When We First Met

On November 25, 2013November 23, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews1 Comment

When We First Met by Norma Fox Mazer is a really lovely YA romance. It’s all the more remarkable for having two aspects I normally don’t like (love at first sight, and teenage romances that take themselves very seriously) and yet in this particular case it really does work.

Jenny and Rob feel an immediate connection the moment they see each other at a school assembly, a connection that continues in their first conversation–at least until Jenny learns Rob’s last name, and realizes that his mother was the drunk driver who two years ago killed Jenny’s older sister. Unable to stop herself from continuing to see Rob, Jenny soon finds herself torn between her love for him, and her love for her family.

This is, essentially, a very cleverly-done modern-day Romeo and Juliet. (In case you don’t catch it yourself, one of the characters makes a comparison–plus Rob’s last name is Montana.) There aren’t many modern-day feuds, so the particular family history of the car accident is an excellent way to modernize that element.

Both mothers become a powerful part of the book as we see how the accident devastated both of them. Mrs. Pennoyer, Jenny’s mother, is convinced that Rob’s mother is soulless and evil, but when we meet Mrs. Montana, we see her as deeply human and deeply affected by what happened. Both women have elements of a villain in them–Mrs. Montana’s action, Mrs. Pennoyer’s refusal to forgive–but Mazer’s exploration of both women’s pain makes them both…”sympathetic” may be strong, but there’s a lot of understanding there.

Jenny and Rob have their own complexities, trying to deal with the history between their families, and the present effects of their relationship on their two families. Jenny has some powerful insights on what it means to have lost her older sister, and in her continuing relationship with the rest of their family.

I think the “love at first sight” element of the book works for me because it’s really more connection at first sight, and we still get to watch Rob and Jenny fall in love as they learn more about each other. Mazer shows their bond, their relationship, and their feelings so well that I believe in the intensity of the relationship–and it does help that they’re eighteen, not fourteen (like Juliet).

Jenny’s process of trying to balance her own needs and dreams, and her loyalty to her family, is a really beautiful theme of the book. In a way it’s a coming of age story, though I feel like it’s an angle I haven’t seen. The book is about a romantic relationship, but I think it’s just as much about Jenny’s realization of herself as an individual, while part of a family.

The funny thing is, I’m not much of a fan of Romeo and Juliet (always preferred Hamlet) but this retelling is excellent. No swordplay–instead, lots of emotional depth and powerful themes. Recommended!

Other reviews:
I’ve got nothing! Literally, I’ve never seen so few results when I Googled a book title. Strange…

Buy it here: When We First Met

Murder by Phone

On November 20, 2013November 20, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews4 Comments

I’ve been watching a few more Hitchcock movies that I didn’t get to during Readers Imbibing Peril–most recently, Dial M for Murder (1954), a suspense puzzle about pulling off the perfect murder.

Grace Kelly plays Margot, whose husband Tony (Ray Milland) has discovered her affair with crime writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings). Margot has decided to stay with her husband and believes her affair is still a secret–but Tony has decided to murder his wife and believes he has the perfect plan to pull it off.

This is another excellent Hitchcock movie where the suspense is all in the subtle details, and in knowing the chilling significance behind apparently harmless conversations. The attempted murder is a more dramatic action sequence, but the rest of the movie is mostly people talking to each other. Originally a play, Dial M for Murder takes place almost entirely in one apartment–only I never really noticed that until the documentary extra feature pointed it out. The tension and the engagement are so good that the movie never feels close or confined.

Grace Kelly plays the (not entirely innocent) victim, but the point of view of the movie is mostly her husband, Tony. We get out of his view at the beginning and the end, but for most of the film we’re going through the story with him. It’s an interesting angle to follow the story of a murder from the murderer’s perspective, especially as he’s a particularly suave and intelligent murderer. He rarely betrays tension or worry, and seems to be totally in control of the situation at nearly every moment.

The movie plays out like a puzzle, with Tony first laying out exactly how he plans to arrange the murder–then watching to see whether it works–and how Tony devises new solutions when parts of the plan go awry. He’s so clever and so in command that it’s hard to imagine how he could eventually be caught… The conclusion is ingenious, if a bit far-fetched–but I’m willing to go along with it!

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Buy it here: Dial M for Murder

Riding Towards Narnia

On November 18, 2013November 18, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews2 Comments

After listening to The Magician’s Nephew on audiobook, I continued my adventures through Narnia with The Horse and His Boy. It’s the third book, chronologically, but I reread The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe relatively recently, so I jumped on ahead.

The Horse and His Boy is set during The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe–or during the reign of High King Peter, in in-universe timeline. This book centers on new characters, with the characters from the previous book only in supporting roles. This is the story of Shasta and talking horse Bree, who flee the oppressive empire of Calormen, trying to reach the free kingdom of Narnia. They join forces with Aravis, a Calormene aristocrat fleeing an arranged marriage, and her talking horse, Hwin. Their mission takes on new urgency when they overhear Calormene plans to conquer Narnia and neighboring Archenland.

This one started a little slow for me, though I’m not sure why. It may have just been me, but it took me a while to get involved with the characters. I found it picked up right around the same time the Narnians first arrived in the story. I don’t know if that was because of them, or because the threats from Calormen became more pronounced then, or if I’d just been listening long enough to get engaged. After that, the book has more momentum as it becomes a desperate race to warn Archenland and Narnia before invading forces arrive.

As in The Magician’s Nephew, I found the supporting characters highly engaging. The talking horses were particularly good, as Narnian exiles both eager and anxious about going home again. Bree is decidedly arrogant, while Hwin is sweet and altogether too self-effacing. I also liked the glimpses of Lucy, Edmund and Susan as adults…although it adds hugely to the tragedy of the previous book, when they’re pulled out of Narnia and sent home to be children again!! They had amazing lives in Narnia–how do you go home after that? But that’s classic children’s fantasy for you…

I liked Shasta and Aravis well enough too, if not extraordinarily. Perhaps a little context on that comment, though… When I reread The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it was because I had just read The Magicians by Lev Grossman, which made me desperately want to run back to Narnia. So now any time I feel at all disengaged from characters in Narnia, all I have to do is remind myself–I could be reading about Quentin and his friends from The Magicians–and then I’m very happy to be with Lewis’ characters instead! So take “disengaged” as a relative term…

Although I enjoyed the Narnians so much, it was also fun to see a different country in this world. Calormen has Middle Eastern elements, and was very richly described. Archenland was less developed, but I really liked the bits in the Epilogue about Archenland’s history. Seeing multiple countries, with their own governments and cultures, gave a much more grounded feel to the magical country.

All in all, this isn’t my favorite installment of Narnia (so far Magician’s Nephew is still holding title) but it was a good ride!

Author’s Site: https://www.cslewis.com/us

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Buy it here: The Horse and His Boy

Classic Review: The Enchanted Forest Chronicles

On November 13, 2013November 11, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews6 Comments

One of the rereads I planned this year was Patricia C. Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles, which are among the very best fairy tale retellings I’ve ever read (and that’s saying a lot!) I’m midway through a reread right now, so because of that and because I consider this series an inspiration for my soon-to-be-released fairy tale novel, it seems an appropriate time to share this particular review again!

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I was recently sketching over the plotline of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede for a friend, and realized that I actually remembered all the character names. As I’ve mentioned, I am bad at character names. Oh sure, I remember the main character (maybe!), but the main character’s best friend? Probably not.

But for The Enchanted Forest Chronicles…Cimorene is the heroine, and her best friend is named Alianora. And I could give you at least another six or seven names besides. All of which should say something about how great this series is!

It all starts with Cimorene, a princess who decides that she’d rather be kidnapped by a dragon than marry the boring prince her parents picked out. Princesses are kidnapped by dragons sometimes, you know. Taking advice from an enchanted frog, Cimorene goes off to find a dragon and volunteer. The dragon Kazul agrees to take her on, especially after hearing that Cimorene can cook cherries jubilee.

Is that already enough to convince you these are wonderful books? If not, I can also tell you that the story goes on with evil wizards, all manner of enchanted creatures, a magical forest (of course) and endless fun references to fairy tales. They’re funny, exciting, and even romantic in spots.

It’s not a romance with that boring prince from the beginning–Prince Therandil does turn up, but he stays insufferable. He comes to fight the dragon to rescue Cimorene; he would have come back earlier in the book, except that he was waiting for Kazul to defeat an impressive number of challengers first. He’s very put out when Cimorene explains no one’s actually fought Kazul–she’s been talking the challengers out of it, which has been very inconvenient and time-consuming.

Wrede has created one of those wonderful things in retold fairy tales–a world where there are strange and marvelous things like djinns and enchanted swords and magical caves and (of course) dragons, but where you also have to deal with getting the right pot for your cherries jubilee, and cleaning the dust out of (non-magical) caves.

The series is a quartet, plus a couple of short stories. I think my favorite book is the third, narrated by the witch Morwen, who has nine talking cats (who only she understands). This one also features a rabbit named Killer, who has a penchant for stumbling into spells, piling layer after layer of enchantment on himself. In a magical, rabbit sort of way, he’s not unlike my character, Jones.

I don’t think any of the books retell any specific fairy tale, but they’re all riddled with references, sometimes made quite casually. When Cimorene’s parents want her to get married, she says she’s too young. Her mother replies, “Your Great-Aunt Rose was married at sixteen…One really can’t count all those years she spent asleep under that dreadful fairy’s curse.” In the second book we meet a giant who’s very friendly as long as your name isn’t Jack, and a dwarf named Herman who tried the Rumpelstiltskin trade, but got stuck with tons of children when no one could guess his name (and he thought Herman would be easy).

I could probably go on citing incidents and examples for a long time…but better to just read the books. They’re good adventures, very funny–and obviously, have memorable characters!

Author’s site: http://pcwrede.com/

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Buy it here: The Enchanted Forest Chronicles

Heroic Journeys on (and Under) Discworld

On November 11, 2013November 11, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews4 Comments

I was feeling like some Terry Pratchett recently, and elected to read The Last Hero. This one is described as “A Discworld Fable,” and is shorter than most of the other books–and it’s beautifully illustrated!

The story centers around Cohen the Barbarian and his friends, the greatest heroes Discworld ever knew…some sixty years ago. They’ve grown old, and are decidedly unhappy about it. They set out on the ultimate final quest, to the mountain-top home of the Discworld gods, with enough explosives to blow the mountain up–creating a chain reaction that will destroy all of Discworld. Meanwhile in Ankh-Morpork, the wizards of Unseen University and Lord Vetinari assemble a team to stop Cohen, relying on the technical genius of Leonard of Quirm, who devises the first ever ship designed for flying outside the Disc.

The plot is a bit convoluted, with a lot of players, but suffice to say we get lots of satire of traditional hero stories, with some space travel satire thrown in. And the real brilliance is that we get it all with Pratchett’s wonderfully hilarious characters and wit.

My favorite part may be all the excellent plays on hero story tropes, especially as we see them through Evil Harry. He’s a Dark Lord Cohen and company know from way back, who joins forces with them here–warning them that of course he’ll have to double-cross them eventually, because that’s how things are done. He’s also very proud that he found the stupidest henchmen possible (because Dark Lords always have stupid henchmen…) and takes comfort from the rule that the Dark Lord always escapes mysteriously at the end.

The best part, perhaps, is that Cohen and his friends all agree that Evil Harry knows the rules, and none of them can fathom the young people these days who don’t understand how things should be handled.

This is a fun one for Discworld fans, because we get a lot of regular characters putting in appearances. Rincewind and Carrot go with Leonard on the journey, lots of wizards feature, and even Death gets a cameo. He’s in the middle of trying to understand Schrodinger’s Cat, and never quite grasps the metaphor–but doesn’t approve of the whole business, as he doesn’t hold with cruelty to cats.

This is also excellent just for the gorgeous illustrations. They’re beautifully-drawn and frequent, throughout the whole book. I do love a beautifully-illustrated book for grown-ups every now and then!

If you’re new to Discworld, the rule is always, “jump into the series wherever you feel inclined.” Considering this one is short, covers a lot of major characters, and has gorgeous illustrations, it wouldn’t be a bad choice…

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

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Buy it here: The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable