Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

(Cover picture courtesy of Never Too Fond of Books.)

Finn cannot remember his childhood.  He cannot remember his life before Incarceron—a prison that has been sealed for centuries, where inmates live in cells, dilapidated cities, and unbounded wilderness.  No one has ever escaped.  But then he finds a crystal key and a girl named Claudia.

Claudia’s father is the Warden of Incarceron.  And Claudia is about to become a kind of prisoner herself, doomed to an arranged marriage.  If she helps Finn in his escape, she will need his help in return.

But they don’t realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye.  Escape will take their greatest courage and far more than they know…because Incarceron is alive.

There is only one word to describe Catherine Fisher’s Incarceron:

Weird.

There is no other world to describe this futuristic science fiction-fantasy hybrid but weird.  Truly, even as widely read as I am, I have never read a book like this.  It’s unique in a good way, with excellent world-building and interesting themes.  I’m not even going to hazard a guess as to where the inspiration for the world of Incarceron came from.  It probably wouldn’t make sense to most people anyway.

The fantastic and bizarre world of Incarceron sort of makes up for the characters, which were somewhat lacking.  For whatever reason, I just really couldn’t connect with either Claudia or Finn.  Claudia is like me in some ways, so I should have been able to connect with her, but I just couldn’t.  Finn…I really didn’t like him from the start, so there was no hope there.  In my eyes, Catherine Fisher just couldn’t breathe life into her characters.

The plot is fast-paced and switches points of view in all the right places to keep people reading.  There are a few predictable plot points, but I certainly couldn’t predict every plot twist.  So if you like fast-paced novels with great world-building but don’t mind poorly developed characters, you’ll love Incarceron.

I give this book 3.5/5 stars.

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Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

(Cover picture courtesy of Mundie Source.)

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters.  But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute.  If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the friendly devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal.  He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life.  To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined.  When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her.  But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling.  Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

After reading Clockwork Prince, I’m starting to like The Infernal Devices even more.  Finally characters like Will and Jessamine acquire depth and I can actually sympathize with them.  Whereas Clockwork Angel focused mainly on Tessa’s entrance into the world of the supernatural, Clockwork Prince focuses more on the characters and setting up the final book, Clockwork Princess.  We also get a lot more information about the world of the Shadowhunters, which builds on both the first book and the parallel series, The Mortal Instruments.

Tessa is still a strong character in this book and readers will feel her love for Jem, but also her growing attraction to will, despite his horrible behavior toward her at the end of the first book.  She hates her brother Nathan for betraying her and the Shadowhunters, yet she still has a bit of sisterly affection for him, even if she doesn’t want to admit it.  Her choices in this novel have direct consequences for the people she loves, so Tessa is even more conflicted about her decisions than before.  Will also acquires a lot more depth and I actually feel sorry for him as he uncovers an ironic tragedy worthy of Sophocles himself.

The plot of Clockwork Prince is moderately fast and almost every scene advances the action.  What I admire most about Cassandra Clare is that she perfectly intertwines her two series together so that if you read them in order of release, you will have a much richer experience.  From a marketing perspective, the way she releases these books is brilliant because fans of the first three books will want to keep reading The Mortal Instruments to see what happens to Clary and the others.  They’re also more likely to read The Infernal Devices because it gives them some backstory on some of their favourite characters.  It’s hard to read one series without reading the other.  Brilliant.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

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The Surprising Benefits of Book Reviewing

A muse descended on my shoulder and I couldn’t stop typing, so guess what?  I posted over at We Heart Reading, which has recently received a lovely new make-over.  Go on and check out The Surprising Benefits of Book Reviewing, in which I reflect on posting one review per day for nearly 6 months.

Look What Just Arrived!

Guess what?  As a book reviewer, I have to read a lot of books.  Pictured below is the batch of books that I’m reading or about to read, not counting the 4 ebooks I need to read as well.

So what are you reading right now?

Painted Blind by Michelle A. Hansen

(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

Seventeen years old and agoraphobic, Psyche Middleton vows her dad will never see the risqué photos she took during a summer modeling stint abroad, but one of them ends up on a billboard in her Montana hometown. Now everyone—especially her dad—can see it.  And yet, somehow, those are the mundane things in her life because she is about to fall unexpectedly, head-over-heels in love with Erik, a mysterious young man who rescues her from a crowd of admirers, and who she’s never actually seen because…he can make himself invisible.

As strange as this may seem, it’s about to get even stranger. Erik takes her to his palace in an idyllic kingdom, and she is swept into the beauty and culture of his world, but his affection has one condition:  she may not see him.  Overtaken, intrigued, and still not wholeheartedly believing he’s real, Psyche is going to have to decide if she can love him blindly; because if she can’t, she may lose him forever.

A wild, romantic adventure that travels at breakneck speed, Michelle A. Hansen’s debut is a fantastical journey filled with laughter, danger, and the indomitable power of love. Painted Blind reminds us that one can overcome seemingly insurmountable odds with fortitude and a little luck and confirms that real love is worth fighting for.

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

Okay, Painted Blind was nothing like I expected and that’s a good thing because I really didn’t expect much from the blurb.  But I still requested it from NetGalley for something new to read.  And wow, was I ever surprised.

If I had to describe it one way, I’d call it The Goddess Test on steroids because it has a more realistic romance, better characters and a plot that glued me to my computer chair for over three hours straight.  Michelle Hansen knows just how much information to reveal to her readers to hint at things, yet doesn’t give so much away as to make all the plot twists completely predictable.  While I was reading, there were a lot of times I thought “Whoa.  Didn’t see that coming.”  Even the most cynical of readers like myself won’t be able to predict half of the plot points, which means that this is most definitely a unique novel.

I love the characters.  Erik and Psyche may seem like your stereotypical romance characters, but they’re not.  They actually have depth and I could sympathize with both of them.  The way they fell in love was a bit quick, but actually quite natural when you think about it.  First it started off as a sort of unexplainable attraction, then they got to know each other and fell in true love, not the kind of lust that passes for love in most YA fiction.

To be completely honest, I can’t believe this is Michelle Hansen’s debut novel.  The writing quality is much better than most established authors, in my opinion.  Her world-building is excellent; you can tell she really thought it through and made sure things made sense to readers.  I honestly can’t wait to see her what she writes next!

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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