Category: Reviews

Book Review: The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Historical Fiction2 Comments

I’ve had mixed experience with Mitch Albom.  I liked The Five People You Meet In Heaven, but didn’t like The Time Keeper nearly as well.  I loved The First Phone Call from Heaven, but was disappointed by his most famous book, Tuesdays with Morrie.  All the same, when I saw his latest, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, sitting on the shelf at the library, I picked it up on an impulse–and it was great!

The story begins at the funeral of Frankie Presto, one of the great disciples of Music.  And while we wait for the funeral to begin, Music is going to narrate Frankie’s life for us, intercutting between stories from Music, and interviews with music legends who have all come out to pay their last respects.  The story that unfolds takes us from Spain to London to New Orleans to New Zealand, and through almost a century of music, from the 1930s on up to the present.  Frankie is a guitar player who, in Forrest Gump fashion, manages to intersect with the major musical trends of the 20th century, from Duke Ellington to Elvis to Woodstock to KISS, with plenty of jazz and country and classical thrown in besides.  Plus there’s a magical twist–Frankie has six magic guitar strings, which will change six lives.

This was a deeply clever book with a wonderful story.  I loved Music as the narrator, a mythological figure who speaks of his/her disciples across the years, who tells about how we all take a grab at a chosen talent at birth, and who tells Frankie’s life as a symphony, with appropriate musical metaphors throughout. Continue reading “Book Review: The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto” →

Book Review: The Conjurers

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Historical Fiction, ReviewsLeave a comment

ConjurersWhen I heard about a historical fantasy novel spanning Europe in the 14th century, I thought…I like history, I like magic, I like travel stories…so I’m in!  And so I read The Conjurers by David Waid, which did feature magic and travels across medieval Europe.

The Conjurers tells the story of two sets of siblings.  In Ireland, Caitlin and Eamon must flee raiders, a flight both helped and complicated by the sudden surge of Eamon’s magical abilities.  In Genoa, Teresa’s brother Ignacio does not come home after a trip to the house of his master, an alchemist, and her search for him leads to deadly and devastating results.  Magicians around Europe are gathering for a hideous rite, and Caitlin, Eamon and Teresa are all being drawn into events.

In many ways, this book is two stories that ultimately intersect, as we cut between Eamon and Teresa.  Both are engaging stories, and there are similar thematic threads.  Teresa, like Eamon, discovers burgeoning magical power.  The plot threads take longer to come together, though it becomes evident that the villains each child is facing have connections to each other. Continue reading “Book Review: The Conjurers” →

Book Review(s): Split-Second and Ten Thousand Skies Above You

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science FictionLeave a comment

A two-fer review today…I’ve been reading parallel universe books this year, and two of the ones I read had sequels.  I’m not counting them on my challenge books (although I might change my mind on that…) but I thought it would be fun to do a brief “here’s how the story continued” review.  Spoilers inevitable for the first books!

Split-Second by Kasie West, sequel to Pivot Point

Pivot Point introduced us to Addison, her best friend Laila, their secret community of paranormals, and Addie’s ability to see alternate futures.  The book ended with Addie forced to choose a path that wiped out her romance with the wonderful Trevor, with the added complication of asking Laila to Erase her memory of that possibility.  This book expands Laila’s role, as we learn more about her ability and how she uses it to avoid any vulnerability…at least until she meets a boy whose memory she can’t wipe clean.  Meanwhile Addie is starting school in the Norm world for the first time (again), while trying to figure out why she’s drawn to this Trevor guy, and what to do with her newfound ability/handicap of stopping time when she’s stressed.

So right off the bat, the concept was less interesting in the sequel–but, I was attached to the characters, so I still had a very good time with the book.  Addie only uses her ability to see the future for very tiny periods (seeing only a few minutes ahead, mostly), largely removing the parallel-ness of it all.  On the other hand, she gets to meet people in the Norm world for the first time again, and the reader can see how different timing and different circumstances change those relationships.  In particular, she meets Trevor’s ex-girlfriend in a very different way, totally changing her impression of the girl, who becomes much more complex in this book than in the first one.  So there’s some parallel-ness. Continue reading “Book Review(s): Split-Second and Ten Thousand Skies Above You” →

Book Review: The Storyteller (Riverman Trilogy)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, ReviewsLeave a comment

I recently finished the amazing Libriomancer series with the amazing Revisionary (I think?  Unless there’s a book five coming…?)  And I also recently finished the not so good Riverman Trilogy with the not so good The Storyteller.

The Riverman by Aaron Starmer began the series very intriguingly, as Alistair hears from friend and crush Fiona about a magical world, and wonders if she’s actually covering some real world trauma.  Book two, The Whisper, answers that question as Alistair dives into Aquavania himself, in pursuit of the Riverman, also called the Whisper, who has made Fiona and other kids disappear.  The Storyteller brings us into the head of Alistair’s sister Keri, trying to make sense out of her brother’s reaction to a traumatic shooting and his strange stories, while also writing stories of her own.

There’s an interesting concept at the core of this, that ideas from Aquavania leak out into the world and are picked up by people like Keri, to turn into stories.  Story ideas do often feel like they must be coming from somewhere…though as I think about this more, in this scenario they’re just coming from the imagination of other kids, rather than the imagination of people actually writing them down, and as a writer-down of stories I’m not sure I like that after all!

This may be a microcosm of why I didn’t like this series better.  There’s a lot that makes me go, “hmm, that’s interesting…” but then it never comes together in a satisfying way.  A lot of ethical questions come up in the second book, and even more mysteries about who is good, who is evil, what those concepts even mean, how the Riverman and Aquavania actually function and what Alistair’s role is…and this final book didn’t give me much of an answer to any of it. Continue reading “Book Review: The Storyteller (Riverman Trilogy)” →

Movie Review: Newsies

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Reviews1 Comment

MPW-62124I recently went to see the play version of Newsies, the Broadway musical on tour—which led me to rewatch the old Disney movie.  I had a bit of a Newsies phase five years ago, but haven’t watched it in a few years.  It was so much fun to go back!

Based on true events (though there was presumably less singing), Newsies recounts a newsboys strike in New York in 1899.  In the fictional version, the boys rally around Cowboy Jack Kelly, the front man while his friend David, better educated than most, has the ideas about social justice and unions.  The boys stand up against the might of Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of The New York World and arguably the most powerful man in New York at the time, to demand fair treatment in their work.

At its heart, this is a story about the unseen demanding to be seen.  As one of the songs puts it, “the world will know that we’ve been here.”  I love that, because it’s coming from a group of boys who don’t get noticed, who scrape along and never get heard.  I love the theme of the unheard standing up for themselves, and I especially love it when it’s expressed in really great rally-the-troops songs.  Even better when they leap around in dance numbers too. Continue reading “Movie Review: Newsies” →