Book Chop: Spells

Title: Spells (Wings, book 2)
Author: Aprilynne Pike
Genre: Teen Romance Fantasy
Verdict: Well, see what Mom Chops has to say about it:

Today's Chop is a special guest Chop by none other than my own mom! Here's her verdict after finishing an ARC of Spells:

I thought Aprilynne Pike’s debut novel Wings was a fresh concept and her follow-up novel proves she’s got the stuff to carry out the fantasy. I want to make it very clear, I’m on team Tamani. David is a nice guy, but he’s not as invested as Tamani is. I didn’t feel cheated by the lack of details of how well Laurel knew people on Avalon. I think it’s a layer of the onion the author will surely in the future. I like the focus on relationships and the new faerie lore was not as overwhelming as books with an older target market can be. Descriptions were just detailed enough to progress the story but not so verbose that I felt I’d never get out of a bog of heavy details.

Laurel’s characters is blossoming well. She’s not perfect, and yet she’s not the pity-party type either. She’s essentially having to re-learn all her faerie skills, but it’s not like riding a bike. She’s really having to work at it. She’s given a warning about what will happen if she lets her guard down when she returns to the human world. It was brilliant how I just watched her do it without even realizing I should have been screaming “No, Laurel!”

David is a nice guy. He’s supportive and does have a jealous streak. He’s getting a bit more frisky with Laurel, and I think it shows a lack of respect for her. He’s also a bit more reckless and that caused some concern for me.

Tamani is the guy every mother wants for her daughter, but he’s an excellent voice/bridge between the fae and human worlds. He’s not the only fae to explain their world, but he is best at clarifying what does and doesn’t relate between Laurel’s human point of view and her attempt to apply it to the fae world.

New characters are going to be lots of fun to watch develop. No plot spoilers here, but I’m 100% behind Laurel on her caution. Nice roundup for the end of this book, she’s not as brutal as James Dashner with the cliffhangers, but she leaves you wanting the next book like NOW!

I’d give this book 4 ½ stars, only because I don’t like boys with roving hands, boys in girls’ rooms, and definitely no boys sleeping over. No apologies, those are just the rules that keep you safe. When you blur certain lines, trolls get in and things get ugly.

Book Chop: The Book Thief

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Mark Zusak
Genre: Historical experimental fiction
Verdict: I loved it, and yet, I have a complaint.

Wow. This book was beautiful.

I've read a few books in recent years that were "experimental" in their genres, in one way or another. The Princess Bride was a big one, and very revolutionary at that. Obviously that's where the bar sits on brilliant narratives. A few others wear the hat well, like Stephen Lawhead's Scarlet and just about anything by Eoin Colfer.

Well, Zusak's 2006 barn-burner The Book Thief takes experimental tones in a new direction. The book is narrated by Death, and without sitting down and having any kind of detailed or outlined explanation of "who" Death is, you get a very good idea of what he's like, based on his narrative.

Death is intrigued by a young girl named Liesel Meminger who lived during Hitler's Germany. orphaned and abandoned, her foster parents teach her how to read, and she finds solace in books. Slowly but surely she learns the power of words, and she comes to love books so much that she'll do just about anything to get her hands on them--even pull them from Nazi burnings if she can get away with it.

So it's the story about a little girl who steals books, and the influence they have on her. Other significant events take place around her, and you get a taste of what it would be like for a 13 year-old orphan girl to experience Nazi Germany and see how utterly senseless it was. Everyone in her life has a backstory--since just about all of them have had a brush with Death--and you learn how all their lives are intertwined: her foster mother and father, her real mother, her younger brother, the boys in the neighborhood and their families, the mayor and his wife, and a Jew on the run from the Third Reich.

Honestly, I'm having a devil of a time figuring out how to sum it up. I was 400 pages into it (550 total) and I thought to myself, this book isn't really about very much, but I'm enjoying it and moving through it rather quickly. Part of it was the interesting characters, and most of it was Death's intriguing point of view. (The guy has a sense of humor--not morbid, not sarcastic, but something that seems to actually fit the mentality that Death ought to have.)

The language was beautiful too--Zusak employed the 5 senses flawlessly. I could always feel the town of Molching where Liesel lived. At times I could even smell it, taste it. I felt like I was there. He did a very good job on that front. Furthermore, it was poetic without being flowery or overly ambitious. The prose rushed along with a smooth texture that allowed you to see everything from multiple angles. Symbolism played a heavy part in telling this story.

My only single solitary complaint was the ending, the very last sentence in the book. It's that single, solitary phrase that makes it hard for me to argue what the point of the book is (other than demonstrating the power that words have.) I won't give it away, but it's enough for me to say that I think it didn't make much sense, it didn't really tie the whole conversation together.

Maybe it was my expectations or hopes, but that last sentence didn't live up to them for me.

Have any of you read it? What did you think of the ending?