American Gods Review

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is a modern American epic like no other.  In the modern United States, incarnation of the old gods and the manifestations of modern idols butt heads, as religion and progress often do.  The story follows Shadow Moon, an ex-con and a widower who is pulled into the conflict by Odin, The All-Father after his wife Laura is killed in a car accident along with Shadow’s best friend.
A lot can be said for an author’s ability to reshape the ancient tales.  Stories of the old gods, creation, and judgement of death have enough in common it’s not difficult to imagine them existing in the same universe.  For all we know, they have weekly staff meetings.
Gaiman very obviously loves myth and legend as much as the histories that made them so.  Since we no longer depend upon oral tradition, we’ve been able to spread religious ideals across the world, but with modernity right on their heels.
This book is a transition more than a work of true fiction, in my opinion.  Being written on the cusp of a new millennium and published shortly thereafter had such an impact on how it’s perceived by an audience.  Now that we see what has happened to America, 15 years later, we can not only draw parallels between history and myth, but between potential and talent.
This book changes the way we look at the old religions.  Well, it at least changed how I do.  Since I read The Iron Druid chronicles before finding out about this book, I can honestly say as a personal journey, American Gods smothers the emotional fire.  Kevin Hearne is one of my favorite authors and the way I read his books was as an RPG of sorts.  Neil Gaiman on the other hand, while having written a brilliant book, stays a little farther back from Shadow than I liked, and I couldn’t get the same insight as into a first person POV.  The greater advantage to third person in the case of American Gods is, Gaiman had the opportunity to sell back story and exposition a lot better than The Iron Druid could in first person.
This was a ballad written by a bard who lived on this fantastic journey, but to tell his story, he must go on the occasional tangent.  While somewhat disjointed as a result, American Gods was an encouraging read filled with truth and lies, fiction and nonfiction, and progress in the face of tradition.

Wolves of London Review

Wolves of London is the first in a new horror series by Mark Morris called Obsidian Heart.  This installment takes quite a bit of time to set up the rest of the story with the main action and plot points not coming forward until about halfway through.  While a common stylistic choice in the production of a series, it did slow the action down somewhat.  In fact, until the Obsidian Heart is introduced, this story leans less toward horror and fantasy and more towards mystery/ thriller.  Once the horror aspects are established, Morris is able to move the story along nicely, keeping the pace steady and anticipatory.  There is, however, an isolationist aspect of the language since it's written by a British writer and set in London.  Some slang and regional colloquialisms take a moment for a reader from the States to comprehend in their entirety, but in a way this lends itself to the mystery, an alien element.  With the pacing and setting now firmly established, the story proves to be an exciting one, and I can't wait to get to the next installment.

Tattoo Atlas Review

Tattoo Atlas by Tim Floreen
I think if I read this book two or three times I’d get deeper insight every time, having only read it once, this is my impression.  A contemporary YA examination of empathy and the nature of mental illness.  The first chapter confused me because the narrator wasn’t present.  There were a couple of those chapters within the story I think they could have been let go to just roll with the first person POV which was so perfect for the raw emotion of this story.
The way Floreen writes the narrator is so perfect when I read it I felt those emotions.  Alex is such a beautiful character and the relationship between him and Tor, then Franklin is relatable.  You want Alex to have a happy ending.  You want everything to be ok in the end, but that’s not how the world works.  In this social and political climate that dose of realism, that pain heaped onto the back of this teenager, is needed to help us avoid complacency.
Introducing Franklin, he’s instantly identified as a sociopath and that label has such a stigma, anyone would assume a that person would be evil.  In this case, obviously, Floreen wrote it to be that way; however, I think in service to the mental health community, there should have been more of a divide, a finite diagnosis of Franklin’s sociopathic tendencies.  Feeding into assumptions and stigma doesn’t help anyone.
In the end, it comes down to the three boys: Alex, Franklin, and Tor.  And all they want is to survive each other and love freely.  The big question that Alex likes to ponder is: can evil be cured?  As I read I thought about this question quite often, but I can’t say I came up with any decent conclusions, so I’ll leave that for you guys to mull over.
Great contemporary by Tim Floreen!

The Rule of Mirrors Review

The Rule of Mirrors by Caragh O’Brien is the second installment into the Vault of Dreamers series and much as the first book did takes an artistic science fiction leap into the mind (or in this case minds) of Rosie Sinclair.
At the end of the last book Rosie’s primary conscious personality split off and followed her memory of her little sister while the secondary or unconscious personality stayed in her body.  As a result, her secondary personality was able to develop independent of her.
O’Brien developed the “second Rosie” much as any writer would develop a new character, though there were similarities between her and “first Rosie”.  By the time I got about halfway through, I was reading two completely separate characters, but the growth was so subtle and so carefully done.
An interesting and exciting read.  I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

The Boy Who Killed Grant Parker by Kat Spears

The Boy Who Killed Grant Parker by Kat Spears could have easily fallen to the YA wayside, but for the shear emotion developed into Luke Grayson.  Because Spears had to emotionally break this character, the point of view is perfect.
In first person, the reader is Luke, becomes Luke, who becomes Grant in a sense.  Although this results in secondary and tertiary characters being underdeveloped, the potency that is the “Grant Parker” persona almost develops as a character in its own right.
Luke is an unassuming boy who likes indie and punk music, has a more or less apathetic attitude towards education, and could care less about sports.  Basically, the opposite of Grant Parker.  After the fight that lands Grant in a coma and Luke a potential murderer, Grant’s girlfriend, Penny, invites Luke in to fill the “Grant Parker” role.
The “Grant Parker” persona slowly eats away at Luke, destroying what little life he had in his father’s little town, destroying him.  It became a cancer growing more malignant until homecoming night when the persona actually manifested itself to Luke in a drunken hallucination.
The Boy Who Killed Grant Parker is not an after school special.  It’s not a flyaway contemporary YA novel or high school romance.  It’s just a story about a boy.

Enclave by Ann Aguirre Review

Enclave by Ann Aguirre is a post-apocalyptic novel, the first in the Razorland series.  This installment follows Deuce, a huntress from an underground society, as she is forced to find her way in the world above.  Her hunting partner Fade has followed her and together they search for peace in a dystopic world.
Enclave can easily be rounded out by examining the status of the “other”.  In this world, each society Deuce and Fade come into contact with has adapted in a different way.  By telling the story through Deuce, it allows a sense of innocence in the observations of the cultures they come into contact with.  It humanizes each society.
I love how Aguirre parallels Fade and Deuce’s relationship with the story by George Macdonald, The Day Boy and the Night Girl.  The way she’s structured Deuce’s story alongside Nycteris is beautiful and so perfect for how the character develops.
Looking forward to more.

The Wall of Storms Review

The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu is the second installment of The Dandelion Dynasty and it does not disappoint.  Liu continues to use his epic poetic style as he did with The Grace of Kings that so mirrors ancient mythology while also commenting on modern social issues and philosophy.  He made this book so applicable to current events it’s delightfully quotable.

Where The Grace of Kings was centered around a war, division, heroes, and tyrants, The Wall of Storms focused on unity, family, philosophy, and education.  Liu takes risks early on by not building on the wars that made The Grace of Kings.  Instead he uses a foundation of philosophy and social commentary.  Everything from women’s rights and social equality to education reform is addressed by characters throughout the story as motivations and bases for world building.  Liu developed a complex society based on the ideals of these philosophers and the interpretations of their words to the point that the story is almost completely dependent upon them.  Even The Grace of Kings would have major holes in its narrative if there was no Kon Fiji.  Being able to see and understand that thought process, those intellectual developments was brilliant and so well done.  With a book like this it would be so easy to overdo the intellectual aspects and bore the reader or not put enough of the intellectual aspects in and confuse the reader.  Liu found a perfect balance.

If I were an English teacher, I would use these books in my class.