Pretty Girls Make Graves by Nicole Trilivas

(Cover picture courtesy of Literary R&R.)

Sparked by a break-up with her married lover, Justine trades in college to live abroad, and descends into a destructive reinvention with a backdrop of the underbelly of Scotland, Ireland, and Australia.
Acutely aware that she’s not the first girl to experience these formative misadventures, Justine hijacks the vocal chords of archetypal characters from myths, fairy tales, literature, and pop culture such as Medusa, Rapunzel, and Catherine (of Brontë’s Wuthering Heights). She echoes the voices that display her story–the violent exit from girlhood via a botched love life–better than her own.
She doesn’t have to write another mistress’s manifesto; Kalypso, one of the betrayed goddesses from Homer’s Odyssey, has that one covered. She was never overtly cruel without justification; that’s the job of a sadomasochistic Wicked Witch of fairy tale infamy. She doesn’t have a penchant for picking the wrong guy over her soul mate; Catherine does.
PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES is a dark and stylized examination of the vicious things we do in the name of self-preservation, and questions the frantic necessity to tell our stories to establish human connection-however ugly they may be.

(Summary courtesy of Amazon.)

[Full disclosure: Nicole Trilivas, the author of this book, contacted me and gave me a free e-book so I could review her novel.  This is not the type of book I would normally read, but I will try to review it as objectively as possible.]

Pretty Girls Make Graves certainly had an interesting premise: the story of a young woman’s life being told through the voices of legendary women like Medusa, Rapunzel and Kalypso.  Unfortunately, these women rarely speak up, so we are stuck in the point of view of the main character, Justine.  Justine is not in any way sympathetic or even particularly interesting.  She whines about missing Jason, hooks up (but doesn’t necessarily have sex) with every being with a Y chromosome she can get her hands on and drinks ad nauseum—quite literally.  Did I mention that she breaks men’s hearts for fun and has no redeeming qualities whatsoever?  I can understand ruthless women, like Thu from House of Dreams, but even she had redeeming qualities.  Justine?  Not so much.

As for the plot, don’t bother looking for one.  You won’t be able to find it amidst all of the hooking up and drinking.  Justine seems to wander aimlessly around, travelling from country to country on her rich father’s money and generally acting like a spoiled brat.  Okay, I know how it feels when the man of your dreams belongs to someone else, but sooner or later you have to grow up, get over it and move on.  Justine doesn’t and that’s part of the reason why I was so frustrated with this book by page 43.

Nicole Trilivas tried to insert some meaning into all of the Jersey Shore-like behavior in this book, but it fell flat.  It seemed like in the last 20 pages she realized that there had to be a point to her novel and rushed to put on in without really going back to add hints about said point.  My overall impression of this novel is not good because it made me ask: Why did I read this?  No book should ever make its readers ask themselves that.

I give this book 1.5/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble

The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice

(Cover picture courtesy of Collider.com)

In a new feat of hypnotic storytelling, Anne Rice elaborates on the extraordinary Vampire Chronicles that began with the now-class Interview with the Vampire and continued with The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned.

For centuries, Lestat—vampire-hero, enchanter, seducer of mortals—has been a courted prince in the dark and flourishing universe of the undead.  Now Lestat is alone.  And suddenly all of his vampire rationale—everything he has come to believe and feel safe with—is called into question.  In his overwhelming need to destroy his doubts and his loneliness, Lestat embarks on the most dangerous enterprise he has undertaken in all the danger-haunted years of his long existence…

The Tale of the Body Thief is the fourth book in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, but by this book, it seems like her heart wasn’t really in to writing it.  While the premise of the novel is interesting enough and her descriptions are just as wonderful, it seems to lack the spirit and enthusiasm of the first three books.  It seems as if she was pressured into writing a fourth book to capitalize on her series’ fame and that’s the worst reason for any author to write a book.

Even though it feels like Anne Rice had to continue the series because of its immense popularity, Lestat is still as complex as ever and after being a vampire for so long, he struggles as a human.  It’s amazing to see him struggle over things that normal humans do every day, like eating and going to the bathroom.  Along the way he meets David Talbot, a former member of the supernatural secret society, the Talamasca.  Together they discover that the man Lestat switched bodies with has no intention of switching back and they hatch a plot to get Lestat back in his proper body.

I’ll add my usual warning: this is not a fast-paced novel.  Yes, it has an interesting plot, but no, it is not a fast plot because The Tale of the Body Thief is a character-driven novel.  Anne Rice has wonderfully sensual descriptions and a compelling writing style, but as with all of the books in the Vampire Chronicles, The Tale of the Body Thief contains explicit sex scenes and other mature content.  I would recommend it for ages 14 and up.

I give this book 3/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble

Gregor and the Code of Claw by Suzanne Collins

(Cover picture courtesy of Whitcoulls.)

Everyone has been trying to keep Gregor from seeing The Prophecy of Time.  That is because the final prophecy calls for the warrior’s death.  The warrior being Gregor, of course.

With an army of rats quickly approaching and time running out, Gregor must gather up his courage to defend Regalia and get his family back home safely.  There is a code that must be cracked, a new princess to contend with, Gregor’s burgeoning dark side, and a war designed to end all wars.

The fates of the Underland and the great warrior, Gregor the Overlander, masterfully unfold in this thrilling and suspenseful final installment in Suzanne Collins’s Underland Chronicles.

Suzanne Collins still hasn’t managed to end a series well, but she did manage to end her first series, the Underland Chronicles, better than The Hunger Games trilogy.

What I like about Gregor and the Code of Claw is the character development.  Gregor has come a long way since the first book and is finally accepting the role of warrior, despite the fact that the Prophecy of Time calls for the warrior’s death.  His feelings for Luxa have also developed at a very natural rate and are complicated because of all the awkwardness of a first love.  We also learn more about other characters’ backstories, especially Ripred’s, since there is more to him than meets the eye.

If you’re not going to read the series for its amazing characters, you should read it for the world-building.  The Underworld is populated with gigantic rats, mice, bats and cockroaches; it’s definitely not your stereotypical fantasy world.  Humans have adapted to their new environment, but because they still need light, they are at a distinct disadvantage to the other creatures they share their world with.

The tension between the races that has been mounting in the past two books has finally spilled over into full-scale war.  One of the good things about Suzanne Collins’ writing is how she doesn’t let characters get through violence unscathed.  The war that erupts affects everyone; no one, especially Gregor, is immune.  But one of her greatest strengths is also one of her greatest weaknesses because her endings are never satisfying.  I don’t like completely happy endings, but I certainly don’t like endings that are completely tragic either.  Suzanne Collins must find a balance between the two extremes in her future books, but alas, it’s too late for Gregor and the Code of Claw.

I give this book 3.5/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

[Book review by ForTheLoveOfBooks, my first guest poster! –CS]

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.

He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with  a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

   There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

  But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the Man Jack-who has already killed Bod’s family…

I personally don’t remember when I became familiar with Neil Gaiman, but I do remember one of my friends mentioning The Graveyard Book as one of the books she was planning on reading. I forgot about it for a while and then when I was on vacation in Sri Lanka last summer, I saw it in a bookstore, however the version that I saw was this one  which was published by Bloomsbury. I find the cover of the Bloomsbury version much more appealing; there’s a darkness to it which I find lacking in the American publication. I’ll move on from my usual cover gushing now!

The book  takes place somewhere in England and follows the adventures of Nobody Owens, a.k.a. Bod to the Graveyard Folk as he walks between the living and the dead. The story begins when Bod is a baby and his family are murdered by the mysterious man called Jack and continues till he is about 14/15 years old. Jacks always seem to get a bad name don’t they? You’ve got Jack in The Graveyard Book, Jack The Ripper, the list can go on and on. In his time growing up in the Graveyard, Bod encounters strange and fantastical people and creatures.  To name a few they are: the Indigo Man, the Sleer, the ghouls, Ms. Lupescu, Liza the witch and the human girl Scarlett.

Plot wise, I enjoyed the story. I liked the  darkness of the opening sequence in the book and the illustrations by Dave McKean add to the drama. Some chapters of the book were definitely fillers and sometimes it did feel like they were unnecessary, but regardless they did add a certain charm to the story. The ending of the story caught me by surprise. I didn’t expect a larger scheme of things to be occurring on the sidelines, but the story behind the scenes definitely helps to understand the connection between Jack and Bod. However it felt rushed to me; everything happened in a matter of hours. I also enjoyed the magical concepts Gaiman incorporated into the story such as ‘Fading’ and ‘Dreamwalking’ and I thought they were used well within the situations Bod found himself in.

Character wise, my only complaint is that there was a lack of character development. But then again this is a Children’s book and I suppose character development is not a requirement. I liked Bod’s character, he was sweet, genuine and likable. His parents; the Owens family were also likable characters, but I felt that they didn’t appear enough and I would have liked to see more of them. Bod’s guardian Silas was one of my favourite characters because he was so mysterious. At first I wasn’t too fond of Ms. Lupescu because she was giving Bod horrible food and didn’t seem to like him all that much, however when she appeared in Bod’s hour of need as  a  ‘Hound of God’ I thought she was awesome.

I personally didn’t like Scarlett’s teenage version. I liked her as a child, but she grew up to be an angsty teenager and I felt that there had been too much time lost between Bod and her that she didn’t quite understand him. I suppose who would teenagers be if they weren’t angsty and driven by hormones? The character Jack was well written; he was dark and scary and everything you want in a villain. The illustrations of Jack were also great because having him appear in front of you visually gave me goosebumps and I felt scared every time he appeared in the story.

Overall, The Graveyard Book was an enjoyable read. The concept of the book is unique and it’s different from my own reading experiences as a child. I personally don’t think I would have read this book as a child because it’s quite dark, but that’s my personal opinion. The book had some great quotes such as “Of all the organs, ‘the tongue is the most remarkable. For we use it both to taste our sweet wine and bitter poison, thus also do we utter words both sweet and sour with the same tongue” and “A graveyard is not normally a democracy, and yet death is a great democracy.” However there was something about the book that fell short for me. I don’t know how to explain it, but maybe I had too many expectations for it.

My Rating: 4/5

Would I recommend it? Yes

Amazon     Barnes and Noble

A Note on Tomorrow

Tomorrow I am excited to announce that I will have my first ever guest poster, ForTheLoveOfBooks reviewing a book by one of my new favourite authors: Neil Gaiman.  I haven’t read the book in question, but I’m reading American Gods right now.  If American Gods is any indication of how good this book is, I would recommend it as well.

Also, I will be away tomorrow.  Starting early and ending early.  I’ll probably be too tired to do much here on my blog, which is why I’m extremely grateful that ForTheLoveOfBooks is guest-posting as well as moderating.  Be nice to her; she’s a good sport for doing this.