In Brief

Someone just bothered to point out that Grave Mercy, by Robin LaFevers, is about a nun assassin. And I'm like, um, yeah...that's my style.

Also, FYI, two books I have recently given up on:

Cloaked, by Alex Flinn (unremarkable beginnings)

A Breath of Eyre, by Eve Marie Mont (an inane take on Jane Eyre that leaves one wondering why you wouldn't just read the original)

Also, I have to link to this because he references CS Lewis and GK Chesterton, so I love him even more: a New York Times interview with Neil Gaiman.

Insurgent, by Veronica Roth

Veronica Roth's second novel, Insurgent, came out yesterday. And if you don't know that already, you and I live in very different worlds. Divergent was my favorite book of last year, so I had very high expectations. To be honest, I had high expectations of the last one. I'd followed Veronica Roth on her blog for months, and brazenly assumed two things before its release. First, that she and I would make very good friends, and second, that her book would be amazing. I need hardly mention that we are not good friends (she would probably find me annoying), but her book not only failed to disappoint, it was leaps and bounds better than I could have expected. Insurgent is just as good.

So good, in fact, that it almost defies description. I must not be the only one who feels this way, either, because most of the reviews and blurbs I've read actually saying almost nothing about what happens in the book. Without giving away too much, here's my feeble attempt:

Insurgent begins barely a breath after the final scene in Divergent. After destroying the simulation program that caused the Dauntless to brutally attack Abnegation, Tris and Four take refuge with the Amity, along with Marcus, Peter, Caleb, and a handful of Abnegation refugees. But they can only stay as long as they can abide by Amity's code of behavior, and after killing one of her best friends and watching her parents get shot to death, Tris has no aptitude for a world of happiness and harmony. The Erudite aren't particularly interested in honoring Amity's stance as a neutral faction anyway. Before long, they are on the run again. Finding the other Dauntless who have refused to join the Erudite and Dauntless traitors, Tris and Four face the grim possibility that if no faction is left to help them, they may have no other option but to join the factionless.

This is more or less the premise of the book, but there's a lot more to it than just Tris and Four running around the streets of dystopian Chicago. The first book introduces a love story that I can't help but call precious even though the characters are both fierce and fearless. The second book puts that love to the test. Four has always pushed Tris to build her courage, to know her own strength. He has never let her back down or give in to fear. But when her courage turns daredevil, he knows the difference. Their relationship is a reminder that we should be the kinds of people who expect the best from those we love, forgiving weakness but not enabling it. We should be those sorts of people for others, and we should look for those sorts of people for ourselves.

It's hard to talk about Tris without talking about her strength, but Tris isn't interesting because she is strong. She's interesting because she becomes strong, and her strength is more than just her bravery and battle skills. If this book teaches us anything, it's that there's virtue in striving for virtue. In a sense, you might think the book is saying quite the opposite - these corrupt factions, after all, are the result of a group of people deciding to pursue a single virtue exclusive of all others. But Tris is Divergent, and we see the world through her eyes. She will always be striving toward more than one virtue, always leaning toward a better way, always finding what is right and what is hurtful in each of the factions. On the one hand, this makes her self-critical to the point of self-destruction. On the other hand, it also makes her a heroine.

When I was a teenager, I was single-minded about bettering myself - whether it be in school or just generally as a human being. I was very aware of different virtues that I had and that I didn't have, as though they were clearly demarcated factions within myself. It's been a long time since I've felt that way, and I know that in a sense I'm healthier for the change. But in another sense, I have lost something, too. I have not forgotten, but I have certainly ignored the fact that I can change for the better - and that I should. I am nothing like Tris, and my world is radically different than hers. But she is a reminder of what I have been and what I ought to be.

Guess what I'm (re)reading.

"Are you saying that if you had known this before the Choosing Ceremony, you wouldn't have chosen Dauntless?" Eric snaps. "Because if that's the case, you should get out now. If you are really one of us, it won't matter to you that you might fail. And if it does, you are a coward."


Eric pushes the door to the dormitory open.


"You chose us," he says. "Now we have to choose you."


from Divergent, by Veronica Roth

Pandemonium, by Lauren Oliver

Lauren Oliver's Pandemonium follows hard on the heels of its prequel, Delirium. For those who haven't read the first book, read no further. Previous post bemoaning spoilers finds itself twitching slightly when sequels require mention of a previous book's finale. So please, do yourself a favor and read the first before you consider the second.

In fact, do yourself a favor and wait to read the first till the whole series is done. Because you will not be satisfied with Pandemonium's conclusion. It requires more, and still more. The end of the book is so quaking with the need for more, in fact, that it's hard to write about the rest of it without mentioning the book's final moments. But we will try.

Lena has escaped over the fence of her home in Portland, Maine. She meant to escape with Alex, the one who first taught her about the Wilds outside of the only world she knows. The one who first showed her that even if love is a disease, the deliria is worth it. But he was wounded, left behind to the fire, the guns, to death. And so she has shut her heart off from her old life and any memories that might linger. After days of running, she is found half dead by Raven, an Invalid who has been leading a group of uncureds in the Wilds, moving from homestead to homestead just to survive.

Lena becomes one of them whether she wants to or not, and hardens, growing more and more like Raven and the other fierce survivors on the far side of the wall. They join the Resistance, and Lena finds herself faced with the daunting task of living among the cureds, pretending to be one of them, following the dictates of the Resistance without question. It is not the life she was looking for when she crossed to the other side, but it is the only one left to her. She crossed for love, but love has been lost.

Maybe.

The first third of this book is slow. Painfully slow, though that may have been my general exhaustion toward dystopia in general and series in particular. Then all of a sudden, just over a third of the way through, everything gets kicked up a notch and you're on the edge of your seat with curiosity and tension and a foreboding that tells you precisely what's going on even though you really, really don't want it to be true. This isn't remarkably descriptive, but let's just say there are explosions and sickness and fire and hidden codes and aliases and kidnapping and torture and secrets whispered in the dark. Lena hardens and then unhardens and hardens again, and you feel for her the whole way through.

That doesn't change the fact that when I closed this book I made a half-hearted vow never to begin a series again before the entire thing has been released. It had only been a few months since I read Delirium, but I had still forgotten much. Most importantly, I'd forgotten the love I had for the characters, and that's something very hard to revive en media res. The slowness of the first part was probably due in large measure to the fact that I had forgotten to care. It is my fault, of course, but it certainly didn't help Lena much.

The next book, Requiem, isn't due out till February 2013, but you can add it to your watchlist now. The title, at least, gives us some assurance that the trilogy will lend us a measure of closure, despite the suggested mourning that might entail. Perhaps it would be a good idea to keep the first two close by for early on in February, so that we can reread them prior to a release so very long in coming.

Regarding a thing I hate.

I was reading in bed last night. The book was the first in a current series, and the thought occurred to me that maybe it was a loosely connected series, that maybe (hopefully?) the first book would actually contain some measure of conclusion. There were also some very good peripheral characters, and I thought that perhaps the next book would be about one of them. Not that I was tired of the protagonist, but it was all part of my hope that her story might have some measure of conclusion in the final pages. I am (have you noticed?) weary of series.

So I hopped on Goodreads to take the briefest look at the preliminary synopsis of book two, and I just happened to take the briefest look at the first reader comment under the title, and wham. I now know that two very important, very interesting, and very main characters die in this book. I. Hate. Spoilers.

I hate spoilers so much that I didn't even read the whole flap description on this book before beginning it, and then when I glanced at the flap about a third of the way through, was upset that it revealed things about the second two thirds of the book which hadn't even begun to be foreshadowed in the first. I. Hate. Spoilers.

Last night I even dreamed about the end of the book. In my dreams I invented a wholly new character of far greater narrative import than the two apparently doomed characters and made sure that he lived and was the hero. As I woke up, the comforting thought hung with me through a few minutes of fog that at least he hadn't died. Obviously it was a bit disappointing to realize my sleep had invented him.

You might notice that I do not reveal much about plot in my book reviews at all. That might be frustrating to you. That might seem almost counterintuitive for a book review. But you see...I. HATE. SPOILERS.


End of rant.

Books I currently have checked out from the library.

I won books!!!

First of all, I want to say how much I love Figment. I don't actually write much there (it's a website for writers), but they offer amazing writing exercises, competitions, and book news, as well as just being a positive community for budding authors everywhere. They recently began posting some things to (my favorite) Pinterest, so of course that makes me love them all the more. Last month they featured a fantastic competition involving Pinterest and book covers, which I absolutely jumped on - not because I hoped to win (I never win), but because I am an avid pinner (check out my beautiful boards. no really, they're beautiful). There were about 50 book covers pinned in all, which actually isn't much (more Figs should be on Pinterest!!), but there are some fabulous ones on there. And guess what. Can you guess? No??

I won!!!

Okay, so that's actually in the subject line. But the awesome thing is that the prize is books. Four books, in fact, from Hyperion. Thank you, Hyperion! Thank you, Figment! Thank you, Pinterest!

Now you want to know which books they are. They came in the mail today and were waiting between the heavy door and the screen door at the front of my house when the thought occurred to me "perhaps my prize arrived," and I checked. These are the books I won:

When I'm through line editing one manuscript and content editing another and reading The Book of the Dun Cow for my book club, I'll start reading through these. Perhaps you'll see a review or two on here in the future. If you've read one of them already and have any thoughts, please share. I'm curious to know your thoughts. And who knows. Perhaps I'll feature a giveaway of my own one of these days. (mwhahaha)