Jess Pawley a bit of fanart for her amazing Generation Icarus series, soon to be available in its entirety on Wattpad for the first time! Now, to celebrate, I've made a fanart of Hawk and Kestrel, based on a scene from the third book in the series, Third Time Lucky.

I admit, I may have flubbed up on the bodies a bit - Kess looks a lot smaller than Hawk, but she's also a tad bit further into the background. And as for Hawk's arm - well, it was originally outstretched, but that looked ridiculous. And let's just say I suck at drawing crossed legs...but at least they're recognizable, right? :)

Enjoy! :D

Review: Anatomy of Evil

Anatomy of Evil by Will Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the best entries in this series to date, largely because it finally takes on the inevitable Victorian London trope of investigating the case of Jack the Ripper. This interpretation jam-packs all manner of ethnic and sociopolitical issues as well - par for the course for this series, with the usual involvement of London's Jewish community, anarchist circles, and another minority I admittedly never saw coming - the gay underground. (One surprise - Oscar Wilde was never seen in any of the book's scenes at the Drake Club.) Another surprise - the true reason why Barker always, always, ALWAYS wears his signature dark glasses. It's, erm...it's freaky.

And the biggest surprise of all is that this book actually postulates who the Ripper may have been, as well as suggesting that he was, in fact, caught, but the arrest was never made public for sociopolitical reasons. And if the book's afterword is to be believed, this man, along with many of the book's supporting characters, was real. Now we're edging onto Rollins/Cussler/Berry/Brown territory here. Or, perhaps more accurately, Preston and Child (White Fire, anyone?)

Now that Jack the Ripper's over and done with, here's hoping the next Barker and Llewellyn book does what I've been hoping this series will do from the beginning - feature a collaboration with Holmes and Watson!

View all my reviews

Review: Dangerous Deception

Dangerous Deception by Kami Garcia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

PRE-REVIEW:

Everyone thinks Rick Riordan is the ultimate cliff-hanging troll:



But after the ending of Dangerous Creatures, I beg to differ.

TITLE GUESSAGES:

* Dangerous Darkness (obvious, but come on...)
* Dangerous Love
* Dangerous Light

All wrong. Love the actual title, though. And the cover - wow. Broken shades have never looked so cool.

REVIEW:

Well, well, G&S. Together, you've gotten the Caster Chronicles world back to form and then some. Between the much more international scope of this adventure (Ripping to Europe, anyone? Even if only for a short while...) and the crazy intensity of the Ridley storyline (at least we finally got that cliffhanger resolved!), this second Dangerous Creatures story was a short but sweet one.

Sweet...until the end, that is. I was warned by a fellow reader that the ending would be bad. She didn't tell me it would be sad. And sad it was. Not gonna lie - I teared up quite a lot. It's hard to say which of these two fine writer ladies, Garcia or Stohl, could be more responsible for this one. While not as lethal as the ending of Idols (for which I'm still not inclined to forgive Stohl anytime soon), or as devastating as the ending of Unmarked (oh God, don't remind me), it still continues their trend of giving me the feels something fierce.

Okay. Done talking. I'm gonna go hug my dog now. I need it. And then I'll wait for the inevitable third book - not to mention Stohl's Black Widow book, which I just found out about today. :D

View all my reviews

Review: Fallen

Fallen by Lauren Kate
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As far as stories about angels go, this ain't Cassie Clare. As far as Southern Gothics go, this ain't the Caster Chronicles. As far as YA books go, this one overdoes it a bit with the too-perfect characters (although it does make you feel bad for some of them - such as Daniel on Parents Day - and it does make you love some of them - I'm looking at "yours psychotically," Arianne!)

But even though it does take its sweet time to get going, this first installment does close out with a pretty satisfying BANG. I did see part of the twist coming, but those parts I didn't...hoo boy.

View all my reviews