Graceling

Graceling

Author: Kristin Cashore

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Release Date: September, 2009

Series: 1 of 3 interconnected books, can serve as stand alone

My list of favorite books of all times is short and very unchangeable. One of the titles – The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton – has lived there since I was thirteen. I’m excited to add Graceling to this exclusive party. Yes, I loved this book that much.

Katsa (not to be mistaken for Katniss) is a Graceling, a child born with a special gift called a Grace which makes her, along with all other gracelings, the property of the king who just so happens to be her uncle. And lucky for him that he virtually owns her because Katsa’s particular skill is killing people. An unbeatable fighter, Katsa makes the perfect thug for carrying out her uncle’s brutal form of domination over his subjects. Katsa hates her life and, in an act of rebellion, establishes a secret council of others determined to help those who need it whether the king approves or not.

While on a mission to rescue the kidnapped father of another kingdom’s king, Katsa encounters Prince Po, a fellow graceling who is nearly her equal in fighting skills. Po has tracked down his kidnapped grandfather and is determined to solve the mystery of who did the deed and why. At first reluctant to become involved, Katsa decides to join Po in his journey for answers. The pair discover a dark force at work that, if not stopped, threatens everyone in their world. Along the way Katsa also learns much about the true nature of her Grace and what that means for her future. And even though she fights it with all she has, Katsa can’t ignore the feelings growing between her and Prince Po, feelings that challenge every preconceived notion she’s held about herself.

Katsa is an immensely compelling character. While she’s one of the deadliest forces in her world, Katsa sees herself as a prisoner who has no choices at all. In order to survive the isolation her grace has caused, she’s shut off any of her softer emotions, and she believes herself as truly incapable of loving anyone in a normal sense. As she comes to care for Po and his young cousin, Bitterblue, her resolve to avoid personal attachments begins to melt. She doesn’t change overnight, but her realization that she’s powerful in many ways and can control her own destiny is like a flower that blooms throughout the book.

Po is a swoon-worthy hero, strong enough to hold his own against Katsa but secure enough in himself to admit that, in the end, she is the better fighter. Rather than be put off by Katsa’s outwardly cold demeanor, he persists in breaking down her walls, and the moment when he confesses his true feelings is incredibly moving. At one point, Po has to make a heartbreaking sacrifice and I found myself tearing up, something I rarely do when reading words on a page. The romance between Katsa and Po left me breathless and is one of my favorites in any genre.

In addition to fantastic characters, the driving plot is well drawn. Graceling contains the most blood-chilling villain I’ve read in ages. I can’t discuss much without giving away key plot points, suffice it to say, as I realized how powerful the villain was and how much of a threat this person posed to both Katsa and Po, indeed, their entire universe, I honestly had no idea how they would ever prevail. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire last half of the book, truly terrified for Katsa and Po.

Graceling is a fantasy set in magical kingdoms full of different peoples and places, but Cashore manages to create this entire other world without losing the story in the minutia of world-building details. We learn enough to evoke a sense of time and place but the focus never wavers from the characters or their journey. While I enjoy fantasy for the creativity it displays, I read books for characters and plot, so I appreciated this fine balance between world building and story.

Most of all, I liked that Katsa is a strong YA heroine who is fully capable of saving herself. She comes to learn that she can allow herself to need others and can trust them to get her back without ever subverting her own power or sacrificing what she believes to be the right thing for her. Unlike in so many other uber-popular YA paranormal titles, Katsa’s love isn’t given easily or just because Po is oh-my-god-so-hot but is hard earned and well worth the effort. And this includes her own sense of self-worth, something she struggles to gain throughout the entire book. In the end, Katsa’s ability to love herself is the ultimate victory and the best happily ever after. 

I knew this book was a true keeper the second I finished it and, feeling slightly stunned, opened it back up and began reading it all over again. I simply didn’t want to leave the world of Katsa and Po.

Rating: Up All Night

Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

Author: Kate Brian
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Release Date: Sept. 2006

Series: Stand alone title

Megan Meade has had it with the constant moving around that comes with having professional Army parents. When they announce yet another transfer, this time to South Korea!, Megan finally puts her foot down. She determines to stay in the US to finish her last two years of school. Her parents agree, but with a catch. Megan must live with family friends, a family that includes seven boys.

At first Megan looks at the prospect of having seven instant "brothers" as a chance to learn a little something about the male species. But the McGowan boys don't exactly welcome her with open arms. The youngest brothers, Ian and Caleb, feel free to go through her things, vandalize her clothing, and sabotage her bike. Middle twins Miller and Doug come with their own problems, Miller's in the form of Aspergers Syndrome and Doug's with a giant chip on his shoulder and a determination to hate Megan no matter what she does. Older brothers Evan and Finn show some promise. Evan looks like he's stepped off the pages of an Abercrombie catalog and Megan is immediately smitten. Finn offers a steady friendship that becomes a rock Megan finds herself leaning on more and more. And oldest brother Sean barely exists as part of the family.

Things become even more complicated when Megan becomes embroiled in the ongoing drama between Evan and his long time girlfriend - and Megan's soccer team rival - Hailey. Even though Megan feels like she has a home at her new school with new friends and a promising soccer season ahead, her home life is a constant battle as she tries to be accepted by the McGowan boys.

First, while the premise of this book hooked me almost immediately, it nearly became a wall-banger simply because the set-up of the situation contained the biggest plot hole I've ever encountered. Ostensibly, Megan does not want to move to South Korea when her parents are reassigned because she doesn't want to leave her friends, her crush, and her winning soccer team. This makes perfect sense. However, Megan's parents' solution is to ship her from Texas to Boston, Mass. to live with the McGowans. WTF? She didn't want to leave her current school and the life she had made, yet author Kate Brian has her moving across the country where she is the new girl who has to start all over again anyway.

I get that there is a big difference in moving within the US versus to a completely different country, but this incongruity really frustrated me. As the story unfolded, I understood why Brian need the McGowans to be strangers to Megan - something that would not have been the case had the family lived in Texas. And I honestly don't have a better solution to the problem, one that would keep Megan at her own school yet introduce the McGowans as people she's never met or doesn't have any history with. Believe me, as I writer I struggle with these kind of plot/premise problems all the time. Thankfully, the story was good enough that I forgave this beginning hiccup.

The best part of this book by far is that Brian did not do the expected. From simply knowing the premise - teen girl moves into a house with seven brothers - one might expect a lot of Mary Sueing and romance and perfect people all over the place. One thing the McGowan brothers are not is perfect. Yes, Evan is extremely handsome. But as Megan begins to play a role in his relationship with girlfriend Hailey, Evan turns into a very unlikeable character.

Too, middle brother Doug is presented up front to be belligerent and resentful of Megan's presence. He's angry that he's been made to give up his room to accommodate her, but as the story continues it becomes clear that he has deeper issues. Even when Megan goes out on a limb to help him, Doug continues to be nasty to her. He's usually at the center of the boys' efforts to gang up against Megan and freeze her out.

While brother Finn shows a lot of promise, I wish he'd been given more screen time and chance for us - the readers - to get to know him better. An artist, Finn becomes Megan's only ally and the course of their relationship is pretty clear even if it takes Megan a while to open her eyes. However, the ending of the story leaves things a tiny bit ambiguous.

Brother Miller is given some interesting treatment. As a person with Aspergers, Miller is hard to get to know, has compulsions that must be respected, and is at first wary of Megan because she represents change. But Megan persists in finding a way to befriend Miller. Their interactions are very sweet.

The three other brothers - the two youngest and oldest Sean - are only barely sketched and there mostly to cause problems for Megan. I wish Sean, especially, had been given a more significant role. As it was, the story could have been told just as well with only four brothers rather than seven.

Megan herself was an even character. She tended to be a tad bit too self-sacrificing and put up with a lot of crap from the boys with nary a complaint to anyone other than expressing her own internal frustration. In some ways she was too good to be true, forgiving and understanding where I think most teen girls would have been a lot more resentful and vindictive. Many times in the story I wanted her to lose her cool, especially in the face of what Evan did to her, because she certainly didn't deserve the treatment those boys dished out in spades. However, she proved that she could stand up for herself especially on the soccer field.

As for romance, there is a bit of the forbidden injected into the entire situation especially after John and Regina lay down the law that as long as Megan is living with them, she and the boys must treat each other like brothers and sister. It is not said explicitly but any romantic overtures between Megan and the older boys are strictly verbotten. Of course, knowing there are rules against it doesn't mean that feelings can be ignored, and problems do crop up when those feelings are acted upon.

One issue I had was with the McGowan parents, John and Regina. For the most part, they remained in the background. A little too much, actually. When the younger boys were vandalizing Megan's things and Doug was getting into trouble and smarting off to his mother, the parents showed no effort in discipline. However, when first Evan and Megan and then Finn and Megan come home late at night, they are grounded immediately. Too, Regina and John came off as rather clueless in how their sons were treating Megan. If I had boys who acted the way the McGowan brothers did at times, I'd be horrified.

The story is very good, although to talk about it is to risk revealing too much. There are several twists and turns that I did not see coming. Again I commend Kate Brian for taking a unique approach to the situation rather than the more predictable one. Yes, Megan does develop a crush on one of the brothers, and it does seem for a while like he will return her affections. But just like Megan, the reader is both surprised and frustrated by the events that unfold.

Other than the initial issue I had with the story set-up, this is a great book. I didn't want it to end which is the highest compliment I can give.

Rating: Couldn't Put It Down

Perfect Chemistry

Perfect Chemistry
Author: Simone Elkeles
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
Release Date: Dec. 2008

Series: Stand-alone title

Brittany Ellis has it all. She's the Queen Bee at her school, popular, captain of the pom pom squad, dating the captain of the football team, great grades, and gorgeous to boot. Everyone thinks her life is perfect because she's worked very hard to create that illusion. In truth, her mother is a perfectionist who harps on Brittany constantly. Her father is a workaholic who avoids family problems by staying away from home as much as possible and hiding in his study when he can't. And Brittany's older sister, Shelley, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy, has grown so frustrated and difficult to manage that her parents are talking of sending her off to live in a home for the disabled. As if her home life didn't suck enough, Brittany has just been assigned the lab partner from hell for her senior chemistry project: gangbanger Alex Fuentes.

Alex has reluctantly followed in his dead father's footsteps, joining the violent Latino Blood gang in order to protect his mother and two younger brothers. He's cultivated the image of a tough, menacing guy who isn't afraid of anything or anyone even as he refuses to engage in the more illicit activities of gang life. He serves as the muscle when it comes time to collect debts owed to the gang's leaders, but Alex stands his ground when it comes to dealing drugs. Still, it kills him to know that his future probably includes dying at a very young age and that there is absolutely no way out of the life he's been born into. The future certainly doesn't include college or a relationship with someone like Brittany Ellis, the Snow Queen of Fairfield High. When he's assigned to be her lab partner, he figures he'll have fun baiting the girl to torment her boyfriend and reinforce his rep as someone who doesn't give a damn. And just to ensure that he keeps his distance, he makes a bet with his friends that he can sleep with Brittany before Thanksgiving.

As the weeks pass, though, both Brittany and Alex realize that what everyone around them believes about them is really nothing more than a carefully constructed facade that hides a person riddled with demons and troubles. Brittany fights her growing attraction to Alex, reminded time and again by both her parents and her friends that Alex is not the type of guy she should associate with. Alex's image of Brittany as a spoiled rich girl begins to crumble when he gets a glimpse of her home life. And the two find that the only person they seem to be able to be themselves around is the other.

But the leader of Alex's gang is pushing for him to get more involved in the gang's drug business. Brittany's parents have finally decided to send Shelley away for good. And both must face the disapproval of their friends as they realize that they've fallen in love.

Perfect Chemistry is a perfect example of how good storytelling can make up for poor writing. While I found myself rolling my eyes quite a bit at the clunky dialogue, forced plot points, and out-of-character observations, I couldn't keep from turning the pages to see what would happen.
Brittany and Alex are appealing characters almost despite Elkeles' portrayal of them. While Brittany comes over as a doormat of the worst order - taking the crap her mother dishes out to her with meek acceptance - at least her love for her sister gives us some motivation as to why she might be trying to be so perfect. Brittany honestly believes that she must make up for the fact that her sister is handicapped, and it never occurs to her until near the end of the book how unfair it is for her parents to both place all of their hopes and expectations on her or to project their frustrations and disappointments from having a handicapped child on their youngest daughter. Brittany spends a good portion of the book worrying about what everyone else will think, and while I imagine this is true for most teens, it got a bit tiresome.

For his part, Alex is a decent hero. He's been forced to join a gang, but still he embraces the image of gangbanger whole-heartedly. His desire to keep his younger brothers out of the gang do much in making him admirable. In the beginning of the book I felt Elkeles really struggled to establish Alex's image in school as a bad-ass that the other kids feared by giving him what I think was supposed to be smart-assed dialogue that came across as simply annoying and made him look stupid. In this case, I imagine a guy like Alex to be someone who says as little as possible. But Elkeles would have him actually raise his hand to make an obnoxious comment that didn't sound so much bad-ass as a bad-ass wannabe more likely to be openly ridiculed than respected.

Another cliché Elkeles relied on to establish Alex's street cred was to have him constantly be accused of things he didn't do. As if his reputation at school was so horrible that everyone immediately looked to him when some misbehaviour was discovered. At one point, Alex is brought before the principal when graffiti is found in the school gym and a can of spray paint is found in Alex's locker. Alex didn't do it, and he's able to prove his innocence in such a way as the principal believes it. However, we never discover who framed him or why. It was as if the entire scene was strictly there to demonstrate what a bad rep Alex had that he gets dumped on for everything.

While I never quite saw Alex as a scary badass - the type of guy I'd cross the street to avoid - nor did Brittany ever quite seem the kind of girl who would rule the school given her lack of backbone, at least the relationship between the two was well drawn. The almost forbidden attraction between them grew naturally and built steadily. Even as they fight their feelings for each other, it's undeniable that they are meant to be together. I think this is what kept me turning pages - to find out when and how they would finally give in to their feelings.

Unfortunately, the ending of the book was both a bit forced and a bit trite. Alex does something for reasons I still don't fully buy, and the conflict it created was resolved far too easily. I could have done without the Epilogue altogether.

One issue I had with the book's setting I can't manage to resolve. Elkeles set this story in a suburb of Chicago, and reading the back cover information about Elkeles, it seems she's actually from Chicago and therefore has intimate knowledge of the city and surrounding burbs. Fictional Fairfield High is supposedly located where huge mansions sit on Lake Michigan beachfront property (which would be the Northern Shore communities) but there is also a large population of economically disadvantage Latino families. The high school social structure is divided into the North Side Rich Kids and the South Side Latino kids. It could be that such a place exists and I just don't know it, but I couldn't imagine a school with such an extreme divide in the Chicagoland area. And I'd bet dollars to donuts that no community that contains people as well-off as Brittany and her friends' families are described to be would ever tolerate the presence of Latino gangs who ride around flashing gang symbols and wearing bandannas to indicate gang membership. They'd make sure their tax dollars were being used to keep the "riffraff" far away from their homes and schools.

In the end, I would say that this book is a very intriguing read that kept me turning pages so therefore can be considered a success. You do have to have an accepting attitude when it comes to the writing itself, which I thought fell short of what it could have been. I give it a qualified recommendation.

Rating: Couldn't Put It Down