Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara

Wish, wish I were back at the house. Or running. Anywhere but here, feeling like this. And that's just it. This is how it is. Always. To pay attention to things. People. It's too easy to fail other people. And the good-byes. You never have the time you think.

I picked up Lovely, Dark and Deep after hearing an interview with the author, Amy McNamara, on the podcast "Authors are ROCKSTARS!" On the podcast, McNamara shared about the loss that inspired her book and how different it was to move from poetry to writing Young Adult Fiction. I was immediately interested and went out to buy the book a few days later.

And of course, when I saw that gorgeous cover, there was no talking me out of it.

When Wren wakes up after the car crash that killed her boyfriend, she knows immediately that her entire life has shattered before her eyes. She retreats inside herself--the only way she knows how to cope--and pulls away from everyone. Unable to sleep soundly and prone to frequent anxiety attacks, Wren deems herself ruined. How can she ever recover from the pain inside her?

She moves in with her father in order to get away from it all and ends up meeting Cal, a sweet guy who has troubles of his own, yet can't help reaching out to her in the midst of it. She begins to have feelings for him and starts to feel happy again, but she still can't manage to shake that feeling of being trapped--like she's still stuck upside down in her seatbelt. Wren wants to learn how to deal with what has happened to her and learn to deal with other people again without hurting them. She wants to be normal again, but maybe there's no going back to normal. Maybe she has changed for good.

Written more beautifully than probably any other book I've ever read, Lovely, Dark and Deep is stunning in every detail. I couldn't help but shake my head and wish that more authors would sprinkle poetry throughout their work in the same manner as McNamara.

Everything about this book is beautiful. The title is very apt, as it perfectly fits the contents of this novel. McNamara used her own grief and her own struggle to deal with the loss of a close friend to feed the emotions portrayed within Wren's story and she does it so perfectly one can hardly remember that this is a work of fiction. I very much hope to see more YA Fiction from her in the future.

I honestly can't sing the praises of Lovely, Dark and Deep enough to do it justice. My suggestion?: Pick it up immediately!

Rating: ~ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~

"The thing about grief is that you have to let yourself feel it. Even the worst parts. Especially the worst parts. Pass through it. Let it pass through you. It's our strength--your humanity-- your openness to your feelings. Even when you think you might not come through."

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

"Don't look so uncomfortable. I have learned that there is a flaw in your philosophy. If we trust no one, we cannot survive."

[Click here to see my review of book 1: The Thief and book 2: The Queen of Attolia.]

After reading the first two books in this series, I could help eagerly awaiting my chance to read the third. Megan Whalen Turner has artfully managed to create a fantasy that is wholly believable on every front. Everything about it is simply well-done and I cannot commend the author enough at having done her job so thoroughly and making it all so utterly authentic.

The King of Attolia is seen primarily from the point of view of Costis, a young soldier who has moved himself high up in the Queen's Guard through both his talent and his utter devotion to the Queen. So, of course, he is overcome with outrage at her marriage to the Eddisian Thief who stole her away and then forced her to marry him. He unthinkingly takes it one step further when he decks the new king out of anger and nearly ends up being put to death by the very Queen he would give his heart and soul for.

The new king spares Costis and goes one step further in naming him as the lieutenant of his personal guard. Though shown mercy, the boy seethes under the attention of the king and believes this all to be an elaborate ploy of the weak king in doling out his frustration upon someone who can't fight back.  However, as Costis spends more time around the king, he begins to see that Euginedes isn't quite so inept as he had formerly suspected, and maybe he has the makings of a king within him after all.

Once again, Megan Whalen Turner has blown me away in both her storytelling and her beautifully rounded out characters. I never seem to know what to expect in these books and yet each comes through in such a way that I wonder how I didn't see it coming in the first place.

Eugenides never fails to draw the reader's compassion or steal one's heart and Costis has also become the sort of character you can't help cheering for the whole way, even when you know he's the one in the wrong. Attolia made quite the impression on me as well, becoming even more of a person in this novel than the last; not so much an impressive figurehead as a strong and very wounded woman.

Turner's storytelling is once again superb and I cannot praise this series enough. It is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. It just keeps getting better and better

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
"They think I lied on your instructions. That Teleus and I killed the assassins in the garden and let you take the credit." 
"Oh, that," said the king with a shrug. "That isn't your honor, Costis. That's the public perception of your honor. It has nothing to do with anything important, except perhaps for manipulating fools who mistake honor for its bright, shiny trappings. You can always change the perception of fools." 

Dovey Coe by Frances O'Roark Dowell

My name is Dovey Coe and I reckon it don't matter if you like me or not. I'm here to lay the record straight, to let you know them folks saying I done a terrible thing are liars. I aim to prove it, too. I hated Parnell Caraway as much as the next person, but I didn't kill him.


When eleven-year-old Dovey Coe is found holding a knife and standing over the body of Parnell Caraway, the very man she has adamantly claimed to hate for years, she is charged with his murder. But Dovey is innocent of those charges. When she was knocked out, Parnell was standing over her, not the other way around. She has hated Parnell for as long as she can remember, but that doesn't mean she killed him.

Now Dovey is being defended by a lawyer who has never worked a case before and having to deal with the distaste of the entire community where she was raised. She knows she didn't do it, but who is going to believe her? And if she didn't kill Parnell, who did?

I read Dovey Coe for the first time in late elementary school and immediately loved it. Going back to it now, I see why it was such a favorite. Dovey is a strong character who is known for not being afraid to speak her mind. She's protective of her brother, who is deaf and therefore treated cautiously by the rest of the community, and she isn't afraid to bloody her knuckles to defend him.

One of the things I really appreciate about this book upon rereading it was the dialect in which the entire narrative is written. Dovey's accent bleeds through the pages as if she were speaking it aloud to reader. This minor touch goes the extra mile in pulling one into the story and immersing them in it.

This was definitely worth it and I would wholeheartedly suggest it to preteens and young teenagers especially--particularly those girls who need a strong role model their age that they can look up to.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

"How'd you get in here?" I asked Huck, who'd gone over and laid next to Tom, little whimpers coming out of his mouth. I looked about the room, wondering how long I'd been knocked out.
That's when I seen Parnell.
He was lying on the floor as stiff as Tom, one of them metal canisters a few feet away from his head. I crawled over to him and passed my hand over his mouth. There weren't a breath left in him.
"Oh, Lord," I said out loud. "Oh, my Lord."

Paper Towns by John Green

Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one.

I first read Paper Towns last year. I had decided to read John Green's books after already having been a fan of the vlogbrothers for a while. Looking for Alaska had been my first attempt, and while I wasn't much a fan of that particular book, I had recognized his style of writing to be particularly beautiful and something of which I wanted to read more. Paper Towns immediately became a favorite and retains that distinction even now. In fact, my second reading of this fabulous story only cemented that fact.

Quentin Jacobson is your average teenage boy. He's not popular or unpopular, but somewhere in the middle with his two best friends and the other kids he's friends with in the band. Plus he has a huge crush on the most popular girl in school and his next door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman.

So when Margo sticks her head in his window and requests his help on a "mission" of hers, it doesn't take all that much coaxing before he's driving her all around Orlando, aiding her in all manner of odd pranks. She's known for this sort of thing, for being something akin to a force of nature.

Quentin can't help but hope that this late night gallivant means things will change between them, but she doesn't show up at school the next day, or the day after that. No one seems to know where she has gone. This in itself surprises no one, it isn't the first time Margo has run off for a couple of days. But when a couple of days turns into a couple of weeks, Quentin can't help getting worried.

Just like the previous times she's run off, Margo has left clues to her whereabouts. Now it's up to Quentin to decipher them and find her before it's too late . . . if it isn't already too late.

A brilliant work through and through, Paper Towns is the story of Quentin's journey to find Margo and discover himself along the way. It's about friendship and loyalty, but it's mostly about the way we perceive others and how dangerous it is to see others as what you think they ought to be instead of who they are.

Once again, John Green has undeniably proved that he can create memorable characters and a compelling story, all while continuing to wow his readers with his mastery of the English language and his ability to weave it into something beautiful.

Rating: ~ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~

There are so many people. It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined.

Girl in a Cage by Jane Yolen & Robert J. Harris

"If my father's kingdom is a cage, then my cage will be a kingdom," I declare. "It is not I who am locked in, but you who are locked out."

The first book I decided to crack open for Reread November was Girl in a Cage. I can't remember exactly how old I was when I bought this book at a school book fair, but I believe I was in late elementary school (proved true by the fact that the few "bad" words in the book, such as bastard and damn, have been scratched out by my preadolescent self).

I was quite a sucker for historical fiction in my late elementary and middle school years, particularly when it came to European history, so this was right up my alley then. Now, as you can probably tell, I've expanded my reading a bit, though I still stick mostly to YA fiction, but I still carry that fondness for stories that can be woven around truth, giving the reader a new perspective on events that once took place. There's something truly fascinating about being able to give a story that extra substance through the sharing of true events.

In Girl in a Cage, we are introduced to Marjorie, daughter to Robert the Bruce and eleven year-old princess of Scotland. When Majorie first learned that she was to become a princess, she could think only of the splendor of living in a castle and being arrayed in finery. Now she sits in a cage in the middle of an English town, exposed to the elements and the jeers of the townspeople, visited almost daily by King Edward Longshanks, whose sole purpose in life seems to be tormenting her. A few months ago, she would have never seen this coming.

England, who has long been in control of Scotland, wages battle against Robert the Bruce and his followers in Scotland. Marjorie is a hostage in this war, as are many of the female members of her family, including the new queen of Scotland, Marjorie's stepmother.

In her captivity, Marjorie must leave childhood behind and seek the strength and bravery that her father has taught her to possess. She must draw on her belief in who she is and the love of her country to preserve her, even as the English king seeks to test her loyalty to the father she so dearly loves. Marjorie clings to her hope of rescue, her hope of seeing her father and her beloved country once more. But the will of Longshanks has taken the life of more than one person she holds dear, will it claim hers as well?

I really enjoyed getting the chance to revisit a book I so enjoyed in my childhood and was glad to see I hadn't been deceived in its virtue. It's quite a good book and it isn't just sentimentality that leads me to that conclusion. Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris do a lovely job at filling the story with convincing details, touching moments, and creating a princess worthy of the title that inspires the reader through every page, even in her faults.

This book has a lot to teach young teens and children about bravery and the act of loyalty without being preachy or uninteresting. It's an enthralling story with a good deal of merit. I would especially suggest it for those children just entering the YA world and need something of substance, but whose contents aren't overly mature for their understanding. Yet I would still venture to suggest it to older teens and adults, because there's always plenty for us to learn, particularly when it comes to courage and loyalty.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ 

"Oh, feeling has nothing to do with it, Marjorie. It is not a feeling hot or cold, dry or wet. Brave is how you behave."
"Then I did not behave bravely, Father," I admitted. "it was Elizabeth who--"
He stopped me with a finger on his lips. "Elizabeth told how brave you were," he said.
I yawned. "I just did what I was told."
"Sometimes that is all that courage is," he said. "Just doing what you know you have to do."

Reread November

*Edit (11/11/12): So I got four books into this challenged and realized I wasn't going to be able to do it. There are too many books I'm dying to read just sitting on my shelf and I'm not interested enough in these rereads to read them as quickly as I would have liked to. So instead, I'm going to start rereading one book every month from now on. You'll see more of this in the future, but that's my compromise. This way I don't feel like a complete idiot for proposing this idea. Well, I'd better go read The King of Attolia now . . . 

I literally have thirty-nine books overflowing a specifically designated shelf and continuing atop my barely used television set in my room right now that I either own or have checked out of the library. These are all books that I haven't yet read and am eagerly awaiting to read.

Regardless of that fact, and the fact that many of those library books will have to be returned within the month, I've decided to declare this month "Reread November."

In other words, I've been itching to reread some old (and not so old) favorites of mine, but I've been so busy reading all my new ones that they've been neglected and it's about time I cracked open their spines once again.

So I've decided to set aside ten books of my choice that I have already read and would like to read again during the month of November. Hopefully, these won't be the only books I read this month (because I still have quite a lot to read if I want to reach 100 books this year), but I'd like to finish these first. I figured that setting a time aside to reread them would encourage me to do just that.

These are my choices:
1. Or Give Me Death by Ann Rinaldi
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
4. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
5. Dovey Coe by Frances O'Roark Dowell
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
7. Emma by Jane Austen
8. Paper Towns by John Green
9. Girl in a Cage by Jane Yolen & Robert J. Harris
10. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I won't read them in any particular order, but I'm more than excited about getting started on these.

Are you rereading any books this month? If so, I'd love to hear which ones you chose and why.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

"You watch yourself. One day you're gonna pick a hole in the sky and the universe is gonna fall right through. Then we'll all be in a fix."

I've been interested in reading Beautiful Creatures ever since I saw Margaret Stohl at LeakyCon, thought she was pretty cool, and started following her on Twitter. The last action further encouraged me to read the book after constantly being bombarded by news about the book and its movie adaptation that will be hitting theaters in February.

So I finally got around to picking the book up at the library and started reading it as soon as I got the chance. It was wonderful. A rich and well-written story, Beautiful Creatures is more than worthy of all the attention it's getting right about now. In fact, I think it deserves a little more.

Nearly every night, Ethan Wate has the same nightmare. The particulars may be different, but each one involves him doing everything in his power to save a girl he deeply loves and each ends with her slipping through his fingers as his heart shatters. He does his best to convince himself that these dreams are of no consequence, even as he wakes up covered in mud or dripping from water and with the smell of rosemary and lemons in his nostrils. When the girl from his dreams ends up being in his class on the first day of school, though, Ethan is no longer able to fool himself.

Lena Duchanne (pronounced doo-cain) immediately attracts the attention of the entire town of Gatlin. The small, southern town is wary of outsiders and those who are different. Not only does Lena look and act different than any of the other girls in Jackson High School, but strange things keep happening around her and it's not long before it is discovered that she's also the niece of Macon Ravenwood, the town's local shut-in.

But Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her. She's different and that's intoxicating to him, but it's more than that. They share a connection that no one, not even she, can explain and Ethan soon finds himself willing to put everything on the line to protect and love this strange girl.

However, things are more complicated than they seem. A heavy cloud hangs over Lena and it takes more than a little coaxing before he learns why. Lena is a Caster (generally considered a sort of witch, though most Casters hate being called such) and her sixteenth birthday is rapidly approaching. For most Casters, their sixteenth birthday is the day they choose whether to be a Dark or Light Caster, but in the Duchanne/Ravenwood family, a curse takes the choice out of their hands. They don't get to choose. A path is decided for them.

Lena, fearful of what she may become, does her best to push Ethan away, but he might be just what she needs to keep her from losing everything she is. One way or another, each new day brings her birthday closer and Ethan is determined to do whatever it takes to keep Lena from slipping through his fingers.

With masterful dialogue and memorable characters, Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia spin an excellent tale filled with love, magic, fear, and darkness. The pages are rich with wonderful storytelling and keeps the reader hooked from beginning to end and longing for more even after one has reached the final page. Each character was well-rounded and interesting, each scene executed with precision and finesse.

This book was excellent and I cannot wait to read it's three successors. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read that's dark and beautiful all at once, filled with fantasy and eerie delight. It was just spooky enough to keep me enthralled without discouraging my interest. I can't wait to see what these lovely ladies come up with next.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I don't know what I was expecting, but if I had learned anything about Lena by now, it was to expect the unexpected and proceed with caution.