Tag: action

YA

Review: Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

crimson bound -rosamund hodgeWhen Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless— straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

Inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, Crimson Bound is an exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption.

3 Drink Me Potions

“‘In all your life, your only choice is the path of needles or the path of pins.'”


There is such a poetic quality of that opening statement in the prologue that is really lost on the reader until a little later in that chapter. Such a strong analogy. The path of pins represents taking the easy way out by just pinning up your problems and letting them hold until they can’t anymore and need to be fixed again. Whereas, taking the path of needles sounds more exhausting. Come on, who has the time to sew up a torn mess every time a problem comes along? But it’s the choice to fix something more permanently, regardless of the pain or effort. And that is what Rachelle’s story in Crimson Bound is all about.

There are things I loved about this book and things that I appreciated. I will differentiate these things for you.

Rachelle
She was such a complex character. She was struggling throughout the story with herself, looking for redemption for what she will ultimately become: an unnatural, wicked creature of the dark Great Forest known as a forestborn.

There were seeds of darkness and black desire in her, no matter how hard she resisted the pull of the Forest and the evil being that reigned in it. She wanted to save the world no matter the risk to herself, taking the path of needles, and that’s what led her to such a detrimental consequence. BUT even with the occasional pleasure of darkness, she never gave in. Never gave up her heart without a fight. She saved human lives with whatever leftover time she had before she completely turned into a heartless, soulless forestborn.

You see? Rachelle is quite possibly one of THE strongest protagonists I have yet to read about. Crimson Bound wasn’t even written in 1st person, but there is such a clear indication through Hodge’s writing of how conflicted she was yet made strong by it.

She quite possibly judged herself the most harshly out of all the humans who knew her, but that also made her push herself harder than anyone else would. And thus, she really did take the path of needles.

“She’d never said the rosary that was to be her penance…Besides, penance was for those who had a hope of heaven, and she wasn’t at all sure that God could hear or find her in this place. But that was all right, wasn’t it? She had known she was risking her soul, but she had gone ahead anyway…She might’ve repented, but she couldn’t quite regret.
This was her home. This, her inheritance.”

Even when things went horribly wrong, and plot twists flew from areas even I didn’t imagine until too late, she put herself last, all else be damned. Or rather, she thought she was damned for all eternity for what she was now, so this was her way of being courageous.

There’s just so much to say about Rachelle that I could go on but it’s best that I don’t or else this would get so long. She wasn’t some simple, fit-into-some-mould of a YA protagonist. She was fierce and strong, yet vulnerable too when it came to the human side of her that she desperately clung to. And that shone through the best when dealing with the people she loved.

Which brings me to…

The love interest and only friend
First, I have to mention, it’s awesome that Hodge made our love interest a guy with no hands. Don’t ask why. You’ll have to figure that out for yourself in the book. But that’s also pretty original and talented on her part for making us root for a guy who honestly? I would not know how I’d feel about someone with silver hands that burn up in the hot sun. But he brought out the side of Rachelle that reminded her that she could still choose to love, even with the dark temptations inside drawing her deeper into the Forest and away from human memories. That is possibly the only reason why I loved this romance.

Here’s where I appreciated Armand, the love interest. He was a pretty confusing person too, with secrets of his own. I liked him, and especially what he was able to do for Rachelle through this love forming between them, but I just didn’t FEEL the hot chemistry between them that I was hoping for. Ah well.

As for the friend, Amelie was amazing for a secondary character. I loved how she also in another way did the same for Rachelle as Armand did. She was an anchor and testament of a human who could love a wicked creature even when no one else trusted Rachelle, not even herself.

The last character I want to touch upon is…

The villain – The not-so-good guy
I can’t really call him that. Maybe call him the potential love triangle that could be. Although Rachelle never loved him, hate and love are pretty strong opposite end of the spectrum feelings. No matter what it was she felt for this guy, it was strong. And normally, as a reader, I can hate the other guy pretty strongly no matter what the protagonist feels.

Oddly enough, not this time. And that speaks volumes. Hodge made him into such a complex character as well. He wasn’t good, that’s for sure, yet I can’t quite bring myself to despise him. He was charming, but snakes can be charming and deadly and pure awful. He wasn’t charming in THAT sense. I think he loved Rachelle in the limited way that he could with the bad decisions he made, and honestly thought he was doing the best for them both in a twisted way.

He did unspeakable horrors and wasn’t repentant. That alone should deter me away from him. But no, at the end, I felt what Rachelle felt for him. Love, hate, and sorrow for what could’ve been.

And this is what separates good writing with brilliant ones.

I just wanted to conclude off this long review with my clarification of what I loved and what I appreciated. I loved Hodge’s extremely complex and well-rounded characters. They weren’t just flat, one-dimensional people who were just good or just bad. It’s not black and white like that, just as it is in reality. I also loved her writing and its storytelling manner. Just look at this excerpt from the beginning.

“This story begins with endless night and infinite forest; with two orphaned children, and two swords made of broken bone.
It has no ended yet.”

But what I only appreciated and thus lowered my rating was – well – the sheer darkness of it. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t dislike it or anything. It made the book gritty and full of character. I just don’t happen to love my stories extremely dark, that’s all. And it was fierce and vicious sometimes, what those characters did to each other, even in the name of sacrifice and love. Unfortunately, my little fluffy heart can’t take all that much of it in such large doses, but I CAN appreciate how well done it was and how it cemented everything together.

All in all, Crimson Bound was an epic tale of good versus evil, with a heroine that isn’t just purely good. She walked a fine line in the gray zone, but it showed that decisions and the choices we make can ultimately decide our fate and which side of that line we may fall on.

Overall Recommendation:
There’s a whole lot that can be said about Crimson Bound. It’s beyond a simple tale of good versus evil. Hodge regales us with characters that are more complex than the average fantasy hero. They may not be strictly good, but the choices made in life can determine whether they can be redeemed. So this story is basically one of redemption and conflict against the darkness, with a brilliantly written protagonist at the centre of it, fighting to maintain her human heart and the ability to love like they do. I would recommend that this be given a shot as Hodge has crafted a very dark and deliciously scary world, but this may not be the best book for those of the light-hearted. I have given you fair warning. Now go and check it out!

YA

Review: Hunter by Mercedes Lackey

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Hunter #1

hunter -mercedes lackeyCenturies ago, the barriers between our world and the Otherworld were slashed open allowing hideous fantastical monsters to wreak havoc; destroying entire cities in their wake. Now, people must live in enclosed communities, behind walls that keep them safe from the evil creatures constantly trying to break in. Only the corps of teen Hunters with lightning reflexes and magical abilities can protect the populace from the daily attacks.

Joyeaux Charmand is a mountain girl from a close knit village who comes to the big city to join the Hunters. Joy thinks she is only there to perform her civic duty and protect the capitol Cits, or civilians, but as cameras follow her every move, she soon learns that the more successful she is in her hunts, the more famous she becomes.

With millions of fans watching her on reality TV, Joy begins to realize that Apex is not all it seems. She is forced to question everything she grew up believing about the legendary Hunters and the very world she lives in. Soon she finds that her fame may be part of a deep conspiracy that threatens to upend the protective structure built to keep dark magic out. The monsters are getting in and it is up to Joy to find out why.

3.5 Drink Me Potions

Thank you Netgalley and Disney Hyperion for this copy in exchange for an honest review

***Hunter comes out on September 1, 2015***

From the start, I could already tell that this was the kind of novel that you either hated or would find oddly interesting.

I couldn’t quite decide for myself which category I was in until a lot later into the book. The first few chapters were more than enough to cause a lot of readers to doubt their ability to continue on with the story. I swear, all that happens is this inner monologue that just continues on and on in our protagonist’s head. She’s explaining kind of what happened to this world that we’ve dropped into, getting us readers acquainted with the terminology and the events leading up to present day. Yet the author chooses to do this in such an odd manner.

How so, you may ask?

Well, let me tell you, dear reader. Our girl Joy is sitting on a train travelling to the great city Apex where she has been dispatched to serve her duty by orders of her Uncle, a great chief of police of sorts. And while she’s on this long, LONG train ride? She’s basically narrating all these things in her head. There is NO dialogue whatsoever for the most part. The odd sentence exchanged with a train steward checking on her maybe, but that’s the first several chapters. It was a little exhausting.

And it wasn’t just some narration. The author would switch over to second-person writing. Like how I’m writing to you reading this right now. It’s like Joy is telling us specifically, as audience/readers, using the word you to explain things. It was just a bit weird, in my opinion. So here is this whole giant monologue (for the most part) taking up our first impression, with a huge information dump on our heads right from the start. And it wasn’t all made clear immediately what the different terminology meant either. It took a while into the story for certain things to make some sort of sense….Talk about the need for patience.

But if that didn’t deter you, then maybe the slow pacing of the plot after she arrives at Apex and reaches Hunter HQ might. Joy is getting used to the area and it’s all fairly new to her, growing up in the Mountains with her Masters in a Monastery setting. Oh, all these references I just randomly dropped into the previous sentence? Well, get used to it. That’s how the story was written too, until you started piecing together her history, with confirmation in Joy’s monologue a little later.

Anyway, it wasn’t all peaches and cream. I think that’s fairly obvious with a lot of other reviews I’ve seen floating around. I was kinda miffed at all the different present day references Lackey used, and her need to change their spellings into something that sounded the same but just wasn’t. For example, vegan became vaygen. Like. What the heck? And champagne into Sham-pane? And she definitely brought in some references to Christians, calling them Christers in the book. If you can’t tell from reading this, I’m shrugging my shoulders at all this. I find it absolutely unnecessary but oh-kay….Whatever floats her boat.

All right. You may now wonder why this rating is still so high? Why not a 2 star?

That….is a mighty good question. I may have found a lot of things odd in the beginning or just annoying, but I couldn’t quite stop myself from finishing. The world was rather intriguing. All these monsters, otherwise known as Othersiders, were well-described, and related to all sorts of religions and mythologies. Even the odd vampire was featured. And the Hunters’ abilities, as well as their Othersider sidekicks called Hounds were purely fascinating. I loved reading all the Hunts that Joy went on, either solo or with her newfound Hunter friends in the big city.

So even though the beginning was mediocre in execution at best, if you stuck around long enough, I think you’d be drawn into the plot. There’s plenty of action battles described, to the point you can picture it as if it were a movie unfolding before your eyes. Not a whole lot of romance highlighted, but there’s some romantic interest around to satisfy romance lovers. And plenty of intrigue into possible conspiracies and why there’s an increase in sightings of Othersiders where there should be none.

I will say this to conclude. Hunter could’ve been written a little better, especially in the first few chapters where hooking readers in are crucial, but it has a ton of potential and stands on its own with originality in world building. The style of writing is less conversational and more descriptive, reminding me of writers in the past like L.M. Montgomery, which is a huge compliment. It sticks out in the YA genre, and I do like the sense of action being highlighted in this way. There are also so many questions left to be answered going into the next novel, but the ending was more than satisfactory, and might I say, ironically the best scene to have concluded it at.

Overall Recommendation:
There were definitely pros and cons to this book, and it’s not a book for everyone. The pacing can be slow at times without the plot progressing hugely if you look at it in the big picture. The beginning was one huge monologue inside Joy’s head that could kill a lot of readers’ interest, and there are minor irritants like using modern day words but re-spelling them to make it look “cool” and “futuristic”. However, if you can get past that, the world building is superb and the action Hunt scenes are written with such detail that it’s like a movie in your head. Plenty of questions are left unanswered, but enough of the central mystery is touched upon that it still satisfies. I don’t recommend this for people who get bored easily, but Hunter is definitely unique in the YA world.

YA

Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: The Lunar Chronicles #2

scarlet -marissa meyerCinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison–even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

4 Drink Me Potions

Scarlet was not a disappointment after the high bar its predecessor, Cinder, set.

Even though the story follows Scarlet Benoit, there are still quite a number of chapters dedicated to Cinder and her predicament after the events of the previous novel. I truly appreciated that as I absolutely ADORE Cinder. That, however, also gives less time for us as readers to follow along with Scarlet and Wolf’s adventures as the book is split between all their different POVs.

First, I’d like to mention that the introduction of Cadet – I mean Captain Thorne was my favourite part. He is an amazing character, fun and laughable to offset the seriousness of Cinder’s attitude. They make a great pair. Friendship goals! No competition for Kai, no worries, but they are probably the best platonic relationship between a male and female I’ve seen in a long time.

Scarlet I couldn’t relate to as much as I did with Cinder. Maybe it was partly due to a diverted focus from just her as we swing back and forth between Cinder and Scarlet’s situations. But I just think that she’s a little too hot-tempered for me. Like, we’re first introduced to her and she’s seen pelting tomatoes at a wall behind the restaurant at which she’s supposed to DELIVER those same tomatoes. I dunno. Red temper for a redhead?

I DID enjoy the mysterious Wolf. I wasn’t sure what exactly he was. Wolf? Man? Both? And I definitely was wondering how he would fit into the overall plot that concerns Queen Levana and her goals for Earth. Let’s just say, I was pleasantly surprised to see how seamlessly Marissa Meyer was able to combine two fairy tale stories together with this dystopian world and its problems. Definitely kept me on the edge of my seat.

Having Scarlet and Cinder’s lives collide was also done so well, especially in the midst of the battle scenes that were more prevalent in this novel. That was probably the part in the story that I kept waiting for. I am fully anticipating how their stories are going to mesh with Rapunzel’s next. Onto Cress!

The only thing about this book that I might complain a little bit about is that it personally didn’t push me to keep on reading as much as Cinder did. That’s not to say that it wasn’t a fast read or wasn’t enjoyable. It just didn’t…excite me as much. It could also be because of my love for Cinder was so much greater. The unfairness of her situation and her personality just made it so hard to not love her and want the best for her.

I could say a whole lot more for this review, but I think it’s come to that point where I have such high expectations for Meyer that it’s rather normal for everyone to hear how amazing this novel was. Whether as a part of the larger series or as a stand-alone novel, Scarlet pieces together more of the crazy adventures that await our fairy tale characters, as well as keeps the excitement and originality at a high level. She’s just one amazing author that writes beautiful stories. Enough said.

Overall Recommendation:
Scarlet was exactly as how I’d imagined it. Another great fairy tale story, this time centred on Little Red Riding Hood, with fun and realistic characters set in a creatively crafted dystopian world. I don’t know how Meyer does it. She takes these age-old people and spins them into something new and exciting, while staying true to certain essentials of the fairy tales. A definite must read! The suspense is ratcheting up.