Tag Archives: Y/A

‘We Were Liars’ by E. Lockhart

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We Were LiarsFrom the outside, they are the perfect family. Blond and tall with a strong chin and a strong tennis serve, they are the Sinclair’s and they stick together.

Since she was a child, Cadence Sinclair has spent every summer on her grandfather’s private island. Each year, she spends her days inseparable from her cousins, Mirren and Johnny, and Gat, the nephew of a family friend. Surrounded by boats, beaches and wealth, it seems like nothing will ever go wrong. But in the heat of the summer, tensions brew.

Now 17, Cady is recovering from an accident. But she has no recollection of what happened. In fact, she has very few memories of an entire summer spent on the island. With her family keeping secrets from her, Cady returns to the island in an attempt to uncover the truth about events.

To say much more about the plot of this book would ruin it entirely for anyone that hasn’t already read it, which makes it quite hard to review! Over the course of the book, we’re shown how Gat’s friendship with the cousins and his presence on the island forces the family members to examine themselves from the outside. As they grow older, Cady, Mirren and Johnny gradually become aware of what the darker side of being a Sinclair entails, and what the family is willing to do to keep their positions. Continue reading →

Andrew Fukada’s ‘The Hunt’

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I’ve been struggling to put this book into words. I suppose it could be described as a sort of warped version of The Hunger Games. Except in this case we have a world dominated by vampires embarking on a once-in-a-decade human hunt, with the lucky hunters drawn from the population by lottery.The-Hunt

However, one such hunter is actually a human, or a heper as they call them, living in disguise amongst the vampires. Knowing that he will be exposed as soon as the hunt starts by his inability to keep up with the pack and his unwillingness to tear their prey apart with his fake vampire fangs, he is rapidly running out of time to come up with a way out. With the help of some unexpected allies, his world is changed forever as he uncovers hidden secrets that go against everything that he’s been taught.

I have to start by saying that The Hunt is written really well – it had a great pace, plenty of action and it was quite addictively readable. However, while the concept was interesting, there were some gaping holes in the plotline that managed to completely distract me from the main story on several occasions throughout the book.

There are numerous points that I just cannot get my head around. Whether that’s because the author has failed to think things through or because he simply hasn’t bothered to explain them, I’m not sure.

My first gripe is how our main protagonist has managed to attend vampire school for years without detection. I don’t know how he’s managed to get hold of fake fangs or contraband razors in the first place, but those basic difficulties aside, I don’t see how it is possible to have never coughed, sneezed, sweated, blushed or spilled a single drop of blood in the presence of vampires (who never show a shred of emotion and scratch their wrists instead of laughing).

Secondly, vampires are under the impression that humans are totally extinct outside of government activity. But since there are several secret humans revealed throughout the book, from a relatively low pool of characters, you have to assume that there are lots of fake vampires running around unnoticed. Despite this, there’s no testing of any kind?!

And then there are the things that are just plain weird. The vampires in this book don’t kiss, they rub armpits. And nowhere does it explain how they are able to reproduce, if they do so in the same way as humans, and if not, how fake vampire humans/manage to have babies without shedding any blood at all (as this can apparently be smelt from miles away).

There are plenty more, but I don’t want to reveal any spoilers. If anyone can offer up an explanation for any of the above, I’d love to hear it!

A review of ‘The Daughter of Smoke and Bone’ by Laini Taylor

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(Hodder, September 2011)

Recently, I’ve read a few Y/A fantasy fiction novels, some of which I’ve loved and some of which have been distinctly underwhelming (see here for more). Since its publication, The Daughter of Smoke and Bone has received rave reviews from Y/A bloggers, so when I was casting my eye around for something new to read, it naturally made the list.

Smoke and BoneKarou has grown up between worlds, her childhood was spent in the back of a mysterious shop owned by Brimstone, a dealer in teeth and wishes and Karou’s guardian for as long as she can remember. Now Karou is old enough to fend for herself, and she has gradually begun to forge a life in the human world, but she’s increasingly torn between normality and the exciting, dangerous and macabre duties that she carries out on Brimstone’s behalf. She is also desperately searching for answers regarding her identity and how she came to be in Brimstone’s care. Then one day, she comes into contact with one cold-hearted and extremely powerful angel, Akiva, who might just hold the answers she needs.

As with most Y/A fantasy novels, there is a strong love story at the heart of ‘The Daughter of Smoke and Bones’, the true extent of which becomes clear as the novel progresses. That said, the author has really tried to approach this in a different way and break free of the traditional stereotypes. There’s no escaping the fact that all the clichéd elements are there, but it was interesting and different, with a bit of a twist, and the way the novel was written kept me turning the pages.

My main criticism of this novel is that I felt it was wholly focussed on building up to a sequel. There’s a lot of time dedicated to explaining Karou’s background and history of her world, but the action was just about to kick off when the book ended, which was frustrating to say the least. I’m all for sequels, and I think they can work really well, but The Daughter of Smoke and Bones needed more of a story of its own. Now my big debate is whether this annoyed me too much to read the next in the series – or whether my curiosity as to what happens next will win out?!

The good and the bad of Y/A fantasy fiction

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As some of you might know, a few weeks ago I wrote a post on Y/A fiction and how I was struggling to find a really good fantasy series to get my teeth into (see more here). Since then, having followed some suggestions and done a little research of my own, I’ve read the first few books of a couple of major young adult series. One of these I really enjoyed – despite the fact that on paper it may not have seemed like my kind of book – and the other I think could definitely have been done better. With this in mind, I thought I’d do a quick comparison of the two.

MI trilogyFirst off, I took on the first three books of the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare – City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass. These books were originally intended as a trilogy, with a complete story that reaches a resolution at the end of the third novel, so this was a natural place to stop. Next, I moved on to the first two books of a planned trilogy by Rae Carson, The Girl of Fire and Thorns and The Crown of Embers.

In terms of storylines, the Mortal Instruments story was the one that appealed the most on paper. It follows sixteen-year-old Clary Fray, a normal girl living in New York. One night, her mother disappears and she’s plunged into a world of demons, Shadowhunters, vampires and warlocks. I won’t go into too much detail on the specifics to avoid spoilers, but there’s a brooding male lead, forbidden love, an arch nemesis and some complicated family dynamics.

While the author’s storylines are fairly imaginative, I felt that the characters were really underdeveloped. Jace, Clary’s complicated love interest, was incredibly stereotypical. He’s arrogant and good looking with some serious issues to be resolved but so inexplicably drawn to the main character that she’s the only one that can really ‘reach’ him. The other male in the love triangle, Simon, is a typical boy-who-is-just-a-friend that turns into more, and I didn’t think he was particularly likeable. Clary herself is supposed to be likeable but I just couldn’t connect with her as a character.City of Bones

One of my main criticisms of Y/A fiction is that I feel the writing can let them down. The Mortal Instruments is a case in point. I may not have been quite so overly critical of the character development if the writing had not also been stilted and slightly wooden. The dialogue didn’t flow, the descriptions were clichéd and the relationships unbelievable. Written with a bit more care, I think this series could have had some real potential, but as it is, I won’t be buying the next three books in the series.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns, on the other hand was an example of a book I felt was written really well, so much so that even though I didn’t particularly enjoy the central premise of the novels, I went on to read the second book in the series. I read these on a recommendation, without researching them too heavily beforehand. However, fairly soon after starting the first book I realised that despite the fact it’s a fantasy novel set in a fantasy world, it’s heavily religious in its theme.

Fire and thornsIt’s not something I’d usually buy but I persevered – and I’m glad I did. On her sixteenth birthday, Elisa is married to a prince of a neighbouring kingdom. She is also named in an ancient prophecy that marks out one person a century for life of greatness. But this prophecy also makes her a target, and with the realm facing increasing tension and civil war, Elisa is unwillingly drawn into the heart of the action.

Like any good protagonist, Elisa undergoes a personal, and in this case a physical, transformation over the course of the book. However, this transformation was woven into the fabric of the book and it didn’t feel forced. There was also a great cast of supporting characters, and although I didn’t relate to some of them, this was purely because of the nature of their personalities rather than a lack of one.

Both books have a strong fantasy and magical element as well as an intricate central love story. The difference, however, was in how they engaged me as a reader. While I’ll definitely be reading the last in Rae Carson’s trilogy, I won’t be taking on the next books in the Mortal Instruments series any time soon.

Searching for Y/A gold

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Over the past few years, Y/A fantasy fiction has exploded. The massive and unprecedented success of authors such as J. K. Rowling, Stephanie Meyer and Suzanne Collins has meant that the genre has become increasingly mainstream, appealing to both adults and teenagers alike.

Walk into any bookshop and you’ll find shelf upon shelf of books filled with vampires, werewolves, witches and the like, usually with a plucky human heroine thrown in there for good measure. But this begs the question, how far can you capitalise on the success of a genre before it becomes saturated?

For me, this is an issue that’s becoming more and more frustrating. Recently, I’ve been looking for a new series to read, but on several occasions I’ve picked up novels only to find them poorly written and full of stilted dialogue, underdeveloped, implausible characters and unconvincing love stories. I’ve been thinking about why this might be the case, and maybe it’s being caused precisely because of the success of books like the Twilight series. Massively popular even before they were adapted for our cinema screens, the films catapulted its actors into stardom and inspired a whole generation of devoted fans (myself included I might add!).

But now, people continue to search relentlessly for the new Twilight, or the new Harry Potter. And where there’s a demand, there will always be a supply. And although there are some really great books out there, there are equally a whole plethora of books that just don’t make the grade. In my opinion, the Y/A fantasy genre as a whole needs a refresh. I don’t know what the next big thing will be, but I do think that we need to see some new ideas that haven’t been done before. And most importantly, the readers need to want this too.

In the meantime, if anyone can recommend a really great series, please let me know!