Just Ella Sacrifices Magic and Wonder for "Empowerment"

      

    Just Ella is a retelling/sequel to the Cinderella fairytale. It follows our heroine Ella after the ball when she is getting ready to marry her prince, and her happily ever after is right on schedule. However, she quickly realizes that life at court as a future princess may not be what she wants out of life. A story about Cinderella not being completely happy with her life after the ball is a very creative setting for a fairytale retelling. However, I don’t feel it was executed all that well here. 

 Before picking up Just Ella I heard it was praised as a feminist retelling of Cinderella that was a more grounded and realistic take on the tale. I did not find it to be feminist as (although the line itself is never spoken in the book) Ella has the attitude that she is not like other woman and is very much the exception rather than the rule. This retelling also removes all the magic from the fairy tale (the carriage, fairy godmother etc.,) but it keeps other equally unbelievable elements. 

         Some of the elements I found unbelievable was the world building. They live in a fictional kingdom, but they speak languages like French, Latin, Greek, which would imply that they lived in our real world. Their religion is literally just Christianity with a different name. So this story is fantasy because it is most certainly not historical fiction. I have nothing against fantasy stories with little to no magic, but I don’t really like it when the magic is removed and the setting is said to be more realistic and/or historical because of it. 

The noble women only sit and do needlework all day which Ella scoffs at. Except noble women in medieval Europe had many responsibilities, one of the most significant being running the finances of the estate. Other un-official duties of noble women included hosting and receiving guests (who may or may not be foreign diplomats) and planning events such as parades, tourneys, etc. The Queen is never shown to partake in these activities nor does she try to teach these to Ella which if this was a more “realistic” setting she would most certainly be doing.  I was also confused why sewing was treated as being so useless because in pre-industrial times, sewing was an essential task because people kind of needed to wear clothes for warmth and protection.  

         Ella constantly berates he lady’s-in-waiting for being stupid and most of the humor stems from just how air-headed all the other ladies at court are. Actually pretty much everyone, but Ella and her love interest are so incredibly stupid its infuriating. There is a lot of conflict between Ella and these rich boneheads, but there is not really any tension from these conflicts because the courtiers are so wrong there is no possible way Ella could get them to listen to her, and because they are so wrong it also doesn’t make Ella seem all that clever herself. I don’t need to be exceptionally smart to tell someone not to drink gasoline. Ella is not that level-headed to think spilling a few drops of soup on a table cloth is nothing to lose one’s head over. 

There is also this one incident that probably bothered me way more than it should have. Ella is attending a tourney with her ladies and she is excited to finally have a break from all the gossiping and sewing. However as soon as they arrive outside the ladies sit in a pavilion that is closed shut and Ella is understandably angered by this because she came to watch a tourney and now they are shut inside a tent and cannot see anything. Ella is told that the curtains are drawn because women are forbidden from watching tourneys as they are to delicate for such action. Women regularly attended tourneys throughout history.

Ella snaps at this and during her rant over this matter, she asks her ladies-in-waiting what they are waiting for. A lady-in-waiting tells Ella that they wait for the men to get home. This irked me because a lady-in-waiting at least historically was more like a retainer and a secretary to a noble woman who she waited on. Hence the name.

Now without magic, how did Ella get to the ball? Throughout this story other characters discuss rumors that Ella received help from a fairy-godmother, but Ella makes it clear this was not the case. Towards the end of the story she explains how she gathered everything she needed for the ball. She, a peasant who is little more than a servant to her step-family, got them herself, the dress, the carriage, and even the glass slippers which she won from a bet she made with the glass blower.  I don’t really mind this per se, but when she is explaining this to her love-interest, the only other character in this book who has at least two working brain cells, comments. “People would rather believe in fairy godmothers and divine intervention than to think that you took charge of your own destiny.” I might be reading way too much into this, but I felt this line was meant as a “take that” towards the original story and people who like fairy godmothers and magic. 

This story assumes that Cinderella in the fairytale is a passive character who gets lucky, and this is true that she is lucky, but I wouldn’t say she is passive. In most versions of the story and the Disney movie, Cinderella tries her hardest to be allowed to attend the ball and in many versions completes impossible tasks that her step-mother sets up for her only for everything to go wrong. In most stories she receives assistance whether through a fairy godmother or in most cases the spirit of her late mother, but this doesn’t just happen. 

Ella is written as an antithesis to what readers expect a Cinderella character to be by being far more active. However, she isn’t any more active than other characters, she just doesn’t have things go wrong for her just before the ball. 

 I pushed through this book because, due to the praise it received for being a feminist retelling, I expected that Ella would have to check her internalized misogyny at the end, but she does not.  Ella begins and ends this book believing she is “not like other girls”.         

Do I recommend this book? Not really. It feels like a parody that, in some ways, disrespects people who enjoy fairytales and magic. More affectionate parodies/reconstructions of Cinderella that gives the original Cinderella credit where credit is due is My Fair Godmother by Janet Rallison and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.

        

        

Queen's Peril Needs to Take its Audience Seriously.

Padmé has always been one of my favorite characters from Star Was. While I enjoyed the previous book in this "Padmé Trilogy" of YA novels, Queen's Shadow, I did find it far from perfect. However, I was still interested enough in Padmé's early adventures in the Galactic Senate to keep reading. Queen's Peril is a prequel that is set just before the events of Star Wars The Phantom Menace and is meant to focus on Padmé's early days as queen of her home planet.

However, I was very irked by the way Padmé is portrayed in this story. Instead of showing how a teenage girl can still be a good queen despite her age and inexperience, this book shoes how a queen can still be a (stereotypical) teenage girl in spite of her responsibilities. The first 75% of this book follows Padmé and her teenaged handmaidens sneaking off and getting into shenanigans and spends more time focused on these misadventures instead of how these young ladies participate in the government.

Padmé does call a summit to meet with ambassadors from neighboring planets, but this quickly turns into a romantic subplot between one of the handmaidens and a teenage ambassador. (This ambassador also flirts with this handmaid during the summit in front of several other diplomats, which I found to be a bit awkward).

In The Phantom Menace one of Padmé's handmaidens switches places with the queen to act as a decoy during the invasion. That handmaiden in question is named Sabé, and this young woman was ready to die in her queen's place so I never found it hard to believe this was meant as a last resort. However, Queen's Peril treats this "decoy procedure" as a common convenience.

They employ this whole switcheroo several times before Naboo is invaded by the Trade Federation and everytime is for a stupidly trivial reason. The first time Padmé and her handmaiden switch is because Padmé was having some menstruation cramps and was not feeling up to making any public appearances so she had Sabé stand in for her. The second time the two switch, was because Padmé's hands got covered in glitter during a concert that she and the handmaidens snuck out to with the teenaged ambassador Sabé was flirting with. This glitter could not wash off and apparently it would be insulting to a certain ambassador if she showed up to the summit with this glitter, but it would be offensive to another ambassador if she wore gloves to cover this up, makeup is not working, and none of he official royal gowns have sleeves below the wrist.

To circumvent this Sabé and Padmé switch places and no ambassadors are offended. That is until that afformentioned teenaged ambassador approaches Padmé thinking she is Sabé and tries to kiss her so Padmé panics and quickly runs off. This ambassador thinks Sabé doesn't want to be with her and breaks things off with Sabé so now Sabé is angry at Padmé and doesn't want to be her friend anymore. Now, I know these characters are teenagers, but they are also teenagers who are participating in a planet-wide government, this just makes these kids come across as immature with terrible priorities.

Also, the last third of this book really relies on the reader having already watched and be very familiar with the plot of The Phantom Menace to understand what is going on as it really jumps around the plot. I think this book could have been much better if it were a story that stood on its own and ending as The Phantom Menace begins. It could start just before Padmé becomes queen and ends as the blockade is build around the planet.

As for the plot, I recall from previous Star Wars books, Padme's predecessor was very corrupt. This would have been an excellent challenge for a young queen to overcome, especially if an invasion from outside the planet arrives just as she is making progress with the problems at home.

However, instead of the tension of the story being whether or not the girls will be able to sneak off to concerts with ambassadors or if Padmé and Sabé will be able to reconcile their relationship following the ambassador drama, the tension would be from Padmé trying to restore sanity to a government that had spent a little bit to much time not functioning due to corruption. It would also have been a good mirror to the situation of the Galactic Republic at the time.

I have read in other reviews, that since Queen's Shadow is a YA book, the more childish elements of the story are understandable and that teens will not mind them. I disagree. I promise as a former teenager, that teen girls will be interested in stories that do not have dating drama and fallouts between friends because of said drama. Books that take their target audience seriously regardless of their age can and should be written. Both teenagers and Padmé's character deserve better.

The Black Swan Might Go a Little To Far

(Warning, this review contains mention of Sexual Assault)

Black Swan is a retelling of the ballet Swan Lake that is unique by being written from Odile's point of view.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first hundred pages or so of the book. I especially loved Odile and her never ending quest to earn the approval of her father who does not deserve a child like her, Odile’s relationship with the flock (the woman cursed to take the forms of swans) and her practicing with magic. The chapters that were written from Queen Cothilde’s (The Prince's mother) point of view and her set up as a major and scheming villain were also intriguing. However, for a book titled The Black Swan she is not the focus as much as I feel she should have been with the narration focused a little too often on other characters, particularly Siegfried, who ruined the story for me.

We all love a good redemption arc, following an individual as they change their deep seated ideals. However, the thing about redemption is that someone needs to be in a bad place before it happens, otherwise there is nothing to redeem and atone for. I do believe that a character with past sins can still maintain readers’ sympathy, but there is  a point where only God can judge someone. If this is acknowledged in the texts I can move on. That is not at all that happened here in the Black Swan. 

Siegfried starts out as an obnoxious womanizer, and I heard he gets better going into the book so I was looking forward to this little turd getting called out on his bad habits. Then he rapes someone. He has a nightmare about the victim commiting suicide and then seeks to turn over a new leaf, and meets the love of his life and with help from Odile saves everyone from the curse, and everyone lives happily ever after. Unless you are the minority girl who was raped by a river side and probably driven to suicide with crime committed against you unpunished. At least you can find solace in the fact that the rapist was able to save other people and marry the woman of his dreams. 

This is enraging because they literally could have had Siegfried realize the way he talks to and about women is disgusting and try to change from that. A rape is too far and I really cannot enjoy the rest of the story.

The Black Swan is a good idea with some flawed, but human characters to follow in the story, except for the “redemption” arc that I feel went too far and sloppily wrapped up did not leave a good taste in my mouth.  

The Crystal Snowstorm is a Hidden Gem

I first read this book in middle school and it quickly became one of my absolute favorites. Even after nearly a decade  (and too many rereads to count) my love for The Crystal Snowstorm (and the following Letzenstein books) has not diminished. 

The Letzenstein Chronicles follows the happenings of a small European country on the brink of revolution. Catherine, an adolescent visiting her estranged Grandfather the Grand duke and ruler, finds herself caught in the crossfire of not only the revolution, but the feud within her own family. 

The relationships between the characters are genuine and natural. In the author’s note, Ms. Trevor explained when she writes stories about difficult topics for children (such as political turmoil and revolutions) she tries to focus on the adventures of the characters foremost and it works beautifully here. These are friendships that I could see happening in real life. These characters, Catherine, Yolande, Edward, and especially Rafiel LeMarre have  stuck with me the way Luke Skywalker, Samwise Gamgee, and Katniss Everdeen did. 

Our heroine, Catherine, is another highlight of the story. She would rather  live a quiet life and get to know her newly found family than be involved with the politics her Grandfather has ensnared her in. However, she still strives to do what she can to help even if what she does seems very small. Catherine does fail at times and feels hopeless and frustrated but she does not become apathetic. 

I also enjoyed seeing Catherine, a very quiet girl at the beginning, develop unique friendships with different people. She comes to love and care about Con, Yolande, Edward, and Raf, but each relationship does something different for Catherine and the story. I will give special notice to Catherine and Yolande’s relationship because it is a sisterly friendship between a young girl and a young woman, something I do not see very often in fiction.

My only complaint (if it could be called that) is, I would have liked it if Countess Imelda, the sister of our antagonist Duke Julius, had been a bit more involved in the story. She mostly acts as a messenger for other characters. However, Catherine and co. have more than enough problems and as I reiterated all the other characters are very developed and this by no means ruined the story for me. 

    Overall, the Crystal Snowstorm is a solid first entry in a series that satisfied but also left me curious for the next installment. I would recommend it for children (and adults) who enjoy historical fiction and character focused stories. I feel it is appropriate for kids 10 and up, but this is subjective to the individual child’s reading comprehension.

An Uncertain Choice by Jody Hedlund

As an avid reader of historical romance, I have accepted not every book needs to be 100% accurate to the time-period it represents. No one is perfect and no author, (and no reader) will ever know everything about a particular time in history. If the story and characters are well written small mistakes can and should be excused. However, there is a difference between having small mistakes such as a character mentioning a book that was written a handful of years after the story takes place and having a character use a piece of technology that was not only invented centuries later (if it even existed) they utilize it incorrectly.

An Uncertain Choice  unfortunately is the latter. As I said earlier if I find a book to be enjoyable, I can overlook inaccuracies. However, I did not find the story to be anything to write home about and the inaccuracies feel as if no research was done at all. 

The premise is that our heroine Rosemarie must become a nun when she turns 18 because of a vow her late parents made. The inciting incident is when Rosemarie’s godfather finds a loophole to this vow. Rosemarie must marry before her 18th birthday so her Godfather introduces her to 3 of his noblest knights to compete for her hand, but it quickly becomes clear that someone is trying to sabotage the knight’s efforts in wooing Rosemare. 

Rosemarie, is not that much of a three dimensional character. What I know about her is that she wants to be a good ruler, she is opposed to torture, and she cares a great deal about the poor. Rosemarie’s relationship with the poor and peasants was presented as one of her greatest virtues. The peasants all adore Rosemarie, but not a single one of them have names and anything more meaningful than a parasocial relationship with her. They only exist to ask Rosemarie for alms  so that she could come across as a kind person when she gives them donations. 

There is also a gratuitous usage of medieval torture and torture devices. Although Rosemarie has long since outlawed such cruel practices in her territory, the story opens with our heroine running into the square to save an old man from being boiled alive because the sheriff cannot be bothered to respect Rosemarie as a ruler. Now, punishment for crimes was brutal hundreds of years ago, I am not going to pretend they were not. However, many of what we think in pop culture as medieval torture were rarely used if they were actual medieval inventions. Also, the mention of torture was explicit and very detailed, which I found did not fit the tone of the book.

Like the peasants, the torture feels as if it is only in the story as a tool to make Rosemarie likable. Torture bad. Rosemarie does not like it. Rosemarie good. 

The romance was not all that interesting to me as I found it difficult to root for a character who I don’t care for to find true love.  I also struggled to root for one of the three potential love interests when it was likely one of them was actively trying to harm the others. On the other hand, this mystery of who was the one playing dirty kept me reading as I was thinking it would be resolved excitedly. I was wrong. The one who was guilty was obvious, but as I was reading, I was convinced they must be a red herring. 

If this book was not explicitly stated to be set during the 14th century in England and was fantasy, many of my gripes regarding the historical and religious inaccuracies would be irrelevant. But I still would not be able to say that I would recommend a book as the romance and the subpar mystery and tonal issues would still be present. I wish I knew of a book with a similar premise I could recommend instead, but I cannot think of one. If anyone does know of one please feel free to mention it in the comments. 

Empress of all Seasons: Review

     In some ways, I feel as if I read two different books. The first one being an intriguing story where characters navigate a world where human and yōkai most definitely do not live in harmony. The other being a short action/adventure that skims over to many details. 

     The characters are enjoyable, but certain point of views felt unnecessary, but not at the beginning. The beginning felt like more time was put into it. It seems to me, my reaction towards Empress of all Seasons is the opposite of my reaction towards The Kiss of Deception. I found the latter to be a painfully slow written book with unnecessary point of views. I found the former to be a well-paced read with each point of view adding more depth to the plot and the world it occurs in only to be flung into river-rapids two-thirds of the way through. 

     The book has three narrators and each one adds a unique perspective to the story with Mari being a yōkai, Taro a human, and Akira something in between. I enjoyed seeing Taro navigating the palace, Akira’s adventures with the Yōkai revolution, and Mari’s journey in the seasonal rooms. Goodness, the seasonal challenges were my favorite part of Empress of all Seasons. However, it didn’t take up as much of the story as it could’ve.

      I am now entering into spoilers so if you want to read the book, I recommend skipping the last paragraph. 

*Spoilers*Mari wins the Winter Room, which is the last seasonal room, when the book isn’t even two-thirds through. The last third of the book involves a twist villain who was barely in the plot at all. (Honestly, I forgot he was a character) This twist villain then assassinates the emperor and blames it one Mari. The plot drops off from there. This newly revealed villain then persuades Taro to turn on Mari and Akira.  It continues to sprint downhill until the last page which reads more like Cliff notes than the final page of a novel. It is a shame because I loved the first half of this book. *End of Spoilers* If the story interests me, I probably will read more books written by Emiko Jean because I know she can write well. I saw it at the beginning of Empress of all Seasons. 

Chum's Moving Review

      I shall say it now. I have never seen the movie of the same name. Although I do wish to see the film more than ever now, I am afraid I won’t like it simply because it was different from the book. 

      The plot of this book is amazing and it is best experienced blind. I don’t want to spoil it at all. However, pay attention to everything as this is a great book to revisit and realize, “Why didn’t I notice this the first time?” It follows a girl named Sophie Hatter who was cursed by a witch to take the form of a very old woman. This drastically reduces her life expectancy so Sophie sees a wizard, Howl, as a way to free herself. 

      Sophie and Howl are great. Sophie is a very strong character and is very much the protagonist of the book. I personally like how she is a very old woman for most of it as I find this perspective lacking in literature. We get to see the effects the curse has on Sophie both mentally and physically. However, Sophie thinking of her situation and trying to find her way out of it doesn’t exactly take up the bulk of the novel. She finds out how to break the curse, but she doesn’t exactly know how to do the task required to break the spell. 

      Howl, the great slitherer-outer, was actually the most relatable character in the book. He is a very talented wizard and has many people wanting his help. However, this stresses Howl out and he is afraid certain people will ask too big of a task of him. What does he do? Howl has his friends blacken his name so people are too afraid to approach him. He doesn’t get along with Sophie who continues to snoop around his castle as she’s looking for a way to free herself from a curse. 

    The humor of the story is spot on. Not only from the wit of many of the characters (particularly Calcifer) and the shenanigans the protagonist get themselves into because of magic (Seven league boots just aren’t very practical), but the chapter titles really add to the story. Rick Riordan’s chapter titles pale in comparison to gems like “In Which Howl Expresses his Feelings with Green Slime” and others.  

     For a book I read recently, Howl’s Moving Castle gave me nostalgia for when I was younger and most of the stories I read were fairytale related. This book is a must-read for fairytale/ fantasy fans or anyone in a need of a good laugh.  

Elenor and Park Review

   

 I think it’s about time I read a book this year that I actually liked. However, Eleanor and Park is not one of my new favorites. Little things irritated me were scattered throughout the book. That said, more was done right than wrong and Eleanor and Park is one of the better high-school romance novels out there. 

      The first and probably biggest gripe I had with this book was the formatting. Eleanor and Park is written in third-person limited switching between Eleanor’s and Park’s perspective. I didn’t have a problem with the split perspective. The book is title Eleanor and Park it the story of the two of them not just one. What I didn’t poetically like was the way in which the split perspective was handled. Every time the narration would switch between Eleanor and Park the page would be title with the current narrator. However, I feel this is very unnecessary as the book it third-person. If the narrator switches it’s very obvious. Personally, I felt slightly insulted as if whoever made this formatting decision thought the readers were too dumb to figure out who was narrating by the text alone that they had to outright be told.  I shall note this is very much a personal preference of mine and that several of my friends were not bothered by this one bit. 

      As to the actually story, I don’t think I have ever before read such a realistic representation of a high school relationship. Park and Eleanor are teens. Although they very much care about one another, they aren’t ready to get married and start their lives together. 

      The way the relationship came slowly, but organically. It wasn’t that Park saw Eleanor get on the bus and instantly fell in love or vice-versa. Eleanor starts reading Park’s comics with him and they slowly become friends. 

     Eleanor’s dysfunctional family contrast nicely with Park’s functional one. Park has a set of parents who love each other very much while Eleanor’s father doesn’t appear to care much for her, but her step-father is even worse. 

     I’ve notice the ending is a bit of a touchy subject so I have decided to discuss it here. I am not going to say exactly what happens just what I felt about it. However, I feel the following paragraph could be considered a spoiler. Read at your own risk. 

    Opened endings are lacking in YA books especially romances. I like the possibility of wondering what happened to Eleanor and Park’s relationship. I don’t have to know exactly where it went because whether the pair is together or not, I feel both Eleanor and Park win in the end. My biggest problem, which was not enough to ruin the book for me, was I felt not enough justice was given to Eleanor’s step-father. 

Can an Ending Ruin a Story?

This year, I finished The Black Key, the final book in The Lone City trilogy. I was disappointed to say the least, especially because I enjoyed the first two books in the trilogy. I still find joy re-reading The Jewel and The White Rose, but the knowledge of how sloppily the plot is tied together at the end crawls around the back of my mind. Which made me wonder, can an ending ruin everything that came before it no matter how well written it is?

      No novel is perfect. I don’t think a book has to be great all the way through, but I do think it needs to be good for most of it. Endings are only a small section of a book. However, it is also the final glimpse we have of the book's world as well. Last impressions can be just as important as first impressions. My final impression of The Lone City trilogy was the ending wasn’t given enough time. Lately, I have noticed super-sonic endings are rampant in YA literature.

     Another ending that felt way to rushed for me was, The Crown, by Keira Cass. I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the books written after, The One, but I didn’t find The Heir a chore to read. However, The Crown was so hurried character development that would be logical if there was time spent on its execution, crashed like a bird flying into a window. Plot points and subplots were thrown in all directions. My brain could hardly keep up as the story progressed. I turned the last page wondering about what I just read. 

     I enjoyed Teardrop, but it’s sequel Waterfall did not bring the story to a satisfying close. It started out okay, but halfway through every plot twist vomited in my face. It was like the second half of the book was written during NaNoWriMo (A annual challenge to finish a novel draft in the month of November.) and left unedited. 

     I don’t think endings are given as much focus as they need. Most of my complaints about endings can be summed up as, it was too rushed. The end of a story, especially a long running series, should be a gradual stroll home not a desperate sprint for the finish line. 

    My favorite finales are often long. The Lunar Chronicles is one of my favorite book series, with what I consider one of the best endings. The last book is over eight-hundred pages long, but it needed to be. I loved Return of the King and that is also not something that can be read in a day. Both these books were organic endings to their predecessors. Did it take me a while to get through? Yes, but was it worth it? Also, yes. 

     As my English professor told me, a story needs to be long enough to complete itself. Writers are taking a reader on a long journey, taking the reader by the hand and showing them the wonders of the world they have imagined. The tour shouldn’t be cut short at the end because we need to get there as fast as possible. The tour should be as long enough to show everything worth seeing. As Miley Cyrus puts it, “It’s not about how fast I get there, it’s about what’s waiting on the other side.”  

     Which brings me back to the original question, can an ending ruin a story? I think it can. I’m not saying it will make the story before it impossible to enjoy, as I mentioned earlier, I still enjoy The Jewel and The White Rose. The quality of those books have not diminished since I read The Black Key. However, my reading experience with those books are different as I know many of the characters are going to experience hardship with poor resolution. 

Where are the Older Adults?

Note: this article is dedicated to the man who inspired it, who is probably waiting for me at the pearly gates with a pot of kale soup. 

     June 15^this Elder abuse awareness day! As a student whose dream job is a nursing home social worker, I try to be up to date on issues involving the grayer population. Originally, I planned to discuss books tackling the subject of elder abuse. However, I racked my brain for examples and realized none of my books, except for textbooks, mentioned elder abuse. In fact, very few even portrayed older adults in a positive light (if they featured any characters over 55 at all). At first, I thought there was some logic to this because most of the books I’ve read are children’s and Young Adult. I started to search through films and adult books and found a shocking lack of older adults in those as well. This isn’t only my personal observation either. Older adults are snubbed in Mainstream Media. 

       Movies don’t have to portray things accurately. If things worked the way they do in real life it would be boring. Fiction doesn’t have to be realistic, and I would argue it shouldn’t be, but it does need to be believable. If a piece of media has a world, greatly resembling ours, where no one ages past 50, and nobody ages slower than the average human, but nothing is said about the majority of people dying before they can claim social security, I think there is a problem.  A little less than 20% of America’s population is 60 years or older. However, few older adults, especially older women, are present in mainstream media, about less than 2% of all characters in prime-time television. Disney’s Up was the first full-length-featured-animated film to star a senior citizen. 

     In children’s books, negative words are often used to describe the appearances of older characters. Worlds like withered, crone, ugly, and toothless are very common. Although many people are passed he/her prime, older adults take a varying level of pride in their appearances. Just like middle-aged, and/or young people. However, this emphasis on the negative consequences aging has on the body, pales in the light of how the personality of those over 50 is portrayed. On the personal level, older-adults are often presented as sweet and childlike. They are frail and cannot possibly look after themselves. If there is a crime committed they are often the victim. Those who don’t follow this stereotype are treated as deviants and are almost always comic reliefs. However older-adults have a range of personality traits and abilities. Some may be child-like, while others may not. Vulnerability and independence also varies from person to person as well. 

     From all the YA books I have read, the only human older character was Cassia’s grandfather from Matched. *Spoilers* he dies not less than halfway through the book *End of Spoilers* Friendly older men are a rarity in fiction, but they are much easier to come by than their female counterparts. I found a handful of older women who aren’t mad at the world in adult fiction, but none in YA. In this category of literature, older female characters are old fashion, but this isn’t them having nostalgia for their youth and trying to get their granddaughters to act classy and ladylike (politeness is never out of style). Oh no, they think the good old days are the way it is supposed to be and a woman’s place is in the kitchen. 

      In Red Queen Mare is given two instructors who are both middle-aged and older. Her male teacher, Julian, is supportive of Mare and wants change. He becomes her friend and confidant, and I love his character. However, Mare’s female teacher, Lady Blonos, is a wrinkly-petty devil. She is impossible to please and clearly doesn’t want to teach Mare. The scary part of this is that Lady Blonos is one of the many older women written like this! Who fought for woman’s rights in the first place? From the way, older women are portrayed in fiction, you’d think Title 9 fell from the sky because politicians were bored one day. These fictional women’s real-life counterparts went through hell to get their granddaughters to where they are now. 

      Many older characters are treated like they are set in their ways and it is impossible to change them. Lia from The Kiss of Deception is very against tradition, particularly arraigned marriage. I don’t fault her for not liking the inability to have a say in who she marries, but older characters who weren’t okay with, not only arraigned marriage but other traditions, were presented as good people but those who followed tradition weren’t so kind. These backward-old men were simply relics of their times just like their traditions. But, older adults aren’t from another time. Although they were born decades ago, older adults are alive and part of the now. They take care of themselves, their homes, their families, communities, and many are still very politically active. The present doesn’t belong to only one generation. We are all together in a community whether we took our first breath this morning or 85 years ago.

      Sources: 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-older-people-underrepresented-in-film-survey-20160912-story.html

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=3468&context=etd

http://www.agingwatch.com/?p=439

The Gimmick of Deception

*Warning: Due to the nature of this book, I found it impossible to review it without discussing important plot points that occur late in the story. I have tried my best to mark all major spoilers, but there are still some minor (When plot twist happen) unmarked spoilers in this review. * 

        Some ideas sound amazing on paper, but after it is executed all my expectations fall as flat as the results. The Kiss of Deception revolves around this gimmick. We don’t know who the prince or the assassin is, and that’s really cool. I don’t doubt this was hard to write and I applauded the author for her efforts. However, there are two major problems with this gimmick. The story could’ve been told just fine without it. If the chapters written without the possible prince’s and assassins’ narrations (Which were often very vague and I felt described more of what the character was feeling than an event), their identities would still be a secret. They still would have been two mysterious travelers our heroine, Lia, doesn’t know. 

      Good narration is sacrificed in the name utilizing the gimmick. I’m getting into spoilers so if you haven’t read this book please skip over the next paragraph. *Spoilers* I disliked the part where Lia told Pauline what happened to her lover. Not because of the decision Lia made, but how this scene was executed. It started out strong. Lia doesn’t know what to tell Pauline and is really dealing with a moral dilemma. This was actually a high point as I felt Lia's confusion as she agonized over what to do. The chapter ends with Lia telling Pauline they need to talk. The next chapter shifts to Rafe’s (The prince’s) point of view where he ends up eavesdropping on Lia and Pauline because he cannot leave the barn they are in without them noticing him, and then the next chapter is Rafe helping Lia carry Pauline, who passed out from shock. We didn't get to see how Lia broke the news to Pauline or how she felt as she was telling her friend which I found to be very disappointing because the build up to this point.  *End of Spoilers*

     Another instance of good writing being sacrificed, is the plot and writing becoming tedious as most of the chapters are spent on Lia interacting with the two mysterious men and her rising suspicions about them. 

     The world building is painfully slow. I’m not a fan of info dumps, but this world is revealed to us so slowly some things seem very out of place by the time they are revealed. *Spoilers* After the 70% point it is revealed that there is a prophecy. I am not a prophecy hater and sometimes I enjoy them. However, the only clue something like this existed in this world were the little snippets of poetry at the start of every other chapter. *End of Spoilers* The first part of the book wouldn’t be so long if there wasn’t so much focus on the would-be prince’s or assassin’s true identity. In fact, the pacing may have been better if there wasn’t a chapter from Lia’s point of view and then another from either Rafe’s and/or Kaden’s perspective that was often exactly the same as the first scene only with a different narrator. 

      I suppose it is unfair for me to say how the story would’ve been better without the aforementioned gimmick. After all, I don't know what the book would be like without it, except for one factor: once it is revealed who is the prince and who is the assassin the story becomes ridiculously better. *Spoilers* I would guess this is because the plot doesn’t actually begin until the festival. Here we learn a huge amount about Morrighan’s culture and why the first daughters are so important. We learn what the gift of the first daughters' is like. There are also some consequences for Lia’s actions that do more than only affect her. Some of the more minor characters get moments to shine, like Gretchen and Berdi. We also finally get to know why there were all those cryptic poems at the beginning of every other chapter. 

     However, the latter half of this book isn’t without its faults. When Lia finds out the men she had been traveling with are responsible for her sister-in-law’s death, she has one moment of seething anger and then kind of accepts it when Kaden tells her all innocents die in war. I don’t disagree with what Kaden said, innocents dying is one of the infinite reasons war is bad. However, Lia kind of becomes more sympathetic towards Kaden and thinks he probably doesn’t find it easy to kill, and I don’t recall her ever holding her sister-in-law’s death against him for the rest of the book. If I was traveling with a party who was directly responsible for a relative of mine’s death I would not just go “Oh, innocents die in war, and these guys didn’t exactly like killing the person I love so it’s all good.” This didn’t ruin the story for me, but it was still annoying. *End of Spoilers*

      If you have patience or don’t mind slooow beginnings, I would say it is worth it to get through the first half of the book to find the good stuff. However, this still isn’t my absolute favorite book or the best one ever written so if you aren’t a fan of slow moving plots then I would say this book might not be the best pick for you. 

Maximum Read: The Angel Review

     Another book I read for my book club. Like the last book I read because of the club, Chosen, Maximum Ride was a fairly quick read. I didn’t get through this one as quickly as Chosen both because it is longer and I was working on finals and had to focus more energy on finishing the semester than on reading. 

       

     Before I get to my opinion I have to mention something  I noticed regarding this book: many of my friends love it, but most of the recent reviews I have read panned it. I could say I fall somewhere in the middle, but that would be wrong. This book is good. It isn’t the greatest story ever written, and I don’t see it becoming a classic on the level of Harry Potter or The Hobbit, but I am happy this book exists. 

  

   I’ve heard many complaints about Max, many of them calling her a Mary Sue. Although I can understand why some people felt like she was overpowered, this didn’t feel wrong because the rest of the flock was very powerful to so Max didn’t stand out in this way. I also didn’t find Max to be a Mary-Sue because although she was strong she had many moments of vulnerability. Like *Spoiler* when Max begins to get migraines after Angle is rescued, she worries about the possibility of her dying. We learn Erasers (the other project at The School who managed to survive infancy) don’t live long at all. Max doesn’t know how much longer she or anyone in the flock has left. *end spoiler* 

     The flock is constantly on the run, and it is made very clear this isn't healthy. Max is frustrated she can’t stay in one place for very long, but she doesn’t want the other flock members to know this. Max is the leader and she needs to be the last one to break under pressure. However, she’s still a fourteen-year-old girl. She’d rather be baking chocolate-chip cookies with normal parents than constantly defending herself and the flock from erasers, deadly human-wolf hybrids.  This desire for normalcy is what Max appears to want the most, but she can’t get it. (There is no way her 13 ft. wings are going to just disappear). It is impressive that Mr. Patterson managed to make a character who isn’t exactly human feel so very human. 

     The plot did drive me crazy me at moments. The School, the laboratory where the flock was made, disgusted me, and whenever Max recalled the treatment the flock, and everyone else with the misfortune of being an experiment there, received did more than ruffle my feathers. However, I think it is a positive thing I grew to hate the “bad guys” so much. It was impossible for me to stop rooting for the flock even when I found some of their choices to be unwise. They are still only children after all. 

Review in the Mist

     *note* I apologize for the bad pun for the title. My last final was yesterday and my brain is still recovering.

     Have you ever had a friend who started telling you about something that happened to him/her and he/she spends a little too much time on some details that aren’t relevant to the story? More often than I would have liked, I felt Flames in the Mist was similar to that friend’s story. There were chunks that could’ve been left out and nothing would have changed. It’s not like the book needs the length either; it’s almost 400 pages long. 

       There is this one chapter written from the Emperor’s (who are heroine, Mariko, has yet to meet) point of view and all the information I learned in that chapter was explained again in another chapter where Mariko was the focus. I honestly feel this story could’ve been told better if we don’t know what is happening outside of Mariko’s world. Several other chapters are written from the point of view of even more characters Mariko hasn’t met yet either and something Mariko doesn’t know about happens, but then a few chapters later Mariko learns about what happened to the other character and it doesn’t feel we needed the other point of view in the first place. 

       However, despite me thinking some chapters only dragged the plot on longer than necessary, I still really liked this book. It’s not one of my favorites, but it is worth a re-read and I do like Mariko as a character. I don’t think she’s super original fitting an archetype of a rebellious princess and all (I know her father is a samurai, but a character doesn’t exactly need to be a princess to be a rebellious princess). Mariko has a history as a character and she does think about events that happened to her before the story took place and I think this did good to flesh her out. I also enjoyed how the black clan felt like Robin Hood and the Merry Men in Japan, they even have a camp set up in the woods. 

      Spoiler Warning Major Spoilers ahead if you haven’t read Flames in the Mist yet I recommend skipping the next paragraph. 

       The romance. Oh boy, …where do I begin? The synopsis of this book says that Mariko “finds herself falling in love – a love that will force her to question everything she’s ever known about her family, her purpose, and her deepest desires.” I went into the story knowing Mariko would fall in love at some point. However, I didn’t get a hint of sexual tension until more than halfway through the book, but Mariko met the object of her affection, Okami, at the beginning of the story. I didn’t think Mariko was going to fall for him until a while after he was introduced. A very good thing in my opinion, but I still think their romance developed a little too quickly, and a few more scenes with the two of them alone may have been nice.  

      As much as I feel Mariko and Okami didn’t make the best decisions, and maybe some aspects of their relationship happened too quickly, I can’t help, but want them to be together. Maybe it was because the two didn’t instantly decide to spend the rest of their lives together, or maybe it was because they developed a sense of respect for each other before they fell in love. I think a huge factor was how Okami was a character first and a love interest second. As I stated before, when the character Okami was introduced I didn’t think Mariko was going to fall for him.