#thatwhichweare

Finally! I’ve been reading The Alienist for about two weeks now, which is like, twelve times as long as I usually spend on a book. Of course that’s not factoring in the time I spend at work or doing housework. However, despite the long haul, it kept me invested from start to finish.

The first thing I liked about it was that it was like a combination of Sherlock Holmes (who is one of the best fictional characters of all time) and Criminal Minds. Dr. Laszlo Kreizler is apparently based on real person, a Dr. David Abrahamsen, who studied criminal psychology in the way the Kreizler does in The Alienist. The book is set in the late 1800’s at a time when new ideas about the human psyche were disdained as practical methods for law enforcement or investigation. Therefore, journalist John Schuyler Moore, alienist Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, aspiring detective Sara Howard, and Detective Sergeants Marcus and Lucius Isaacson are forced to undertake their work in secret, with only minimal contact with Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (yes, that Theodore Roosevelt! It is historical fiction, after all). It was wonderful to see the psychology behind it all come alive, especially because it’s easy for writers to fall into a trap of just making up stuff about their character in order to shock or delight their readers. Carr obviously spent a lot of time crafting his killer, down to his childhood and his nervous tics and his demeanor, according to what research says he would be like.

Sara was another excellent part of this book. The first woman hired by the New York City Police Department, she worked as a secretary for Roosevelt and became involved with Moore’s case because Kreizler wanted a woman’s perspective. The best thing about her was her tough, no-nonsense presence around the men. There’s a great scene where the investigators have received a note from the killer containing some delicate language, and when one of the Isaacsons expresses distaste at repeating it in front of a lady she puts him in his place by pulling out a gun and threatening to shoot him. She also threw Moore in the Hudson River for proposing marriage to her after his prior engagement ended suddenly. She shows a lot of spirit and pulls her weight in the investigation, even at times getting ahead of Kreizler, which to me is a refreshing change of pace from female characters who are really just there for show.

Although the pacing was a little slow, I think Carr made up for it with the slow-burn anticipation and the developing relationships between characters. I liked that Kreizler got off on the wrong track sometimes, that they all ran into obstacles, and that they didn’t let it stop them. After all, they basically started with nothing, no information about the killer, and tracked him down in the end.

Finally, I loved that Kreizler didn’t get all the answers. His great failure was, of course, being unable to protect his servants, which was devastating, but even at the end when they finally cornered the killer and Kreizler is questioning him, the murderer is shot before he can answer Kreizler’s most important question, snatching away the most tantalizing information of the whole case.

After a much-needed trip through some other genres, I’ve returned to the YA section of my TBR. I could’ve chosen a better starting place than Dividing Eden. Not that it’s a terrible book, it’s just that Joelle Charbonneau has not impressed me thus far. This book is definitely better than the Testing trilogy, but as far as YA lit goes I still think it has miles to go before it’s Hall of Fame worthy.  

On the plus side, I loved the setting. YA fantasy tends to be sort of a one-note deal, but Dividing Eden actually had some great worldbuilding. I was so intrigued by the combination of magic and technology in a fantasy setting. Not something you see very often. It definitely made me want to explore the world more and learn how it worked. I think Charbonneau did a great job of balancing the magic and electricity; they both had a place in her world but they didn’t clash with one another. That’s important because it’s very easy to put magic in a world because it’s cool, even if it doesn’t serve a purpose.

I thought the characters were mostly well done. My only hangup was that Andreus seemed to do a complete switch as soon as the Trials started. In the beginning of the book he was the enthusiastic scholar, trying to hide his asthma and help his kingdom. When he found out the Trials were to take place, he abandoned his pact with Carys awfully quickly, which is a dick move after everything Carys did for him.

In trademark Charbonneau fashion, no plot point is to be trusted. There were some twists at the end, but I wasn’t as mad about them as I was with the Testing books. They were sort of obvious but at least once the plot twisted it stayed there.

I have one complaint that I also had with the Testing books, which is that Carys is caught in a love triangle that appears to have nothing to do with the story. Like it’s literally just there to create extra tension. The guys are so bland that I can’t even remember their names. They aren’t significant until the last maybe 30 pages, either. Just like magic, if you’re going to put characters in a story, they better serve a purpose beyond looking pretty.

I love me a good fairy tale retelling, so I went in with high expectations. There were a couple of things I liked. Main character Snow has an anger issue, which I found a pleasant change from the easy stereotype of an ice-wielding princess with a heart colder than her snow. I liked that she was so volatile, it made her a much more real character, which is important in a fantasy-based setting.

I also like the Robbers, a collection of rebel women who steal people’s faces (and everything else they can get their hands on, including magic). I adored the idea of magic-wielding, glamorous robber girls who will ruthlessly rob you blind but defend each other to their last breath. That’s the kind of female friendship I want to see more of in my readings.

On to the things I didn’t like, and unfortunately there are more of them than the things I did. First of all, like most books in which the protagonist starts off in a mental hospital, it takes too damn long for Snow to make her escape. Like I get it, everyone thinks she’s crazy, she thinks she’s crazy, she’s not happy there, etc. Move on, please. I think I would have actually preferred if the book started with Snow’s escape from the hospital and then experienced flashbacks.

Second, and I will preface this by saying I might have a slight prejudice against romances, but I still didn’t appreciate that not only does Snow have a massive crush on Bale, her friend who was also committed to the insane asylum for burning down his parents’ house, but she also runs around Algid (the ice kingdom and her homeland) getting involved with pretty much every cute guy she comes across. So there’s a girl with three love interests, and they sort of fade in and out depending on who she happens to be with at the time. Kai kisses her out of nowhere, and then she runs off and starts messing around with Jagger, feeling guilty the whole time because she really wants to be with Bale, and I just gotta say, that’s too many guys to be juggling around while she’s trying to save her kingdom. No wonder it took her so long to figure out how to use her magic.

I mocked a book a little while ago for making up words, and I’m going to do it here. If you as an author have to make up words to get your point across, you’re doing something wrong. I’ll give Daniel Jose Older a pass because he was trying to be funny, but this did not strike me as a comedy, so making up a word does not come across as good writing. For example:

“Blood was already Rorschaching around Margot, staining the snow redder than red. There was so much blood. Too much” (343).

Lastly, I thought Stealing Snow was trying to do too many things. There are a lot of random twists, including a non-magical twin sister for Snow, and by the end I didn’t even care anymore. I wasn’t even surprised when the Enforcer turned out to be Bale and I wasn’t moved when he died in front of Snow. I’d had enough. All I wanted was for it to be over.

Like many Romantic poets, Keats is intricate and challenging in ways that modern writing is not. It’s difficult to read a lot all at once, but I love how it helps me appreciate the beauty of the English language. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes.

From a letter to Benjamin Bailey, 22 November 1817:

“I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of the Imagination—What the Imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth—whether it existed before or not—for I have the same Idea of all our Passions as of Love they are all in their sublime, creative of essential Beauty—In a Word, you may know my favorite Speculation by my first Book and the little song I sent in my last—which is a representation from the fancy of the probably mode of operating in these Matters—The Imagination may be compared to Adam’s dream—he awoke and found it truth.”

From Endymion:

“And now, as deep into the wood as we

Might mark a lynx’s eye, there glimmer’d light

Fair faces and a rush of garments white,

Plainer and plainer showing, till at last

Into the widest alley they all past,

Making directly for the woodland altar.

O kindly muse! let not my weak tongue falter

In telling of this goodly company,

Of their old piety, and of their glee:

But let a portion of ethereal dew

Fall on my head, and presently unmew

My soul; that I may dare, in wayfaring,

To stammer where old Chaucer used to sing.

Source:

Teenagers with superpowers are a common trend in young adult literature. Red Queen, Frostblood, Everless, Three Dark Crowns, etcetera. And those are just the ones I’ve read recently. Archenemies is a little different from the books I’ve been reading because it’s based on a futuristic version of the world we’re living in. And also X-men, except that instead of mutants they’re called prodigies, and instead of being oppressed they run the world.

I loved how creative Meyer was coming up with her characters’ superpowers. There are the typical ones of flight, super strength, elementals, invisibility, and so on. But neither of the main characters are typical in any way. Nova, alias Nightmare/Insomnia, puts people to sleep with skin-to-skin contact, and doesn’t need to sleep herself, in addition to being a complete badass. Adrian, alias Sketch/The Sentinel, can draw things into existence, which  has got to be one of the most creative things I've ever read. Especially since Adrian uses his powers to give himself more powers. I guess there's always a guy going, “If I had a wish I'd wish for three more wishes.”

My favorite thing about this book is that the moral compass is so ambiguous. Nova Artino acquired her superpower when she witnessed her family being slaughtered by a gang member who was extorting her father. Since then, she has neither slept nor stopped plotting the downfall of the Renegade Council, whom she blames for negligence in protecting her and her family. For her entire adolescence, she is branded a villain along with the other Anarchists (followers of her uncle Alec Artino, alias Ace Anarchy). As she infiltrates the Renegade organization she starts to realize that her blind prejudice is severe, but she is still exposed to the ever-present issue of institutional evil. So the whole time, the reader is left wondering who the real villains are.

Meyer also raises an interesting issue of what happens when you control the recording of history. The Anarchists brought the world to its knees for oppressing prodigies, tearing down governments and infrastructure and leaving Nova’s home, Gatlon City, in the control of the gangs. Eventually the Renegades wrested power from the Anarchists and fought to establish order, but non-prodigy humans still lived in fear. Nova considers the Renegades their own kind of villain, but obviously Adrian comes from the opposite side of the fence. Even as he goes rogue in defiance of their principles in order to discover who killed his mother.

A couple things I didn't appreciate were the amount of aliases everyone had. Each superhero or supervillain has one, and then there were nicknames and Nova and Adrian each had two aliases (Nova to infiltrate the Renegades and Adrian to escape them, ironically). Sometimes peripheral characters that were really filler characters were addressed by both names or just their superhero name and it got difficult to track after a while.

Another thing I could have done without is the cliched teen romance, wondering whether he notices me and then the internal monologue scolding about how it shouldn't matter and I've got a job to do. I did appreciate that Nova makes the hard choice every time. I've been waiting for a heroine that does what she came to do regardless of the cute boy with secrets of his own (gag me with that cliche).

When I bought this book the third in the trilogy had just been published and was getting a lot of publicity, and, not being a monster, I had to read the beginning of the series before I can read the end. Going in, I had my reservations. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, YA fantasy is a crapshoot. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn’t.

Happily, An Ember in the Ashes turned out to be a solid pick. I loved the fantasy element of this particular YA fantasy, based as it is on ancient Rome and in Eastern lore, including supernatural beings like wraiths and efrits. I’ve never seen efrits in another YA book, which isn’t to say they don’t exist, but I liked encountering unusual creatures, even if they play a minor role in the story. I also loved the Scholar and Tribesmen cultures as they appeared here. You may have guessed, I have a soft spot for communities based around reading and lore, people who tell stories and keep history, books that hold knowledge and the traditions that protect them. It hurts to see the Scholars enslaved by the brutal Martials. There will always be people for whom beauty and art is irrelevant, but it doesn’t make those things any less important.

I liked the Tribesmen because I can also see the life of a nomad being incredibly fulfilling. Your whole life is one long adventure, moving from place to place, meeting people, seeing natural wonders, overcoming whatever comes your way. The characters are also colorful and vibrant, which made them interesting to read. I was never quite sure what they’d be doing next, which is wonderfully refreshing. Kind of gave it an Arabian Nights vibe.

Moving on to the major players here. I loved Laia. Finally we have a spy who is totally unprepared for her role. She has no weapons training. No experience. Not a good liar. No directions. In fact, Laia’s pretty much a coward. She actually fails at her mission entirely. The only thing keeping her alive inside Blackcliff is her love for her lost brother, her guilt for betraying him, and a couple of helpful slaves. Oh, and I suppose her chance meetings with Elias, our token hunk. He does his part in not getting her killed as well.

As much as I loved Laia, I don’t know that Elias is a worthy counterpart for her. Sure, he has the skills to make up for her lack of ability. But he’s also very much the traditional teenage-girl’s-wet-dream archetype—brooding, tormented, attractive, and independent. The kind of broken man that every woman thinks she can fix, and the kind of heartbreaker that makes her want to try. He and Laia are both well-written and developed as characters, so it’s not as if he doesn’t have a full backstory, I just wish that he had the same kind of distinctive traits that Laia had.

The only thing that truly bothered me about An Ember in the Ashes is the love triangles. It seemed obvious to me that Laia and Elias would be the ones to end up together, so I didn’t see the point of including spare love interests for both of them. I mean, Helene is fantastic. Totally kick-ass and I’m all here for it. (I was not pleased, however, that a lot of Helene’s character development involved repeated references to how fellow student Marcus wanted to rape her. Yeah, she’s attractive and the only woman at Blackcliff, but there are other ways to emphasize that.) Keenan was excluded from most of the scenes, and therefore felt like an afterthought, so the main action is really between Laia, Elias, and Helene. But the rest of the book was good enough that it didn’t matter too much.

Alright. Look here. I'm all for a good plot twist. By all means, throw something at me I don't see coming. Lord knows I've read enough books that I'm not often surprised. It's nice when I am. But there comes a time where there are too many plot twists.

There are too many plot twists in Graduation Day. A couple of them were good. There one from Independent Study where we find out that Dr. Barnes is controlling a faction if the resistance is honestly clever. It adds another layer to Cia's ever-growing list of untrustworthy people. When we enter the third book everyone is poised to act, but no one knows how or when with so many double agents. Cia especially has a lot at stake with her brother enmeshed in the corrupt resistance. But then we get into the tricky parts.

Cia decides to trust Tomas, because of course. His was the one betrayal I most expected to happen and I feel a little cheated that I was set up from the very beginning to believe Tomas was a bad guy, and then everyone else turned out to be rotten. She also decides to trust Will, despite the fact that Will tried to kill her and Tomas multiple times. That's three plot twists right there if anyone's keeping track. Or two and a lack of twist. Then she trusts Raffe and Stacia, only one of whom turns out to be a good decision. Enzo fails a loyalty test and gets himself blown up, but then reveals it was an accident and he was just trying to help. That's six. At this point I started losing interest and I just wanted the book to be over.