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Black Heart by Holly Black

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Holly Black’s Curse Workers series is such fun. I love stories about cons and I love stories about magic, and these books have both of those things, plus a narrator with such an engaging, unique voice it should make other writers envious. Because I’m reviewing Black Heart, the third book in the series, there will be spoilers for the first two here.
At the end of Red Glove, Cassel had teamed up with the federal government to use his powers as a transformation worker in the legal way. Since he’s still a minor, he’s supposed to shadow his older brother, Barron, who has also gone over to the government side. There are a few problems with this: Barron is still a sociopath, conning comes as easy as breathing to Cassel, and Cassel isn’t quite sure what the government is asking him to do won’t get him arrested or killed.
Meanwhile, Lila starts to be drawn further and further into the life of crime as her father prepares her to take over the family business one day. Cassel still carries a major torch for her, naturally, but if he let her know what side he was working for now, it would be the end of him. 
There’s a lot going on in Black Heart, and I’m very impressed by the way Black handles it all. In fact, all of this stuff – including two pretty major subplots – is a big reason I enjoyed the book so much. Aside from the job the Feds have for Cassel, he also has to deal with a vengeful mob boss and his threats against his mother, a female classmate who needs his help getting out of a blackmail plot, and the tension between his two best friends since it was revealed Daneca is a worker. Frequently in stories like this, where the author juggles multiple plotlines, they all tie together in some way, but that’s not necessarily the case here. I appreciated that – it made for a more complex read. Furthermore, all of the plotlines were compelling. I didn’t want to skim past any of them to get to the good stuff.
Like Red Glove, Black Heart builds upon the events of its predecessors. Cassel’s actions have consequences here, and not always good ones. The characters also grow based on their previous experiences, and not always in a good way. All of this may make the book difficult as a standalone, but again, it makes for some very satisfying reading

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

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You know how sometimes, when you read a really fantastic book, everything you read soon after it just seems mediocre in comparison? I fear Incarnate fell victim to this phenomenon.
It’s got a great premise: In a world where people’s souls have been reincarnated into new bodies for over 5,000 years, Ana is a newsoul. Her body was supposed to house Ciana, a woman who died a few years ago, but instead she is Ana, a completely new person who must experience everything for the first time. The other people who live in Range view Ana with either pity or revulsion. Her own mother despises her. 
Tired of being subjected to her mother’s barbs, Ana decides to leave their country home and set out for Heart, the world’s bustling main city. Along the way, she runs into a teenager (in appearance only, of course) named Sam. Sam doesn’t think she’s someone to be hated or feared, and actually is quite interested in helping her develop and survive in Heart. Romance ensues. With Sam, Ana must learn how to get along with the people of Heart and survive the dragons and sylphs that attack the city. She also comes to a startling revelation about the reincarnation of souls and her own absent father.
I’ll start with what I liked about Incarnate: the concept is fascinating, Ana is a pretty well-developed character, and the events near the end of the novel were completely surprising, but also completely plausible. Not many novels are able to do that. I appreciated that the plot was different from a lot of YA fantasy I’ve read lately and that it didn’t become something more familiar as I read.
My main problem with Incarnate was the writing, which I felt was a little weak overall. The first couple of chapters in particular are confusing, and not in the “I’m getting adjusted to a new fantasy world so things are going to be confusing for a while” way. I wasn’t ever quite clear what was going on and can’t quite remember what it is that exactly happened. Meadows throws Ana into a confrontation with a sylph almost from the get-go, but I still don’t feel that I know what a sylph is or how Ana escaped.
The other issue I had was pacing. Not much happens in the first half. I would actually consider all of the first half exposition: Meadows sets up the world and the characters in it, but the plot isn’t much advanced. A more skillful writer would be able to incorporate this world-building into the action. Instead, the novel is a bit of a slog at the beginning and rushed at the end.
And a third, minor problem involved the romance. Very old (but young in appearance) men romancing teenage girls is no longer anything new in YA, but some writers make it more believable than others. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fully buy into it here. Ana felt like a real person, but Sam never did. I never got a good reason for why he would be interested in Ana; he seemed flat and had weak motivations.
As always, your mileage may vary. For a take from someone who thought more highly of Incarnate than I did, check out Lenore’s review. I may seem pretty critical of Incarnate, but I did enjoy it. I actually would probably read the sequel, since I’m interested to see how Meadows takes what she developed in the second half of the novel.
Book borrowed from my local library.

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

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I loved Grave Mercy so much that the two books I read immediately afterward – books I had been looking forward to reading for several months – seemed like shoddy imitations of books in comparison. I loved it for so many reasons: how big the story is, how fresh its ideas are, how well it’s written. It’s over 500 pages of story, and not once does it drag.
Ismae is a handmaiden of death. She was rescued from a terrible marriage at 14 and sent to a convent, where the nuns trained her to serve Mortain, the saint/god of death. What this means is that by age 17, Ismae is a well-trained assassin, and she’s sent out on jobs to dispatch people that Mortain has marked with his inky black stain that only his handmaidens can see.
Ismae’s latest assignment is at the court of Brittany, an independent province that is now a part of France. Grave Mercy takes place in the late 15th century, during a time when Brittany was struggling mightily to keep itself from being absorbed by France. (The existence of the present-day borders of France is a spoiler, but the book is suspenseful regardless.) Anne, the very young duchess of Brittany, is being torn in many directions. She’s unmarried, and she’s been promised in marriage to half a dozen – or more – people. Choosing one man over another, or not choosing anyone at all, will have dire consequences for Brittany.
Ismae’s job is first and foremost to protect her duchess, and she is instructed to do so by determining who at court is betraying Anne – because all signs point to a traitor in Anne’s midst. When she unveils the traitor, the convent will send her orders to kill him (or her). Ismae’s cover is as a “cousin” (read: mistress) to Gavriel Duval, Anne’s bastard half-brother and her closest adviser. Ismae has been told that it is likely he is the spy, so she is to work with him to keep Anne safe while also spying on him to determine if he is the traitor. I knew the romance was coming, but it was so good – swoony in the right parts, some nice repartee, and its development was timed well. When they finally do fall in love, it makes sense and is completely believable.
There’s a lot of political intrigue that pulls in real historical events, which I enjoyed researching while I read the book. It’s fairly complex, but it’s not so complex that it’s impossible to follow. I loved how big the story was, and I don’t mean length-wise. So many things are going on, and they have huge ramifications for many, many people. It reminds me a lot of why I loved fantasy and historical fiction to begin with: huge stories with multiple intricate plotlines and profound consequences for entire countries or even entire worlds.
One of the things I appreciated most about Grave Mercy is that Ismae does kill. And she doesn’t do it only in self-defense or after deep consideration of the target’s crimes. She does it on order, without much regret or much thought as to whether the person deserves to die (at first, at least). I mention this because in a lot of fantasy or historical fiction novels, the authors find a way for their protagonists to not have to do the Bad or Unpleasant Thing that the plot indicates they really should have to do. (Prime example: In Wither, Rhine never consummates her marriage with Linden. Completely unbelievable, but not surprising.) This choice alone proves that LaFevers knows the world she has created and is unwilling to write herself loopholes to save the reader from some unpleasantness. I have a lot of respect for YA authors who do this. It’s much too rare.
Hype isn’t always a good indicator of a novel’s worth, but in this case, it’s well-deserved. If you’re a fan of complex, involving stories that take the time to develop complicated characters and important details, this book is for you. Anyone who likes historical fiction will eat it up, as will fantasy fans and romance fans. There’s a sequel in the works that focuses on Sybella, one of Ismae’s fellow trainees at the convent, and I can hardly wait for it.

Red Glove by Holly Black

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I mentioned in an earlier post how much I dug White Cat, the first book in Holly Black’s Curse Workers series. Red Glove is its follow-up, and while it’s not quite as fun as the first in the series, it’s still a worthwhile successor. Be warned, there are spoilers for White Cat in this review.
In White Cat, Cassel learned that he was a transformation worker and that his two older brothers had been using him as a hit man, then modifying his memories so he would forget about it all. H also learned that Lila, his childhood love and the girl he thought he killed, he had actually transformed into the titular white cat. Now Lila is back in human form, and his mother – ever the meddler – cursed her to “love” him. Cassel is torn between his love for Lila and his knowledge that her love for him is false. Soon, though, he has bigger problems on his plate.
Cassel’s older brother, Philip, is murdered, and the Feds try to recruit Cassel to help them solve the crime. Their only clue is a woman wearing red gloves caught on a security camera – hence the title of the book – and Cassel fears it could be a woman he knows. Not only are the Feds knocking on his door, the mob is too, and Cassel attempts to play both sides in order to stay alive.
One of the things I liked best about Red Glove is its willingness to embrace hard consequences. It seems like a lot of YA SFF books that deal with issues of violence and corruption do so in a sanitary way: the teens are negatively impacted, but they’re never really harmed and always manage to dig themselves out of holes. That’s not the way it works here. Cassel’s actions from White Cat reverberate in Red Glove in very serious ways. The body count is not small, and Cassel realizes just how big it actually is the further we move in the book. Furthermore, he begins to realize how complicit he is in the body count’s size, whether he wielded the killing blow or not.
I also liked the way Black didn’t take her characters down the predictable path. This is particularly true for Lila, who so often does the opposite of what Cassel (and the readers) want her to do. But her actions are always true to her character, which comes into much better focus here than in White Cat. (In White Cat, she was mainly someone for Cassel to feel guilty about. In Red Glove, we begin to see her as an actual person: very ambitious, clever, a little bitter at being worked, and willing to use whatever – and whoever – she needs to get what she wants.)
Like White Cat, Red Glove ends with an opening. I wouldn’t call the ending of either book a true cliffhanger. The main plot is resolved, but Black then adds a little something on to the end to make us want to pick up the next book. It’s nicely done in both books, and I’m happy to report I was able to get my hands on Black Heart to see how the trilogy finishes out. This series has been such an unexpected pleasure, I imagine the concluding volume will be a treat as well. (Although now that I actually research the title a bit, I can’t tell if it’s the concluding volume or merely the third entry in a longer series. Does anyone know?)

A Pair of Cybils Reviews

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Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Cas Lowood kills ghosts for a living. Well, he doesn’t really make money at it, so I suppose you’d call it more of a hobby, or a compulsion. His father was a ghost-killer when he was alive, and since his death, Cas carries his deadly athame, the tool used to kill the dead. Cas and his mother have just moved to a new town, and Cas is determined to kill the local ghost, Anna dressed in blood, a teenage girl who was murdered many years ago. Only things with Anna aren’t quite what they seem, and Cas slowly begins to not only sympathize with her, but to fall in love with her as well. He also picks up a couple of good friends who learn about his unusual vocation, and they serve the dual purpose of assisting Cas in his quest to kill Anna as well as adding some interest to the story.
I’ve discovered that I’m not the audience for ghost stories, but Kendare Blake’s book made a valiant effort to change my mind. I thought the pseudo-romantic relationship between Cas and Anna was intriguing, and I appreciated that Blake didn’t shy away from high stakes (there’s a nice body count). The climax was unexpected, but made sense in retrospect. It’s a different sort of ghost story than the norm, and it mostly worked for me.
My main problem with the book was pacing: some parts just really dragged. For these chunks of the novel, it seemed like the troupe of characters wasn’t doing anything in particular, just kind of flailing about. It gets a bit dull to read about after a couple of pages. But then it would pick up nicely and I’d be hooked for another twenty pages, until it got a bit dull again. So overall, it’s a good book, but not an outstanding one.
Angelfall by Susan Ee
The angels of the apocalypse have descended on Earth, and teenage Penryn has become caught in the middle of it. Her wheelchair-bound younger sister has been kidnapped by the angels. She must team up with another angel, Raffe, in order to rescue her. Along the way, the duo experience a significant amount of peril and intrigue, plus some romance (naturally).
I’m kind of flabbergasted by all of the positive feedback Angelfall has received, because I was very unimpressed. I think the skeleton of a good story is there, and I dug how gruesome Ee dared to be near the end of the book. But for most of the book, I was doing some serious mental eye-rolling, and it’s mostly due to the writing – it doesn’t pass muster. The book is full of awkward phrasing, clunky sentences, and cliched dialogue. Part of the reason I had a hard time getting through most of it is because it felt like a romance novel with some fantasy trappings for the first three quarters (rather than a fantasy novel with some romance). The dialogue between Penryn and Raffe tries to be clever repartee, but it just comes across as ridiculous. And I say this as a reader of romance. 
Aside from the writing, I had problems with the world-building and development of ancillary characters. Put all of these lacking elements together and you quickly realize that no amount of fast-paced action can save this book.