The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Title: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Authors: E. Lockhart
Pages: 352
Publisher: Hyperion (2008)



Review:

“She asked herself: If I were in charge, how could I have done it better?” (p. 86)

Picture an elitist boarding school, full of timeless traditions that exclude a certain percentage of the student body. Include a secret society of students, who exercise their power by doing silly pranks and proving their popularity. Add in a quirky, talented girl who isn’t going to stand for any of it – most particularly her boyfriend’s involvement.

On the surface, the story of Frankie Landau-Banks seems to be a great comedy, with excellent gags and wonderful comedic timing. Nonetheless, you can still find an interesting depth and analysis of certain elements of culture you might never have thought to question previously. The characters are three-dimensional in their own way, and Frankie herself shines through with a strength that I’m sure will someday lead her to change the world.

You know exactly what is going to happen from the very beginning, due to two main factors: expert use of foreshadowing and a misplaced prologue. To me, this stylistic maneuver proves that, as in many situations, what matters isn’t the end result, but how you get there. Expect to learn a few new words, and laugh out loud at the grammar in the story. My personal word of the day is schadenfreude (pleasure obtained from others’ misfortunes), which I am planning on using next chance I get.

Regardless of whether you laugh at the situations presented in the book (I can assure you that I did), you will probably remember at least a few of the ideas presented in it. You might even be interested in reading about the panopticon and wondering how it applies to your own life. Just that makes the book a worthy read (deliberately ignoring the hours of fun you’ll get out of it).

Keturah and Lord Death

Title: Keturah and Lord Death
Authors: Martine Leavitt
Pages: 216
Publisher: Front Street (2006)



Review:

"The right to choose is man’s great gift, but one thing is not his to choose – the time and means of death." (p. 162)

Last time I picked up Keturah and Lord Death, I finished it a few hours with a wildly beating heart and goosebumps. There has been no significant change the second time around – it’s quite determined to cause tachycardia, even three years later.

The book captures the feel of a traditional tale, complete with the morals and the hazy dream-like quality, never dropping it. Anyone who has ever attempted to write in this style will understand exactly how astonishing such a feat truly is, and love it all the more. Better still, the book shines with originality, since what makes it a beautiful tale also serves to make it an atypical novel, sparse and insightful. The strong characters will delight you, the writing will inspire you, and the plot will keep you on the edge of your seat.

There is no more to say, as any summary would take away from the story. Read this book with no preconceived notions, and merely let Keturah enchant you. To sum it up in one word: spellbinding.

The Actor and the Housewife

Title: The Actor and the Housewife
Authors: Shannon Hale
Pages: 339
Publisher: Bloomsbury (2009)



Review:

I’m certain most people have watched a romantic comedy at least once in their lives. So really, as the title implies and to quote this book’s blurb, “Becky’s story of a steadfast housewife and the handsome star is the ultimate romantic fantasy”. And yet, that is such a tremendous lie, that I can’t even begin to describe it (yes, I did take that line out of context).

There is no point in describing the plot, which is – for once – somewhat irrelevant. The characters, however… aye, there’s the rub! First, we have the third person narrator, with such a distinct voice that I feel the need to give him (it?) a heartfelt thumbs up for carrying much of the novel’s weight and giving it a distinct style. Then, we get to more tangible characters: Felix proves his worth as a debonair actor, Becky comes through as a charming and ordinary woman, and her husband – what can I even say about Mike that will describe him? Their relationship is so genuine and real, outside of the glittery Hollywood situations, grounding the book and allowing it to take flight at the same time. Through them, we explore an interesting point: what constitutes infidelity? Can married beings have close friends of the opposite sex?

I must’ve cried a few buckets at certain points during the book (I’ve got somewhat itchy and puffy eyes to stand witness), laughed outright at some other points (there are live witnesses in this case), thought hard about certain issues (my brow is permanently creased, at least until tomorrow), and ultimately sighed at the not-quite fairytale in my hands. Emotions, thoughts, conflict that rages inside the characters: this is what makes the novel stand apart from others and be indefinable in genre.

The religious worldview of Becky Jack, mother of four children, Mormon housewife, might make certain people think twice before picking up this book. See beyond that, and realize that the book’s much more than that. Regardless of how you feel about the ultimate decisions of the characters and the way the story plays out, the feelings expressed there are real, poignant, and moving. You won’t be disappointed, even if you find it too hard to come back to the story very often – I think I’m definitely included in that category.

Which doesn’t mean I won’t keep it on my shelf and cherish it. And when it gets made into a movie, as it should, I’ll be there with popcorn and treats. Scout’s honor.

The Hero and the Crown

Title: The Hero and the Crown
Authors: Robin McKinley
Pages: 256
Publisher: Greenwillow Books (1984)



Review:

Many years ago, my librarian placed The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown in front of me and told me to read them. Usually, this wouldn’t have been a chore, but for some reason, these two scared me with their covers – to start with, the dragon looked far too colorful, and worst of all: they both had Newbery stickers on them. In my experience, those stickers marked the boring books, and were a neon sign warning strangers away from tedium.

When I finally did get around to reading them, The Hero and the Crown became one of my favorite books – if not my absolute favorite. I’ve read this book dozens of times, including just The Best Parts whenever I needed some cheering up… Thus, I will accept that perhaps I’m not the best person to review this book, as I’m hardly impartial. Nonetheless, I do believe that McKinley deserves to become a millionaire just for writing it, so I’m spreading the word to younger generations.

Aerin-sol, daughter of the King of Damar, is possibly the most distinct and believable heroine in the genre, not only because of her flame-colored hair. She’s the original embodiment of awkward and clumsy, while her feelings of ineptitude resonate in anyone who has ever felt misplaced. And yet, even while the reader feels certain that she’ll someday find her destiny and fulfill her potential, the path proves arduous. And so, unlike in more modern fantasy novels, there is no snapping of fingers for the solution – or a definitive happy ever after – to arrive.

McKinley’s style, as usual, describes the world of Damar in a very detailed and painstaking way. It’s divided into two parts, recognizable because of style: in the first, Aerin fights her way to try and find a place for herself at court, while the second shows a more vague, dream-like portrayal of events that legends are made of. As if this weren’t enough, her prose is breathtaking, and this book uses flashbacks better than any other I can remember. It’s precisely this writing style that frightens some readers away, but it’s rewarding if you see it through.

In short, a memorable story that I simply cannot praise highly enough. And yet, here’s a word of advice: although you can read them in any order, I’d recommend tackling The Blue Sword before The Hero and the Crown, to keep the mystique around Lady Aerin alive. She is, after all, a legend…

Princess of the Midnight Ball

Title: Princess of the Midnight Ball
Authors: Jessica Day George
Pages: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury



Review:

I like fairytales in most shapes and forms: from the gruesome and traditional Brothers Grimm versions to the sweet and sanitized Disney ones. Still, I play favorites with stories just as much as I do with books – my favorite fairytale has always been “Beauty and the Beast,” followed by “The Six Swans,” and finally “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” Of all those, I was only missing an enjoyable novelized version of the last one.

Guess which fairytale the book I’m currently reviewing is based on. I’ll give you a hint: I just told you earlier.

Princess of the Midnight Ball is a refreshing new take on a story most people are familiar with. However, no matter how much you loved the story, the original is a couple of pages long, and thus the characters are mere caricatures. There is no distinction between all twelve princesses. The soldier who tries to save them from the ball is a much older man who, in true fairytale fashion, has the tools needed to solve the puzzle.

Obviously, in nearly three hundred pages, we get a noticeable amount of details that weren’t there in the older version. The princesses are quite charming and mostly distinct, while Galen (the male main character) completely steals the show with his personality full of kindness and fun. Furthermore, I enjoyed the importance of a traditional pastime in this new retelling – knitting! The book even comes with two knitting patterns as an epilogue of sorts.

This doesn’t mean that the book is perfect. The style is too simple for my taste, and we are still missing character depth, particularly in secondary characters. Still, it does capture the general feel of enchantment, curses, and mystery that makes the entire genre so curiously satisfying. It isn’t a book I’ll reread time after time, but it’s sweet enough that you probably won’t regret giving it a chance.

The Gathering Storm

Title: The Gathering Storm (Book 12 of The Wheel of Time)

Authors: Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Pages: 784

Publisher: Tor Books

Review:

I read the first book of this series, The Eye of the World, when I was thirteen years old. After I finished that tome, I proceeded to devour all the available sequels (for the record, up to Book 7, A Crown of Swords). The story was epic, of a scope I’d rarely seen before or since. I could barely wait for the story to continue, to see what exactly was going to happen to the characters I’d become so involved with.

That is precisely where the problems started. You can only write so many pages per year, and churning out 800 page monoliths describing such an ambitious and complicated story is hard work. Robert Jordan had to pursue minor characters and tie the whole story together, making it seem as if it dragged on and on with very little new information. I agreed with this at the time, but now I think the problem lies in the publication dates: the series is meant to be read as a whole, and to represent the ending of an Age, not the story of Rand al’Thor, main character extraordinaire. It’s impossible to grasp this if you’re getting trickles of information every two or three years.

The years have gone by. Robert Jordan passed away, and a different author, Brandon Sanderson, was chosen to finish the saga with the twelfth book, A Memory of Light. Said book proved to be so long that it was split into three. At the same time, for better or worse, I’m not the same teenager who read those first books so eagerly. As such, I wasn’t sure Sanderson was the right person for this job, since his style – if you’ve read any of his own books – is drastically different from Jordan’s.

My worries were unfounded. Sanderson hasn’t only pulled it off, he’s made the whole series regain the faster pacing it had in the beginning. The differences in style are barely noticeable, and then only if you are truly looking for them (I confess I was) and in certain parts of the story (Mat, mostly… but how much of that is due to him changing as a character and how much to the author is open to debate). You can’t even tell the original Book 12 was divided into three parts, as it has a very clear ending.

Plot-wise, the book points out where most characters are, although it focuses mostly on Egwene and Rand. One very major thread of the story concludes satisfactorily, and many more minor ones are resolved. Best of all, the end is finally in sight and there’re plenty of hints as to how that will play out. Hope, despair, triumph - the sheer joy of reading about those characters is back, and we’re heading towards what was promised so long ago. It’s going to be monumental.

This book, although easily one of my favorite three in the series, should never be picked up if you haven’t read the other eleven, as you’d be absolutely and irrevocably lost. However, if you did love The Wheel of Time and lost faith in it, fear not: this book will most likely make you regain the desire to see the story through to the end.

Changes

It's been a long time since I wrote anything for this blog. While I have no excuse, there is a reason for it: I hate the system I started with numerical ratings. There is no way to be truly be impartial with it - or at least, I haven't found it - and it was simply tearing me apart.

For instance, take your standard bestseller. Chances are that I've seen a similar plot a million times before in different books, making my rating for it be very low. And yet, for its genre, it might be a truly wonderful volume.

As such, I'm instituting a new system. From now on, the reviews will be qualitative, shorter, and fun to write. Hopefully, there'll be plenty of them.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Title: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Author: John Boyne
Pages: 216
Publisher: Random House

Rating: 6/10



Review:

Certain topics continue to fascinate people, no matter how much they’ve been exploited over the ages. The problem with writing according to ‘fads’ is that, unless you have something truly significant to tell, your story gets buried in the bunch.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas would truly have benefitted from lacking as much publicity as it has, mostly because half the wonder of it is discovering the world as the protagonist does. However, as most people have already figured out, it involves a boy named Bruno (the son of Auschwitz’s Kommandant, to be exact), and his unlikely friendship with one of the prisoners.

Now, suppose that I were willing to overlook the mass of historical inaccuracies the book is based upon (such as the fact that a nine-year-old German boy would be unaware of who the Führer was, or what a ‘Jew’ was), and take the book at face value as what it is supposed to be: a fable in a historical setting.

The moral of the story is beaten upon you from page one, and can be more or less summarized as “boys will be boys, no matter how you try to classify them according to other criteria,” something easily extended to “all people are the same.” And guess what, I agree with this. The Holocaust is an embarrassment, a period where madness temporarily took over the world. So what is the problem with this book exactly?

The problem, speaking strictly from a literary point of view, is that John Boyne looks down upon his readers. He tries to obscure what he talks about behind homophones like “The Fury,” and yet makes it painfully obvious – to the point that the other characters even point out that Bruno mispronounces terms. And the so-called Great Plot Twist of the book is nothing more than his desperate attempt to ingrain his book into people’s psyches. It’s unnecessary, it’s there exclusively for the shock value, and it’s patronizing.

And yet, the book is a bestseller, and it’s famous. The reason is simple: it’s short, it’s sweet, it’s very easy to read, and it’s compelling. I’m even glad for its popularity, because the more people who feel the horror of the Holocaust, the better. But please, if you wish to read a truly good book on the subject, do yourself a favor and pick up Eli Wiesel’s Night instead, to learn how truly haunting and terrifyingly powerful words can be.

Prologue

It has recently come to my attention that I read far too much. For this very reason, people tend to ask me when buying a gift for their mother-in-law who is apparently such a great fan of historical romances. The problem this causes for me is simple: I end up repeating myself endlessly, saying the very same things about every book I read. Hence, the idea of a blog.

A word of caution: I read for the characters. I read for the stories. I read for the sheer lyrical beauty of words. I could care less whether a book is written for 'young adults,' if it's science fiction, or if it was written in the fifteen hundreds. Be forewarned.