The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

THE DETAILS

Title: The Demon King

Author: Cinda Williams Chima

Series: A Seven Realms novel

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Reading Level: 13+

Hardcover: 506

ISBN: 978-1423118237

Buy: Amazon.com (also available in paperback)

THE SUMMARY

In the mountains of Hanalea, sixteen-year-old ex-street gang lord Han Alistar and his clan friend Fire Dancer run into three young wizards setting fire to the forest and force them to stop. To keep them from attacking, Han takes an amulet from Micah Bayar, son of the High Wizard. Soon Han discovers that the amulet has an evil history: It once belonged to the Demon King, the wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago. And now the Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back.

Meanwhile, Raisa ana’Marianna, princess heir of the Fells, is dealing with her own troubles. After three years of riding, hunting, and freedom in the mountains with the Demonai clan, she has returned to court to attend her 16^th birthday party and Name Day. She aspires to be like Hanalea—the legendary warrior queen who killed the Demon King and saved the world. But her mother has other plans for her: She intends to marry her off to a suitor who goes against everything the queendom stands for.

When the lives of these two teenagers cross briefly, it ignites a course of events that will fan the flames of a smoldering war between clans and wizards, changing the course of Hanalea’s history forever.

THE REVIEW

Sometimes novels that focus on two or more characters and split the time between them take too much time to develop each part of the story, leaving the reader bored and wondering, “what’s the point?”. But I never found myself asking that about The Demon King. Chima’s world is fantastic in its new self and at the same time grounded enough in reality that it will be easy for even for the anti-high-fantasy reader to slip into and stay connected when reading. Good exposition, well weaved politics, and memorable/unique characters throughout the entire novel bring this story to life. Especially Raisa. OMG, excuse me for going fangirl for a moment, but Raisa is one of the coolest YA heroines out there. She’s opinionated, strong willed, adventurous, and pushes people to push her to become a better queen. She’s completely aware of the fact that she’s been sheltered as a princess, and is hungry to step into a role which gives her the power to help people. Rare qualities for a character in her position, which made getting to know her incredibly entertaining.

And I can’t forget Han. Oh, poor Han. Street-smart and quick on his feet, he still has the strength to move forward even after getting his ass kicked by the corrupt local Guard. Multiple times. What a guy.Though he is your typical cocky street kid with a heart of gold (can anyone say, Aladdin?), his perspective of the story provided a good balance to Raisa’s princess-party life.

Though I admit that that I found Raisa’s side of the story more interesting (if you couldn't tell), the end of the book left me wanting to read more about Han. Oh why oh why don’t I have The Exiled Queen in my hands right now?! (The answer: because it hasn’t arrived in the mail yet.) It’s been a while since I’ve gotten so attached to a series. The Demon King was a wonderful first installment to Chima’s Seven Realms series, one that any reader should be able to enjoy. It’s got a bit of something for everyone!

THE RATING

8/8 Tentacles

Fire by Kristin Cashore

THE DETAILS

Published in 2009 by Dial Books, Fire is the second book in Kristin Cashore’s “The Seven Kingdoms” series. Though it is the second book that she has written, it acts as a prologue to her first book, Graceling, taking place years before Leck becomes king of Monsea. It is 480 pages long (hardcover). A good sized book, if you ask me. :D

THE SUMMARY

Fire takes place east of the setting of Graceling, in a warring land called the Dells. As if war wasn’t bad enough, brightly colored animal-like monsters reside there, and have the ability to influence the minds of humans. With hair the color of flame, 17-year-old Fire is the last human monster. Equally hated and adored, she is mistrusted by the people around her, despite her human morals and appreciation of right and wrong. But when she is called to investigate the appearance of spies in the king’s land, she helps to discover a deeper plot; war is coming, and coming much sooner than anyone had anticipated. Can she use her power to save the kingdom without becoming the monster her father was?

THE REVIEW

At first, I was a little turned off by the idea of monsters, since they were never mentioned in Graceling (or, at least, as far as I can recall). But Cashore’s writing is so solid that I quickly warmed up to the idea and sunk into this imaginary world where the characters are plagued by these oh-so-colorful creatures running about. With that being said, Fire was completely different than Graceling was, and with the exception of one character (Leck) who shows up in both books, the two stories had little to do with each other. Where Graceling was charged with action and personal survival, Fire was charged with emotional drama, which was actually nice for a change of pace. Cashore was smart to create a character completely different than Katsa: Fire’s personality is a mixture of sensitivity, vulnerability, and independence, which blended together nicely, given the situations she faced throughout the book. Blessed, or in Fire’s opinion, cursed, with exquisite beauty, she is constantly bringing out the worst desires and feelings in people, including—more often than not—rape. Sex is big deal and a major theme of this book, one that I think Cashore handled well for the most part, given the difficult nature of that theme in young adult fiction.

Like a good chunk of teen novels out there, this was really a coming of age story. Fire eventually learns that her power isn’t necessarily bad or something to fear, and if wielded in the right way, can be used to help people, especially when they are in pain. At the beginning of the book she is an outcast, hiding beneath headscarves, plagued by daddy-guilt issues. But at the end, she evolves into the fantasy version of Florence Nightingale. Her transformation took a little while to achieve, but came naturally in a way that I found believable. And, better yet, she didn't do it alone. Like Katsa in Graceling, Fire has a support group of friends who are loveable and love her. Cashore’s ability to handle minor characters was very impressive; the King’s family manages to be both endearing and despicable, and even the members of her guard, are unique and memorable. In the end, I wanted the supporting cast to have just as much happiness in their lives as I did Fire.

All-in-all, I loved just about everything in this book, and can officially say I’ve become a Cashore fangirl. I’m really looking forward to when she decides to combine the characters in Graceling and Fire. Maybe in the upcoming book, Bitterblue? One can hope. We’ll have to wait and see.

THE RATING

7/8 Tentacles

And a big ole' warm welcome to my new subscribers HiL and Michelle! You know I love you guys. ;P

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

WARNING: For those who haven’t read The Hunger Games or Catching Fire, there are spoilers in this review.

THE DETAILS

Mockingjay is the third and final book in "The Hunger Games" trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It was published in 2010 (last Tuesday, actually) and is 390 pages long, for those who care to keep track.

THE SUMMARY

Katniss Everdeen has survived her second run in the Hunger Games and now her world has exploded. Literally. Her home, District 12, has been destroyed. Her best friend, Gale, and her family have luckily escaped, but Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist, and a revolution has been set in motion. Now Katniss must decide whether or not to fulfill the role that she was designed to play in it: The Mockingjay. The symbol of the rebellion, with the power to decide the fate of Panem. Will she rise to the responsibility, at her own personal cost?

THE REVIEW

Mockingjay was one of the books I had been waiting for all year. I picked it up as soon as the store opened (along with a sweet keychain) and after 6 hours of reading, finished it the same day. It was that intense. So intense that I needed to take a few days to mull over what I had just read. No doubt that I’ll be reading it again very soon. However, I apologize in advance if this review feels a little more ambiguous than my other ones. I found it was difficult to talk about the book without spoiling the story for those who haven’t read it. Anywho...

I found myself incredibly satisfied with how this book unfolded and concluded. When I started reading it, I really had no idea what to expect, nor did I have any guess as to how it was going to end. Definitely the darkest of the three, Mockingjay didn’t have the same style that the other two books had. But given the nature of the plot, I don’t think there is any way that it could have fit the same pattern anyway. Not with a country-changing revolution going on. Collins does a good job showing us that in war, nobody wins. She is not nice to her characters, and didn’t believe in softening anything for her readers either. Characters die. Characters change. Nobody is the same as they were in the first book, Katniss most of all. While battling with her inner Peeta/Gale-I-can’t-live-without-either-of-them-but-can-really-only-have-one feelings (which I loved), she manages to demonstrate courage, and an honor for life that she didn’t really exhibit in the first book. No doubt this is the result of everything that has happened to her so far. I mean, having a few people die in your arms is sure to change your outlook on life, right? I wouldn’t say she becomes a white horse hero—far from it, in fact—but it’d be unrealistic to expect that that’s what she would become given the position she’s in and what’s she gone through. Everybody has their own agenda, and Katniss, the focal point of all of this, handed it as well as you could expect any teenager to: with a lot of confusion. But Katniss has always been good at trusting her instincts, and in the end that's what mattered. Though it’s clear by the end of the book that she’s damaged and will never regain the innocence of youth, the series concluded with a happy ending, one which I’m sure a number of fans will be satisfied with.

THE RATING

8/8 TENTACLES

Also, I'd like to give a shout out to my new subscribers, Jenny and Tampa. Thank you so much for your support! <3

Disney After Dark by Ridley Pearson

THE DETAILS

First published in 2005, The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark is the first part of a (as of right now) three-part series written by the co-author of Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Ridley Pearson.

THE SUMMARY

When Finn Witman and four other teens audition for Disney’s Host Interactive program (DHI), they are transformed into hologram projections that guide guests through Disney’s Magic Kingdom. However, the technology yields unexpected results. Soon, Finn finds himself transported in his DHI form into the Magic Kingdom at night. There, he encounters Wayne, an elderly Imagineer who reveals to him that the park is in grave danger. Led by the witch, Maleficent, a mysterious group of characters called the Overtakers is plotting to destroy the world. Armed with this knowledge, it’s up to Finn and his friends to solve riddle of the Stonecutter’s Quill, which hopefully will put the characters back in their place.

THE REVIEW

Sounds cool, right? What kid doesn’t dream of sneaking into Disney World after dark? That's why I was excited to read this when I first picked it up. But honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been so disappointed by a book before. So what went wrong? The answer is simple. It was the execution of the entire novel.

Pearson’s writing is just straight up, no foolin’ witchu, bad. To start with, the writing is really jumpy, especially for the first half of the book .Transitions are horrible, causing the characters to jump from place to place without explanation as to how they got there or how they spontaneously acquired the piece of information that they needed to find at the end of the previous chapter. The dialogue is the same way, especially between Wayne, the Disney Imagineer, and Finn: Conversations ping-pong back and forth, often bringing up things that have nothing to do with the questions being asked, leaving the reader to jump to conclusions or openly curse at the ambiguity of how things came about (I partook in the latter). The characters are flat, and have little, if any, distinguishable personality from one another. The adults have the intelligence of a turtle, which is actually an insult to the turtle. And, to top it all off, there is a serious lack of variety in the characters that show up. Out of the 300 characters that Disney owns, less than ten are mentioned in this novel, and only five or six make an appearance.

So why did I bother to finish it? Believe it or not, this book was saved by it's plot. Despite the writing, I did enjoy the scenes where the main characters are forced to walk through the major rides in the Magic Kingdom (Thunder Railroad, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, etc.) late at night and find clues to solve the Stonecutter’s Quill riddle. And if Pearson did anything right in this book, it was describing every Disney enthusiast’s worst nightmare; going through “It’s a Small World” only to find that the dolls are coming alive to attack you. Creepy little things…I always knew they were plotting something. For that reason alone, I had to finish this book.

THE RATING

3/8 Tentacles

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

If you have heard anything about The Maze Runner, then you’ve probably heard people say that those who liked The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins will probably enjoy this book. After reading it, I have to agree, or agree that those who liked The Hunger Games will AT LEAST find The Maze Runner interesting. Though their plotlines are completely different, they have a similar dystopian feel and a necessity for the kids in the books to survive and escape the situation they’ve been thrown into. However, it’s hard to compare the two beyond that.

The book begins with Thomas waking up in a metal lift, also known as “The Box.” He has no memory of who he is (aside from his name), where he came from, or how he got there. When the doors of the lift open, he is greeted by a bunch of boys who, like him, don’t remember anything about their life before arriving at the Glade, an expanse of land surrounded by metal walls which close every night just before it gets dark. He quickly learns that the Glade rests in the center of a gigantic, continuously changing maze, patrolled at night by vicious cyborg-like slug creatures called Grievers. And…there is no way out.

Days after he arrives The Box makes another delivery, this time delivering the first girl ever to arrive in the Glade. She delivers a spooky message—the end is near—before passing out into a fitful coma. Now Thomas must decipher the reason why he thinks he knows this girl (named Teresa), and if there is a way out of the Maze before things completely fall apart.

As I said before, fans of THG will find the plot of The Maze Runner interesting enough. However, just about every answer to every question you can think of is withheld until the end, and even then there's a ton of questions remaining. I’m guessing that Dashner decided to do this in order to build suspense, which is accomplished, even though it was irritating in some places. Despite this, I found it forgivable because there was enough going on at the moment of the scene to excuse the questions, which is why overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. Dashner is very good at moving his plot along quickly, and filling it with action. At one point Thomas runs out into the Maze at night to save some of his fellow Gladers, and ends up facing the grievers in what I think is one of the coolest survival scenes to recently hit the shelves. There is quite a bit of jargon/invented slang that the boys in this book use, which takes a little while to get used to, but I don’t believe it hurt the story at all. It’s not difficult to figure out that words like, “Shuck-head,” and “Klunker” are curse words, and by giving his characters their own unique slang Dashner has made them more realistic. We all make up our own inside jokes and insults when we’re young, right? Especially as teenagers. I’m assuming that some of the mysteries about the Maze will be answered in book 2, The Scorch Trials (set to be released on October 12, 2010), as the focus of this first installment was really just about escaping.

Final Rating: 6/8 tentacles