Review: Tender Morsels

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A fleshed-out version of Snow White and Rose Red. Definitely at the adult end of YA, this is a story set in a fictional town of the Middle Ages, of a girl who suffers terrible abuses, and magically escapes with the product of these abuses - her two daughters - to her own "personal heaven", to raise them. Graphic, visceral, magical.



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Review: The Book of Human Skin

The Book of Human Skin by Michelle Lovric

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book pretty much encapsulates everything I love about reading. I love it when a book can throw you right back to a particular time or place, and keep you there thoroughly engrossed until, all too soon, one must return to cold, harsh reality... but with a desire to google for more juicy details. No need to re-hash plot details here, as everyone else seems to have done that, suffice to say, very cleverly researched and written from varying points of view (and fonts), fascinating reading.



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Review: The Scorpio Races

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



An incredibly stylish re-imagining of the kelpie myth. Fast paced, edgy, yet beautifully descriptive of an island haunted by water horses from the sea. A remote island that time has seemingly forgotten, except for the month of November each year when these kelpies are perilously captured by humans and raced against each other, often to the death, for a small fortune. Water horses who glide the ocean deeps like mermaids, and seek to eat human flesh and blood and leave the sea at night to prey in the dark, like vampires. I have read many a story in which kelpies played a small part, and it was an absolute delight to read a whole book devoted to just them and no other fae creature, even though the author took many liberties with the kelpie mythology, it just didn't matter because it was so damn brilliant.



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Review: The Replacement

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Atmospheric. Eerie. Nice twist on the whole changeling mythology.



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Review: Spy Glass

Spy Glass by Maria V. Snyder

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Very readable, but extremely predictable and followed the same series pattern over and over. Opal gets into a scrape, gets captured, gets free. Opal gets into a scrape, gets captured, gets free. At least in this book she finally took some fighting and surviving lessons from master spy Valek. Oh, and, Stockholm syndrome alert! Ending up with the same bloke who tortured her beyond endurance earlier in the series! Glad I took the plunge and finally committed to finishing this after leaving it alone for so long.



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First viewing of Game of Thrones

We watched the very first episode of Game of Thrones last night. I thought I'd put down my impressions before going to see what everyone else thinks of it. It's got all the right elements for a fantastic series, it's fantasy, right, medieval-ish, it's got Sean Bean in it and that big bloke from Stargate with dreads who never wore the uniform and never said much. And Peter Dinklage. But, woah. It was kind of like a cross between violent medieval porn and the covers of those paperback bodice rippers I loved in my late teens. Was it just me, or was there a lot of boobs, both male and female. Possibly more man boobs. And, I dunno, but there was just too much nasty boinking for a 1st episode. Where's it going to go from here? Character development? I would have liked to have got to know everybody a little better BEFORE seeing them with all their clothes off. And, oh, incest too. Nice touch. Though I guess family did do each other way back when (so I guess it's okay in fantasyland). But, on the up side, it did have Sean Bean. And dire wolves. It definitely made me want to read the book. Jury still out on whether to continue watching. I'd watch it for the children, the wolves, and the pale brother and sister. They were kind of intriguing.

Review: Hush, Hush

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Started this last night. Within the VERY FIRST PARAGRAPH I discovered a small annoyance. Our man (who later turns out to be "the baddie") is finishing up a tryst with a peasant wench by a river in olden days France. He rips a silver buckle off his SHOE and gives it to her as, well, compensation I guess, and then proceeds to pull on his BOOTS and heads home to the chateau. I'm not just being picky. Pulling a silver buckle off a shoe to give to someone presents a very specific picture, particularly if your man is a French Duc (that's French for duke) in 1565 France.

Otherwise, quite a nice, fun read, with a bit of nephilim lore thrown in from the edges. Although why a fallen angel, ageless, who has been around, like, forever, would think a high school girl who is slightly anaemic and the offspring of nephilim (although that doesn't seem to make her special in any particular way?) the best thing since sliced bread, is beyond me. Isn't it enough that the new boy in school likes the girl and they can both be all angsty about it, but he has to be a fallen angel too? Also, most of the tension was from our girl, Nora, not knowing exactly who or what Patch (fallen angel) was, and they never had time or place to talk about it. EXCEPT there were numerous times when Patch drove her home, either rescuing or just giving a lift, and apparently they never had a conversation in the car... they just "arrived" at her farmhouse..??

However, it was far less mind-numbing then Twilight, and I didn't want to slap Nora around quite as much as Bella. The End :)




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