Review: Dear Martin

Dear Martin by Nic Stone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Easily comparable to Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give, Nic Stone's debut Dear Martin, while delivered in a physically smaller package, is no less gut-punching and devastating and firmly rooted in the real-world issues of systemic racism and police brutality. That gut-punch quality owes a lot to the fact that unlike THUG, Stone's book, being so much smaller, doesn't have nearly as much room for the little things in life to liven things up. Not that it doesn't have some of those little things, though - especially when we see Justyce's friendship with Manny and relationship with SJ, strained though both may be. But Stone delivers greatly on an emotionally raw and yet minimalist narrative, splitting the novel between news transcripts, sections written to resemble a screenplay (and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Stone began this as a screenplay, actually) with heavy emphasis on dialogue, and of course Justyce's letters to MLK, which serve more as a diary than anything else. And just like Angie Thomas, Nic Stone is dangerously gifted at tackling issues to which there are no easy answers, and making that crystal clear. Jus has to deal with way too much stress in his life, poor guy, between the blatant ignorance of his classmates and his having to keep his relationship with SJ secret because his mother wouldn't want him dating a white girl...and of course the crime that serves as this book's climax, almost smack in the middle.

(I shouldn't have been reading this one at the cafe so soon before starting work.)

I eagerly await whatever other books Nic Stone writes in the future, and until then, I'm headcanoning this one as part of the Albertalli-Thomas universe as well. No doubt Jus and Starr can bond over their all-too-similar experiences, and then go hang out with the likes of Abby and Bram and Simon to lighten things up.

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Review: Renegades

Renegades by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

OFFICIAL RENEGADES PLAYLIST:

"I know you don't listen to me, 'cause you say you see straight through me, don't you?"
-Coldplay, "Shiver"

"The gods decree you'll be right here by my side
Right next to me, you can run but you cannot hide..."
-Depeche Mode, "It's No Good"

"I'm gonna fight 'em off
A seven nation army couldn't hold me back..."
-The White Stripes

"I guess in love there's no guarantee
Sometimes it's not what it seems to be
Even though you're still the one I care for..."
-Europe, "Heart of Stone"

"And if you complain once more, you'll meet an army of me!"
-Björk

"I'm so lonely on my way
Waiting for a better day
Only one thing left behind
A world of lust and crime..."
-Peter Schilling, "The Different Story"

"They reached for tomorrow, but tomorrow's more of the same
So they reached for tomorrow, but tomorrow never came..."
-Berlin, "Masquerade"

"Can you break away from your alibis?
Can you make a play?
Will you meet me in the dark?"
-Billy Squier

"Do you really believe my tongue?
I'm not afraid I've angered God
I never meant to hurt no one
It's how I stay alive..."
-Shiny Toy Guns, "Waiting Alone"

"Don't you believe, girl
You'll change the world
At least you changed the world for me..."
-Finger Eleven

"Rise up and take the power back
It's time the fat cats had a heart attack
You know their time's comin' to an end
We have to unify and watch our flag ascend
SO COME ON!"
-Muse, "Uprising"

Bonus Track: Mark Mothersbaugh, "Planet Sakaar"

REVIEW:

For the first time, Marissa Meyer gifts us with a book that isn't a fairytale retelling, though it still retains a lot of the slick post-apocalyptic sci-fi style of The Lunar Chronicles. Maybe a little less stylish, but Renegades, the first in at least a trilogy of original superhero stories, more than makes up for that with the sort of moral grayness Meyer put on display last year in Heartless.

It's a long book, over 500 pages, but it's terrifically action-packed and gripping the whole way. This, of course, owes largely to its collection of super-cool characters, particularly those among the Renegades, and even a few of the Anarchists as well. Well, maybe not the Puppeteer - thankfully he's not in the story much, but he makes the most disturbingly creepy impression. But Nova and Adrian, among others, display a variety of super-duper-original powers. Sure, we get our elementals and our mind-controllers and our super-strong types, and even some insect-based powers (controlling bees, butterfly teleportation, etc.), but when was the last time you saw a super who could literally weaponize their own blood? Nova's power deserves mention too, especially her side effect of not getting any sleep herself while she can induce it in others. But Adrian. My God, Adrian. I think the last time I saw the power to bring drawings to life was the infamous "Frankendoodle" episode of SpongeBob, but Adrian gets it so super-cool because he can literally tattoo himself with powers. Though I'm still a speedster boy forever, I'm extremely mad jelly of Adrian's gifts.

All these powers, and the psychological mind games, and the turning of all the superhero tropes on their heads, combine to make a diabolically page-turning story in Renegades. You'll also love the book for its highly inclusive cast of characters - queer rep and PoC rep aplenty, the latter especially in the two leads, Nova and Adrian.

And most of all, you'll need this book just to have that glorious cover, perhaps the best of 2017, in your collection immediately.

Two more books? Please let them be even more epic than this one! (Though when it comes to Marissa Meyer, we the fans know she can't fail.)

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Review: Madness

Madness by Zac Brewer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Does Uncle Z ever fail? I say no, and this latest, perhaps his darkest novel to date, is no exception. Take all the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book seriously, and if you have issues with depression and/or suicidal ideation, take all the caution if you decide to go forth and read this book. Me, I do have such issues, though perhaps more mildly than most (and my depression is only self-diagnosed, but there's really no diagnosis to make suicidal ideation sound more "official"), which means while Madness was a painful read - and probably the only book by Uncle Z I'd only ever read once - it was nevertheless a powerful one.

It's also a strong continuation of the style of Z's previous dark contemporaries, The Cemetery Boys and The Blood Between Us, with strong undercurrents of psychological nastiness and a lot of thriller twists right at the end that totally overturn the story and leave you gasping for breath. I also saw a lot of myself in Brooke - though I've never engaged in self-harm (and I still credit that, to this day, to having written that into my own books), I completely relate to how she describes her own depression. No discernible source, no obvious trauma behind it all. It just...is, and there's no explanation. Maybe if I were to find myself a therapist, they'd help me further manage it before it ever gets to the level Brooke experiences.

And then there's Duckie's story, which keeps this story from getting too deep into the abyss, and makes me think a tad bit more of Becky Albertalli than Z Brewer. Duckie makes me think a bit of how my high school life would have been if I were a little less afraid of my own queer self at the time - and if I'd had the sort of parents who didn't make me afraid. Brooke's parents, though, are more like mine, pushing Brooke into extracurriculars as they do - and acting like her mental problems are less from illness and more from toxic, attention-seeking behavior.

Oh, and Derek. But if I say too much about him, here there be spoilers, so I won't say too much. Let's just say even if you're a student of Uncle Z like I am, even if you appreciate him as a deconstruction of the "bad boy" archetype, you'll still not see a lot of what he does coming. he's also got a Siberian husky named Vikas - yes, Uncle Z, we all see what you did there.

Like I said, this is probably the one Zac Brewer book I'll only ever read once. But that once is enough for such a masterpiece as this, what only Uncle Z can give us.

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Review: Monster

Monster by Michael Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A follow-up to Gone at last?

YES. PLEASE.

Four years after Michael Grant seemingly ended the series with the sixth and final novel Light, here beginneth a new trilogy that takes the FAYZ and its alien virus and all its ramifications and brings them to a more global stage. Well, so far a lot of the action is confined to the US, and especially to California (there's a lot of Bay Area action scenes, including one of the most inventive spins yet on Golden Gate Bridge destruction), but there are sprinklings of worldwide action as more pieces of the space rocks that first brought us the gaiaphage are starting to show up around our planet. Though Grant's indicated a few times in recent months that he might be quitting the YA biz, the events of this book are only the first taste of things to come, so I'm still hoping that he brings us Villain and Hero to wrap up this new story arc.



I was a little surprised by how much the early information about this book kept changing. First there was the working title Shade Darby, then the assertion that Dekka would be the protagonist. Elements of both of these show up in the final product, with Shade being one of several new characters through whose POV we witness the apocalyptic horror (and body horror) with which Grant gifts us like back in the old days of Plague, especially, and Dekka being the sole original-series character whose POV we get here. Our other major POV characters are Justin, who's got a seriously monstrous streak that helps give this book its name; Tom Peaks, who to my mind feels like a mashup of Nicholas Lea's best-known characters, Alex Krycek from The X Files and Tom Foss from Kyle XY; Cruz, who is genderfluid (said to be "multiple choice in a true/false world") and becomes very good friends with Shade and her ex, Malik; and Armo, whose Oppositional Defiant Disorder is, if I'm not mistaken, something he shares with Grant himself. There are so many characters to follow here, and it's clear that Grant focuses more on some than others - Shade, Cruz, and Dekka get the most attention, I think. But even though not every POV character gets equal page time, that doesn't terribly undermine the book's central theme - the extremely blurred lines between monster, villain, and hero. No Golden or Silver Age comic book stuff here, kids.

The original Gone series, dark though it was, proved very foundational for me as a YA reader - and also as a YA writer. I'm sure there are many who would side-eye me for saying this, but a lot of Grant's old heroes and villains - especially Sam, Quinn, Edilio, Dekka, Sanjit, and even Caine and Diana - have been quite influential on me. Monster takes the darkness of the old series up a few more notches, really ratcheting up the psychological scare and body horror factors. And also the in-universe bigotry factor. It's nothing new for this series - racism, in particular, flew thick and fast coming from the original series' worst villains. A lot of our heroes in this book have to put up with aggressions both micro and macro - Dekka hearing people frequently talk about her "the black lesbian," reductive as that is, Cruz having to put up with a ton of transphobia (including repeated use of her deadname, which is still her legal one) and getting asked what she's got in her pants, etc. There's also inclusion of mental illness among the good guys and the bad both, though, like I said, the lines between good and evil are extremely blurred here. Think Netflix Marvel as opposed to ABC Marvel (not that Agents of SHIELD doesn't blur the lines a lot itself.)

Monster isn't quite the five-star read I was hoping for, but then again, I only gave Gone four stars too and came to super-appreciate the series as it went on. That said, though, it really harks back to the days when Gone and sequels were among the darkest books in YA, and this one's even more thought-provoking than ever. I bet there are many who'll give it a miss for precisely those reasons, but that's okay. Everyone has their own preferences.

Oh, and one more stray observation...that scene where Shade and Cruz sing along to some good old Tom Petty. "I Won't Back Down." Never let it be said that Grant's good guys and gals and enbies don't have great taste in music.

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Review: The Wise Man's Fear

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This middle book of The Kingkiller Chronicle is, for me, really more of a 3.5, but I'll round it up to four in the hope that such good karma will hasten the long-delayed release of the third and final novel. Though The Wise Man's Fear rather suffers from considerable overlength and a slightly scattered string of plotlines, Kvothe is no less fun to follow in his exploits. Hell, we get quite a few looks at some of the more outlandish stories of his, such as his encounters with Felurian. And while there's definitely a sense of this book ending on a very strange note, almost deliberately cliffhanging us readers, I'm really too invested to be too angry. That, plus with the announcement of the forthcoming TV series (with Lin-Manuel Miranda exec-producing!), Rothfuss should really be motivated to finish the trilogy lest he wind up with a similar reputation to George R.R. Martin in this regard.

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Thor: Ragnarok - The Thunderous Apotheosis Of Taika Waititi

"We come from the land of the ice and snow
From the midnight sun, where the hot springs flow..."
-Led Zeppelin, "Immigrant Song"

***THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW.***

It says a lot that of all the Phase 3 films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far, the weakest link is Doctor Strange and, for once, neither a Thor nor a Hulk film. (Well, aside from the perpetually annoying timeline error of Spider-Man: Homecoming, but that's neither here nor there.) Thor: Ragnarok not only bucks that weakest-link-of-each-phase trend for both Thor and Hulk, but also soars above the pack to become not only the best Thor film of all, but also one of the best of the MCU overall. With Taika Waititi and his high quirk factor helming this voyage, there's no shortage of what we've all come to expect from the MCU - alien oddities, hammy acting, spot-on humor (most of the time - sadly, there are a few moments where the jokes are ill-timed and fall flatter than flat), the perpetually tense dynamic between Thor and Loki, and some of the MCU's most terrific action scenes yet.

Taste the alien rainbow.

While previous Thor entries rely heavily on Shakespearean melodrama, and end up often feeling pretty generic and forgettable otherwise, Ragnarok, in spite of its apocalyptic name, dials up the humor and action all the way. Not that either of the first two films failed in the humor department, especially, but this one feels like the first time where the filmmakers genuinely have our amusement as a top priority. Perhaps a little too much so - as I said earlier, a few of the jokes don't quite work. Heck, even the movie's bittersweet ending (quite akin to Guardians Vol. 2, in fact) gets a tad ruined by a joke from the mouth of the master himself, Taika Waititi. But most of these jokes will get the entire theater roaring with laughter, guaranteed, so at least Marvel's doing their job right 95% of the time with this one. Naturally, the trailers already spoiled some of the best moments...

"YES!!!!! We know each other! He's a friend from work!"

But there are also some very good funny moments that the trailers do not spoil, and I will spoil none of them myself. Well, except for Hulk, after he inevitably reverts back to Banner, being forced to wear some threads from Tony Stark's wardrobe (don't ask), and among them is a T-shirt bearing the image of Duran Duran's Rio album cover. That shirt is just one of many bits of 80s influence on this movie - turns out the retro-themed title on the trailers and posters, as well as the frequent use of classic Zeppelin and a heavily synth-driven score from Devo's very own Mark Mothersbaugh, foreshadow a product tailor-made to ride the recently rising wave of 80s nostalgia.

As the above GIF and the array of colorful teaser posters indicates, this movie is one of the most colorful yet in the MCU, building on the style of Guardians of the Galaxy and going for an even more vibrant style than any other. It's perhaps halfway between Guardians and the overblown color-splosion of the Suicide Squad ad campaign, a pretty happy medium and perfectly timed to come exactly a year after the MCU's other most unique visual treat yet, Doctor Strange. Speaking of Strange, he cameos in this movie, building on the promise of Thor's appearance in Strange's own mid-credits scene, and helps provide one of the best highlights simply because of how he even manages to catch powerful Asgardians Thor and Loki off guard. Also catching them off guard is Hela, the long-lost goddess of death, played by Cate Blanchett with less ham than her unforgettable role as Irina Spalko in Crystal Skull, but more visual panache and badassery. She proves pretty damn difficult to beat, especially for Thor and Loki as they wind up sidetracked elsewhere for much of the movie (as much as you gotta love the Bartertown-esque environment of Sakaar, and also Jeff Goldbum channeling his inner David Bowie for what may well be his most iconic role yet, the Sakaar scenes do feel a bit padded to bring the movie to a well over two-hour runtime), not helped by the fact that she's also their long-lost sister, lending a Holmes-sibs air to their dynamic - Thor is Sherlock, Loki is Mycroft, and Hela is Eurus.

Perhaps the most impactful scenes are those where Hela bursts back onto the scene in Asgard and starts laying waste to everything. She's not just destroying Asgard, but unveiling the whitewashed secrets of Asgard's history, particularly where Odin and his rise to power are concerned. It's hard not to read these scenes as an implicit rebuke of current American culture and its tendency to pretend that what's in the past is simply in the past and has no impact on today, and knowing Waititi, I wouldn't be surprised if this was intentional. As much as I love the Marvel movies, I have to really take my hat off to Waititi with this one, because it's surprisingly rare that there's such a thoughtful theme underlying it all. A theme that makes me actually lowkey scared this movie's (bittersweet) epilogue could somehow prove prophetic. But with this thoughtfulness gives me hope that Waititi gets a lot more jobs in Hollywood going forward. Starting, if not with a follow-up to this film, with an adaptation of a most well-deserving book. Red Rising comes especially to mind.

The third time proves to be the charm for Thor's section of the franchise, delivering an A-grade movie that proves brawny and brainy and charming all at once, the perfect combination of Thor and Hulk and Valkyrie. Yes, Valkyrie. Can't forget her. Tessa Thompson's character, though a shade or two underwritten, is every bit as awesome as the other two lead heroes, and Loki of course. Just look at the scene where she cuts down a swarm of Sakaarian junk collectors with her craft's machine guns while drunk off her ass. Can I have Valkyrie as my Jaeger copilot? Please please pretty please?

Till next time, Pinecones...

#FeedTheRightWolf

Remember: Denis Leary is always watching. Always.

Review: Godsgrave

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gentlefriends, it's now been exactly a year since I read and reviewed Nevernight, so I now return with my review of Godsgrave. Since I read the first book, it's been called out for its highly unflattering portrayal of the Maori-coded Dweymeri people, as well as Mister Kristoff's waffling on whether or not the Dweymeri are meant to represent the Maori to begin with (the original, #ownvoices review is no longer available from what I've heard, having been taken down due to harassment.) That said, though, it appears that even in the limited time Kristoff would have had between the time of that review going public and the time he finished writing Godsgrave, he did take some steps to give the Dweymeri a better portrayal, making them less offensive (and less prone to obscene dialogue), and also showing Mia calling out an in-universe rando for anti-Dweymeri comments. Perhaps not enough to appease some of those who've written off Kristoff as yet another problematic white dudebro (to the point where I've seen many boycotting the Illuminae Files), but it's better than if he'd doubled down on the in-universe racism. So while this series is still one of the grittiest and darkest pieces in fantasy, at least Kristoff is focusing instead on more universal darkness that scares pretty much everyone.

And that darkness...yeah, it'll have you going "what the 'byss?" pretty damn often while you read this book. Just like Nevernight, this book is loaded for bear with overwrought writing, hilarious and overlong footnotes that prove more entertaining at times than the actual book itself (seriously, give me an entire book of Kristoff's footnotes, I'd give it ten stars out of five!), blood and guts galore (that goddamn retchwyrm!), swears by the names of various gods and their genitals (and it never fails to amuse me that Aa has his name in common with a subtype of lava, so every time someone says "Aa's burning cock" - do NOT attempt a drinking game based on Mister Kristoff's swears, gentlefriends - I keep thinking of a well-hung lava monster, lol), fantasy games of the kind that wouldn't be out of place in certain other sophomore stories from big-name new-adult fantasy series (A Gathering of Shadows and The Mime Order come especially to mind), interplays of sex and violence (including Mia showing herself to be bi, thus making her resemble Clarke Griffin in my mind as well as Octavia "Skairipa" Blake), Mister Gently being the best supernatural cat thing you've seen since the Coraline movie, and of course a fair few weapons-grade cliffhangers almost rivaling those of Glass Sword and Insurgent and Empire of Storms. Especially Empire of Storms. You'll know it when you see it.

Two books down in this trilogy, and now only one left. Bring it the 'byss on, Mister Kristoff. And until then, remember, I've named one of my own original villains after you for a reason.

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