Review: The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley

The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley by Shaun David Hutchinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Going back a little further in Hutchinson's bibliography, The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley touches on a lot of the same themes as the next two books he's written since this one hit shelves, but on a smaller scale (it's only a shade under 300 pages as opposed to the 400-plus of both We Are the Ants and At the Edge of the Universe) and with less genre inflection, aside from the presence of the comics that the title character draws about his original antihero character, Patient F. But overall, this smaller, though no less personal, piece of emotional Hutchinson wonder reads like a mashup of Winger and Red Band Society, with Drew being an even more unique lead character than Henry or Ozzie, and the best characters being Trevor and Lexi, two adorable and awesome kids cursed to be patients in the hospital's pediatric ward. All these characters, and Rusty too, will make you laugh and cry, sometimes both at once. It wouldn't be Hutchinson if they didn't, no?

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Review: The Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alexandra Bracken's first big novel, when I first read it a few years back, was a gripping, if sometimes slow, piece of Twenty Minutes Into The Future YA dystopia - basically, a pandemic kills off most American children, and those who survive develop X-Men-style powers. (In this case, however, there are only five to choose from. Red = pyrokinesis, Orange = telepathy including mind control, Yellow = electrokinesis and technopathy, Green = polymath and increased intelligence, and Blue = telekinesis. I'll have to remember that better now - it was very hard for me to keep track sometimes when I read the series the first time.)

Rereading it, I found it to be pretty classic Bracken - full of interesting ideas, but also full of dead air and static because of its length. I mean, seriously, almost 500 pages - and there are two more novels this length in the series! Really, it's the tiny nuggets of interesting info that keep this story strong and addictive - especially now, when the book feels a lot more relevant as, like in the real world, it depicts a fascist "president" swapping time between DC and New York (although that may just be coincidence rather than prophecy, unless there's a secret Purple Psi power that Bracken has that we don't know about?) And at least President Gray is marginally more sympathetic than a certain Agent Orange...but maybe I'll be able to develop the comparison more (or less) after rereading the rest of the series. I've already got Never Fade on order, though it might be a while because my library has so few copies of that one, for some reason. Stay tuned.

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Review: Blood Rose Rebellion

Blood Rose Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I first tried reading this one a couple of months ago, and at the time, I couldn't get into it. This time, however, I found it an easier read, and while I can't say I love this book, I was able to finish the whole thing and am still intrigued enough to want to read the sequel, which has a pretty interesting-sounding title and cover, no? As for this one, though, it's a pretty strange little story, an alternate-history fantasy focusing on a very little-known mid-19th-century event, but with the twist that there's magic involved. And that magic is, normally, accessible only to the upper classes - hence the common comparison between this book and Red Queen. It's an upper class that wants to control everyone else, because isn't that what they all want to do? And in this case, there's certain ethnic tension due to Romani involvement (and, Eves being a modern author, she has her heroine learn, very quickly, how inaccurate and insulting the term "Gypsy" is.)

Though Blood Rose Rebellion is a story we've seen time and again in YA, it's also got just enough unique factors that it's really not to be missed - and who knows? The sequels might just get even more interesting.

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Review: Ink and Bone

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm?...An idea."
-Dom Cobb, Inception

"If an item does not appear in our records, it does not exist."
-Jocasta Nu, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

I can't believe I've been sleeping on this series for as long as I have, but seeing the third book appear on the Lucky Day shelf of extra copies of new books at the library, I realized I had to start at the beginning. And when I did, I had no idea that I was going into one of the most unique, most inventive pieces of fantasy dystopian in all of YA literature. Alternate history, Twenty Minutes Into The Future, science-fantasy, a wonderfully diverse cast...what more could you ask for?

Well, there's one thing that could really be asked for, and that's a one-of-a-kind villain - or villainous organization, or perhaps two. One of which is the very Erudite-esque Great Library itself. Never thought a Library would be such bad news, did you? In this case, though, they are, being more about controlling the dissemination of information than about spreading the intellectual wealth. Basically, the capitalists of this world, while the Burners (so named for using Greek fire to wipe out the Library around the world) serve as communist anarchists gone extreme. And somewhere in the middle, we have Obscurists, subtracting both the greed of the Library and the violence of the Burners.

This story is longer than it appears, but it's very wonderful and addictive and if you aren't reading it yet, why not? Pick it up immediately, my friends.

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Review: Ignite Me

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another lousy good book from Tahereh Mafi!

I must add I was pleasantly surprised to find myself switching ships. God, Mafi not only sank my original ship, she torpedoed it with extreme prejudice for shit's sake (as Kenji would say). And it's definitely for the better, too, because of the character growth and development involved in the victorious ship, and the unexpected character regression in the original (which, I now notice, includes a real ton of ableist insults which, of course, Juliette does not tolerate.)

And I have to say that while Chapter 55 was certainly hot and heavy, I have a confession: Chapter 58 is even more so, IMHO.

Ave atque vale to the original Shatter Me trilogy...but not forever, not to this story world. Not when there's a new trilogy on the horizon, and thank God for that!

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Review: Generation One

Generation One by Pittacus Lore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Lorien Legacies sequel series?

A Lorien Legacies sequel series!

My general reaction when they announced this:



And my general reaction having finally finished reading Generation One:



So. The skinny, the nitty-gritty...it looks like ol' Mr. Frey has decided to keep Pittacus Lore's storytelling career going in a slightly different form, one that borrows a bit from the Endgame trilogy in terms of style. Not so much the strange formatting with unindented paragraphs and numbers numbered out like Frey got possessed by Tahereh Mafi, but from the multiple POVs of a very diverse ensemble cast like Frey instead got possessed by Leigh Bardugo. Here we have six main third-person narrators, all Garde. Two of them, we've met in the original series - sonic-manipulating punk Nigel and the troubled, Mako Mori-like Ran. The other four are new to us - the Jekyll and Hyde-ish Caleb, the bold, brash Isabela, Kopano (the first new Garde we meet, who has a Luke Cage-type power combined with a gentle-giant personality) and Taylor, a healer. (Perhaps because she's the white female lead, she's the only one named in the dust-jacket blurb, but then again the original series also liked to focus on one character at a time with each blurb too.)

Then there's the seventh POV, belonging to a villain who wants to kidnap the new Earth Garde and use them for his own ends...and then it's hinted he's got superiors who really are in charge and really want to use the Garde. The villains are fairly diverse too - an Icelander and a Saudi being the main ones, in addition to your standard Bible-thumping white-supremacist human-supremacist American shit-for-brains - but they're pretty damn ruthless. Hell, in their first scene, they steal a boy from an Australian Aboriginal village and massacre the rest of the inhabitants - shades of Kylo Ren here, not to mention some nasty colonialism that reminds me of some of the more disturbing scenes from Cleverman.

This book really takes its time to get going, but when it does, it rockets into the stratosphere as only Pittacus Lore can take us, easily going toe to toe with the original series in terms of action and thrills. It helps that a few of our faves from the original series make comebacks - Dr. Malcolm Goode, "Professor" Nine (who now resembles Man Bun Ken, but I still think he's cool, that lovable assbite), Daniela, the aforementioned Nigel and Ran...and even John, who makes one surprise cameo in all his Superman-esque glory. Though I kinda wish I could've seen Sam, Six, or Seven...but there'll be more books in this series, and more chances for them to return.

Make no mistake - this new series is shaping up to be a more than worthy follow up to The Lorien Legacies. I never expected Generation One to happen, but all praise be to Pittacus Lore and the Book Gods.



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Review: We Are the Ants

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I guess I'm reading Shaun David Hutchinson's books in reverse order? Okay then, that's cool. Between this book and At the Edge of the Universe, I've got no problem picking up on a few elements of what seems to be a signature Hutchinson style. Contemporary with sci-fi elements, a gay protagonist making very bad choices because he's very depressed after his first relationship failed, a jackass older brother, family troubles in general, bullyboys...except, in this case, one of the bullyboys is closeted and likes to hook up with our protagonist (or as Hutchinson's narrators seem to like to call it, "fool around"), all in secret, of course. And then there's the mysterious new boy for whom our protagonist falls, who turns out to be into him as well, but has to deal with his dark and troubled past. Also, a ton of triggering elements, ranging from abusive relationships to miscarriages to a grandmother with Alzheimer's and suicide and pictures of assault on the internet and attempted rape.

Yeah, really, it feels like a lot of story elements from this book resurfaced in Hutchinson's next one, but in the latter, I feel like he did it better. I think this one felt a little more detached, but then that was probably the point, highlighting certain insignificances in the grand scheme of things.

Not gonna lie, though. Henry and Diego make a far better couple than any featured in Edge, except Tommy and Ozzie, perhaps. I especially liked how Diego gives this book some bi rep (or possibly pan - it's left ambiguous.)

Next up on my reverse time-travel course through the works of Mr. Hutchinson: The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley. Why my library doesn't have it, though, I'm really not sure.

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