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A Few Cybils Reads – Part I (2015)

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The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Ahdieh gives us one of a slew of recent stories inspired in some way by the Arabian Nights, and it’s a strong one. Teens who know a bit about the frame story of Scheherazade will love the twist Ahdieh puts on it, while those completely ignorant of it will have no trouble becoming invested. Shahrzad’s best friend was killed by eighteen year old Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan, after he took her as his wife. He has taken dozens of wives and none of them has survived beyond the morning after their wedding day. Shahrzad intends to become his next wife – but not his next victim. Instead, she plans to take revenge. Readers will know from the beginning that Khalid is not the murderer he is believed to be – a prologue gives this bit away, so it’s meant to be known – but unraveling just why the girls all end up dead and how (if) Shahrzad can put a stop to it is great fun to read about. It’s also a romance, of course, which is also not unexpected, but it’s a good one. The setting is especially well-drawn (the food!). This is a solid story with lots of appeal.

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

I’ll confess something: I have never read anything by Holly Black before this. But immediately upon starting it, I was struck by the level of craft apparent; it’s obvious why she’s so highly-regarded. This novel is one of the best-constructed I’ve read in a while, and I found myself marveling frequently at how neatly and effortlessly the story built, layer upon layer. Hazel and Ben live in Fairfold; so do the fairies. The human inhabitants know that the fairies are mostly benign and will only hurt those who don’t follow the rules – tourists, mainly. And if a Fairfold resident is harmed or killed every once in a while, well, they were probably doing something they shouldn’t have. But then the horned prince who has rested in the glass coffin in the middle of the forest wakes, and the Fairfold citizens seem to be fair game. Is the prince, whom both Hazel and Ben thought themselves in love with when he slept, behind it? It’s difficult to give a pithy plot description for this book, because it has a lot going on. Hazel and Ben once hunted fairies, Ben was cursed/blessed with a knowledge of fairy music as a small child, Hazel once made a terrible bargain with one of the Fair Folk, one of the teenage boys is actually a Changeling that the human family decided to keep, and so on. There’s a really rich background to the story, and it all feeds in to the main plotline featuring the horned prince. Fairfold is so well-realized and the characters so well-drawn; fans of urban fantasy and stories about often-malevolent fairies should snap this one up.

Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

I loved Rosamund Hodge’s first book, Cruel Beauty, to pieces. I loved her writing and her complex plotting and how the book was familiar (fairy tale influenced) yet managed to take me by surprise, too. Crimson Bound is the same – it’s Little Red Riding Hood, but darker than even the original story. That’s something I love about Hodge’s writing: she’s not afraid to give her characters real darkness. Her protagonist in Crimson Bound is a murderer, a girl who has been given terrible, unwanted gifts due to a mistake she made as a young teen. She hopes to atone by finding the sword that could destroy the evil threatening her country, but she’s haunted by what she’s done, what she’s capable of doing, and what she wants to do – as well as what she is becoming, something even worse than what she is. This is a fairy tale mash-up and retelling, a quest story, and a romance (of sorts) all in one, but none of those threads coalesce in a way you’d expect, a hallmark of Hodge’s storytelling. Go into this one without knowing a huge amount of the plot and prepare to be whisked away.

More Cybils Suggestions

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The nomination period for the Cybils official started on October 1, and as of the writing of this post, YA speculative fiction has 69 eligible entries. Many of the titles I hoped would be nominated have been, so naturally, I’ve come up with another list in case you haven’t nominated a title yet. Won’t you help give me and my fellow panelists yet more reading material to deprive us all of necessary sleep? Nominations close October 15.

 

 

Cybils 2015

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Cybils-Logo-2015-Web-SmI’m thrilled that I’m helping to judge the Cybils Awards again this year. This will be my fifth year as a participant, my fourth in the YA speculative fiction category, and my second on Round 1. This means I’m going to be reading a heck of a lot of YA SFF and then writing about it here – the good, the bad, and the ugly (but hopefully mostly good).

Nominations open October 1, but I’m already eager to get a jump on my reading. To that end, I’m anticipating what might get nominated, and trying to scope out the best title for me to throw in the ring myself. Here’s a list of books I hope I get to read and discuss this season, all books I haven’t yet read – won’t you consider nominating one of them?

 

 

Cybils Wrap-Up: Stats and the Ones That Got Away

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I read 91 books this year as a panelist for Round 1 YA speculative fiction. Out of those 91, I finished 68 and left 23 unfinished. Of those 68 I finished, 21 were books I had read prior to the start of Cybils season. This means I read 47 books in their entirety (and about 25-50 pages of an additional 23 books) in about three months, which works out to a whole book every two days. That’s quite a lot of reading!

I love our shortlist for YA speculative fiction this year, and I think it’s nearly as perfect as it can get. That said, there were some great reads that I loved but didn’t make the cut. I wish we could have put 15 books on the shortlist! Alas, I will comfort myself by blogging about them and telling you why they are fantastic. I hope you’ll give them a shot and recommend them to the teens in your life.

The Islands at the End of the World by Austin Aslan
I loved this story of survival in a worldwide power blackout featuring a teenage girl with epilepsy set on the islands of Hawaii. Leilani is half Native Hawaiian, half white, about to begin a medical study for an epilepsy treatment when the blackout hits. She and her father must try to make it back to the Big Island from Oahu and reunite with the rest of their family amidst the chaos and danger. The first portion of the novel is pure survival, with a few hints at the source of the global catastrophe. Later on, it becomes clear what’s causing the blackout, and it’s completely unique and very much science fiction. The writing during this portion is particularly lovely and I read it several times over because I loved it so much. There’s also a great portrayal of a positive father/daughter relationship that I don’t see much of in YA fiction.

Not only is this a fast-paced survival story with a really fresh SF twist, it also features a protagonist of color with deep ties to the environment of Hawaii and her Native Hawaiian culture. Being half-white, half-Native, Leilani often feels caught between two worlds, never belonging completely in either. This crisis allows her to explore that tension and eventually determine that she does have a home and a purpose in Hawaii as she’s always wanted. It’s obvious Aslan has a great love for Hawaii as a place and for its people and their culture (he is not Native but lived there for some time). There’s a solid end to this with room for a sequel, which I very much look forward to reading.

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
Intense romance, an often-cruel heroine, a unique re-telling of a beloved fairy tale, and lovely writing all combine to make this debut a complete winner. It’s lush and creative and I loved every minute of it. I wrote about it more in February of last year.

Dissonance by Erica O’Rourke
This is a world-building lover’s dream with lots of details about parallel/alternate worlds and how Walkers like protagonist Del travel between them. It’s also partly a thriller featuring a conspiracy and plenty of flawed characters with secret motivations. It’s not a particularly fast read, but it’s creative and deep. More here.

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson
Well, you all know this is a book of my heart. It’s terrific high fantasy with a spirited heroine who is determined to claim a life of her own. You can read more about my love for it here.

Divided We Fall by Trent Reedy
This is not normally a book I’d pick up my own, but I’m glad I did for the Cybils. It tells of a near future that seems so plausible it’s scary (a showdown between the federal government and a state government over a federal ID law that blooms into full-scale civil war). National guardsman Travis is caught in the middle after his gun discharges at a protest. Travis has a great voice; I feel like he exists in so many of today’s small-town, semi-rural high schools, and voices like his aren’t heard enough in YA fiction. The audio production is one of the best I’ve ever listened to. More here.

A Few Cybils Reads – Part X

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Cybils season is almost over. I really enjoyed participating in Round 1 this year, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about a few of the nominated titles each week. As it does every year, the Cybils force me to read books I never would have read otherwise, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by many of them. That said, it’s going to be really nice to kick off 2015 reading books that I’ve been so eager to dive into but have neglected due to Cybils duties (The Winner’s Crime, I’m looking at you).

Here’s my last roundup of Cybils titles for the year.

Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
I generally don’t read short story collections. They’re usually uneven, with some stories that are fantastic, some that are awful, and most that fall somewhere in between. Monstrous Affections is no different, though I’m glad I got a chance to read the standouts.

Out of the fifteen stories in the anthology, I really dug two of them: Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (the Successful Kind) by Holly Black and Wings in the Morning by Sarah Rees Brennan. Black’s story is set in outer space and has a sort of Firefly feel, but it’s a touch darker and uses the second person perspective in a clever way to great effect. Plus it has aliens! Brennan’s story is set in a world populated with humans, harpies, elves, and other magical creatures who must keep their border safe from invaders. It opens with our protagonist’s mother telling him he’s half-harpy because she has needs when his father is away and she hooked up with a harpy once because she’s rather adventurous and well wouldn’t you know, the harpy is his biological father and not the human man who raised him. It’s done in such a funny way, I was hooked immediately – there’s so much character and voice in the story. The bulk of the story is a romance between the main character and his best (male) friend/enemy, but there’s also some interesting stuff with the elf culture, whose gender roles are the opposite of humans’ traditional roles. I would definitely read a novel-length book about these characters and their world.

Honorable mentions go to Patrick Ness and Joshua Lewis, whose stories I liked but didn’t love. Also of note is the Introduction, which may be my third favorite “story.” It includes a fun, funny little quiz that sets a great tone for the collection. The book itself is beautiful, slightly oversize with a unique cover and designed with ample white space. It would sit very pretty on your shelf.

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Sixteen year old Ava narrates this book, telling first the story of her grandmother, then her mother, focusing mainly on the way love has destroyed their lives. This family has always been foolish when it comes to love, and Ava – a girl born with wings – is perhaps no different. The events of the story, beginning with Ava’s grandmother and her doomed siblings, all lead up to a terrible tragedy hinted at by Ava’s brother in cryptic language that becomes clear much too late.

This is a beautifully-written book, using magical realism in a way that makes you hurt. It’s also a tremendous downer. It’s certainly unique and ambitious – it tells a three-generation story in about 300 pages, and it feels fully developed. I think it’s successful in what it tried to do, but it also gave off a very strong adult feeling to me rather than YA. Perhaps that’s because the teenage narrator never felt like the main character – she has an omniscient POV and narrates in a somewhat detached way. It’s her mother, whom we see as a child, then a young woman, then a middle-aged woman, who feels like the most central character. She’s also the one who seems to grow the most. The Goodreads description is a little misleading since Ava herself (as a character, not a narrator) doesn’t enter the picture until pretty late in the book. This is a Candlewick book, which doesn’t surprise me in the least.

Death Sworn by Leah Cypess
Ileni was a magical prodigy, brought to a magic school that promised to sharpen her talents. Key word: was. She’s been losing her magic steadily, trying to hide it from her teachers. Ileni supposes they’ve suspected this, because she’s sent to be the new magic tutor for a group of assassins with whom the magicians have an uneasy alliance. The last two magic tutors died mysteriously, and Ileni figures they were probably murdered. Though Ileni figures her assignment is a death sentence, she’s determined to survive as long as she can, and hopefully figure out what happened to her predecessors.

This is a high fantasy novel with a very strong sense of place. The assassins live in a set of caves, giving the book a claustrophobic feel and enhancing Ileni’s sense of being trapped. It also features a complicated backstory, with shifting alliances, exiled magicians, assassins who may be rebels, and lots of political maneuvering – off the page and on it. What is said is not always what is meant. Ileni must learn to listen for subtext; her life depends on it. She also must learn to defend herself without the aid of her magic, and hide the fact that her magic is disappearing as long as she can. As a reader, I felt Ileni’s persistent danger keenly, and I appreciated that Ileni showed fear and didn’t always know how best to protect herself. There’s a minor romance here, but the real highlight is the plot, whose pieces fall together so neatly and brilliantly at the end. I’m a sucker for a well-plotted book, and this one fits the bill. This is a great read for fans of high fantasy – it’s got magic, kingdoms, royalty, war, and all the other good stuff we love so much.