Book Review- OMG Queer

Title: OMG Queer

 Author: Anthology

Series:  N/A

Published:  14 August 2012 by Bold Strokes Books

Length: 264 pages

Warnings:  graphic sex, homophobia, strong language

Source: Netgalley

Summary : Hope. Fear. Desire. Despair. Promises. Betrayals. Lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. Transgender. Questioning. Intersex.
This anthology of short stories gives voice to the rising generation as they define what it means to grow up queer in the twenty-first century. What is it like to grow up in a society that embraces you in certain ways but discriminates against you in others? How do you choose a label from the alphabet soup, and should you even have to? By turns heartwarming and heartbreaking, comical and caustic, these stories, imagined and told by youth across America, provide a snapshot of queerness at the dawn of the new millennium.

Review: I find that LGBT fiction tends to be of a high quality. Anthologies tend to be a mix of bad and good fiction of the chosen genre.  This should be quite good then, but...yeah. I like that it’s all done by young people, but sometimes, it’s not amazing. It covers a nice lot of topics, and ACTUALLY INCLUDES THE T OF THE COMMUNITY (It really irritates me when something says it’s LGBT and ends with “gay men and lesbians”.) Unlike with other anthologies, the final tea score isn’t an average of all the stories., but a general impression of the entire book.

Jelson by Breanna Hovey. This deals with being a Swop, which is a little like intersex, but they literally swap sexual characteristics. At last! Something dealing with the non-cis community! (sorry, but it irritates me that we label it LGBT fiction and the T and variants get represented in hardly any way). This story addresses issues, and is also a romance. The idea of a Swop was a little hard to grasp to start with, but this was a good story.         5

The Tea Bowl by Justine F Lane. Girl falls in love with girl. But Girl A is an English teacher and Girl B is a student. Girl A also considers breaking up with her girlfiend to run off with Girl B. And it was like...oh.  Teacher/student relationships squick me out generally, but I like the metaphor running through this.        2

The Piano Player by Thomas Graziano. Will and Wesley meet via piano playing and a funeral. They fall in love. My favourite character in this was Tiffany, the best friend, who is funny and a good friend, from what we see of her. This is a very short and sweet romance.                        4

Cristal Crisis by A J Slater. Ryan recounts her high school experiences, mainly  of bullying, to her new girlfriend. They also meet Cristal, so there’s a nice circle format to this. Lots of horrible issues tackled sensibly.            4

A Tale of Modern Magic by Olivea Dziwak. On World Aids Day, a girl meets a girl. Not much else happens.                2

Indulge Ne by Ashely Bartlett. Two people meet, go home and have sex. This really isn’t my kind of thing. And suddenly having unexpected p4wn on my kindle is all *What???!*  There was a bit of plot in relation to the narrators relationship..but it just wasn't my thing.                1

Ignite the Sky by Julie R Sanchez. Grace and Callie go on a round trip, discovering things about each other and falling in love. I really like the format of this, being told in reverse chronological order.      4

A Round Trip by Warren Smith. Ethan meets Zack on a train and they fall in love. It’s a nice message, but also instalovey, but sweet.   3

Butch Fatale by Kirsty Logan. Bex and Narrator are friends. Narrator goes off with someone else. Six months later, Narrator leaves girlfriend for Bex. Not my kind of thing, but the depiction of clubbing is nicely done.             2

Pool of Sorrow by Sam Sommer.  Narator narrates his summer from many years ago, when he was a reader and when he fell in love with Teddy. Sweet, but not very much happens. 3

My Lips by Joseph Aviv. Seventeen year old Joseph realises he’s gay. I’m not sure of the main line of plot of this, but I like Joseph’s writing style.

Fighting for Love.   Alaina and Billie fall in love  but it doesn't work. There’s a nice element of “finding who you are” and this also was rather emotional.                 4

There Was a Knocking n the Door by Andrew Arslon. Boy comes out and some of the family take it badly. It’s a good look at family dynamics in the LGBT community, and varying attitudes.  I like the different subject matter and the way of handling it.               4

My Aahana .  Unrequited Love between Joe and Aahana. Short plot and not much happens. 2

First Time by Archer Darke.   PWP between Hayden and Grace, but well written PWP. You got to know the characters a little too before they start, which was nice.                 3

Hella Nervous by Rebeckah Weatherspoon  Oskana and Tracy fall in love. Sweet, but not amazing. 2

Closer to Me by Anna Meadows.  Just a little romance.   Different voice interspersed with Spanish was a refreshing change to the writing styles.     3

Graduation by Brighton Bennett  Emmerson and Rachel make up four years after splitting up. A relatively lengthly story.          2.

Overall: Mixed reactions for this.  There’s some rather good stories in this  anthology. And yet there are some stories where I just fail to understand 1. What the plot is and 2. Why I should be interested in someone breaking up/getting together with that person. Strength  2 and a bit,  just about up to 3,  tea to an anthology with a lot of gems but also lot of stories that I didn’t enjoy.

Links: | Goodreads | 

Book Review - Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

Title: Maggot Moon

 Author: Sally Gardner

Series:  N/A

Published:  6 September 2012 by Hot Key Books

Length: 288 pages

Warnings: extreme violence, said violence aimed at child, generally not for younger people

Source: Publishers

Other info:  This has been longlisted for the Carnegie award and shortlisted for the Costa award.  Sally has written other things such as The Double Shadow and The Red Necklace.

Summary : What if the football hadn’t gone over the wall. On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn’t want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell — who has different-colored eyes, who can’t read, can’t write, Standish Treadwell isn’t bright — sees things differently than the rest of the "train-track thinkers." So when Standish and his only friend and neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see what the Motherland has been hiding. And it’s big...

Review: Standish Treadwell is a fifteen year old dyslexic boy who lives in the Motherland, an oppressive country where anyone who doesn’t fit in (such as Standish’s parents) gets disappeared. Also disappeared one day is Standish’s best friend, Hector. As Standish tries to find him, he also uncovers more of the Motherland’s secrets. For example, those regarding the moon landing.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read this to start with. Then I saw what Andrew and Viv   had to say and thought “why not?” And I’m very glad I did read it.

The first thing I really got into was the world setting. It’s not really England, it’s not really America. There’s hints of Nazi Germany with the hands out salute and the disappearing, but it’s also somewhere else. Zone seven, where Standish lives, is especially depressing, and the atmosphere of despair is really strong, with Standish’s and Hector’s imaginations being the only good things there for them. there’s some really shocking moments in here, not just in terms of plot twists. Just what happens, and what people can get away with.

The big picture backdrop is the moon landing and its conspiracy theories (both the real world’s one and the Motherland’s). It’s very intriguing, with a lot of plausibility.  I won’t give too much away, but it really gets going in the second half of the book.

The biggest thing is Standish himself, the rest of the characters and their relationships. Standish is abrave, determined character who you just have to love. His close friendship with Hector and their adventures and their rocket that they’re building and their plans to go to the planet Juniper and such just makes me want to go “aww” and give them both a hug.  Standish’s Gramps is epic: at first, a kindly old man, when things get going, a complete BAMF.

It may be because I was told that he was dyslexic, but I found my self paying more attention to the writing style more than I would normally. Gardener uses simple language with slight errors that still gets the message across perfectly and keeps you engaged.

The themes of rebellion and conspiracy and courage are strong in this, but the theme of friendship is the main one. Emotional and touching, this is for everyone wanting a book about a quietly brilliant book.

Actually, this is for everyone (apart from younger readers).

Overall: Strength 5  tea to a quietly brilliant book.

Links: Amazon | The Book Depository | Goodreads | Author website

Book Review- Broken by A. E. Rought

Title: Broken

 Author: A.E. Rought

Series:  N/A

Published:   8 January 2013 by Strange Chemistry

Length: 384 pages

Warnings:  graphic gore in places

Source: netgalley

Summary : Skip this if you don’t want too spoilers!

A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry's boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.
When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.
The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.

Review:  Emma’s still mourning for Daniel, once her boyfriend and now the last in a mysterious line of deaths. One day, a boy turns up at school. General badboy Alex fights to defend her from Josh, is very kind to her, and is also quite like Daniel. Quite a lot.

I heard about this somewhere, and requested it from netgalley because I thought it would be interested.  By the time I read it, I’d forgotten why I wanted it. So I went in remembering nothing  about this.

It’s really easy to pick up on the characters. Emma, it didn’t take me long to know I wanted to befriends with her.  Favourite book-Dracula. Cat-Renfield. Describing the gym as a torture chamber? Heck yes.

To start with, she goes on too much about Daniel. I get that he’s recently died, and that you loved him, and it’s all very relevant to the plot, but every few sentences talking about him to start with really gets on my nerves.

Alex is a dark tortured soul with good reason. He ends up nearly getting Emma’s heart, and he’s the kind of guy I really really want to give a hug.  Josh is horrible, and it’s a big plot twist when we discover exactly why he is like he is. The other characters are a good support cast for Broken. And I really lovet the cat.

The romance is really sweet. What with Alex coming out with words...that aren’t his own, but still having feelings of his own, as Emma and him try to understand what he keeps seeing, and other things, and seeing them support eachother throughtout things,  I liked seeing them fall in love.

The big thing around Alex is TOO DAMN PREDICTABLE. I guessed a few minutes after Emma’s comments on the way he moves and so the big reveal wasn’t that much of a big reveal. But other happenings, such as the deer scene and the bit in Alex’s house and the ENDING.

Definetly the best bit was the ending for writing, engagement, and tension.. The first three quarters- I’m kind of enjoying this  good book. The scene in the lab with the father onwards? HOLY DFJKLSDK WOW.              Once you get to that part (a very easy thing  to do), you won’t be able to put it down until the end.

Overall:   Definitely  a retelling, but not completely follow the line, more taking an idea and running in another direction. Strength 4 tea to a romantic twist on Frankenstein with a lot of mystery and tension. I’m not sure if this will get a sequel or not, but I’d definitely like to see more from A E Rought.  

Links: Amazon | The Book Depository | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

Title: Throne of Glass

 Author: Sarah J Maas

Series:  Throne of Glass #1

Published:  2 August 2012 by Bloomsbury

Length: 404 pages

Source: netgalley

Summary: Meet Celaena Sardothien. Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.
In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught.
Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

Review: After a year in the salt mines, Celaena is finally out. Once the country’s most notorious assassin, she is now offered her freedom and the position of Champion...if she can beat 23 other warriors, thieves and killers, all vying for a job. The competition takes the form of tests on getting around, shooting, poisons etc, with duels for those who remain at the end.  However, being a competition to be the national face of death, things aren’t going to be fair. Some contestants start showing up dead, so Celaena takes it upon herself to find the killer, and win the competition.

I read a lot of rave reviews about this, and I was really excited to read this. Magic, killings and assassins make a great combination on paper, and the three on their own I tend to enjoy...all three should be great, right?

Throne of Glass is one of those books I couldn’t get into. My first annoyance was Celaena. She’s cocky in the way that irritates me, and she is VERY immature and impulsive. Example: She’s playing snooker/pool/billiards with Prince Dorian. Her first shot doesn’t go in. She snaps the cue (I think) and has a fit. Or similar. This is a shame because she’s also a bit smart and talented at what she does.

The majority of the cast isn’t standout good or standout bad. Dorian was a bit boring and samey, which was a little upsetting for someone with that name, Chad is your obligatory initial arsehole, but I didn’t mind him quite as much by the end of the book.

My favourite character was Nehemia, princess of another land, because she was interesting, had depth, and was more care-worthy than the others. I also liked some of the assassins, but I can’t think of anything else to say about the.

I looked forwards to the trials, but they were a little bit disappointing. The shooting one was typical (Chad: Don’t give yourself away as great. Celaena: *gets bullseye*) and the poisons thing was a joke (Best assassin ever only stays safe because poisony guy to the left subtly indicates to her what to do). They were well described though,

The magic was done really nicely. The mystery was built up and the fantasy element was a little bit  random after the relative realisticnesss of it all, but a welcome relief. The writing quality was good, with a world built in my head very well.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a generally underwhelming book, especially after so much hype.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website | 

December already!

So I woke up yesterday and wondered where the majority of the year went... Who else did?

Anyway, various things have happened!

I obtained lots of books! Well, not loads. But enough for my To Read box to be totally full again...
Things I have now!
--Caitlin Moran's Moranthology from the library. I loved How to Be A Woman and Moran's writing style, and this is just as good!
--Ellie James' Broken Illusions from the publishers. I enjoyed Shattered Dreams a bit and, have hopes for this one now that I know the characters and the setting!
--Neil Gaiman's and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens, and Stephen Chbosky's Perks of Being a Wallflower, from the shops. I've read them both before, but thought becasue I loved them so much, I should own them.
-- J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit, also from the shops. I really need to get round to reading this, and hopefully before seeing the film.
So I now have a not a huge pile of books to read, but a pile of books that will not fit in my box. Yay!

A. E. Rought brought out a trailer for Broken!

I really like its use of pictures and no dialogue, just pretty music. The review of this book will come soon!

Miraink brought out its list of top ten bloggers! Congrats to the people who made it, and good luck with the next round!!

I was on the internet today and I found this! Better Book Titles, for various Halloweeny books. Fun times!

I totally failed NaNoWriMo. I think I'm better suited for the "write when you actually have something to say, and don't care that it takes forever" method. I did manage 8k though, and I'm still blaming a lot of it on textiles coursework and the impossibility of it.

Congrats to everyone who did win Nano, who did get through to round to of Blogink, and to everyone who's generally done something good this week :)

Cover Reveal-Copper Girl by Jennifer Allis Provost

This is the  first book of The Copper Legacy, a series that will be coming from Spence City.  It seems  to be a fantasy thing,  and I wonder how much the metal elements intersect with the  magic and various other things.  

The cover is really simple. I like the shade of purple/red they used, and the way the mark stands out. Looks like a book to watch!

===========================

Sara had always been careful.

She never spoke of magic, never associated with those suspected of handling magic, never thought of magic, and never, ever, let anyone see her mark.  After all, the last thing she wanted was to end up missing, like her father and brother.

Then, a silver elf pushed his way into Sara's dream, and her life became anything but ordinary.

Available in print and e-book June, 2013

It's not on Goodreads yet. 

Book Review- The City's Son by Tom Pollock

Title: The City’s Son

 Author: Tom Pollock

Series:  The Skyscraper Throne #1

Published:  2 August 2012 by Joe Fletcher Books

Length: 422 pages

Warnings: violence, sexual abuse, adult themes

Source: publisher

Summary : Hidden under the surface of everyday London is a city of monsters and miracles, where wild train spirits stampede over the tracks and glass-skinned dancers with glowing veins light the streets.When a devastating betrayal drives her from her home, graffiti artist Beth Bradley stumbles into the secret city, where she finds Filius Viae, London’s ragged crown prince, just when he needs someone most. An ancient enemy has returned to the darkness under St Paul’s Cathedral, bent on reigniting a centuries-old war, and Beth and Fil find themselves in a desperate race through a bizarre urban wonderland, searching for a way to save the city they both love. The City’s Son is the first book of The Skyscraper Throne: a story about family,friends and monsters, and how you can’t always tell which is which.

Review:  There’s more to London than you’ve ever know.live people in statues. Trains with minds of their own. Electric dancers. And an evil god in the skyscrapers. Beth, after one last act of betrayal, has been thrown out of her school and her home. After unexpectedcly coming across a pair of fighting railwraiths, she then finds Filius Viae, the Son of the Street, the son of Mother Thames, the goddess of London who has been absent for years. Together, they face adventure, danger and all kinds of things as they try and find a way to keep their London safe.

I love London. I live about 30 minutes from there and I think that wandering round and looking at landmarks and pretty buildings and such is a great way to spend a day. Books set in the UK are good because I understand them and the language and idioms and such. Set in my favourite city? Huge bonus.

I also love urban fantasy. And if there was ever  a book to describe that term, this would be it. Pollock has created creatures that you couldn’t think about ever. The originality in coming up with the city’s underworld is amazing. This is a drawback in some ways. For example, on my first reading, I was tired and I just couldn’t envisage these things .  This is one of the few books where I recommend  a rereading, because a second time round, I got a lot more brilliance from this. There isn’t much world building, more a take it as you go along. This adds pace to the story and if you can handle it, you’ll love it.

The characters are really good. Oh Fillius, I love you. I’m not sure why, but you are just generally awesome. You go through a lot, you stay strong and you are the most unique character I’ve come across. Beth is just as good a main character, feisty, talented, and really brave. I also really liked Parva, Beth’s best friend who should have featured a little bit more. Beth’s father, you feel for a lot, and Victor provides welcome humour. The other secondary characters are all distinctive and really well written.

The plot is really interesting. I like the fact that Reach is simply an ever present threat, not up and in your face too much. The preparing and going to war was really interesting, and there’s a few character storylines too that just make you want to go up to almost every single one of them and hug them.

The writing is good.  The writing of action scenes and the description of everything are the best features of this, but for a really dark and gritty book (a lot of adult themes running through this) there’s some snatches of humour that are welcomed.

Overall:   Strength 4.5 average (1^st reading 4, second a 5) rounded up to a  5 tea to urban fantasy in the best sense of the word.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Title: Alice in Zombieland

 Author: Gena Showalter

Series:  White Rabbit Chronicles #1

Published:  5 October 2012 by Mira

Length: 404 pages

Source: Publisher

Summary : She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.
Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.
Her father was right. The monsters are real….
To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

Review: When I first saw the title, author and cover, I got REALLY excited. Having highly enjoyed Intertwined, (review here) and with a name and cover like that, you’d think that you were getting a reimagining of Carroll’s original, but with zombies involved. Not so. Instead, there’s a contemporary paranormal story with a heavy dose of romance. And (as I remember) no chance to wear that dress (I don’t mind pretty dress covers as long as they’re relevant to the plot). The only connections with Carroll’s story are the fact that Alice is called Alice and the chapter titles are quotes with undead spins. Now we’ve cleared that up, we can move on.

It’s Alice’s birthday when their car crashes. Alice is the only  survivor, and as she wakes, she thinks of her now dead family. And the monsters surrounding her car. She starts a new school, where she is accepted by part time hospital buddy Kat into the friendship group and introduces her to the group of tough guys, with the likes of Cole, Frosty and the others. There, she is told what actually happened: It was zombies! Alice decides that she will eradicate all zombies ever. That’s once she’s trained with Cole.

After being disappointed at the lack of Alice in Wonderland, I got a bit disappointed by the way the plot of Alice in Zombieland panned out too. It’s really heavily romance orientated, which is fine if you like this. It’s just really not my thing, and I don’t feel it was done amazingly. Luckily, there is a good amount of zombie slaying, which is more up my street.

Alice could have been a great character, but I felt there was something a bit lacking around her. My favourite character is Kat-she’s cool, witty, and a good friend. Close second comes Alice’s grandparents and their failed attempts to be cool.

The pacing. Started out really nicely with awesome stuff happening. The middle was dragged out a lot and the ending could have been really amazing and emotional, but ended up over before it had really begun.

There was some good points though. The characters, that weren’t fitting the mean/tough girl/guy stereotype were  really good. And the zombies! While I don’t approve of the sparkling qualities, the idea of spirit form and the emphasis on spirit as opposed to corpses is generally awesome.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to an underwhelming book with some good features, but not really my thing, despite first impressions.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website |