Bookmania!

[rj_anderson]

So I went to my local indie children's bookstore to pick up a special order, and... I may have gone a little nuts. And now I have this pile of stuff, all of which I've heard good things about and thought looked intriguing enough to take a risk on... but I don't know where to begin!

[Poll #1198659]
Endorsements for a book on the list that you particularly loved are welcomed in comments, but if you particularly hated any of these, please refrain. I like to make up my own mind about books, without being prejudiced by somebody else's dislike (even if it turns out they are right).

And speaking of shiny new books I have just read wot are fabulous -- if you have any interest in contemporary YA fantasy and particularly if you're into vampires (which I myself am not, so take that as evidence that this book is a great read), you need to check out claudiagray's Evernight (HarperTeen, May 2008).

I already knew that Claudia was an excellent writer from reading some of her short stories, so I wasn't surprised that I enjoyed her rich and vivid but never overblown narrative style; I also expected the plot would be complex yet readily comprehensible and her main characters believable and sympathetic with flashes of wry humor, which proved true on all counts. But I thought myself very clever for anticipating where the plot was going and what was "really" up with some of the characters -- and I was wrong, wrong, WRONG. There's a twist about halfway through the story that made me literally drop the book and scream right out loud with the delicious shock of it -- and yet it didn't come out of left field, it was perfectly set up. I love books that play (or prey) on my expectations like that, so I have to give Claudia Gray big kudos for this one.

Evernight is the first in a series of four, and I can't wait to see how the next part of the story develops!

I also need to burble excitedly about Elizabeth E. Wein's Telemakos books sometime, but I want to read The Empty Kingdom (which is on back order at my local bookstore, WOE IS ME) first.

Comments

[tapinger.livejournal.com]

I admit to thinking that "stupid" may not have been the right word after I posted that, but what is? I thought it was a poor choice at the time she was making it (the second time), before any additional consequences were manifest. She certainly seems to be flirting with trouble. (Additional thought: Willingness to risk consequences might be used to indicate "true love", but Bianca as a person doesn't strike me as really having thought it through; she seems more like she's following her emotions.)

She certainly seems naive in some ways, but I wonder if some of it isn't pretended.

The comment about fanfic is interesting; I had forgotten that you mentioned her short stories. I wasn't intending to aim at you with that remark. :)

Additional data points: my (teenaged) brother liked the book except for the ending ("It didn't leave any big questions open"), but he said the twist wasn't really a twist ("It was completely in line with the characters!" "But did you expect it?" "Well...") Teenaged sister was satisfyingly shocked by it.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

No offense taken! And I agree that Bianca is very much led by her emotions rather than stopping to think if this "true love" has any real basis -- which is something I normally find irritating in characters myself, but it is a believably mid-adolescent frame of mind. I admit to being somewhat more disposed toward the idea of Bianca/Balthazar than Bianca/Lucas, though.