Shadow and Bone | Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

I’m squishing both of these books into one post because I can’t just do a review on the second book in a series. That would be completely irresponsible, right? (Ps. meet Sock Bun, my creepy sock bunny my mom bought me forever ago. He is now the guardian of my books.)

So I’ll be honest, I really liked the first book while I was reading it, but then after I was just like, okay, that wasn’t bad. I wasn’t quite blown away by the plot or the world. It seemed kind of been there, done that. But I still liked it enough to read the second one, and even though the second book is largely a setup for the third, it was when I realized that Leigh Bardugo is a dang good writer.

What do I mean by that? I just said the first book was okay. How can she suddenly be so great?

Honestly, it was during the second book that I realized how flawless her narration was. Her characters still drove me nuts sometimes – I’m just not a huge fan of love triangles – but her execution? Superb.

So without further ado, my thoughts:

Characterization

So I hinted at this above, but some of the characters kind of made my eyes twitch. They can be a little moody and woe is me at times. BUT, and this is a big but, Leigh introduces some new characters in Siege and Storm that I really really love. So if you’re like me and kind of want to punch a few people in the face during Shadow and Bone, just hang tight! It gets better. Promise.

Plot/Narrative Arc

The second novel is mostly setting up for *drumroll please* a siege. But you get a really good look into how Alina’s world works and the politics behind the war. I was surprised at how into it I was. Leigh sets up for multiple possibilities in her third novel, so I’m interested to see where she goes with it.

Believability

So believable. So so believable. Leigh really creates an airtight world, and she includes some Russian culture into it, which is totally respectable. I don’t know a lot about Russian culture, but I’ve been wanting to do the same thing with Polish culture – no, not a Holocaust novel, more like Water for Elephants – so I totally give her props. I do wish we had a better understanding of where magic comes from or how Mal is such a good tracker. To me, his tracking skills seem even more magical than some of the actual Grisha.

Creativity/Originality

The idea of people with special powers in a war torn country isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but making the setting a fictional version of a real world country is on the newer side. The more the story progressed, the more original things became, though the family dynamic did remind me a bit of Victoria Aveyard’s royal family. Not so torn but definitely dysfunctional.

Cohesiveness

Like I said, Leigh is a brilliant writer. She weaves together realistic dialogue with an engaging story in a dynamic setting to create a seamless story. The more I think about her second book, the more impressed I am with her abilities. Now I just need to get my hands on the third one…

Overall result: yes! Go read these books.

~Liz

Follow me @wethewriters on Instagram and @liz_tampa on Twitter.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

This Friday begins my weekly book review post. Woohoo! Wild Friday night, right?

Who am I kidding? We’re all book nerds here. Heck yea that’s a wild Friday night.

Anywho, I’ve decided that for my debut review I would tackle The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I’ve come up with five criteria to rate the book on and will give it an ultimate pass or fail grade, because really, what are stars and numbers to just a simple “read it” or “don’t bother.” Plus, I couldn’t come to a consensus on a system, so this seemed like the best way for now.

So without further ado, my review:

1. Characterization:
   This is a HUGE one for me, because if I don’t care about the characters, I won’t care about the book. Lev creates some really real characters. I mean really real. Like, crap that was me in high school and I kind of hate myself real. Now, I’ll be honest, I hated almost every character at first. They were all punks or too cool or overly sexual. But then I realized, who wasn’t like that in high school going into college. We were all a little out there. Plus they get better. And then worse. And then better again. So major score on this part for Grossman, even though a small part of me was dying inside.
2. Plot/Narrative Arc:
   I mean, a book without a plot is just some words on a page, amiright? Okay, now that’s out of the way, I found the plot to be kind of confusing. Grossman has a way of writing where he looks at a normal timeline of events and then throws it out the window. One minute you’re here, another you’re there, and he doesn’t forewarn you before it happens. It takes some getting used to, but you do get used to it. It was one of those novels where I was trying to figure out how everything connected until the very end when it did. Made for a slightly frustrating read, but now that I’m done, I get it.
3. Believability:
   It’s all about magic, so either a) the magical people are all having a good laugh at us mundanes reading their biographies or b) suspension of disbelief. What I had a hard time with in this novel was how unpredictable the magic was. It seemed like it had no rules, or it had so many rules that you could explain anything away by just making one up and saying, oh, that’s why that happened. The characters really helped with this aspect, because they even called b.s. on some of what was happening, which made me feel better about my sanity as a reader.
4. Creativity/Originality:
   Here’s where I had my biggest issue. The land of Fillory (and this isn’t really a spoiler…I think) seems like Narnia. You get there a similar way, it’s a series of children’s books, magical land, kings and queens, etc. Even though there are obvious differences, part of me couldn’t quite get past that. But, Grossman is not C.S. Lewis, so the similarities pretty much end there. Some people call this the adult Harry Potter, but Harry Potter is for all ages unless you hate life, so I don’t quite agree with that statement. The Magicians is like a new adult fantasy story about magic and growing up. The characters and situations are unique, even if the setting seems a little familiar.
5. Cohesiveness:
   This category is for how I feel the book blended the above attributes (and the ones not listed) as a whole. I would say that Grossman excels at this, especially since he loves hopping around the timeline and twining people’s stories together. There are a lot of satisfying aha! moments that I rarely caught and found very readerishly (yes, that’s a word) satisfying.

Overall, I give this book a big fat PASS. And each book in the series only gets better, honestly. My husband tells me the TV show is also excellent and gives more backstory.

~Liz

Follow me @wethewriters on Instagram and @liz_tampa on Twitter.

Book Review: The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey

As this is my first official book review, I figured I would start off each section with a short description of my criteria for ultimate book judgment. But first, quick background:
The Infinite Sea is the second book in The 5th Wave series by Rick Yancey. The 5th Wave may sound familiar to you because, oh yea, they made it into a movie.

Plot
I don’t need an obvious plot outline or anything, but there are certain elements a book needs in order to be successful. I suggest taking a look at the following diagram and then inhaling anything written by Larry Brooks. He’s my story structure hero.

I don’t want to ruin The Infinite Sea for you or anything, but it follows this structure beautifully and includes a wonderful and heart wrenching twist at the end that had me fist pumping like I’m from the Jersey Shore. You need to set the stage, give us a taste of the bad guy, introduce the stakes, fight back, struggle, and resolve. Do I mean deliver the story as a perfectly wrapped Christmas present? Not at all. The resolve doesn’t have to tie every little detail together, but it does need to hit the major questions.

For this, I give Yancey 4.5/5 stars, because no one can be perfect.

Character Development
If a character doesn’t change throughout the story, then what’s the point of reading it? We don’t want a character that fights through battles to emerge unscathed. That’s not realistic.

In The Infinite Sea you get a taste of several character’s viewpoints, which is rarely successfully done. This allows the writer to give you, the reader, insight into every character without someone having to say it or be overtly obvious in their actions.

I’ll give Yancey 3.5/5 stars here, because some characters development is a little too wishy washy for my taste. There were a few moments that get rated R for reasons that weren’t very clear and seemed rather out of character for those involved. In another case a certain character was never made out to be sacrificial, but suddenly became so after one insight into their mind. I think more hints at this aspect of his personality would have made the impact of the sacrifice more believable.

Diversity
This is such a big issue within every genre and every type of art. Spend 10 minutes on Twitter reading literary agent tweets and you’ll see tons of talk about promoting diversity in books.

While some of the characters aren’t outright described as being white (think JK Rowling and her recent defense of the black Hermione for the stage play), I would say a majority of the cast is. There are only a few major players (at the moment I can only think of one) who is of a minority.

At the same time, I would greatly caution writers who make a character another race or ethnicity just to achieve the “diversity factor.” People will see right through that (especially people of that race/ethnicity) and you don’t want to come across as fake. Think about the message you want to portray and why you want to portray it through that person. That should help you determine whether you are making a wise decision. I would suggest reading Rick Riordan for some help here. He is the king of diversity in my opinion.

Diversity is not just in color or creed. In this aspect Rick kicks it up a notch. He has both guys and gals as main characters, and he doesn’t force each into their respective gender norms. So taking that into consideration, Yancey gets another 3.5/5.

Overall Score
3.833333333/5, so we’ll make it an even 4/5 (also, if I did the math wrong, sorry not sorry). I enjoyed this second book even better than the first in the series, and I’m stoked for the third and final book to come out (5/24/16).

What did you think of this book?