What Are You Reading, Spooky September Edition

On September 15, 2013September 24, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations, What Are You Reading?12 Comments

I’ve begun properly plunging into spooky reads for Readers Imbibing Peril, and you can expect the reviews to start multiplying over the next few weeks! I reread Catherynne Valente’s Fairyland books which I madly love, and collected several more dark and shadowy tales from the library.

I recently finished A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz, a rather dark and, well, grim retelling of some more obscure Brothers Grimm tales. Next, I’m midway through Doll Bones by Holly Black, which has been decidedly creepy so far! I’m also reading a play version of The Phantom of the Opera–not the Webber one, but a different musical. It was made into the Charles Dance miniseries, but without the songs, so I was curious to see the original script.

And then I have my big intimidating book of the month, The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. It’s actually relatively short, compared to Hugo’s Les Miserables…though most books are “short” relative to Les Mis!

Meanwhile on the screen, I’ve been indulging in lots of Hitchcock, continuing the spooky mood!

Have a wonderful weekend–and let me know what you’re reading. 🙂

Cinderella, As Told By the Kitchen Boy

On August 19, 2013August 19, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews9 Comments

File:Happilyneverafter1 large.gif Do 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.

After 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!

Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier

On May 22, 2013May 22, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews5 Comments

I’d just like to say, when Juliet Marillier is good, she’s really good, and I’ve been having a nice run with her books lately. After recently reading Heir to Sevenwaters, I jumped into a reread of Heart‘s Blood, in part so that I could try to actually notice sooner this time that it’s a “Beauty and the Beast” retelling… It took me far too long to figure that out on the first go-around.

The heroine of the story is Caitrin, who flees an abusive situation and, in desperation, seeks refuge and work as a scribe at Whistling Tor. There are strange rumors about monstrous spectres in the woods around the Tor, and about Anluan, the chieftain. Anluan proves to be bad-tempered and unfriendly; he was stricken by illness as a child and it left him semi-paralyzed on his right side. He nearly runs Caitrin off at once, but instead she stays, becoming part of his very unusual household and delving into the myserious curse afflicting the Tor.

You probably already see some “Beauty and the Beast” parallels, and there are also enchanted mirrors scattered throughout. It’s really only “Beauty and the Beast” in the broad strokes, though, and most of the story focuses on deducing the origin of the curse, as well as on an outside threat from foreign invasion.

I was also struck by Jane Eyre parallels, particularly in the second half of the book, so I don’t want to get into details too much. Even at the beginning, though: a talented young woman sets off from a difficult situation, and finds work with a gruff employer at a big house on a misty moor (or Tor…) He’s unfriendly but secretly attracted to her, while she comes to see the value behind his unattractive exterior. (Although no, there’s no first wife locked in a tower.)

This was an interesting one to read right after Heir to Sevenwaters, because it was once again two of my favorite archetype characters: a heroine who has to find her own strength and worth, and a dark hero with a heart of gold. That’s not to say, however, that Caitrin and Anluan are the same characters as Clodagh and Cathal. They have their own unique characteristics and paths to walk.

Caitrin has a particularly difficult journey, overcoming abuse in her past. Marillier focuses less on the bruises and more on the psychological damage, which is deeper and far more complex. I ultimately found Caitrin’s path to be immensely satisfying. Anluan has different internal demons to overcome, and though we get less of his internal thoughts (Caitrin narrates, but we do get into Anluan’s journal) his development is intriguing too.

The magic is spooky at times, creepy at others, and delves into questions of good and evil and the hazard of judging too quickly whether someone is one or the other. There’s a nice balance of character growth with unraveling mysteries and, as is usual for Marillier, the last hundred pages are breathless and hard to put down.

Highly recommended. 🙂

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

Other reviews:
Ivy Book Bindings
Academics Go Clunk
The Book Rat
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Heart’s Blood

Calamity Jack by Shannon and Dean Hale

On April 24, 2013April 23, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews5 Comments

I followed up the very fun Rapunzel’s Revenge (review) with its sequel, Calamity Jack by Shannon and Dean Hale, a graphic novel illustrated by Nathan Hale. This installment covers the backstory of sidekick Jack, and goes on to a new adventure for Jack and Rapunzel.

The first book is set out in a kind of fantasy Wild West. It turns out that Jack is from the big city, where he was a kind of petty thief and conman, accompanied by a pixie sidekick named Prudence. Things went bad when Jack tried to rob a local giant, accidentally demolishing Jack’s mother’s bakery with a badly-placed beanstalk. He fled the city, vowing to earn the money to rebuild his mother’s bakery…and that’s where we met him in Rapunzel’s Revenge.

In the present day here, Jack and Rapunzel are heading back to the city, only to discover that crazy ant creatures have been invading, while the giant has taken control of the city. Conspiracies are afoot, chaos ensues, and there is even the occasional romantic problem as they confront the crisis.

It’s a funny thing about this graphic novel. It falters in some places, mostly at the beginning, but on the whole finds its feet and is ultimately a fun ride. It started out a bit slow for me–we go back through Jack’s entire life history, with a series of earlier schemes, and they were simultaneously each too brief to be interesting, and cumulatively went on too long. Once the story gets into the time after the previous book, it picks up a lot, and gains momentum as it goes through the adventure.

I had similar feelings about Jack’s character. He was almost entirely light and funny in the previous book, and gains more depth here. That sounds good…but initially I wasn’t enjoying a more serious Jack. He was good as a comic sidekick. This also works itself out as the adventure goes on, maybe because the focus becomes more on the action and less on the soul-searching.

Jack finds himself with a rival for Rapunzel’s romantic interest, and I have mixed feelings about that too. I don’t precisely object to it as a plot device, but it is somewhat annoying when that was apparently resolved at the end of the last book! The aggravating part may be that we’re back with Jack trying to figure out how to even confess a romantic interest…when that already happened. You can’t tell a girl you love her for the first time twice. Simple math. You kind of just have to go with it. And I do enjoy how much Jack appreciates Rapunzel’s awesomeness.

The multitudes of magical creatures in the city are a lot of fun, from pixies to a Jabberwock. I had a little trouble getting a sense of the giants’ size–which seems odd, as you wouldn’t think scale would be a problem with drawings.

As you can see, the book does have some flaws–but it also carries on a lot of the best parts of the previous book. The characters are still very strong–Rapunzel is still awesome, and we meet some new characters who are interesting too. And there’s a lot of humor, funny moments and occasional silliness.

At its best, this book is as good as Rapunzel’s Revenge. Unfortunately, it’s not always at its best. If you enjoy the first one, though, I think its worth the read for the second–especially since I think it only took me an hour to read it!

Authors’ Site: http://www.shannonhale.com

Other reviews:
Fyrefly’s Book Blog
The Book Smugglers
The Book Zone
Wondrous Reads
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Calamity Jack

Princess of the Silver Woods

On April 15, 2013April 15, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult4 Comments

I recently reread Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George (review), which turned out to be great preparation for reading the third book in the series, Princess of the Silver Woods. Thank you, Lark, for letting me know it existed!

The first book retells the story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. There’s a second book, loosely retelling Cinderella, Princess of Glass (review). As the cover makes clear, the third one draws from Little Red Riding Hood—if very loosely! Fairy tale or not, this is definitely another good one for Once Upon a Time.

The third book focuses on Petunia, the youngest of the princesses, who starts the book traveling through the woods to visit an old friend from a neighboring royal court, the Grand Duchess Volenskaya. Along the way, she runs afoul of bandits wearing wolf masks–particularly their leader, Oliver, who abducts Petunia more or less by accident. She makes it eventually to the Grand Duchess’ and all should be well—except that she and her sisters have recently been plagued by particularly vivid nightmares, shadowy forms are lurking in the garden, and the Grand Duchess may have ties to their old enemy, the King Under Stone.

There are elements of Red Riding Hood here and there, but mostly this novel is a second confrontation with the King Under Stone and his macabre court. This felt like a much more closely connected sequel than the second book, which was primarily a separate adventure.

I really enjoyed seeing the twelve sisters again. George managed her deft juggling of many characters once again, and I didn’t feel troubled trying to sort out which princess was which. As in the first book, it’s always self-evidently obvious—Jonquil must be the hysterical one, because she’s always collapsing whenever we see her. Poppy (the lead of the second book) is obviously the bold one, because she’s always being bold. It was nice seeing Galen again (who really is lovely), and I liked that we got a little more of Heinrich, who just barely shows up in the first one. And I love that all the princesses’ have taken up knitting!

Petunia didn’t blow me away as a heroine, but she’s scrappy and likable, and I do enjoy when she starts ordering her demon-suitor around. Oliver is a bit of a Robin Hood figure, a displaced earl who turned to banditry to feed his people. Again, likable, if a little typical-hero-type.

The romance didn’t do much for me. There was nothing wrong with it—it just didn’t feel like it added much to the adventure. Petunia and Oliver have very few opportunities to interact, and while that was true for Rose and Galen too (Galen even makes a comparison at one point), somehow I felt the romance in the first one much more than I did here. And I was a bit annoyed with Oliver when both Petunia (a girl he had barely met) and his men (who he had lived with and fought with all his life) were in mortal peril, and he seemed to find these concerns equally troubling, with a possible slight edge to Petunia. Really?

But while the romance may have been a bit of a non-thing, the adventure was excellent. The King Under Stone and his brothers are thoroughly creepy, and the fact that they were defeated once already doesn’t at all seem to lessen the threat. George did a nice job of re-exploring familiar territory, while convincingly raising the stakes and the tension.

Overall, I’d say that Princess of the Midnight Ball was the stronger book, but this third one was good fun to read as well—and I enjoyed spending more time with the twelve princesses, and getting a little more of their story. The first one can stand alone, but I’d recommend the next two as well.

Author’s Site: http://jessicadaygeorge.com/

Other reviews:
The Bookwyrm’s Hoard
Escaping Reality (One Book at a Time)
Tressa’s Wishful Endings
The Book Smugglers
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Princess of the Silver Woods