Author: cherylmahoney

I'm a book review blogger and writer. I have published four novels, The Wanderers; The Storyteller and Her Sisters; and The People the Fairies Forget; and The Lioness and the Spellspinners. All can be found on Amazon as an ebook and paperback. In my day job, I'm a Marketing Specialist. Find me on Twitter (@MarvelousTales) and GoodReads (MarvelousTales).

Continuing the Climb with Emily of New Moon

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Reviews, Young Adult1 Comment

Emily ClimbsFollowing on my review of Emily of New Moon, I’m looking at the next book in the trilogy today, continuing the story of Emily Byrd Starr and her dreams of being an author.

Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery gives us Emily’s high school years–even though she begins the book age 13, she felt about 16 to me throughout.  This volume focuses mostly on her writing and her family, as she starts to sell a few stories and poems, and spars with various relatives who cannot understand the things that Emily girl gets up to.  There are also a few ups and downs with best friend Ilse, who continues her wild flouting of propriety.

Male friends Teddy and Perry fade out for large sections of the book, which is a bit of a shame, as their scenes are some of the most compelling.  First, there’s a scene when Emily becomes accidentally locked in the empty church with “Mad Mr. Morrison” and Teddy comes to the rescue.  Later, all four friends take refuge in an abandoned house to escape a snowstorm, where Emily and Teddy share a suddenly soul-revealing glance; under the inspiration of new love, Emily spends the night dreaming out her great novel.  And Perry contributes one of the funniest scenes, narrating a disastrous dinner party he attended.

As you can probably already tell, we’ve left childhood, for the most part, behind by this second book, and ventured with Emily into more adult territory.  The scene with Mad Mr. Morrison is particularly striking for a number of reasons.  As I mentioned in my review of the first book, there’s a darker strain in Emily, and never more so than here.  Morrison is a generally harmless lunatic, endlessly seeking his lost love who died many years before.  He mistakes Emily for his lost bride, and the scene when he searches through the darkened church for her is truly terrifying.  Even though Montgomery mentions that when he finds girls he likes to stroke their hair (in other words–basically harmless), I don’t quite believe that, as the entire tone is that she’s in genuine danger.

Of course he doesn’t catch her, of course she escapes–it’s Montgomery, after all, and if she ever went to the really dark places I wouldn’t enjoy her so much.  But the Emily books go just far enough to make me feel like they’re set in a real world, where there are real problems–and I like that.  There’s also a beautiful conclusion to the scene, telling the reader how Morrison sees himself, the hero seeking his beloved, which brings him away from being a villain and turns him into a truly tragic figure shaped by lost love.

Emily also uses her second sight twice in this book, in more pronounced ways than she did in the first.  I always found these incidents a little baffling because the book is clearly not a fantasy, yet it has these moments…which somehow don’t read as though they’re meant to be fantasy.  Then I read Montgomery’s journal and found out she believed in prophetic dreams and, I would guess, other psychic phenomena (to a point!)

At the end of the book, we see Emily at a crossroads, making a decision about where her life will go next.  I understand her ultimate choice…but in a way I wish she had chosen otherwise, as I would have loved to see where her life would go down that path.  I also wonder if Emily’s decision is, to a certain extent, Montgomery’s efforts to satisfy herself about her path through life, when she never really had the opportunity to go the opposite direction.  I love reading Montgomery’s books from the perspective of knowing the contents of her journals too!

I was originally planning a combined review for both of the remaining books in the trilogy…but then I had more to say than I expected!  So come back next week for a review of Book Three, Emily’s Quest…

Other reviews:
Happy Endings
Becky’s Book Reviews
Lines from the Page
Bookshelves of Doom
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Emily Climbs

Cinderella, As Told By the Kitchen Boy

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews9 Comments

File:Happilyneverafter1 large.gifDo you remember that Last Unicorn review a while back?  Well, when I watched the movie, the DVD also featured a trailer for Happily N’ever After—and for a rarity, a DVD trailer actually inspired me to watch something!  HNA had actually been in my Netflix queue for quite a long while, but finally seeing the trailer convinced me to actually order the disk…and it was as fun as the trailer promised.

An animated movie from Lionsgate, it reminds me a bit of Once Upon a Time mashed up with Tangled.  In a magic land where every fairy tale is playing out, Cinderella’s wicked stepmother gets control of the magic, and of the scales that control the happy or sad endings.  Pretty soon everything is going awry for Ella, who hopes that the Prince can save the day for her.  Unfortunately, what she doesn’t realize is that the Prince is unbelievably dense (and constantly consults a book to tell him the proper action to take).  Fortunately, Ella also has a friend named Rick, dishwasher and all-around flunky at the palace—and quite reminiscent of Eugene in Tangled.

This is not a deep movie, but it’s a lot of fun, from the cute Rick to the incredibly funny prince.  There are also representatives from several fairy tales, like the seven dwarfs.  I always enjoy twists on fairy tales, especially when ordinary people get to be heroic.  Rick is a great every-man hero, and the prince is hysterically funny in his earnest efforts (and failures) to do the heroic thing.

I also love that Rick is a long-time friend of Ella, who has been harboring a long-time crush–rather than having her love interest be a guy she danced with once.  The romance on Ella’s side comes together rather neatly, but I’m willing to assume she always had feelings for Rick, and she just hadn’t quite put it together.

One piece of advice, if you get the DVD, watch the alternate ending–it ties things up a bit more, and I think I liked it better than the actual ending.

https://i0.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/03/Happily_N%27Ever_After_2_-_Snow_White_Another_Bite_at_the_Apple_Coverart.pngAfter enjoying Happily N’Ever After, I went on to the sequel.  Unfortunately, as often happens with direct-to-video animated sequels, it doesn’t live up to the original–both in depth and in how downhill the animation goes.  Almost entirely new characters, this one focuses on Snow White, an irresponsible teenager who has to learn about kindness and true beauty when her father’s horrible fiancee starts creating trouble.  This has a nice message, which comes across as simplistic in the extreme.  It probably would be fine for a younger audience, but it didn’t strike me as likely to transcend and be fun for adults too.

Part of the issue is that the movie takes on a different tone, trying to bring in more modernity to the fairy tale world.  I was enjoying the idea of Snow White as a party-loving, make-up-using teenager for about two minutes…until she uses a magic cell phone to call her girlfriends, who answer with “Holla!”  And then continue saying it every third sentence…

On the plus side, there’s one really nice moment with Snow’s love interest, Sir Peter, who seems to be a genuinely compassionate, intelligent, interesting character (except that he looks disconcertingly like Rick!)  He actually rejects Snow White at a party when he realizes how shallow she is, and asks a different girl to dance.  Cartoons talk about beauty-within all the time, while making sure their kind-hearted heroines are also beautiful and have gorgeous dresses.  It was good to see a hero who really took a stand on the subject.

If you’re a fairy tale fan, the first Happily N’Ever After is a fun and clever movie.  The second one, you can probably give a pass!

Blog Hop: Becoming a Reader

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations9 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Were you a born bookworm or did somebody get you into the habit of reading?

Is “both” an option?  I feel like a born bookworm–I’ve loved books for as long as I can remember.  I don’t know that that was just ingrained, though…it probably has a lot to do with my parents reading to me.  The first book I ever “read” was The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree, which I memorized before I could actually read.  It wasn’t until I looked at the book again as an adult that I realized the vocal inflections my parents always put in weren’t at all indicated in the text (and trust me, there’s a big difference between “yes, they dare” and “Yes–they DARE!”)

I also went to the library every week as a kid, and still do.  I live in the same city I grew up in, and I still have my first library card.  I don’t know how old I was when I got it, but even though it was in my name, it originally had my mom’s signature–which has pretty much faded past legibility now.  I go to a different library now…but I scan the same card.  I keep waiting for a librarian to comment on how old it is.  They never do!

If you’re here, you’re probably a bookworm. 🙂  So how did you get into reading?

A Moonlight Heroine from L. M. Montgomery

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Young Adult2 Comments

Emily of New MoonIt’s been far too long since I read Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery–ten years, I think, since I took the trilogy with me on a school trip to England.  In fact, I found a customs form tucked into my book!

Emily is a lovely and beautiful tale of an imaginative girl who dreams of being a writer–of climbing the Alpine Path to success.  She lives with relatives at New Moon farm, and runs about with her devoted friends, Ilse, Teddy and Perry.

The book sounds at a glance like it’s an opposite number to Anne of Green Gables, and there are certainly overlaps–kind yet not quite understanding guardians, the beautiful expanses of nature in Prince Edward Island, the bosom friends, flights of imagination and inevitable scrapes.  But from the very beginning, when Emily learns in devastating fashion that her beloved father is dying, there’s a tragic strain here that gives a different color to the entire trilogy.

The difference is visually clear, looking at Emily’s midnight hair versus Anne’s fiery red locks, but it goes much deeper than that.  Emily seems to feel things more deeply than Anne (despite all her drama)–both joys and sorrows.

The book also touches (with extreme discretion, of course!) on more mature subjects.  There’s Mr. Carpenter, Emily’s irascible teacher, who drinks on weekends because he feels his life has been a failure.  And there’s Ilse’s mother, who gossip has it left her husband and https://marveloustales.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4998&action=editbaby to run off with a sea captain.  Anyone who thinks Montgomery only wrote gauzy fairy tales with no shadows is wrong.

However–don’t come to the conclusion that the book is dark or morbid or depressing!  It’s still Montgomery–and it’s still Prince Edward Island–and there’s still more beauty than sadness.  Emily has her trials and her sorrows but she is also surrounded by love and buoyed up by her dreams, her joy in the beauties of nature and her passion for writing.  And while it’s been some time, I don’t remember being strongly conscious of the darker undertones when I read this at a younger age.

It’s fascinating to read this after all my reading of Montgomery’s journal.  There are strong autobiographical strands, especially in Emily’s writing goals and experiences.  I get a fun little moment of recognition every time I spot something from her real life–like when Emily’s aunt describes her blank verse poem as “very blank” (LMM’s father said the same once) or when Emily mentions a compact with a friend to never say good-bye (LMM had such an agreement with her beloved cousin, Frede).

You know I’m always going to recommend Montgomery books.  🙂  Emily of New Moon is a beautiful novel with an appealing heroine–and for adult readers, more depth and maturity than you might expect.  Those elements become even stronger in the next two books…so stay tuned for next week’s review of Emily Climbs and Emily’s Quest.

Other reviews:
Reading the End
Books4Fun
Bookshelves of Doom
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Emily of New Moon

Thirty-Seven Plays in Ninety-Seven Minutes

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews4 Comments

Reduced ShakespeareI’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).  I’ve seen it live twice, and the DVD more times than I can tell you.  I was introduced to this brilliant production by my quite brilliant high school Shakespeare teacher–and it’s a lot of fun when you can then quote the production in Shakespeare class and the teacher gets the joke too!

The players of the Reduced Shakespeare Company declare that they “descend among [us] on a mission from God and the literary muse to spread the holy word of the Bard to the masses.” And they do–with high hilarity besides.  They do not spread literary, scholarly, or particularly deep or analytical Shakespeare to the masses, but an audience member with no familiarity with Shakespeare will leave with a working knowledge of the plot of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, a rougher idea of Othello, Macbeth, and Titus Andronicus, some exposure to Shakespeare’s language, and—most important I’d say—a clear and lasting impression that Shakespeare can be interesting and fun!

Complete Works presents all thirty-seven plays in ninety-seven minutes (or so their tagline says).  Three actors play every part, and they do a credible impression of making it all up as they go along.  Props fly, lines are spouted accurately or in parody, the audience is invited to participate (as Ophelia’s psyche), and all in all, Shakespeare becomes a hysterically funny, high-impact sport.  I could give you a long review about pros and cons and ups and downs…but honestly, it’s just bloody funny, and the best review may simply be to tell you some of the hilarious moments.

The Comedies wind up condensed down into one play, while the Histories are turned into a football match, tossing the crown about the stage.  More attention is given to the tragedies–because it turned out they were funnier.  Titus Andronicus appears as a cooking show.  Macbeth is performed with extreme rolling of Rs.  Romeo and Juliet features a lot of Shakespeare’s lines, though also a surprising amount of pantomimed-vomit.  After a brief confusion involving plastic boats and the correct meaning of “moor,” Othello is presented in rap (“About a punk named Iago, who made himself a menace, ’cause he didn’t like Othello, the Moor of Venice.”)

Act Two is entirely devoted to Hamlet, going almost scene-by-scene.  They cut out Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and the pirates, but otherwise you get the complete plot, and there are even a few more serious moments.  There’s an amazing performance of the “What a piece of work is man” speech, and the final deaths are affecting.  Although, of course, there’s also a sock puppet play-within-the-play, a literal sock playing the ghostly king, and the aforementioned audience participation as Ophelia’s psyche.  Among other things…

Reduced Shakespeare’s Complete Works provides an evening of great fun for anyone.  Those who know Shakespeare well will pick up on a number of relatively subtle jokes and those who don’t know Shakespeare will leave knowing a good deal more than they did before, and with plenty of encouragement to seek out even more.  Either way, no one who watches the Complete Works will ever read Shakespeare in quite the same way again.  See it live or get the DVD–it’s not to be missed!

Actors’ website: http://www.reducedshakespeare.com/