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).

The Girl with the Geese

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult4 Comments

It made me a bit sad that my library’s copy of The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale was blurbed by Stephenie Meyer.  It’s a much better book than Twilight.

As you might guess from the title, this is another retold fairy tale, suitable for the Once Upon a Time challenge.  The Goose Girl is about Ani, a princess who’s never been very good at the job.  Her mother sends her to a neighboring kingdom to be married, but along the way her lady-in-waiting, Selia, stages a mutiny and usurps her place.  Ani makes her way to the capital, but has to hide from her enemies in the role of Goose Girl, tending to the royal flock.  And that’s where she begins to find friends–and her own strengths.

This book reminds me of a lot of other books, while being very uniquely itself.  It’s a story about a none-too-successful princess who has to find a way to save the kingdom.  There are plenty of books like that, but Ani and her particular path feel very different than most of them.  Most ordinary princesses are freckled tomboys.  Ani is a beautiful blonde who desperately wants to be a proper princess, but has lived all her life in the shadow of her strong-willed and charismatic mother.  Even though Ani tries very hard, she just doesn’t have her mother’s charm and poise, or talent for handling people.

Ani isn’t a plucky heroine who immediately sets about to save the day when the situation goes bad.  She spends much of the book hiding, with her primary goal being to save herself.  Somehow I liked that about her–she feels very real, and her challenges (and ultimate solutions) feel believable.  She’s a likable heroine with depth, and strength that emerges over the course of the book.  There’s some magic in the story (Ani can understand birds, and talk to her beloved horse), but it feels largely secondary to Ani’s personal growth, as she realizes her own abilities and begins to look beyond herself as well.

Hale’s writing is beautiful, with a nice fairy tale flavor while having much more detail and plausibility than the Brothers Grimm usually go in for.  She created a vivid world, with two countries that have clear cultures and customs.  And there’s some humor and romance in here too.

I thought the last hundred pages or so were somewhat dragged out, though the ultimate climax is exciting.  It’s a little hard to explain without spoilers; there was a plot twist that seemed unnecessary to me, and just pulled the story out longer before we got to the final confrontations.  The romance turns out rather convenient–but it IS a fairy tale retelling, so it’s just about what I would expect!  And it’s a sweet romance for all that.

If you like retold fairy tales, I’d recommend adding this one to your list.  The original “Goose Girl” has never been a particular favorite of mine, and I still thoroughly enjoyed this book.  Hale has made a wonderful story out of it–something she does consistently in other books too.  When people ask me about excellent fantasy authors, I’ve really got to start adding Shannon Hale to my litany (which goes something like, Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley, Gale Carson Levine, Patricia C. Wrede and Diana Wynne Jones, if you were wondering!)

Author’s Site: http://www.squeetus.com/stage/main.html

Other reviews:
Reading for Sanity
This Blonde Reads
Liberating Libris
Anyone else?

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s Dark and Shadowy Movie

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews5 Comments

The movie world seemed to be all abuzz recently over The Avengers.  I was more interested in another release—Dark Shadows, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp.  This is their eighth collaboration, and if you’re looking for something new, well…better find another movie.  But if you want another ridiculous, campy, shadowy Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie, you’re in luck.

The story is about Barnabas Collins, and the Hell-fury of a woman scorned.  Barnabas makes the mistake of scorning a witch, who kills his parents, kills his true love, turns Barnabas into a vampire, has him buried alive, and spends the next two hundred years trying to destroy the Collins family fishing business.  When Barnabas is finally dug up in 1972, he finds that the family has dwindled to just a few destitute members, though they have hung on to Collinswood, the enormous manor house.  Uncle Barnabas resolves to restore the family fortune, while casting an interested eye on the new governess and sparring with the evil witch.

There is blood.  There is ridiculous make-up.   There’s Helena Bonham Carter, as usual upstaged by her hair (bright orange this time), and Christopher Lee in a small role.  There are bizarre plot turns, a shadowy gothic atmosphere, and a lot of laughs.  In other words, it’s the usual fare for Johnny Depp and Tim Burton.

I have no familiarity with the original Dark Shadows, so I really can’t comment at all on how this compares.  I could feel the soap opera origins at times.  I can easily imagine how certain plot twists and character revelations, which happen in five minutes here, would have furnished three weeks of plotline, soap opera style.  The movie doesn’t feel rushed, though—just wild and unpredictable.

The best part of the movie for me was watching Barnabas try to adjust to the world of 1972.  He’s blown away by a lava lamp, doesn’t know what to make of a paved road, and attacks a television trying to figure out how the tiny songstress is inside.  In one of my favorite moments, he mistakes the arches of a McDonalds for the sign of Mephistopheles over the gates of Hell (kind of apt, actually).  He has a wonderful conversation with a group of hippies about wooing women (the hippies impart great wisdom, such as that modern girls don’t care about sheep).  Johnny delivers endless completely absurd lines, and manages a straight face through the whole movie.  I really hope this DVD has a blooper reel!

This is not a deep movie.  If there’s a moral, I don’t know what it is (other than, possibly, don’t make a witch angry).  If it’s about any important issues, I don’t know which ones.  But it is full of dark, shadowy, slightly creepy fun.

You know, just like Johnny Depp and Tim Burton’s other seven films.

Saturday Snapshot: Discworld Titles

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot, Summer in Discworld21 Comments

I thought I’d play with pictures and book titles today.  I just launched a Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge for the summer, so I have Pratchett on the brain–and I decided to have some fun pairing images with his book titles.

  

I really wanted to come up with a photo for The Fifth Elephant, but I don’t seem to have a single good elephant picture on hand.  Oh well.

Check out At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!

Summer in Discworld: REVIEWS

On By cherylmahoneyIn Summer in Discworld3 Comments

This post is the gathering place to share about your adventures reading Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books this summer. Continue reading “Summer in Discworld: REVIEWS” →

Summer in Discworld: Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge

On By cherylmahoneyIn Summer in Discworld25 Comments

Have you ever considered spending the summer with witches and wizards, dwarfs and trolls, a vampire photographer or even a walking piece of Luggage?  Care to visit a Post Office literally overflowing with mail, or to stroll beside the river Ankh?  (Actually, I wouldn’t recommend that last one during the warmer months; it’s a bit, shall we say, odorous!)

Come explore the Discworld (a disc carried on the back of four elephants, on top of a turtle) and add some hilarity to your summer by joining us for a Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge!

The “Challenge”

Pratchett is consistently responsible for the funniest books I read each year, and I wanted to share the laughs.  This is a challenge only in the loose sense–all you have to do to participate is read any book from Pratchett’s sprawling 40-book Discworld series between June 1st and August 31st, and tell us about it.  I’m putting up a separate post where you can link to your reviews or share your thoughts in a comment.

Feel free grab the image above if you’d like to share about the challenge on your blog.  Maybe some of your friends will want to join in too.  If you need suggestions on where to begin reading, check out my earlier post on favorite Discworld books, or explore the comments to see what other people are planning.

For those new to Discworld, there are three rules to keep in mind:

1) You don’t have to read the books in order.

2) Don’t start at the beginning (the first few are funny, but weaker than later books).

3) Don’t read them somewhere where it will be awkward to laugh out loud!

Group Read

I’m also holding a Group Read of Going Postal during July (not a requirement of the challenge, just a fun bonus).  Going Postal won the group read poll, and is a great place for people to start out with Discworld.

Chapter One begins: “They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man’s mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged.”

The plot: conman and criminal Moist von Lipwig inexplicably survives a hanging, only to find the Patrician offering him a goverment job, as Ankh-Morpork’s new Postmaster General.  Moist uncertainly accepts, becoming master of a Post Office overflowing with old mail (some of which seems to be talking to him), leading a troop of mad postmen.  And then there’s the business competition with the telegraph service to think about…

I’ve divided the book roughly into quarters to cover four weeks.  I’ll send out discussion questions early each week, and reviews should be planned for the following Tuesday.  Here’s the schedule:

Week 1, from “The Nine Thousand Year Prologue” through “Chapter 4: A Sign” – reviews on July 10

Week 2, from “Chapter 5: Lost in the Post” through “Chapter 7: Tomb of Words” – reviews on July 17

Week 3, from “Chapter 7A: Post Haste” through “Chapter 11: Mission Statement” – reviews on July 24

Week 4, from “Chapter 12: The Woodpecker” to the end! – reviews on July 31

Book Your Ticket to Discworld

Sign up for the “challenge” with MisterLinky below, and feel free to share in a comment what you’re thinking about reading.  Let me know also if you’d like to join the group read.

I look forward to visiting Discworld with you!