Reading In The Woods

As we were getting ready for our Trip of Awesome as our adventure in the redwoods will now officially be called, my already amazing Hubbin took me to the bookstore to get a book.  He asked what I wanted and I said I was looking for faries and woods and short stories.  Well folks the literary spirits must have heard me 'cause as soon as we walked into the store a book called Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold, edited by Paula Guran.  Let's see, fairies...check, woods...check...short stories...check, and check out the cover below!  This is a collection of retold fairy tales (or wonder stories as she calls them) which is one of my favorite genre's.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

The Bone Mother by Angela Slatter - I have a thing for Baba Yaga stories and this retelling of Vasilisa the Beautiful did not disappoint.  In this version we explore the relationship between mothers and daughters and the various ways they can delight and disappoint each other. We also get a different take on the Baba Yaga character.  Most stories show her as either an evil witch or a misunderstood granny.  This story shows us all the facets and motivations of this Russian staple giving us a very well rounded story within just a few pages.

The Coin of Heart's Desire by Yoon Ha Lee - For this story the author was inspired by Korean folklore and The Dragon King Under the Sea in particular.  In this stories few pages we get a glimpse of a most noble young empress who makes a life altering decision when she is confronted with a dragon and his wish giving coin.  This is my favorite type of short story as it not only entertains but makes a person think.  How does one obtain their hearts desire and not become corrupted, especially when a whole country is concerned.  Loved it!

The Coat of Stars by Holly Black - Can I just say I am seriously loving this author lately.  Anyways here we have a story that is very much a mix of modern and fae and to me it is seamless.  Drawing from any number of brave tailor tales we follow Rafael, a New York costume designer as he comes home to his super traditional family and how he finds a child hood friend by using his skills as a tailor to woo the fairy queen.  This story has so many layers to it and yet it is very readable and very to the point.  Another spot on story by this author.

The Queen and the Cambion by Richard Bowes - One of my favorite subjects in general is Queen Victoria and her reign.  When you combine that with Merlin, one of my favorite wizards, then we have a match made in heaven.  This story gives us a glimpse of both Victoria and Merlin through out the years as their lives intersect at various points and not always in a linear fashion.  This makes for a fascinating, yet intimate look at two larger then life English icons.  This combination is a winner and I totally want to read so much more.

Rats by Veronica Schanoes - This is a very different sort of "fairy tale".  It is essentially this authors telling of the tragedy of Sid and Nancy.  The author tries to convey the mental illness of the main character with fantastical imagery and I think she does a great job.  The author wanted to get the point across that the Nancy character was not an evil horrible person hell bent on destruction but a sick and troubled child who needed help not shunning.  I'm not sure if most people would call it a fairy tale and yet that is what fairy tales were originally intended for, to tell a cautionary tale and draw attention to things that needed to be fixed...I liked it.

Good Hunting by Ken Liu - I love foxes so it follows that I very much enjoy any tale involving kitsune or any other fox spirit.  In this tale we follow a former hunter of spirits and a kitsune as they try and adapt to a new and changing world.  They go from simple country hunter and spirit to working with steam engines and prostitution in the modern Hong Kong.  Eventually the pair use new technology to restore the spirits shape shifting abilities.  I love stories like this that show that magic can come in so many different forms and like anything else needs to evolve and adapt.

Over all I very much liked the variety of stories in this collection.  The vast majority made me very happy and I will probably pull it out and read it again.  I also now have so many happy memories associated with it as I read it in a redwood, on a tree throne, laying by a river and curled up with my nephews.  This is definitely a book that comes with experiences and it will forever be in my favorites collection for at least that reason.  I give it 8 out of 10 haute coutre coats and recommend it to anybody who loves a retold fairy tale and originality.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Cinderella's Little Finger

Feeling like a bit of a fairy tale this week so I read Phoenix and Ashes a book in Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series.  This book, like the others in this series is a take on a classic fairy tale, in this case Cinderella, combined with the ongoing thread of the Elemental Masters.  This entry was a solid read that did the job for more, read on as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Eleanor Robinson is the only daughter of a factory owner who has been sent to the front during WWI.  Before heading out to war, he brought his daughter a new step-mother in the form of Allison and her daughters Lauralee and Carolyn.  Allison is a very upscale sort of woman and she instantly begins to marginalize Eleanor in favor of her daughters and starts to get the village to do the same thing.  News comes from the front of Eleanor's fathers death.  After learning of this, Allison attacks Eleanor, cutting off her little finger and uses it to bind Eleanor to herself and to the house revealing her to be an Earth Master, albeit one who practices Dark Magic.  The effect of this is that Eleanor must now do whatever Allison requires and can no longer leave her own house.  After a couple years of this Eleanor learns how to "bend" the boundaries of Allison's spells and start to venture out of the house and create a little bit of better conditions for herself.  One day a woman by the name of Sarah, the village midwife who also has a bit of small magic.  Sarah let's Eleanor know that her mother was a Fire Master and it appears that she has inherited the same talent.  Sarah begins to teach her what she can and Eleanor continues to learn on her own, not just about her own Fire element, but about the other three elements as well.  Meanwhile we get glimpses of the absolute horror of the war, including the direct effects it is having on the various populace.  We see the people deal with rationing and trying to run their businesses without any men between 16-50.  We see men coming back from the war wounded and mentally destroyed.  We watch as women and young men take up where the other's left off to try and create some sort of life for themselves.  One of these young men to come home with wounds both physical and mental is Reggie Fenyx, a pilot who is also an Air Master.  He comes home to recover and remembers Eleanor from before the war.  He finds her easy to talk to and quit intelligent.  They meet when they can, but both of them have other obligations.  Allison and her daughters continue with their plans.  We discover that the reason they did not kill Eleanor outright was that she is still the only person on her father's will and if she dies all of his assets go to a random cousin.  Allison devises a plan to make Eleanor go mad so that she can claim guardianship over her and of course all her assets.  Allison also uses her dark Earth powers to try and ensnare Reggie for one of her daughters so that she can continue to climb the social ladder.  Allison also uses her Earth power to unleash sickness and misery to obtain more power for herself.  Everything comes to a head at a ball held at the manor of Reggie and his mother.  Allison and the girls go to try and snag Reggie.  Eleanor, who has finally come into her power goes to obtain the aid of Reggie's god-mother who is a powerful Air Master to assist in her breaking Allison's hold on her.  And Reggie invite's Eleanor 'cause she is about the only person he can actually stand.  Reggie decides he doesn't care about class and rank and asks Eleanor if she would consider marrying him.  Before she can answer, the curse reasserts itself and she can barely manage to choke out that she loves him before she must go home.  She leaves behind a glove with a missing finger.  Reggie goes to find Eleanor, finally figuring out that Allison and her girls are up to no good.  Allison and company do everything in their power to make Eleanor and Reggie go mad so that she can continue with her nefarious plans.  She is eventually defeated after she sucks the life force from everybody, including her daughters.  She loses control of her giant earth elemental who turns on her.  Eleanor finally gets to go to Oxford like she always dreamed and she and Reggie continue to grow in their powers.

World Building - The world is set in an alternative history version of England during WWI.  The world if very very very (sometimes overly) detailed with every bit of everything spelled out for us.  There is a fantasy element with the Elemental Masters and other magics appearing as a normal thing.  The author details every bit of the world, giving us everything from the setting to the machinations of the various things going on.  It actually has the feeling of being over stuffed with description sometimes...so yeah.

Story - The story had it's basis in the fairy tale of Cinderella, but the execution of it was wholly original.  This is a great example of how to take a well known and loved tale and turn it into something completely new and yet familiar enough to know what the source material was.  There were several layers to this book and the stories were both very personal and world sized.  I love it when an author can tell a story that encompasses both views giving us perspective from all sides. My only real complaint about the story is that like the world building, it felt over done.  I love multiple stories, but the author took it to an extreme degree, to the point I just wanted to get back to the story lines I cared about.

Character - This book did a pretty good job with various characters.  For the most part the characters were well developed and did not fall too much into standard tropes, which considering this is a fairy tale retelling is a pretty mean feat.  I especially loved Allison and her girls 'cause let's face it, a well fleshed out bad guy is pretty awesome.  I also liked how the author would use pairs of characters to contrast the strengths, weaknesses and uniqueness of every individual.  Overall pretty good characters.

Editing - I always feel like this author could use somebody who maybe put's a hand on her shoulder and points out that maybe we don't need to describe every single engine configuration of every single plane flown at any point during the war.  The author does this with every aspect of the book, from cooking and cleaning, to flying, to fighting, to the work of the Elemental Masters, to the social hierarchy, to every major and minor action in this book.  I like it when there is a realistic amount of detail that describes the world and I really like when the focus of the book is well thought out, but there is a limit and I think an author needs to focus on what is the interest and focal point of the book.  Other then the overkill of detail, the book was very easy to follow and very readable.  It just needed to be about 150 pages shorter (the book clocked in at a whopping 468 pages).

Cinderella - I thought that the author did a great job incorporating the familiar story of the serving girl turned princess without essentially just telling us the same story.   I especially liked the bit's that hearkened back to the original (and a wee bit gory) story.  For instance instead of a tiny glass slipper, our "Cinderella" had a glove with only three fingers.  To try and trick Reggie into believing it was her instead of Eleanor, Lauralee actually cut off her pinky to "fit" the glove!  This is a direct nod to the step-sisters mutilating their feet to fit into the slipper in the original.  I also enjoyed the fact that both Eleanor and Reggie had "fairy god-mothers"  it added a nice not to the original and a balance to things.   This is how I love my retellings, with direct nod's to the originals, but with new and inventive ideas.

Elements - In this book we got to focus on the dichotomy of the Elements.  We got to see Allison,  an Elemental Master, use her power for evil and we got to see how and why she did it.  The author brought back Maya, and Earth Master from the first book with her healing Earth Magic and we saw how intent and usage can change an Element from one type to it's opposite. I also enjoyed the alternative versions of how certain things may have come about.  For instance, the Spanish Flu, which just added more chaos and death to the already decimated Europe, got a bit of a supernatural treatment when Allison used it to put a dent in the forces to prolong the war for her own purposes.  We got to learn about all of the Elements, their Dark and Light uses, and how they can help or hinder each other thanks to Eleanor and her unique learning process.  I really liked how she purposely learned about all four elements, not just her own Fire element.  This helped her in the long run AND gave us the reader a more well rounded view of the Elements.

Preachy Preachy - So...this book get's really preachy on occasion.  One of the main events is WWI.  I think we can all agree that in general war is bad.  I think we can also agree that WWI had it's won special brand of awfulness.  The tactics that were employed during this war essentially turned soldiers into fodder in an attempt to stop the other guys by any means possible.  The men who came back from this war...if they came back...were broken physically, mentally and emotionally.  We are still dealing with this issues today.  Ok so in one paragraph I have made my views on war and especially WWI fairly clear right?  In this book we essentially get a repeat of this same thing in EVERY CHAPTER!  There are 30 chapters, so that's at least 30 times that the author felt that she had to tell us war is bad, 30 times that she didn't trust the reader to read and understand her the first times she told us.  I understand that this may be a very personal issue for her, and that is understandable, but as a reader I start skipping these parts, not because I disagree, I just already heard what she had to say and want to get back to the story.

Overall Impression - I have mixed feelings about this book.  I felt that it was overly long, overly descriptive and overly preachy.  That being said the story was fresh and original (well as original as a retelling gets), the characters well developed and varied, and the Elemental...well elements were fascinating.  I guess I liked it well enough and would recommend it to anybody who likes this series, fantasy or alternate reality and doesn't mind a couple of extra pages.  I give it 7 out of 10 tarots.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Magic Sleep

Hi all, how is your fall going?  Have you broken out the boots yet, or are you stuck with 90 degree heat like I am?  To make myself feel better about this icky heat, I'm gonna ramble about a book 'cause who doesn't love a good rambling.  The book is The Gates of Sleep by Mercedes Lackey and is part of the Elemental Masters series.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Marina Rosewood is born to Alanna and Hugh Rosewood, two Earth Masters who have looked forward to her birth very much.  They are having a private christening party where several of her godparents...who also happen to be Elemental Masters are giving her various gifts that compliment her own Water powers.  Just as they last godparent is getting ready to give her gift, Hugh's estranged sister Arachne (how is that for a villain name?) curses the child to die before her 18th birthday.  The family understandably freaks out a bit, but one last godparent, Elizabeth, a Water Master is able to modify the curse so that if the curse is not activated by the time the child is 18, the curse will rebound on Arachne, and if the curse is activated, then Marina will only sleep until a cure is found.  To try and keep the curse from taking effect, Mariana is sent right then and there with Margahrita (Earth Master), her husband Sebastian (a Fire Master) and her brother Thomas (also an Earth Master) to live in an artist cottage in the woods.  Marina is raised with much love, art and magic by these three until tragedy strikes when she is 17.  Marina's parents die in an "accident" and she become the ward of her aunt Arachne who summons the child to live with her.  Marina is hauled away from her godparents and the only life she has ever known and thrust into a "high society" world that she is entitled to.  Arachne determines that for some reason Marina is clueless about the curse and has no real idea why her parents sent her away.  Arachne keeps a very tight leash on her niece under the guise of prepping her to enter society.  Marina's only break is when she goes to the vicar to work with him.  Marina meets Dr. Andrew Pike, an Earth Master who has built a sanitarium dedicated to actually helping patients instead of just warehousing them.  He also takes in children with Elemental Magic that do not have the benefit of parents or guardians who understand that the kid's are not crazy, just gifted.  Marina helps Dr. Pike when she can and the two fall in love.  Meanwhile Arachne and her odious (I love that word) son Reggie split their time between trying to keep Marina in line, and working on their dark arts in which they steal magic from those who have it by slowly poisoning them in their pottery factories.  Eventually Arachne activates her spell by getting Marina to accidentally prick her finger on a needle hidden in her childhood cradle.  Marina's godparents find her and along with the vicar, and Dr. Pike help Marina defeat Arachne when they are both pulled into the spirit world.  Archacne is defeated, Marina FINALLY learns about her own history and they all live happily ever after.

In case you didn't get it from the synopsis, this installment of the series was based on the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty.  Of all the books I've read in this series so far this is the most straight forward retelling, with the story following very closely to the original tale.  That made it...I don't want to say boring...but maybe a tad to predictable for my taste as I could pretty much figure out exactly what was going to happen every step of the way.  This was also one of those books that uses a lack of information to further the story.  The whole thing pretty much hinged on Marina not knowing of the curse and ways to counter it.  I would think with all the other things the godparents taught to her, and the way they treated her as an adult most of the time, that they would have pretty much trained her since birth to protect herself.  The love story was also a wee bit forced, but it could have been worse.  What I did like about this particular installment of the series is the almost minimizing of the Elemental Powers in certain characters.  The godparents were essentially artists who used their powers in small, domestic ways...almost as an after thought.  They are more focused on perfecting their art, no their powers and are therefore weaker then a practitioner who spends all their time practicing with their Elements.  I loved that this book showed that there were other less epic ways to wield the elements and still have a great life.  I liked the portrayal of both the vicar and Dr. Pike as men of gentleness, open mindedness and sensibleness.  Many times, especially in Victorian era books, the church men are portrayed as either lecherous power hungry dictators, or bumbling simple comic relief.  The vicar in this book was none of this AND helpful as well.  Dr. Pike along with the sanitarium he ran was also awesome as the evil torturous crazy house is a trope seen way to often in Victorian era books.  Learning about how a person could steal magic using the dark arts was interesting and the two different beliefs of mother and son when it came to the same rituals was cool as well. I did like that Marina could appreciate both the simple artists colony, but still want to have the modern pretty clothes and some part in society.  I think this shows how most people feel, enjoying more than one type of lifestyle and liking pretty things, or wanting to be a part of something different does not make you a bad person, or even lessen your love for another way of life.  Overall it was an ok book, it fits in with the series very well, but is not my favorite one.  I would recommend it to anybody who likes a fairy tale retelling, the Elemental Masters series, or certain tropes turned on their head.  I give this book 7 out of 10 carved cradles.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Reading To The Beast

Ready for another story?  Cool, today we ramble about The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey, the unofficial first book in the Elemental Masters Series.  This book is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and works pretty well.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Rosalind Hawkins, known as Rose to her friends and family is facing a crisis.  She is a scholar in the 1900's where it was still unseemly for females to do much other then marry, or in dire circumstances be a maid, shop girl or governess.  Unfortunately for Rose she is in just such dire circumstances after her father dies leaving her penniless.  A mysterious proposition appears for a job in San Francisco that just happens to detail her exact qualifications.  Rose packs her meager belongings and heads out to her new job.  She is surprised by the sheer luxury of the position and is just a wee bit uneasy when it turns out the "governess" position is actually a position reading through a speaking tube to a man she has never seen.  Turns out Jason Cameron, the man who hired her has had an "accident" that has left him horribly disfigured and housebound.  What he doesn't tell Rose is that he is an Elemental Master of Fire and that one of his experiments went horribly wrong and he is now stuck in a body that is half wolf and half man.  Jason has dismissed all of his human servants, depending solely on his elemental Salamanders to keep his vast house in order.  The only other human Jason has contact with is the lazy and devious Paul DuMond who is supposed to be acting as Jason's apprentice, but is to lazy to apply himself to the discipline needed to truly become a Master.  After much back and forth Rose and Jason find each others company to be mutually pleasing, adding much to their nightly reading sessions.  Rose quickly discovers the world of Magyk and after a bit of mulling it over decides to accept it.  A mishap brings rose to Jason's rooms where she discovers his state, and surprises him by handling it with more composure then expected.  Rose also discovers her own Magyk, the element of Air and command of the Sylphs which compliments Jason's own Magyk.  Meanwhile DuMond has been in cahoots with Jason's rival, the Fire Master Simon Beltaire.  Simon wants nothing more then to destroy Jason, and by promising DuMond an easier (and more destructive) way to become a Master, enlists his help.  To this end DuMond goes to try and kidnap Rose to use in one of his nasty spells.  Rose is rescued when Jason comes to her aid in full beast mode and rips DuMonds throat out.  This is the first time Rose has seen him act in such a pure beast like manner and is very disturbed.  Recognizing this, Jason sends her to the city on a holiday that had already been planned to give her some space.  Rose is approached by Simon to try and enlist her to his side, but to no avail.  As Rose contemplates her future with Jason, a great earthquake happens and Rose does what she can to help.  Simon again approaches her and tries to force her to go with him when Jason again appears.  Using the combination of Jason's Fire and Rose's Air they finally defeat the evil Fire Master.  They head back to Jason's manor and decide to marry, even if they never find a cure for Jason't half wold state.  Everybody good lives mostly happily ever after and we get to move on to the next book.

I liked this book.  I liked it for several reasons.  The best of course is that it is another retelling of one of my favorite stories, and we all know how I love a good retelling.  This is a good retelling as in it followed all the basic points of the original story, girl left penniless, beastly, yet eventually kind hearted well of man, pride, looks, lessons, even the roses.  I really liked Rose as a main character because she was super bookish, a bit independent, but not super girl.  She defiantly needed help in some of the more physical aspects of this story (though she was by no means delicate.)  and she very much enjoyed pretty clothes.  I liked the mix of intelligence, femininity, stubbornness, and sheer love of books that was mixed into this character.  Jason was pretty cool, he has an arrogance about him that keeps him from being to perfect and is happily willing to admit a female as being at a minimum his equal in all things intellectual.  The setting was pretty neat.  This time period, especially on the American West Coast is one of massive change and opportunities which makes it the perfect place to make a story like this plausible.  There were a few things that were not my favorite.  Jason ALWAYS has a way to see Rose and uses this ability constantly, with out her permission, even after they come to their understandings.  As convenient a of a plot device that this is, it kind of creeps me out a bit.  I know if somebody was constantly observing me, and using that information to their advantage with out my knowledge I would be livid.  If I found out about it later, especially after I had fallen in love with somebody, bad bad things would happen.  I also found some of the introspective phrases (of which there were many) to be a bit over the top and more tell me instead of show me in nature.  There were a lot of "reminiscing" thoughts that were just there to explain stuff...which felt forced.  That being said, one of my complaints in the last Elemental Masters book I read was a lack of understanding of how the Magyk worked and this cleared up a tiny bit of that, so that was good.  Overall I enjoyed this book and recommend it to anybody who like fairy tale retellings, Magyk, and smart people.  I give it 7 out of 10 herb packets and can't wait to read the next one.
What is your favorite retelling?  What Element would you control?  How much do I love bookish heroines?

How To Become A Fairy Godmother

Hello All!  I hope everybody had a great weekend, mine was busy and fantastic and long and wonderful and just what I needed before the crazy crazy crazy week that starts today.  To start of the week/month of busy as all get out, I thought I would do a bit of a rambling on a book that combines all the comfort of a traditional fairy tale (or ten or twelve) with the freshness of a new idea.  The book is The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey, the first book in the Five Hundred Kingdoms series.  I picked it up a while ago 'cause I liked the idea of a world where people were forced to live the life of a fairy tale character.  I really enjoyed it for several reasons, but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Elena is feeling a bit frustrated, she has lived with her stepmother and two stepsisters in pretty horrible conditions.  She is forced to cook and clean while they spend all the money her father had made before his death, and continued to spend into deep debt.  Now the family is fleeing to a new town, leaving Elena on her own.  Does this sound vaguely familiar to you?  Sounds like the start of Cinderella right :-)  Anyways Elena decides she is going to hire out as a maid, but instead gets apprenticed to Madame Bella, the fairy godmother to several of the Five Hundred Kingdoms.  Elena learns that in the Five Hundred Kingdoms a force called the Tradition tries to force people and events to follow certain patterns that we know as fairy tales.  Some of the tales are great, like Cinderella, other's can have awful deadly consequences like Rapunzel, where at best a guy ends up with his eyes gouged out and at worst, several men die before she finds her true love.  In Elena's case, due to her circumstances, she was being pushed into the Cinderella role, but the fact that there were no Princes in her age range in her, or the surrounding kingdoms, thwarted the pattern.  Instead Elena learns that Fairy Godmothers can use their magic to try and alter or influence the Tradition to produce a more favorable, or at least less deadly out come.  Elena learns enough to take over as Fairy Godmother and we see her work her magic in several cases.  Eventually she sets the tasks for three brother's to determine their suitability to marry a princess and actually be able to rule a country with kindness and competency.  The youngest brother passes and is sent on his way.  The oldest brother is turned into a servant until he learns humility and the middle brother is so cocky that Elena turns him into a mule and brings him home with her.  Eventually he learns his lesson, while falling in love with Elena.  Elena returns his affections and once again breaks tradition by marrying him, providing her own happy ending.  The two, with some help of friends, assist his youngest brother and his new bride in repelling an invasion and everybody finds some sort of ever after until the next book.

I very much enjoyed this book for many many reasons.  The best part was the whole concept.  It is a well thought out concept that kind of gives a reason why so many stories follow a predictable pattern.  My favorite part of the whole book was watching Elena use her own wits and cleverness to come up with viable ways to thwart the powerful Tradition.  This is the type of stuff I love reading about, taking a rule, or law, or tradition and finding the loopholes to re purpose it to ones own end.  I loved how the Tradition was not to be defeated, but to be worked with.  The flow of the book was a bit different then I am used to in stories like this, it was less of a beginning middle and end, all though it had all three, but it was more of an explanation, or an almost manual of how Elena does her job.  Ok that makes it sound boring, which it is not at all, it's just less about Elena (even though she has her own compelling story) and more about the Kingdom's and what Elena does to help them.  It is different in a good way and the angst is kept to a minimum.  It is fun to see all the variations of fairy tales that the author managed to put in without overcrowding the plot.  I also liked how Elena did not feel the need to make every Tradition about romantic love, often times going for the more practical friendship or allies.  A lot of some of the stupid stuff was also addressed in the book, at one point Elena tells the kind brother that while sharing your food with an old woman is all well and good, make sure he saves some for himself, because he can't help anybody if he starves to death.  The author makes her heroine practical, human and smart and I loved reading this book and can't wait to get the next one!  I recommend it to anybody who likes fairy tales or smart capable characters.  I give this book 8 out of 10 flying donkey's.

How would you change a fairy tale?  How refreshing is it to see characters who have some logic behind their actions?  How coherent do you think I'm gonna be by the end of the week?

Growing Up Sucks

Hello all, flipping through my completed book stack (I love watching it grow) and realized there are a bunch of books I finished on my trip that I haven't rambled about yet.  To remedy that let's ramble about Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu.  This is a novel length retelling of The Snow Queen (which has always been one of my favorites).  This book is a perfect one to read in the winter, as the cold and icy atmosphere are very much part of the story.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

Hazel is having a rough time, her whole entire life has been turned topsy turvy by the divorce of her parents.  She has been taken out of her private school that encouraged individualism, creativity and other unorthodox methods of learning and plunked into the local public school into the fifth grade class taught by Mrs. Jacobs who likes things to be as orderly as possible.  Hazels only consolation is that her best friend Jack is in the classroom next to hers and sometimes plays with her at recess.  Hazel has a hard time making friends as she is a dreamer and a bit of a geek (seriously the references in this book to other books and geekdom are
pretty cool), even when she is approached by other kids, she tends to not really know how to interact with them. Jack on the other hand does have multiple friends, two other boys in particular whom he hangs out with when he is not with Hazel.  One of the boys is pretty mean to Hazel, ensuring that Jack must constantly choose one or the other.  To make matters worse, her teacher is constantly on Hazel to pay attention, which Hazel finds difficult and her mother is constantly after her to try and be more "normal" or at least try and live in the real world a bit more.  In an interlude we learn about a nasty little goblin who made a mirror that reflects only the worst in people.  He then purposely shattered it, sending pieces of it all over the world to wreak havoc.  One day when they are playing in the snow Jack gets hit in the eye with a snow ball and all of a sudden gets kind of mean.  He starts ignoring Hazel and hanging out exclusively with his guy friends.  This really gets to Hazel, who always felt she could depend on Jack to be there for her, to be creative with her and to always accept her for who she is.  This new Jack is not the one who was her friend.  Hazels mother tells her that sometimes as you grow up people change, and maybe Jack is just starting to outgrow some of the "childish" (Mom's words) games they were playing.  This upsets Hazel in multiple ways, and she tries to "grow up" herself.  This results in her giving up all of her imaginary worlds, and creative games.  Her grades improve and she quits getting in trouble, but
everybody notices that she does not seem to be herself anymore.  Jacks friend Tyler gets a hold of Hazel and tells her he thinks that something is wrong.  When Hazel goes to try and visit Jack they make some vague reference to him going to help an elderly aunt.  Tyler tells Hazel he thinks he saw Jack go into the woods with a snowy white lady.  The second part of the book has Hazel going into the forest and into what seems like a fairy tale world...except for that it is all twisted.  The people who seem most helpful are the ones who want to keep her there, or have some sort of twisted revenge. It is actually the wolves in the end that are the most helpful.  Through out her journey Hazel learns more about herself, and also has to face the possibility that Jack might not want to return home (his mother is suffering from sever depression, making his life very hard), or that even if he does he and Hazel may not have the same relationship.  Hazel eventually finds Jack in the middle of the Snow Queens realm.  Hazel challenges the Snow Queen who tells her that if Jack chooses to leave of his own accord that she will not stop them.  Hazel finally convinces Jack to return home and leads him back through the forest.  When they get back, it is like they never left.  Jack goes home and Hazel is now ready to face growing up and what lies ahead.

I have always loved the Snow Queen stories.  I think it is one of the few old ones that actually has the girl rescue the boy.  I have also always loved that the Snow Queen is not really the villain in this story (that would be the evil goblin who made the mean glass mirror), but a person who allows people to try and work out who they really are.  This version of the story was a bit sad, a bit frustrating, a bit melancholy and a bit dreamy.  For being a book about 5th graders I found it to be a bit depressing.  Every kid had some serious emotional stuff to get through, this is unfortunately realistic, but did not make it an escape book by any means.  Even when we switch to the more magical second half we see Hazels happy idea's of fairy tales take a hard downward turn, with the characters that inhabit these woods all having horrible things of their own to deal with.  I'm not sure how I feel about this, I know again that this is all real stuff that people have to deal
with, but there did not seem to be a lot of hope for something better anywhere in the story.  I couldn't tell if the author was telling us that you should be who you are, dreamy, creative and lost in your own world, but that you won't have any friends and nobody will understand you.  Or if maybe the point was we all have to
grow up sometime and that these things are childish and have no place in the real world...I never really was sure what I was supposed to get out of the whole thing.  The ending was pretty abrupt and open ended, not really telling us if Hazel and Jack ended up as friends, or started growing apart.  We never learn if Hazel took her experiences in the woods as a lesson in growing up or proof that the imaginary could be real or some combination of the two. There are some bright spots in the book, the author manages to incorporate some awesome books into the story, like A Wrinkle in Time, Harry Potter, and a delicious little jaunty wink to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Hazel also makes a bit of a new friend in Adelaide who proves that being rich does not necessarily make you snobby and that ballet can be awesome, not just something for feminists to rail against.  I also like that Hazel was adopted from India, giving her a bit more of an identity crisis, giving her one more reason she felt like she did not belong.  Over all I found this to be a good little read for the winter months and enjoyed the literary references (the author obviously loves her books).  I did however find it to be a bit depressing and while I do not always need my books to end with pat answers and a perfect ending, a little more hope at the end would have been nice.  I give this book 6 out of 10 frozen tiaras.
What is your favorite old fairy tale?  Do you find books like this realistic or depressing?  Is ballet something wonderful and magical, or something that is forced upon to many little girls?

Water Song

Hello all, picked up an extra shift at the station last night so if this rambling is a bit more rambely then usual, that may be why...or I'm just in an extra rambley mood (spell check hates me right now).  Today's rambely ramble is on Water Song by Suzanne Weyn and is a retelling of The Frog Prince.  This book is part of the "Once Upon A Time" series (not the TV show) that has various authors "re-tell" classic fairy tales in a short book form.  This has kind of been a hit or miss series for me, some of the books are amazing, some are ok and some flat out don't make any sense.  For me this was one of the ok ones, as always SPOILERS AHEAD.

Emma is a wealthy British girl who has found herself trapped at her families estate in Belgium as World War I, or The Great War as it was called then rages on around her.  Her mother has died in a bombing, leaving Emma and two Flemish speaking servants stuck until her father can get to her. While trapped, Emma receives a letter from her beau back in England essentially breaking up with her. In a fit of rage Emma throws her gold locket with his picture in it down the well. Meanwhile a young American Jack Verde who has joined the British Army has been caught in a chlorine gas attack and has stumbled into the well on Emma's property as a way to rinse of the burning gas.  Emma regrets her impulsive decision to throw her locket away as it is not only a family heirloom, but it contains the pictures of her parents.  She decides to go down the well to look for her locket and discovers Jack, barely able to cling to the ladder in the well.  While they are down there German soldiers come and pull them out, using some quick thinking, Emma tells the soldiers that Jack is her American husband and that they both live at the manor (this is before the Americans joined the war).
 The Germans take over the manor, using it as a base of operations and lock Jack and Emma in her parents bedroom.  Emma and Claudine help nurse Jack back to health, along with the help of Jack's spirit dreams in which he sees his deceased mother who had a gift for healing and spells.  When Jack wakes up he and Emma engage in a constant stupid poor boy vs spoiled rich girl spat (which quickly gets annoying). As Jack reveals his history, a life in the Louisiana bayou, mother dying young, time in a home for boys, and his decision to join the British army, he tells Emma that he can hold his breath for a very long time. A couple pages later Jack is demanding a kiss and the promise of true friendship in return for getting her locket out of the well. Insulted that he would ask her for a kiss she decides to go find the locket herself.  Her foot gets stuck in a crevice while she is under water and she is saved by a mysterious giant frog man. Jack reveals that he is in possession of the locket and gives it to her, he then reminds her of the pact, telling her she has to be his true friend and that she owes him a kiss, which she refuses to give.   Meanwhile the German soldiers tell Emma that if she wants to keep herself and Jack alive, she will need to spy on the villagers when she goes into town for food.  Emma feeds information that she knows is common knowledge to the soldiers, keeping her from turning traitor.  She makes an attempt to escape, but her promise makes her come back to try and help Jack.  At this point some Allied soldiers are captured, including Kid, a young soldier who fought with Jack.  Kid is wounded by a bullet and Jack goes back into his spirit dreaming to learn how to heal him.  Jack is successful.  At this point Jack and

Emma have fallen hopelessly in love with each other, but neither is willing to admit it.  Kid is taken away for questioning by the Germans and Jack finds a way to keep him alive even after he is shot again.  Later Emma helps him escape to a sympathetic farmhouse and he tells her about the giant frog man that saved him. Emma and Jack use a secret passage they find to eavesdrop on the Germans and decide to escape.  Jack thinks it is to dangerous for Emma and puts her to sleep with a potion.  She wakes up and goes after him, only to fall into a swamp.  Jack dives down and rescues her she kisses him and tells him she loves him, and then they are promptly chased by the Germans.  They run and Emma is shot in the arm and her head is grazed.  Jack makes a raft and they are rescued by the Allied force.  Emma joins the U.S. Army Signal Corps and finally joins Jack when the war is over.

I liked the idea of this book much more then I liked the book itself.  The historic context was pretty cool, and I have been into the WWI era, especially in Europe lately so this was right up my ally.  The writing itself however was pretty simplistic and rote.  I am not sure if it is because the book was so short, or this is just how the author writes, but the characters were severely underdeveloped.  Jack was probably the most talked about character, but his story had a weird mix of too much going on with not enough explanation.  Was he the son of a voodoo queen, an orphan, a champion swimmer, a man of mixed heritage, all this random super special stuff that just got shoved into random places.  Emma never got beyond the rich girl with rebellion issues, her "spirit and fire" came off as petulant and defensive until she fell hopelessly in love with a guy she knew nothing about after three days.  The rest of the characters in the book each had one tidbit that was supposed to set them apart, but no follow through.  There were some cool bits about what was going on during that time period, and it was nice not to have the Americans be the hero's for once.  Mostly I wanted less googly eyed reasons that they were so in love with the perfectness of each other for half the book and more of the story, which if had been more developed I think could have been awesome. The story also was a weird mix of repetitive (get caught, make up a story, fight/bicker, fall in love, sneak out, lather, rinse, repeat) seriously the sequence happened at least three times before the end of the book. The author did get pretty much all of the major plot points of the original story in (the golden ball down the well, the petulant princess, the frog "prince", sharing the bed with the frog), but even some of those felt like a stretch on occasion.  Overall I think more story and less lovey dovey would have made this a better book.  I give it 5 out of 10 golden balls.

What is your favorite retelling?  Do you like it when they use a historical setting to re-tell a fairy tale or do you prefer a magical one?  Do I expect way to much out of short young adult novels?