Review: Sad Monsters

Monsters are (or were) people too. They have the same problems as the rest of us, from trouble finding a job to the inability to maintain a healthy relationship to being unhappy with their bodies. They just want a little love - is that too much to ask?!

Frank Lesser's Sad Monsters takes a look at all these sad sacks and gives them a chance to speak. We're privy to Godzilla's diary (by far the funniest piece in the book), which is as existential as any goth teenager's journal. We sit in on the trial of Carl Denham, who lured King Kong to Manhattan, and who must now face the Son of Kong.We get to see the inner workings of Hell, where the demons act quite like a bunch of bankers. And we get to go along on a date with Medusa and see the entire staff of the Olive Garden get frozen in stone.

I laughed a lot while reading Sad Monsters, but I'll admit it, the joke gets a little old after a while. Put the book down and come back later - it'll be funny again.

My one problem with the book is going to mark me as a huge geek, but I'm ok with that. In "Groom of Frankenstein," where Dr. Frankenstein is discussing his upcoming nuptials to his monster, he keeps referring to the monster as Frankenstein. Except, that's not the monster's name, it's his own. The monster is just Frankenstein's monster. There, I've said it. I feel better now.

3/5 stars

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Review: Steampunk!

I'm a big fan of steampunk. I'm not sure when I came across it, or how, but I love the visual aesthetic of it. However I found it, I'm sure I found images well before I found stories. And from the visuals, it's a bit hard to understand the full breadth of the genre.

Steampunk stories cover a wide array of topics and themes. Some are more historical, and some take place in a future that seems strange. Some are born out of Victorian London, and others call the wild west home (while still others take place on space ships or foreign worlds). There is so much that can be considered steampunk that an anthology of steampunk stories can sometimes feel disjointed. *Cough* Steampunk *Cough*

Steampunk!, edited by Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, unfortunately suffers from this, but at least it gets off to one hell of a start. The first half or so of the book is filled with very strong stories that each take a stab at their own version of steampunk. Cory Doctorow's "Clockwork Fagin," about a bunch of kids in an orphanage, was by far my favorite of the group. I also really loved Cassandra Clare's "Some Fortunate Future Day," Delia Sherman's "The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor," and Libba Bray's "The Last Ride of the Glory Girls" (which I'm pretty sure was influenced by my beloved Firefly).

Some of the stories seemed not-so-steampunk, but I still enjoyed them. Kelly Link's "The Summer People" was my favorite of this bunch, owing very little to the steampunk genre apart from some mechanical toys that "the summer people" create.

This anthology has been published as a YA book (because it's from children's publisher Candlewick), but it's pretty perfect for anyone who likes steampunk. The only thing that would mark it YA is that many of the main characters are teens, but that shouldn't hamper an adult from reading along.

3/5 stars

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Review: Every You, Every Me

My coworker handed me a copy of Every You, Every Me by David Levithan last week, and just flipping through it pulled me in. I put aside the book I was reading and jumped right in. The book is unusual and captivating from the very first page.

Something has happened to Evan's best friend Ariel - we the readers aren't let in on what exactly has happened to her or where she might be now - and every day seems to be a struggle for Evan to put her behind him. Now that she's gone, he's left with a lot of acquaintances. The only real friend he has is Ariel's boyfriend, Jack, and the two are left clinging to their memories of the one girl they both loved. Out of the blue, Evan starts receiving photos of himself and Ariel and these other kids he has never seen. Is Ariel leaving them for him? Jack tells him it's impossible (Ariel is dead gone and not coming back), but the mystery of the photos drives the story forward.

The book contains full color prints of these photographs, but the most compelling part of the novel is the typesetting. The book reads like a long letter that Evan is writing to Ariel, with words or whole sentences struck out (but still legible) like he can't wrap his mind around the correct words to write. (You can get an idea of what I'm talking about in the preview here.) It reminded me of one of my favorite novels, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (or really anything by Danielewski), which plays with formatting as much as it plays with story. When this technique is done right (as it is here and in House of Leaves), the story is much stronger for it, and it provides the reader with a mechanism to compel the story forward. I'm not saying I want to see every author try this, because it takes a deft hand to do it right, but when I find someone who does it justice, I'm happy no matter where the story goes.

That being said, I did have some issues with this book. **HERE BE SPOILERS** For the entire length of the book, we're left wondering if Ariel is dead or alive. Did she commit suicide or just attempt it? Is she in a coma or in a locked hospital ward or did she just run away? Evan and Jack had a part in whatever happened - the book kind of becomes an I Know What You Did Last Summer thing - but it's hard to reconcile what their part might have been if we don't know what happened. And you know what? That was all fine to me. The mystery drove the story forward. And then. The big deus ex machina comes in the form of a girl who informs them that she was really Ariel's best friend all along, and that she blames them for her now being institutionalized. Really? Secret best friends? Especially a secret best friend who is angry that her friend is still alive because the girl's public best friends saved her? Sorry, not buying it. And I'm not quite so sure why Evan feels so guilty about saving Ariel's life or why he thinks her parents hate him so much. I mean, I know how teens can get all in-their-heads about stuff, but I had a hard time reconciling Evan's feelings with the conclusion. **THERE BE SPOILERS**

Comments about the ending aside, I really loved this book. From the title (taken from a Placebo song) to the  formatting to the photos to the mystery to the general teen angst, I was completely there and in it. This book is definitely worth a look, if for nothing else than to experience the journey of it.

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3/5 stars (the ending knocked it down a bit for me)

Review: Ruby Red

I'm guessing time travel is the new vampire or zombie, because there is a whole spat of new time-defying stories sitting on my bedside table. Case in point: Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier.

Originally published in German, Gier's story (the first in a trilogy)follows teen Gwen, who lives in the attic of her grandmother's posh London home. Her cousin Charlotte, just one day younger, has been trained all her life for time travel, having been born on the prophesied day. While the whole family waits eagerly for Charlotte to make her "initiation journey," Gwen finds herself slipping out of time - clearly the prophesy got something wrong. The Guardians, the secret society build around this time traveling gene, look down upon Gwen even as they take her under their care, and she follows fellow traveler Gideon as he tried to orient her to the business of time travel (and search for the missing chronograph along the way).

The story is compelling and enjoyable, but I'm not scratching at the walls as I wait for the next one to come out. Some of the characters are much more vivid than others, and unfortunately the narrator Gwen is not one of them. That didn't keep me from wanting to know more about the story, though. The whole deal with the prophesy (there are twelve travelers, each with an assigned precious stone and musical note) makes things more complicated than they need to be, but hopefully more of that will be explained in the following books. I do, however, really like the concept of a gene for time travel that gets passed along through the family lines.

I've read a few translated books lately, and one thing I can say about Ruby Red is that it didn't sound translated. Translator Anthea Bell did a wonderful job keeping the language flowing, very important for a book aimed at teens.

3/5 stars

Review: The Girl Who Was On Fire

It probably took me ten or so pages to absolutely fall in love with the Hunger Games a couple of years ago. I devoured the first book, then held off on reading Catching Fire because I had heard it ended with a cliffhanger, and I don't have a good track record with unfinished series. But the pull was too great, and I dove into book 2 well before Mockingjay came out. And you better believe book 3 was waiting on my doorstep the day it came out.

I routinely try to push the series on readers who come into the bookstore, even one older woman, who was going on vacation and seemed to like everything else I suggested for her. When parents say it sounds too scary or gory (I have a whole rant on this, believe me), I assure them that the themes of the book are much larger than gore, and that I think the whole series (really, the third book, but you can't get there without the previous two) will be taught in schools one day. Most of them don't believe me and choose books for their kids that are "safe." But I digress.

I have been a big fan of the types of books that look at pop culture through a more academic lens (The Simpsons and Philosophy was the textbook for a class I taught in college about our favorite yellow family and American society). So when I heard that there would be a Hunger Games equivalent, I couldn't wait to read it.

The Girl Who Was on Fire is not another Steig Larsson book, but it is a dive into the world of Panem and the Hunger Games. The assorted essays from authors of all sorts and edited by Leah Wilson touch on the topics of reality TV, politics, the science behind the muttations, why the Capitol should have realized that Katniss might not be the best person to act as Tribute, and a variety of others.

My two favorite essays are "Bent, Shattered, and Mended" by Blythe Woolston and "Team Katniss" by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Woolston examines the instances of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) throughout the series and shows how the events in Panem affected the characters in different ways. Barnes creatively turns our society's willingness to turn books like this into battles between the love interests (Team Gale vs Team Peeta) into a look at why Katniss' pick of a partner has less to do with who she loves and more to do with her discovering who she really is.

Some of the book is repetitive, but that's always true of compilations in which the authors don't necessarily know what the others are writing about. If you were left unhappy by Mockingjay like so many people were (I was not among that group), this book might help resolve some of your issues by helping you see why certain events actually made sense (the PTSD chapter was particularly helpful in this, I feel).

3/5 Stars