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).

Guest Post Invitation

On By cherylmahoneyIn RuminationsLeave a comment

As regular readers know, I’m planning a trip to London and Paris (!) this September.  Between preparing, traveling, and catching up when I return, not to mention managing the usual busyness of life, I expect to have some challenges finding enough blogging time!  But I hate to lose my flow of regular posts, so…I have an invitation for writers out there.

Would anyone be interested in writing a guest post?  You can review a book (YA and/or fantasy preferred but not at all required), or write about an aspect of writing or reading.  And of course you can link back to your own blog if you have one.  I read the blogs of a lot of people who read mine, and I’d love to help more of you find each other.  🙂

If you’d like to do a guest post, send me an email at cherylmahoney42@gmail.com letting me know what you’d like to write about.  And if you’re ever having a busy time and would like someone to write a guest post for your blog, I’d be happy to help…only, not in the next couple of months!

Abandoning the Abandon Trilogy

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult1 Comment

I almost never stop partway through a book.  But I got 65 pages into Underworld by Meg Cabot, and realized I was so irritated that there was no real point in going on.  I’ve never reviewed a book I didn’t finish, but…I review when I have a reaction, and I had a reaction to the first 65 pages of Underworld.  So you can view the following as venting, or as commentary on romance and female protagonists in YA fiction.  Take your pick.

Underworld is the recently-released sequel to Abandon, with one more book still to come.  The trilogy is a modern-day retelling of the Hades and Persephone story.  In the last book (spoiler alert), we met Pierce, who had a near-death experience, met John the Lord of the Underworld, and came back to the living world with John following her, intent on making her his consort.  There’s also a nasty group of Furies chasing her, and at the end of Abandon, John takes the still-living Pierce to the Underworld so that the Furies won’t kill her…which would send her to the Underworld.  It seems kind of like burning your belongings so that they won’t be stolen, but…all right, Cabot’s trying to follow the myth.  Fine.

I enjoyed the last book (read my review), though I thought Pierce was sadly lacking in depth, and I wanted to believe John was a brooding hero with a good heart, even though he hadn’t shown much evidence of the good heart part.  But all in all, I was interested in the sequel, even if my expectations weren’t high.  Low as they were, they weren’t met.

The book opens with a dream sequence (which seems like a silly place to start, for one thing).  Pierce dreams that John is drowning, and as he’s swept away, she comes to the realization that she really, deeply loves him.  Since books are often about the developing of feelings between characters, this seems like a strange place to open a book.  Also, having your character experience an epiphany moment in a dream sequence–I don’t know, it feels like cheating.

You’d kind of expect (I would, at least), that this kind of epiphany would have an impact when Pierce wakes up.  But not so much.  There’s plenty of opportunity for it to immediately have an effect, since she wakes up with John next to her in bed (shirtless, something very much dwelled upon).  Apparently he wasn’t there when she fell asleep; I don’t remember precisely how the last book ended.  Pierce doesn’t mention her epiphany, and there follows a very fragmented conversation about their relationship and their future.

Pierce cannot seem to figure out what she’s feeling.  It’s all, I love him but I don’t want to be here but I kinda want to be here but what about my mother but I don’t want to lose him but he’s also kind of pushy but maybe I shouldn’t say so and oh, he gave me a bird, that makes up for everything but then he didn’t tell me if I eat the food I’ll be trapped here and oops, I hurt his feelings, I’m a horrible person.

That’s basically a summary.  And sure, I suppose she’s meant to be conflicted, but it didn’t feel like a conflicted character.  It felt like we were skimming along on very shallow emotions which were never pursued, and changed so often that I was getting dizzy.

But the big problem–the really BIG problem, which you might be catching from my summary already–is the dynamic between John and Pierce.  It’s scary.  I mean, it’s making Edward and Bella look healthy by comparison, and that’s hard to do.

John is nowhere demonstrating to me that he has that good heart I wanted to believe in through the last book.  In fact, he comes off as manipulative, controlling and emotionally abusive.  He directly says that he only gets “wild” when he’s trying to protect her, which sets all my alarms going about an abusive boyfriend.

John pulled Pierce out of her life, took her away from all her friends and family, put her in his castle alone and locked all the doors so she won’t wander around…to protect her.  That is SO creepy.  He doesn’t give Pierce any real choice about all of this, doesn’t treat her with any respect, or like she has any right to make decisions about her own life.  He actually justifies locking her into the castle, because she might foolishly decide to venture out and put herself at risk.

And the scariest part is–I don’t think he’s supposed to be the villain.  I really think he’s supposed to be the romantic hero and all of this is well-meant.

CREEPY.

I know Cabot is tied into a tricky storyline from the original myth, but this didn’t have to be this bad.  I’m reminded of Robin McKinley’s Beauty.  The Beauty and the Beast story is similar, in terms of the Beast keeping Beauty in the castle, but I love McKinley’s Beast.  They have a lovely, sweet romance.  In a weird way, maybe it’s because the Beast never claims to be protecting Beauty.  He’s keeping her in the castle and it’s all above-board and honest, and it doesn’t have this emotional manipulation going on.

The dynamic in Underworld gets even more disturbing.  I find it most alarming that Pierce keeps blaming herself when John gets upset.  She tries to mention the whole thing about him in bed with her and maybe they should set some boundaries, and he’s deeply offended–because obviously he was only there because she had a nightmare and he was trying to comfort her, and why didn’t she figure that out?  And they can talk about boundaries, but it’s kind of pointless because they’re going to be together for eternity.

Then when they have breakfast, Pierce misremembers the Persephone myth, eats a pile of waffles figuring she won’t be trapped unless she eats a pomegranate, and then finds out any food ties her to the Underworld.  Granted, she was an idiot and should have checked on something like that.  But he also should have made sure she knew what she was doing, and “I thought you knew” is an incredibly lame excuse.  When they fight about it, he storms out after misinterpreting everything she says and she ends up berating herself for hurting him.  Um…what?

This is the second time I’ve seen a Cabot heroine (they don’t deserve the term–female protagonist, let’s say) fight with her boyfriend and then decide she was wrong–when she was RIGHT.  I don’t mind flawed protagonists, or characters who need to grow, but I can’t escape the feeling that Pierce and John aren’t going to grow at all, because they’re supposed to be fine the way they are.

On the plus side (sort of), 65 pages of Pierce made me profoundly grateful for Alanna the Lioness and Princess Cimorene, for Valancy and Symone and McKinley’s Beauty, to name just a few of the so much better heroines out there.  And, for that matter, 65 pages of John made me grateful for George Cooper, King Mendanbar, Barney Snaith, Titus Oates and McKinley’s Beast.

This is why I stopped on Page 65.  By that point I wanted to throw something (maybe the book) at Pierce, and there are too many better books out there to waste time getting frustrated by a dysfunctional YA romance.  And if someone else finished it and knows that the relationship or the characters vastly improve–please, I’d love to find out I’m wrong here!

Author’s Site: http://www.megcabot.com/

Other reviews:
Reading with ABC
Dark Faerie Tales
The Page Sage
I’m a Book Shark
Dazzling Reads
Hippies, Beauty and Books, Oh My
And lots more…tell me about yours!

Going Postal Group Read, Week Three

On By cherylmahoneyIn Summer in Discworld8 Comments

It’s Week Three of the Going Postal Group Read!  We’re past the halfway point now.  Here’s the discussion for the next quarter of the book:

1) So far we’ve talked about characters and settings.  What are your thoughts on either the plot or the romance?  Anything surprising, or anything you particularly enjoy?

I do enjoy the mere fact that Pratchett has a plot.  Some comedy writers rely only on the humpr and have novels that are basically just strings of jokes.  I like that Going Postal has a compelling plot driving it forward, centered on the restoration of the Post Office, the conspiracy and business competition of the Clacks, and of course Moist’s character development.  The romance is an interesting aspect of that.  He’s lived his whole life showing people only the outside.  I love that when he starts to fall for a girl, it’s because of what’s behind her outside, stern exterior.  “Outside exterior” is redundant, but I trust you know what I mean!

2) Pratchett has used a number of ideas throughout the book as satirical commentary on our society—golem rights, pin collecting, collective responsibility, business corruption…  What have you found the most interesting?

The Golem rights and the business corruption are probably the most obvious satires.  I was most intrigued, however, by Stanley and the pin collectors.  On the face of it, collecting pins is ridiculous, with all his fascination in precisely how they’re made and what year they’re from and so on.  But on the other hand, how many collectable items have value beyond what we put into them?  With all due respect to cute china figurines, for example, they don’t have any actual use.  And even things that may be useful in some capacity end up endowed with far more value because collectors decided they’re valuable.  On the other hand, is that genuine value?  I think to a certain extent it is–and at other times, as with Stanley’s pins, it can be taken to an extent that’s ridiculous!

3) And of course, share your favorite quotes and moments from this section of Going Postal!

The headlines screamed at [Moist] as soon as he saw the paper.  He almost screamed back.

This section featured Mr. Groat’s trip to the hospital, leading to some very funny remarks from the examining doctor.

“His trousers were the subject of a controlled detonation after one of his socks exploded.  We’re not sure why.”

“Oh, and do take his wig, will you?  We tried putting it in a cupboard, but it got out.”

As usual, leave links to reviews in the comments! 🙂

Exploring Space and Philosophy

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction4 Comments

As part of my ongoing quest to finish more partially-read series, I decided to tackle C. S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy.  I read Out of the Silent Planet upwards of eight years ago, I think I read part of Perelandra, and then I never finished.  Since the first one had gone blurry, I decided I’d better reread it, and go from there.

The story centers on Ransom, a scholar who wakes up from a kidnapping to find himself on a spaceship bound for Mars.  He eventually works out that the two men who captured him intend to hand him over as a sacrifice to the Martians.  When they land, Ransom succeeds in escaping his captors.  When he actually meets the people of Mars (or Malacandra, as they call it), he finds them kinder and wiser than he expected, while almost strangely innocent of evil and content with their lives.

While the plot sounds like a sci fi adventure (and it is), the trilogy is largely concerned with philosophy and theology.  Ransom learns that Malacandra is governed by a kind of spirit, the Oyarsa.  Earth is meant to have a guiding spirit as well, but ours turned evil long ago, giving rise to the host of problems on Earth that are unknown on Malacandra.

The second book, Perelandra, sends Ransom to Venus (which the natives call Perelandra).  Here we see a world where Adam and Eve haven’t left the Garden of Eden yet.  Ransom meets this world’s Eve, and engages in a struggle with a devil character who has arrived to tempt Eve to eat the apple–metaphorically speaking.

The third book, That Hideous Strength, moves the struggle between good and evil to Earth.  Ransom is still a significant character, but the book has an ensemble cast of characters who become mixed up with an Institute intent on reshaping society in a horrible fashion.

I enjoyed the first two books in the trilogy quite a bit, and then struggled with the third.  The first two remind me of Burroughs books. though with less action and more philosophy.  The main reason for that is the landscapes and the creatures.  Lewis describes the strange worlds of Mars and Venus extensively.  The surface of Mars is uninhabitable, and all life exists in deep chasms.  There are three co-existing intelligent species, all extremely unique in features and in culture.  Venus is almost entirely covered in liquid, and most “land” is actually floating islands which move with the waves, rising up in hills and dropping down into valleys and changing every moment.  I was fascinated by the worlds, and the philosophy was interesting, if a little lengthy at times.

The third book is set on Earth, so there isn’t a new landscape to explore.  More troublingly, the tone changed.  That Hideous Strength reminded me too much of Kafka in The Trial.  The reader and the characters frequently have no idea what’s going on, no one will give a straight answer to anything, and there’s a lot of stumbling about in confusion.  Many of the characters felt more like caricatures, somehow less human and relatable than the non-human characters of the first two books.  There were also bits of Ransom’s philosophy I didn’t agree with at all–let’s just say Lewis probably wasn’t a feminist.

The third book wasn’t all bad.  It was slow and confusing for the first two-thirds, but picked up and got clearer in the end.  There’s also a fascinating and (I thought) under-developed concept about the Pendragon, England’s guardian through time, and the waking of Merlin.

Overall, I’d have to say it was a great first two books, and then the third feels more distanced from the first two, and, for me, not nearly as good.  I know that’s not a universal opinion, though, so take it as a sign of my particular taste.

It was worth reading to the end of the series, though, and not only because it’s been niggling at me as unfinished business for over eight years!

Other reviews:
Palantir Blog
Tides and Turnings
Unabridged Chick
Tell me about yours!

Saturday Snapshot: Random London

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot25 Comments

I’ve had London on my mind quite a bit lately, probably because I’m going there in September!  I’ve been loving all the Paris photos that have been turning up in Saturday Snapshot this month, but I thought I’d represent the other side of the Channel today.  I have lots of photos from my last trip, and I could give you all my beautiful landmark photos–and maybe I will another week–but today I feel like giving you the random ones instead. 🙂

These statues are at the British Museum, and are just begging to be captioned, “If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs…”  With thanks to Rudyard Kipling!

This is a book vending machine, which just seems like a fantastic idea–not so much for the convenience (you can buy books lots of places) but for the mindset of it.  Why shouldn’t books be as readily accessible as unhealthy food?

I’m a fan of the Running Green Man.  That’s what I call him, and he shows up on signs here and there.  Stick figures in America are always walking so sedately.  All this fellow is trying to indicate is the direction of the exit, but he seems to be heading towards it at full-tilt.

I think I’ll make that my exit for the day too.  Head over to At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!