Category Archives: Young Adult Fantasy

Book/Audiobook Review: Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter

vassa-in-the-nightTitle:  Vassa in the Night

Author:  Sarah Porter

Genre:  Young Adult Fantasy/Re-Telling

Release Date:  September 20th, 2016

In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, the fashionable people put on cute shoes, go to parties in warehouses, drink on rooftops at sunset, and tell themselves they’ve arrived. A whole lot of Brooklyn is like that now—but not Vassa’s working-class neighborhood.

In Vassa’s neighborhood, where she lives with her stepmother and bickering stepsisters, one might stumble onto magic, but stumbling away again could become an issue. Babs Yagg, the owner of the local convenience store, has a policy of beheading shoplifters—and sometimes innocent shoppers as well. So when Vassa’s stepsister sends her out for light bulbs in the middle of night, she knows it could easily become a suicide mission.

But Vassa has a bit of luck hidden in her pocket, a gift from her dead mother. Erg is a tough-talking wooden doll with sticky fingers, a bottomless stomach, and a ferocious cunning. With Erg’s help, Vassa just might be able to break the witch’s curse and free her Brooklyn neighborhood. But Babs won’t be playing fair…

Summary from Goodreads.com

My Review:  This is one of those books that kept popping up in my Goodreads and Amazon pages as suggested reads and I thought it looked interesting, but man there are some very mixed reviews about it out there so I was a little hesitant.  I downloaded the audiobook and started that way, which I think was good since the book was a little slow to start in the beginning.  The narrator did a fantastic job though and I loved her voice and pace as the novel unfolded.  I ended up half listening half reading the book because there were some events that I could not wait until I had to get back into the car to listen too.

Vassa in the Night is based off a Russian Folktale, Vasilisa the Beautiful, that I had actually not heard of before.  I did not read it before this book either, because I wanted to just go into it not really knowing a whole lot about it. Which in hindsight might have not been the best idea because I was thoroughly confused for the first few chapters of this book and reading the folktale might have helped with that.  On the other hand, I think this book is meant to be a little fantastical, so some confusion might have been normal.

Vassa herself was very interesting character, lost after the death of her mother, she does not really know where she belongs.  Except for her doll that has been her companion for six years, she feels alone. The book explores her ability to find out who she is and what she is going to choose to stand up and fight for.  She is stumbling through life at the moment and as readers we are right there with her trying to navigate the world she is in and the obstacles she faces that seem impossible much of the time, but then have very simple solutions.  She has quite a bit of help from unexpected places as well, to guide her to her ultimate end goal.

While the magical elements of the novel were no surprise to me, the amount of bloodshed did catch me a little off guard.  I guess it shouldn’t have, since outside the BY’s store there are detached heads on pikes, but the first half of the book did not have a lot of things happen that were bloody.  The second half though, there are quite a few moments that were pretty gruesome.  Not stomach turning, but just things I did not expect.  It took on a darker tone than the first half of the book.

Reading this review, I know I am not describing the book very much, but honestly, I could not do that in a simple review.  There is way too much happening in this book and giving all of those details away would just ruin it I think.  I liked this book, I did not love it.  I really did not love the ending, but I read that there might be another book in this world eventually which I think is necessary.  If you want to read something that is very different from anything else out there right now and just strange, then I would give this book a try.  I would read the folktale it is based on first, just so you have some idea of what is going to unfold as you enter this world.  I will be watching to see if there is a sequel in the future.

 

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Book Review: Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

Of Beast and BeautyTitle: Of Beast and Beauty

Author: Stacey Jay

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Fairy Tale

Release Date:  July 23rd, 2013

In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret…

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.

Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.

-Summary from Goodreads.com 

My Review:  I am a sucker for retelling and fairy tales. I read Princess of Thorns by this author and loved it, so after I finished that I immediately got my hands on this book. Of Beast and Beauty puts a sci-fi twist on Beauty and the Beast that I found fascinating. It took place in a world where the god, for lack of a better way to describe it, is split in two, one good and one evil. Interestingly enough, the evil spirit watches over the “smooth skins” who are people without blemish (for the most part) and live within the only cities left surrounded by walls to keep others out.  There are monarchs that rule in these lands and every so often the queen must sacrifice herself to keep their lands prosperous. The good half of the spirit has been suppressed for far too long and has left for the lands outside of the walled cities to live in a wasteland.  The “monsters” who live in those desert lands starve and perish very quickly. To break the curse in this world a smooth skin has to fall in love with a “monster” and after that happens all the lands will be prosperous again. Too bad neither of them ever see one another and hate each other fiercely. Enter, Gem and Isra.

Watching the two interact together and slowly learn not to hate one another was so sweet. These two have centuries of embedded hatred for each other’s people to overcome. Once they can start to get past that and slowly appreciate each other is when it really starts to get interesting. I loved the slow build of the romance and how the two of them learned more about themselves as they got to know one another.

I loved the world itself and all of the legends and interesting mythology that came with it. Overall, just a great read.

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Book Review of Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

crooked-kingdomTitle:  Crooked Kingdom

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Release Date:  September 27th, 2016

Genre:  Young Adult Fantasy

Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and left crippled by the kidnapping of a valuable team member, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of magic in the Grisha world.

Summary from Goodreads.com

My Review:  Crooked Kingdom.  I am not even sure I can put into words how much I love this duology.  They are just in a league of their own in the YA fantasy world.  The characters are all so well developed, diverse and relatable.  The heists they pull off are clever, planned out and always keep you guessing.  And the world itself is amazing, with its rich detail, Ketterdam becomes another character in the plot because of the significant role it plays in Crooked Kingdom and we also get a map of it at the beginning of the novel which I found myself turning to constantly to see exactly where the characters were.

Crooked Kingdom picks up right where we left off in Six of Crows, with Kaz and crew trying to get Inej and their money back.  It is the same format as well, switching points of view to get a well-rounded story and different aspects of each scheme as it is being pulled off so you can see it from all angles which I loved.  It is very Ocean’s Eleven with almost a steampunk element thrown in which was just fascinating to me.  There were several jobs pulled off throughout the duration of this 500 plus page novel and while I figured out some aspects of the jobs, I was left amazed at Bardugo’s ability to write such excellent twists into each one.  She does an amazing job of having you look one way, when the real action is happening somewhere else.  You would think I would have figured out their tricks by now, but they still had a couple up their sleeves every now and then that I did not see coming at all and I love that about this book!

I also enjoyed how the backstory of the characters continues to expand and the way it was interweaved in to the jobs themselves as they were being pulled off.  Inej might be in the middle of jumping from rooftop to rooftop and we learned about her family and how she learned to start walking on wires.  It was done so brilliantly that I did not feel a lull in the story, I was eager to learn more about the characters and found myself wanting more from each one.  That is what I will miss the most about these books, the people in them.  I loved each person so much, I want to know more about their lives in the future and in the past.  I am hoping that Leigh will come back to this world someday so we can dive even further into their lives once more.

The only element that I did have a small issue with were the references to the Ruin and Rising series.  In Six of Crows, those references are there, but it was very easy to navigate through that book even if you did not understand some of the characters they were referring too.  In Crooked Kingdom, I felt like I was missing things because I had not finished that other series by Leigh.  I read the first book, so I had some understanding of that world, but I have not read books two and three and I felt like if I had I would have been less confused at some moments in the story.  I will eventually go back and read the other books, but I wish I did not feel like I needed to in order to follow along with everything that took place in Crooked Kingdom.

Kaz Brekkar.  Let’s be honest here, he is the biggest draw for me to read these books.  He might just be one of my favorite characters in any book and the best written one.  He is simply amazing.  I loved the way he thinks, his sense of humor, his loyalty (even though he would say he had none) and just everything about him. I wish I could take him out of the book so we could be friends, although I do not think I would be of use to him so he might not care to be my friend, ha!  Either way, I will miss being inside his head and in his world.  This quote is my favorite one from this book describing Kaz’s character:

“Everything is a negotiation with you, Brekker. You probably bartered your way out of the womb.” 

The ending of this book was nothing short of spectacular, it had everything I have come to expect from this world and many twists that kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to see how it would all play out.  I will truly miss being with these characters and the ending was left open enough that Leigh could easily come back and add more to this world, and I sincerely hope she does.  This book may be classified as YA but it could (and should) be read by adults as well.  Very well written, great characters and great heists.  If you don’t like these books I will secretly judge you because they will forever be on my favorite lists.  Leigh Bardugo is an amazing writer and I will definitely be keeping an eye on her to see what she decides to write next.

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