REVIEW: The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano

The Book: The Girl She Used to Be

Author: David Cristofano

Format: Paperback

Genre: Thriller/Romance-ish

Publication Year:  2009

Word Count/Page Count: ~ 64,000 Words/256 Pages

Stars: Three out of Five

Where it Came From: Borders’ going-out-of-business sale

“Viewer” Rating: PG-13 (for minor cursing, sexual innuendo, violence, and a couple of almost-sex scenes)

The Review:

The Girl She Used to Be is the story of Melody Grace McCartney—or May Adams, or Karen Smith, or Anne Johnson, depending on the year and the particular identity she’s been forced to adopt—a twenty-six-year-old woman who has been in the Federal Witness Protection Program for the past two decades. She is sick of always running, never being able to make connections with people, and never really knowing her own identity. So when a member of the same Mafia family whose actions sent her into WITSEC to begin with shows up in her life, Melody stops running and turns to stare danger right in the eyes.

I really alternated between liking and not liking this book, which is why it got 3 stars—a nice middle ground for a book that had me ying-yanging back and forth like that sling-shot ride that they have in some coastal towns. So let me break it down for you.

What I Liked:

>The emotion.

I was really impressed with the emotional depth that Cristofano managed to convey in such a short book. Melody’s emotions, thoughts, and feelings rang (for the most part) completely true. And, what’s more, they evoked empathy from the reader, which is a challenge in and of itself.

>The author-character compatibility.

I always have some misgivings at first when I see a guy’s name on the cover of a book from a female POV. I’m not trying to be sexist—I’ve just read too many bad books where a male has attempted (and failed miserably) at adopting a female persona for a book’s narration. Not so in this case. Cristofano handled Melody’s emotional and intellectual character with delicate grace. By the end, I was convinced that I’d had a glimpse, albeit a small one, into the head of someone who’d actually been in witness protection.

>The pacing. (Mostly).

While I don’t know if this book is actually classified as a thriller (all I can find is classification as a romance, which I disagree with. See explanation under “What I Didn’t Like”), I was hooked and finished the book in two days.

What I Didn’t Like:

>The love story. Now, I’m not anti-romance by any streak of the imagination. I like a good guy-meets-girl story as much as the next fanatic reader. What I don’t like is underdeveloped guy-meets-girl-and-hours/a day-later-they’re-in-love-and-convinced-that-they’re-soul-mates storylines. Call me old-fashioned, but that’s not love. That’s infatuation. And lust. I won’t say anymore and spoil too much of the plot.

>The portrayal of law enforcement

I won’t give too much away, but because the book is in first-person POV, the WITSEC marshals get a pretty bad beating on the pages of Melody’s mind. Since the book was preoccupied with redemption and discovering new truth, I felt that her perceptions of them should have been explored a little more.

>Character depth.

The only character that the reader was really allowed the opportunity to know was Melody. We don’t even get much depth into Jonathan, the Mafioso-slash-love interest.

>Not long enough.

This doesn’t need much explanation. The ending felt rushed and, although I believe it tied up all the loose ends nicely, drawing it out a bit more would have been more emotionally cathartic for the reader. The entire book was leading up to this one, single confrontation, which occurred over the space of ten, maybe fifteen pages. That was disappointing.

The Bottom Line:

Yes, I would recommend this book to my friends.

REVIEW: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

The Book: Graceling

Author: Kristin Cashore

Format: Paperback

Genre: Fantasy

Publication Year: October 2008

# of Words / # of Pages: ~120,000 words / 480 pages

# of Stars: 4 ½  out of 5

Where It Came From: Local Library. Oh, how I love that place.

The Review: This was an extremely impressive debut novel from author Kristin Cashore. Not only is the idea novel and fresh, the world she constructs is just enough cut from the usual fantasy mold to be familiar, but she shakes it up so that you’re never bored.

In Graceling, there are certain individuals (called Gracelings), born randomly throughout the population, who are endowed with special, extra-human abilities (called Graces). Recognized by their eyes of two different colors, Gracelings are alternately feared, despised, and revered for their powers. Graces can come in any form—from being able to cook excellently to being an amazing fighter to being able to hold your breath for a really long time. Katsa, the main character, has what she refers to as a killing Grace. And, as the niece of the King, she is forced to do his dirty work, sent as a deadly assassin to face his enemies and tax-evading subjects.

What’s nice about this book is that it is fantasy directed at the young adult contingent. I am rarely able to find a good fantasy read that is focused around characters not pre-adolescent or in that weird age-ambiguous state where you’re always wondering just how old everyone is. But also, although Graceling is categorized as Young Adult and is approved for readers 14 and up, there are some parts that make me lean more towards recommending this book to an older age contingent, rather than a younger one. (*SPOILER ALERT*) There is a non-graphic sex scene towards the end of the book, and the “bad guy” becomes infamous for his pedophilia and affinity for animal mutilation, which is why this book is probably not for the younger generations.

The most striking part of the book for me was the main character’s distaste for marriage. Although understandable, giving her upbringing and the fact that she understands her Grace to be a proclivity for (too easy) killing, it might still strike an uneasy chord with some readers.

Now the fact that Graceling is a first novel for Cashore does lend itself to a need for criticisms on several key points. The beginning is weak, as far as beginnings go. I’d heard good things about the book, but I wasn’t wooed with the first couple of chapters, and if it weren’t for a broken down car and a lazy summer day, I probably wouldn’t have gotten any farther than that. Also, Katsa definitely has an anti-marriage/anti-children stance that permeates heavily throughout the book, which I kind of got annoyed with towards the end. I’m as feminist as the next girl, but by the last quarter of the book it got a little too preachy for me, it started feeling a little bit more like an author’s agenda than a character’s belief (and anytime a reader starts to sense the author in the universe of the book, that’s a big uh-oh). Further, I’m a sucker for evil—I love zombie movies and the show Supernatural—so when we only really got to meet the “villain” twice, I was a little disappointed.

Overall, I really enjoyed Graceling and I fully intend to pick up Fire, the recently released companion novel, as soon as I can. I’m looking forward to seeing Cashore’s writing and storytelling improve in the next tale.

REVIEW: Shakespeare’s Landlord by Charlaine Harris

The Book: Shakespeare’s Landlord

Author: Charlaine Harris

Format: Hardback

Genre: Mystery

Word Count/Page Count:  ~60,000 words / 214 pages

Stars: Two-and-a-half out of five

Where It Came From: Local Library. (Side note: I love how I can put books on hold online now, and then when I get a notification e-mail about available books, I can just swing by and pick them up after work. It’s a beautiful system.)

The Review: As an overqualified cleaning lady, Lily Bard seems like the best candidate to investigate the murder of the landlord at the nearby apartment building. She has access to practically all of the major (and minor) hot spots in the little hamlet of Shakespeare, Arkansas and she is privy to nearly everyone’s dirty laundry (sorry, couldn’t help it). And when, during one of her mysterious late night walks, she witnesses someone using her garbage can cart to dispose of a body, she is immediately drawn into the case.

With a penchant for the martial arts and a fanaticism for privacy, Lily Bard (get it? Bard…Shakespeare…yeah, I was tickled too) is a fantastic heroine. She’s tough as a one-eyed alley cat and a great role model for women’s empowerment. Of course, her social skills and mental status leave much to be desired but, given her history (which I won’t spoil for you), I think most readers will find this acceptable, if not commendable.

I’ll be totally honest, I wasn’t hooked on this book like I have been with the others I’ve read this week. Maybe it was overshadowed by Graceling (look for that review later this week), or maybe I’m just not a mystery reader. I was a little worried, when I saw how small the book was, that there could be a fully fleshed out story inside. But there is quite a bit contained within a small package: a murder mystery, sordid revelations about the town’s history and the people in it, and even a minor stalking/harassment subplot, with, of course, a dash or two of romance thrown in.

My major qualm was that the ending felt a bit rushed, wrapping up (mostly) in only a couple pages. In typical Charlaine Harris fashion however, the reader is left with just enough loose ends to continue on Lily’s story in a sequel. And there are sequels, several of them. However, only time will tell if I make it onto the next book in the Lily Bard series.

A Summer of Mysteries

So this summer I’ve decided to try mysteries. I’ve always liked the idea of mysteries, I think. I just haven’t necessarily ever been able to get into the genre as a whole. I don’t know if I’ve been reading the wrong ones or what, but I’ve struggled with them so far.

So I’ve dedicated this summer to just that.

Of course those won’t be the only books I’ll read, but I’ve vowed to read at least 5 mysteries this summer, to give the genre a fair chance. So if you have any suggestions of mysteries that you love, by all means give me a shout out in the comments.

REVIEW: A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid

Title: A Small Place

Author: Jamaica Kincaid

Stars: 3 & 1/2 (out of 5)

Format: Paperback

# of Pages/Words: 81/~20,200

Where It Came From: I purchased this novella from Amazon several months ago. It was a required textbook for a special topics course in tourism and communication studies, but it is an enjoyable read nonetheless. While I probably wouldn’t have come across it by my own wanderings, I’m glad that I had the chance to experience it.

The Review: For a book that just barely breaks 81 pages, A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid packs a powerful punch. And whether she simply ran out of things to say (although I highly doubt it) or rather she was simply making a play on her exposition about the island of Antigua as “a small place,” the smallness of the book makes it seem much less intimidating and powerful than it is in reality.

Kincaid’s blunt style offers no warnings, no prefaces, and no excuses, plunging right ahead in the first page into the overarching theme of the book: how white colonization of Antigua has, essentially, destroyed everything that was good and right and true on the island. From paragraph one, Kincaid establishes a second-person POV in which you are placed in the identity of an anonymous tourist visiting Antigua for the first time. From there, it’s full steam ahead through what essentially feels like a “declaration of rights and grievances” against the colonial time period in general.

I’ll admit—after finishing the first chapter, I was sitting neck-deep in a pile of muddy guilt. I wanted to apologize to the Antiguan people for what had been done to them. The power of Kincaid’s words lies mainly in the fact that, although the ground-level basis of understanding for slavery and colonization has been thoroughly established (through rhetoric on early American colonization and the Civil War), she presents the reader with a new, underrepresented account of what happened in Antigua.

Kincaid’s lyrical writing juxtaposes what was (pre-colonization) with what is (post-modernization, if you can even call it that) in a way that draws in even the most politically reluctant reader (such as myself). She doesn’t tip-toe around issues of race and politics. Who am I kidding—she stomps all over them like a step team at nationals.

And while I absolutely do not discount her outrage, and I am overwhelmingly sorry for and sympathetic to the horrors that the Antiguan people faced at the hands of the Europeans, I couldn’t help but feel alienated by the attack-attack-attack mantra that Kincaid adopts throughout the book. She gets so mired down in lamenting the past that she creates a lens with which she views the present and the future.

But that’s not to say that I didn’t appreciate the book. Kincaid’s conviction and never-back-down attitude is very much the core of what draws the reader through to the end. It is only the very last section that an element of hope is introduced and Kincaid posits that perhaps the “non-reality” of Antigua might one day become its redemption. Her final lines are justifiably haunting for the clarity they provide concerning humanity:

“Of course, the whole thing is, once you cease to be a master, once you throw off your master’s yoke, you are no longer human rubbish, you are just a human being, and all the things that adds up to. So, too, with the slaves. Once they are no longer slaves, once they are free, they are no longer noble and exalted; they are just human beings.”*

*Quotation used under the fair use exemption of the United States Copyright Act of 1976

Simon & Schuster E-Galleys: Middle Ground Between Library Thing & Amazon Vine

I got the March Galley Grab e-mail the other day, and Galley Grab days are almost certainly on my list of top five days in the month. (It ranks in right before LibraryThing Early Reviewers decision day, but right after my-one-Saturday-off-work-a-month day.)

If any of you don’t know how the e-Galley program works over at Simon & Schuster, you should really go check it out. It’s a really awesome deal that allows select readers to read and review select upcoming print publications through a (free) downloadable digital reader.

I like to think of it as the middle ground between LibraryThing and the Amazon Vine program: it’s not totally open to anyone and completely anonymous (like LibraryThing), but it’s not as hush-hush and exclusive as the Vine either. Basically, you apply to be admitted into the program (according to the website, anyone from a teacher to a journalist to a blogger is eligible) and within a couple days you should be given access to the galley reader program.

Now the tough part comes in getting permission for the actual books. Sometimes they’ll list the e-galleys on the “free” section of their website, other times (rarely) an S&S agent, publicist, or representative will get in touch with you, but most of the time you’ll just be waiting around for the monthly galley grab e-mail.

NOTE: The only down-side/”catch” to this program is that the book in your digital reader will expire on the day it actually goes out for public sale. So it’s kind of a race of sorts to get the book read before the countdown clock expires.

So, just to give you an idea of the types of books available, here are my March selections:

>An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy

>Eleven by Mark Watson

>Incredibly Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

>On the Roots of Violence by Russell Jacoby

>Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders by Gyles Brandreth

>We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han

REVIEW: The Psyonic by Shanda Sharlow

Title: The Psyonic

Author: Shanda Sharlow

Stars: One

Format: e-book

# of Pages/Words: 158/~52,000

Where It Came From: I got this e-book through the Library Thing member giveaway program and, per the author’s request, I am posting reviews on librarything.com, amazon.com, and on my book reviews blog.

The Review:

Let me just start out by saying that I really wanted to like this book. I mean, I really, really wanted to like it. Even though I don’t have much time to read a lot of fantasy novels, the premise for this one sounded fascinating and I was looking forward to settling down to read it. With that said, though, I was disappointed to find several typos and grammar errors in the first pages of Chapter One. Now, normally, I would be much more forgiving of these errors if this was an ARC or galley copy of the book, in which case these errors would most likely be caught before going to print. But since this novel was an e-book and available on Amazon and SmashWords in presumably the same condition it was sent to me, I thought it important to note this. Now while, as a copyeditor, these errors stick out particularly loudly to me, they may not bother others as much.

I wish I could say my reading experience picked up after getting over the various errors sprinkled throughout but, frankly, it didn’t.

As far as the plot goes, the story bounces back and forth between two narratives: the story of Hale, a young psyonic who somehow manages to bumble his way into the confidence of Lia, the princess of Cyra; and the less-examined story of the nomadic psyonic tribes. Now what exactly a psyonic is isn’t clearly examined throughout the plot or background, but from what I gathered it is akin to a telekinetic/telepathic/empathic being with magic running through their veins along with blood. The plot starts with a brief history of the psyonics, then filters down to focus on Hale, a psyonic/street urchin who, while running from a psyonic turncoat, ends up in the royal gardens and manipulates the princess’ memory into thinking he is her long-lost servant. The plot spends most of its time within the castle walls and, because the book is only about 52,000 words to begin with, the book’s conclusion (a march-to-battle, battle sequence, and post-battle confessional) becomes rapid-fire and rushed.

My main problem with the story was the anachronistic nature of the characters. They ride horses into battle, pitch tents in encampments for the night, and live in a world governed by various forms of royalty—basically, everything in this universe speaks to a world without the machination of modern life, and yet the characters speak and act like people you might meet while strolling down a busy 21^st century street. Two examples: The use of “ultra conservative turtleneck” in the description of someone’s outfit and the phrase “Dispatching yet another Bynium straggler, Hale called after Lia, “Hel-loo? Guard here! Wait up!” In these cases and others, I immediately felt jerked out of the story’s sequence with these odd injections of modern jargon. There is also very little “flesh” to the universe and, as often happens, I can only assume that the author knows a lot more about the universe in which this story exists that the reader can’t even begin to fathom. This is problematic for coherence, continued storylines, and readability.

In the last few pages, we discover that the entire story (unbeknownst to the reader) has been founded upon issues of interracial relationships. It seems to me that the author is trying to make a statement about society’s intolerance for non-traditional couples, and this could be a really fascinating way to develop that idea. Basically, I think that this is a really neat idea for a story. The author just needed/needs to take more time to flesh out the universe, the characters, and the plot line to truly make it a fantasy novel worth its salt.

Final Edition: Spring Break Reading List

Here it is folks: the end all, be all list of books that I’ll be reading (and then reviewing, of course) over my Spring Break holiday.

 

1. The Psyonic by Shanda Sharlow

 

2. Scorpion’s Bite by Aileen Baron

 

3. A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid

 

4. This Will Not Look Good On My Resume by Jass Richards

 

5. The Moment by Douglas Kennedy

 

So. Stinking. Excited.

And another…

Just got notice that an early reviewer copy of The Scorpion’s Bite by Aileen Baron is headed my way. If it makes it to me before Friday, it will go on my Spring Break reading list as well. I may be getting in a little over my head now, since I have to work and do homework all week as well. Hmm…

 

Another Book to Add…

Just got my galley copy of The Moment by Douglas Kennedy from Simon & Schuster. One more book to add on to my Spring Break list!