Chronicles of a Liquid Society - Umberto Eco

"Umberto Eco was an international cultural superstar. In this, his
last collection, the celebrated essayist and novelist observes the changing world around him with irrepressible curiosity and profound wisdom. He sees with fresh eyes the upheaval in ideological values, the crises in politics, and the unbridled individualism that have become the backdrop of our lives—a “liquid” society in which it’s not easy to find a polestar, though stars and starlets abound."

I must be honest as we go into this review that this is the first piece of work I have read by Umberto Eco, and probably it wasn't the best starting point. I was somewhat disappointed to discover that this is not a book of essays, as I expected, but a collection of Eco's newspaper column articles. The nature of the original media dictates the format of most entries: incredibly short (500 - 1500 words each), the use of 'newspaper language', and written in response to a certain event (many of which felt either dated or way too regional)… So overall it reads a bit bitty, piecemeal, and lacklustre. 

Due to the short word count Eco is allotted for each subject he is never fully able to delve into the question or topic but rather skims, thus it doesn't feel like a fulfilling range of work or a complete understanding of his views. Plus, they are totally outdated. It’s a posthumous collection, so I can understand that. Yet he is referencing events that I have no recollection of, often happening while I was in Primary School. Or he is speaking about social trends that have either become common knowledge or haven't happened at all. 

Eco's intelligence and education shine in his more academic pieces, his more "modern" criticism often sound like the moaning of your grandfather that tells you you spend too much time on your phone and that childhoods where better in his day. I’m not really interested in reading about your hatred of the Internet when you’re ranting about Windows Vista.

I would like to quickly draw your attention to the cover of the book, which I thought was so clever. I loved the use of the shot of piled up newspapers, that not only references the topical/ non - fiction nature of the collection, but also visually references water or ice flows. I thought it was neat. 

Overall an entertaining read but by no means an invaluable education. I would either suggest another piece of Eco's work that is less obviously outdated, or, if you want to read about current social affairs, read something more current. Age Rating 15+. 

Candide - Voltaire

"Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan. Fast, funny, often outrageous, the French philosopher's immortal narrative takes Candide around the world to discover that -- contrary to the teachings of his distinguished tutor Dr. Pangloss -- all is not always for the best."

I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into when I picked up this book, with little understanding of Voltaire's philosophy or the plot of Candide. So you can imagine my surprise at the contents of this wonderful and horrifying little satire which might shape up to be one of my favourite books. 

Voltaire's novel introduces the reader to Candide, a wide-eyed, calm and amusingly bland young gentleman who resides at Castle Westphalia and who believes in the philosophy that "everything in the world is for the best." One of the first scenes is filled with two emotional opposites for Candide who first gets to kiss his love, Cunegonde behind a screen, only to then be kicked out of the castle, literally, by the Baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh.

Here begins Candide's incredible, fantastical adventure which takes him all over the globe with his mind always believing in "the folly of optimism". Moving on from being a soldier in the Bulgarian army to being shipwrecked, being involved with the aftermath of an earthquake, discovering then leaving the mythical El Dorado, to being robbed and swindled more times than seems fair - our hero has a lot of bad luck. One of the overarching issues of this narrative is to present that it isn't just Candide that bad things happen to and that the world is just pretty damn horrible. Tragic things happen to all our main characters including philosopher Dr. Pangloss, Candide's love Cunegonde, and a nice old lady who saved Candide from certain death. The tale is humorously and satirically presented in short, sharp chapters by Voltaire. Most descriptions of doom and degradation are presented in a highly comic fashion which not only serves to allow the reader to continue reading with less emotional scarring but also highlights the stupidity/horror of optimism and a "positive outlook" in these kinds of situations. Though somehow there where scenes that where just so horrific yet comically absurd that I couldn't help but laugh. 

The heartlessness, negativity, and cold-heartedness of humans is a frequent aura and undertone throughout. The novel features all sorts of nastiness such as rape, murder, torture, prostitution, robbery, and slavery among other nastiness and nonsense. 

The whole cast is, strangely, relatable and likable with each being a symbolic caricature of some aspect of ourselves. Some of the times they meet up with friends spontaneously all over the world is amazingly far fetched and draw attention to the satirical character of the story, allowing the characters to compare experiences, hardships, and evolving outlooks. Two of the main characters are the optimistic philosopher Dr. Pangloss and ultimately pessimistic scholar and travel companion of Candide's, Martin. The juxtaposition here is very interesting, with a "black and white"  of these two view points.

I loved the way that the book ends. I wont spoil it too much, but it was just perfect. The group of lost souls finding a unity in tending and being surrounded by nature and enjoying their own creative hobbies. The difference of outlook being forgotten in the coming together to live as good a life as they are going to get. The ending was surprisingly hopeful, at least to me, for such a horrifying story. You will not be able to avoid suffering as it is a part of life and complete optimism is a stupid outlook with so much pain in the world, however you can still find a life where you can, if not overcome you trauma, at least live with it. 

The story reminded me somewhat of the Journey of Buddha before he becomes the Buddha where the naïve and sheltered Indian Prince first ventures out and encounters all of the suffering in the world. I don't know whether this was intentional on Voltaire's part but it was an interesting thing to note. 

Age Rating 18+. As stated above this book contains every level of awfulness possible and doesn't shy away from it. 

LOT - Bryan Washington

"Stories of a young man finding his place among family and community
in Houston, from a powerful, emerging American voice.

In the city of Houston - a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America - the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He's working at his family's restaurant, weathering his brother's blows, resenting his older sister's absence. And discovering he likes boys.

This boy and his family experience the tumult of living in the margins, the heartbreak of ghosts, and the braveries of the human heart. The stories of others living and thriving and dying across Houston's myriad neighbourhoods are woven throughout to reveal a young woman's affair detonating across an apartment complex, a rag-tag baseball team, a group of young hustlers, the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a local drug dealer who takes a Guatemalan teen under his wing, and a reluctant chupacabra."

I feel this is a truly important book, that highlights difficult questions and intersections of identity, but one that I didn't enjoy. It's a short book with just 220 pages which hold a number of interconnected short stories that are all set in Houston, Texas. We always circle back to the same young narrator and his family but his chapters are interspersed with those of other people in the neighbourhood, usually also young, queer men. I really enjoyed the first few stories since they skilfully set the tone, introduced me to the narrator's world and created a sense of belonging. But the more I read the more settled became the feeling of hopelessness and isolation. The characters are lost, don't dare to dream, have nowhere to go and become cold, cruel and bitter. And what is even worse is knowing that many of these stories are real. 

While I didn't love all of the stories, some really stuck with me, including: "Alief," in which a community reveals a neighbour's affair to her husband but is unprepared for the destruction that this revelation might cause. This one really stuck with me, and I just adored the choice of writing the apartment block as if itself was a living breathing entity. However, much of the prose was quite raw and unbeautiful. 

For some reason I did feel emotional distance from these characters. I’m still trying to figure out where that distance comes from – perhaps it’s because our narrators are men and that distance is Washington showing how toxic masculinity, racism and the brutality of trying to survive in a system designed against you has come to harm men of colour's emotional landscape. Because none of these characters where even close to lovable, or even nice, really.

Age Rating 16+. Mature content. 

The Frolic of the Beasts - Mishima Yukio

"Set in rural Japan shortly after World War II, The Frolic of the
Beasts tells the story of a strange and utterly absorbing love triangle between a former university student, Kōji; his would-be mentor, the eminent literary critic Ippei Kusakudo; and Ippei’s beautiful, enigmatic wife, Yūko. When brought face-to-face with one of Ippei’s many marital indiscretions, Kōji finds his growing desire for Yūko compels him to action in a way that changes all three of their lives profoundly. Originally published in 1961,  The Frolic of the Beasts is a haunting examination of the various guises we assume throughout our lives, and a tale of psychological self-entrapment, seduction, and crime."

Sorry for the break guys, just moved house and couldn't access my laptop. 

This was my first Mishima and I was thoroughly intrigued as to what kind of book a man with such a strange and interesting life story would write. He committed Seppuku in 1970 after failing to start a Nationalistic semi-military coup. Please do me a favour and just google this man, his life was certainly unique and he must have been quite a character. 

As I said, this is my first Mishima and I am walking away not really knowing what to think or how much I really liked this book. As with most theme-heavy, rhetorical works of fiction, the characters in The Frolic of the Beasts read more like archetypal placeholders in an allegory than they do representations of persons but that serves well one of the novel's principal themes: Fate's destruction of agency. With exaggerated characters and recurring poetry that echoes like a refrain, The Frolic of Beasts reads like an tragicomic opera, and who will emerge as hero or villain will be determined by whose story you find most sympathetic.

The prose is romantic with pleasingly rambling meditations on imagery even when describing the acts and aftermath of violence. Atmospheric descriptions of a hot Japanese summer leave the reader feeling even more claustrophobic and here is sense of unrealism to the prose, a rambling disjointed simplicity that recalls the sense of a fable. 

I found the premise of the novel deeply interesting and there where moments of real brilliance. However the character where just too one dimensional for me to fully undertand their motivation or their emotional state. This, unfortunately, undercut the impact of the novel for me. There are many moment where more exploration of the character's inner thoughts would have served to heighten an already interesting plot point. For example (SPOILERS) why does Yuko decide to invite Koji to work for her, what emotion drives that decision? Then when he is there, why does she not initiate the physical relationship that she obviously desires? A sense of guilt, the enjoyment of punishing Koji, the tantalising joy of a pleasure not partaken in? 

Because of this lack of emotional fleshing out I found the side characters and stories increasingly interesting. Kimi, for example, and her personal tragedy and story was impactful and almost fairy-tale like. 

Overall an interesting but not brilliant read. However I would like to trey a few more of Mishima's works to get a better understanding of his writing and thematic style. 

Age Rating 16+. Mature content. Rape, sex, violence. 

The Story of Kao Yu - Peter S Beagle

 "The story of a Judge travelling through ancient China, and the
criminal he encounters."

Kao Yu is a middle-aged judge in ancient China, renowned for his fairness and honesty. He spends much of the year traveling from town to town to assist with legal cases. Kao Yu is sometimes assisted in making decisions by a chi-lin, a multi-coloured Chinese unicorn (that looks nothing like a unicorn, by the way) who will suffer no dishonesty in its presence. 

Kao Yu, however, during the course of one of these journeys must struggle with the warring between his heart, his head and divine justice. 

“The Story of Kao Yu” is a melancholy tale, a story of love and loss, and the choices we make when any choice will bring us pain. Beagle effectively and respectfully captures the style of an ancient Chinese legend, while making some timeless points about our innate human weaknesses.

However, while I did enjoy the short story and the execution is perfect, I just felt that it doesn't bring anything new to the table. It relies on traditional archetypes and storylines, and doesn't do anything so many hundreds of myths and legends haven't been doing for millennia.

Age Rating 13+ Nothing untoward but a lady does kill a man for his wallet and sex is very vaguely implied by "staying the night."

The Sound of the Mountains - Kawabata Yasunari

"Ogata Shingo is growing old, and his memory is failing him. At night
he hears only the sound of death in the distant rumble from the mountain. The relationships which have previously defined his life - with his son, his wife, and his attractive daughter-in-law - are dissolving, and Shingo is caught between love and destruction. Lyrical and precise, The Sound of the Mountain explores in immaculately crafted prose the changing roles of love and the truth we face in ageing."

A deeply meaningful book that I didn't understand at all. It is a book that I don't think can be read casually, as I did. It would better suited in a book club or high school literature lesson. It must be dissected. The motifs. The meaning of the Noh masks, the different flowers, the stray dog giving birth under the porch. The themes, of aging, love, family, loyalty, trauma and modernity. The subtle word choices and rhythms that Kawabata chooses to employ. If not then you loose much of the authors intent. 

As a metaphor for aging and the difficulty of family relations, it works well. As an actual story... there is barely any plot with nothing coming to any resolution. It was a slice of life book, a slice of the main character's life and existential ponderings used to illuminate certain human foibles to the reader but not to engage us. Not for us to have any conventional feeling of pacing, plot or character development. 

Kawabata crafts the relationship between Shingo and Kikuko beautifully on the cutting edge of sensuality and sympathy. Both the characters thrive separately in their miseries and still somehow in a bizarre way find a spiritual connection with each other, making the reader curious for the unheard. The tension of the unsaid and nervously wanted was certainly the highlight of the book for me. 

A beautiful and unique bit of writing that deserves study but certainly not a story. 

Age Rating 15+. Abortions, affairs and a creeping sensuality. 

The Birds Have Also Gone - Yaşar Kemal

"There is an ancient Turkish tradition that promises the person who

frees a small bird a place in paradise. Three boys set up a business of catching birds to enable people to free them, but city people are now sceptical and tragedy lies in wait for the boys."

Only about 150 pages, this was a short but impactful read. The second of my books set in Istanbul, it gave a brilliant yet ephemeral look into the culture. The writing style and descriptive passages are stunning, even if some of the content was brutal and thought provoking. I was disturbed by the tradition of freeing birds, captured for only this reason, that would then be released by a well meaning if deluded person only to be caught again. Trapped in this horrible cycle of capture and release.  

The characters of the boys are equally as unpin down-able as the rest of the story. They are, like many others in the book, disturbed by the fact people no longer want to buy the birds and partake. They take this failing to signify the moral failings of the modern Istanbul and the lack of faith in it's people. They also seem to feel pity for the many tiny beautiful birds they stuff into cages far to small for them, killing many birds everyday. Whether this pity is real or just a selling tactic though is truly hard to make out. The boys don't seem to understand how horrible their actions are, and put all of the blame for the birds captures and deaths at the door of the people who won't buy the birds freedom. 

This was my first Kemal and it did not disappoint. The book is so many things in one: a celebration of a great city, half reality and more than half myth; a lament for passing traditions and a disappearing way of life; a bewildered exclamation against the ravages of modernity, which has brought in its wake so much grief to so many. 

Above all else, this is an environmental story, and the author marvels at the gifts of nature so prodigiously showered on the Bosphorus, so cruelly treated by ambivalent and blinkered custom. The ending is truly shocking - but could it really have been any other way?

Age Rating 14+. Deeply moving, quite shocking and sad. 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - F. Scott Fitzgerald

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," a witty and fantastical satire about aging, is one of his most memorable stories.

In 1860 Benjamin Button is born an old man and mysteriously begins aging backward. At the beginning of his life he is withered and worn, but as he continues to grow younger he embraces life -- he goes to war, runs a business, falls in love, has children, goes to college and prep school, and, as his mind begins to devolve, he attends kindergarten and eventually returns to the care of his nurse.

This strange and haunting story embodies the sharp social insight that has made Fitzgerald one of the great voices in the history of American literature."

I read this short story in two hours. It was wonderfully engaging and just the right length that it didn't get boring. It is a wonderfully interesting premise but without enough meat for an entire novel. 

I found this short story quite sad, honestly. The fading of memories and vitality into child-like oblivion reminded me too well of old age and the forgotten nostalgias of vibrant youth. Although I'm young, I find the prospect of aging-associated diseases disheartening. The relaying of an entire life into such a short book had me contemplating those difficult questions we all are familiar with. This book was actually really fun to read, though. The dry, satirical, highbrow humor balances out the depressing aspects which had me laughing throughout.

I wasn’t particularly emotionally taken with the story, nor did I find any specifically enlightening insights on age or aging in it, other than a bit of existential dread as said above. It could be read as a spotlight on how older people, with a whole lifetime of knowledge, are treated like no more than silly babies. The prose however, on the moments it quits the more outspoken satirical register, flows delicately and lyrically, movingly mellowing nearing the ending while Benjamin reaches the innocent sweetness of infancy, soothing like a lullaby. 

Age Rating 12+. Nothing untoward whatsoever. 

The End We Start From - Meagan Hunter

"In the midst of a mysterious environmental crisis, as London is submerged below flood waters, a woman gives birth to her first child, Z. Days later, the family are forced to leave their home in search of safety. As they move from place to place, shelter to shelter, their journey traces both fear and wonder as Z's small fists grasp at the things he sees, as he grows and stretches, thriving and content against all the odds."
Set in the not so distant future when the oceans have risen dramatically and drowned much of England, the main character has just given birth to her son when she has to leave London to go North. We follow her from place to place, meeting people, losing people, finding people. The plot is near irrelevant though: it is more a meditation on motherhood, on beginnings and endings, on love and loss. All the characters are only referred to by their initials, leaving the reader at a distance and rendering this very personal tale relatively universal.

The story is told in short, sparse paragraphs, with quotes from the book of Genesis, creation and the flood, interspersed between certain segments. The writing is stunningly sparse, otherworldly and really unique. It gets under your skin. This was done so well, but there was one hurdle I could not overcome. The constant use of initials, bugged me to no end, and also made this short book confusing, trying to sort out and remember who was who. Possibly this was done to show that in a society collapse, an environmental disaster, names no longer matter, only survival does, but for me it lessened the impact of the story bring told. Having said that, I loved the structure. There are beautiful passages of a new mother's awareness of the baby she holds in her arms. Eerie and haunting, a little hopeful. 

I found the entire story to be terribly anticlimactic. After the following these characters through the events of the book, it just fizzles out. Nothing dramatic or life changing happens, we just end up where we started. 

Definitely worth a read from a prose point of view, but not from a plot or character one. 
Age Rating 13+. Nothing untoward happens. 

The Turnaway Girls - Hayley Chewins

"Delphernia Undersea wants to sing. But everyone on Blightsend knows music belongs to the Masters — and girls with singing throats are swallowed by the sea.

On the strange, stormy island of Blightsend, twelve-year-old Delphernia Undersea has spent her whole life in the cloister of turnaway girls, hidden from sea and sky by a dome of stone and the laws of the island. Outside, the Masters play their music. Inside, the turnaway girls silently make that music into gold. Making shimmer, Mother Nine calls it. But Delphernia can’t make shimmer. She would rather sing than stay silent. When a Master who doesn’t act like a Master comes to the skydoor, it’s a chance for Delphernia to leave the cloister."

A debut that sings! I devoured the book in one sitting. Chewins introduces both an enchantingly inventive idea of girls who weave gold from music, and a stunning lyricism rarely found in Primary School literature. The advanced diction, prose and complexity of the story however makes it suitable for much wider audience.  

Girls who turn away from their reflections as infants are trained as “turnaway girls,” growing up separate from the outside world to learn how to turn music into gold. Boys with a talent for music become music-makers and get to choose a turnaway girl for themselves once they become of age. There is no room for differences or otherness. On top of that, one man is trying to take complete control of the Kingdom for himself and does so in a ruthless manner. There are cautionary tales about one women who was different and didn’t conform, so she was swallowed by the sea; children are warned by this story to make sure to fall in line. 

Not only are the turnaway girls now isolated from the rest of society, but their matron has been taught how to take away all their curiosity as well; who they are as individuals is literally sucked away by a woman following orders so that they can fall into line. 

So you have the main character who is a turnaway girl; she is supposed to be silent, but she loves to sing. She learns through the course of the book that she actaully has the abiliy to sing souls into being, which I just thought was such a beautiful concept. So quietly spiritual. 

I absolutely loved that Chewins added a female Music-Maker who decided she didn’t want to act like a boy anymore. It was such a powerful moment when the main character realized that she wasn’t the only “other” in the universe; there were people like her who didn’t fit this mold that their society had created for themselves. Even just the descriptions of the main character hiding away to sing were so poignant and moving and so relatable; I think we’ve all had those moments where we take time for ourselves just to be ourselves without having to worry about others’ judgments.

This was a surprisingly diverse book, with many POC characters and main character. Thought is was lovely and a great touch, especially considering the themes of the book. 

There were moments of surprising violence within the book, meaning it is not all sweetness and light. I thought the author struck a nice balance. Mother Nine is a great villain that readers will have no problem hating! The Custodien was lacking as a villian however for me. He doesn't do anything particularly awful, we only really know of his awfulness through past events which doesnt really work for me. But I suppose that could be put down to the target audience. 

Overall a really good unique book. There are definitely moment when the target audience became apparent in the lack of in depth character motivation but it was so beautifully written and the concepts where so unique with such a great metaphor for female suppression. Really hats off. 

Age Rating 12+. The abuse of Delpherina by Mother Nine shocked me and is, personally, not appropirate for very young readers. 

The Vegetarian - Han Kang

"Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. And as her passive rebellion manifests in ever more extreme and frightening forms, scandal, abuse, and estrangement begin to send Yeong-hye spiraling deep into the spaces of her fantasy. In a complete metamorphosis of both mind and body, her now dangerous endeavor will take Yeong-hye—impossibly, ecstatically, tragically—far from her once-known self altogether."

Sometimes you are lucky enough to read a book that you know will stay with you. This is one of them. I can never properly identify what makes some books like this. What makes them stick in the back of your mind. I have read many excellent books that do not effect me. I have read many 'ordinary' books that have stuck with me.

This book isn't super long. In fact, it reads like a novella, so it's easy to consume and fast paced enough that about the time you feel really into it, it's over. It's not a bad thing though because there is a LOT packed into this little story. Despite being a story that is explicitly about Yeong-hye, it is actually never told directly from her perspective. Instead, we are give about 60 pages a piece from her husband, her brother-in-law, and her sister. The oddest part about this formatting is, unlike many book of this type, the perspectives do not overlap. Some take place at the time of Yeong-hye's decision to become a vegetarian, and others take place years after the fact.

To be totally honest, this book is weird. It might actually be the weirdest book I've ever read. But there's still something beautiful about it. It's an honest while surrealist look at mental illness and how it affects not only that individual, but also everyone that cares about them. 

We see how her vegetarianism, which later leads into a kind of manic catatonia, affects first her callous and at times sexually abusive husband, then her brother-in-law who becomes completely enthralled with her sexually because of her Mongolian mark, and her sister who is the last one standing when Yeong-hye’s psyche begins to peel away. Each persons POV bring a unique insight and atmosphere to the writing. The first being deeply hate and disgust filled, the second saturated in sexual obsession and shame and lastly, the final part is so deeply and quietly desolate that it is almost painful to rea. 

In addition to the serious topics that The Vegetarian brushed up against: the effect of cultural mores on women, body image, conformism, familial ties and abuse, and, of course, mental illness - this was also a tale of family dysfunction. It was a tale of familial ties that were severed painfully, of violent confrontations and realizations, of physical and emotional starvation, and a parable about the woman, the vegetarian, at the centre of it all.

The Vegetarian was sensual, and it meandered toward its climax in a way that was both unsettling and prophetic. Honestly, this may or may not work for everyone. It was deeply unsettling and uncomfortable to read, not for the faint of heart or people unable to suspend disbelief. 

Age rating 17+. Incredibly adult material that isn't shied away from. 
Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. And as her passive rebellion manifests in ever more extreme and frightening forms, scandal, abuse, and estrangement begin to send Yeong-hye spiraling deep into the spaces of her fantasy. In a complete metamorphosis of both mind and body, her now dangerous endeavor will take Yeong-hye—impossibly, ecstatically, tragically—far from her once-known self altogether.

All the Crooked Saints - Maggie Stiefvater

FrombestsellingauthorMaggieStiefvater,agrippingtaleofdarkness,miracles,andfamily.Saints.Miracles.Family.Romance.Death.Redemption.

Hereisathingeveryonewants:Amiracle.

Hereisathingeveryonefears:
Whatittakestogetone.

AnyvisitortoBichoRaro,Coloradoislikelytofindalandscapeofdarksaints,forbiddenlove,scientificdreams,miracle-madowls,estrangedaffections,oneortwoorphans,andaskyfullofwatchfuldesertstars.

AttheheartofthisplaceyouwillfindtheSoriafamily,whoallhavetheabilitytoperformunusualmiracles.Andattheheartofthisfamilyarethreecousinslongingtochangeitsfuture:Beatriz,thegirlwithoutfeelings,whowantsonlytobefreetoexamineherthoughts;Daniel,theSaintofBichoRaro,whoperformsmiraclesforeveryonebuthimself;andJoaquin,whospendshisnightsrunningarenegaderadiostationunderthenameDiabloDiablo.

Theyarealllookingforamiracle.ButthemiraclesofBichoRaroareneverquitewhatyouexpect."Here is a thing everyone wants: A miracle.

Here is a thing everyone fears:
What it takes to get one.

Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars.

At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.

They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect."


This book was unfortunately and disappointingly boring to me. Maggie’s lyrical writing style is present throughout the book. The writing is truely drop dead gorgeous. I had to stop to re read many passages just because of how beautiful they where. But I never once felt fully immersed with this actual story. I have so many tabs of gorgeous passages filled with whimsical prose after whimsical prose, but the beautiful writing didn’t help me to actually care about these characters. This actually pains me to say, but I came very close to DNFing this book by the half way point, just because I was so uninterested with the main characters.

There definitely are better aspects. The imagery is really stunning. I absolutely adored the thing she wanted / thing she feared character intros: they were the highlights of the book for me.  There’s a very magical vibe to this book, otherworldly and a great example of magic realism. I enjoyed the scope of the Soria family and how positive and loving their dynamic was. Yet they still feel like a flawed, dynamic family. The trio of Soria cousins are great.  I do really love how Stiefvater plays with language and metaphor; it’s a lot of fun, and I’m sure you could annotate this for just her wordplay till the end of time.There are a lot of great ideas, the emotional execution was lacking however. 

Age Rating 13+. Nothing untoward. 

Swimming Home - Deborah Levy

"Swimming Home' is a subversive page-turner, a merciless gaze at the insidious harm that depression can have on apparently stable, well-turned-out people. Set in a summer villa, the story is tautly structured, taking place over a week in which a group of beautiful, flawed tourists in the French Riviera come loose at the seams. Shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize."

Deborah Levy is an interesting writer. There is a visual quality to her work that makes the reader blink. Is this a novel, or is it a film, we ask ourselves? Are we reading or watching? We become immobile in front of the screen of her set pieces, watching passively as the events happen before our eyes, as if in a documentary or a piece of reality TV. But there is no voice over, hardly any backstory, and no linking of scenes. What we see is all there is so we have to make of it what we can.
I really wanted to love this book, and I did love Levy's writing, her prose is masterful - conveying character, setting, and insight in small spare beautifully crafted paragraphs. The entire book is quite lean -- a week of time, briefly, surgically told . Levy's craftsmanship is rich. I thought the bluntness of the language matched well with the theme which predominated for me: the workings of fractured minds. There’s an absence of pronouns like ‘whom’ and ‘which’ and ‘that’ which make some of the sentences read as if there were an invisible twist in the middle but when you go back and reread them, you can’t find where the disjunction lies. It is as if, although it is a third person narrative, the writing itself is the product of a splintered mind. This did lead however, to the story being remarkably difficult to follow in places as it isn't incredibly clear what is going on. 

The problem is that the book is cold at the core. The oddly comforting epilogue rings false in a book that so limpidly depicts layer upon layer of rejection, failure to connect, and selfishness. The overwhelming urge that you have as a reader is to slap everyone concerned as they solipsistically labour at their own undoing. 

I assume this book was supposed to be a heart wrenching piece about depression and family detachment, but I was left feeling that is was more about human apathy and selfishness. I didn't feel anything in the end, maybe that was the point. To show you where as apathetic as them. Either way it didn't really work for me. 

Age Rating +15. Adult themes, disconcerting writing, swearing and suicide. 

Rags and Bones - Assorted including Neil Gaimen, Carrie Ryan, Kelley Armstrong ect

The best writers of our generation retell classic tales. From Sir Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene" to E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops", literature is filled with sexy, deadly, and downright twisted tales. In this collection, today's most acclaimed award-winning and bestselling authors reimagine their favorite classic stories and use their own unique styles to rebuild these timeless stories, the ones that have inspired, awed, and enraged them, the ones that have become ingrained in modern culture, and the ones that have been too long overlooked. They take these twelve stories and boil them down to their bones, and reassemble them for a new generation of readers. Written from a twenty-first century perspective and set within the realms of science fiction, dystopian fiction, fantasy, and realistic fiction, these short stories are as moving and thought provoking as their originators. They pay homage to groundbreaking literary achievements of the past while celebrating each author's unique perception and innovative style.

Okay, so I didn't read all the stories in this book as some of them frankly didn't catch my interest so I will do short reviews on the ones I did. 

That the Machine May Progress Eternally  by Carrie Ryan, inspired by E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops - Absolutely brilliant. I haven't read the original but this short story was actually terrifying and it didn't take on a preachy tone. It was an intriguing science fiction/dystopian short story that I really enjoyed. Left me reeling. 

Losing Her Divinity by Garth Nix, inspired by The Man Who Would Be King - I found this to be a bizarre little short story, and one that I enjoyed mostly because of the more unique style of the narration. Told in first person, it reads like a person having a conversation with two others (which is exactly what's going on). It was confusing at first, but once I got into the swing of it, I found it to be entertaining and amusing.

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, inspired by Sleeping Beauty - A retelling of Sleeping Beauty, Gaiman manages to make Sleeping Beauty very dark (which he is very good at) and put a whole new twist to it. Gaiman twists two well-loved tales, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty together artfully. None of the characters are ever given names, the Reader thinks they know how the story will go, and then WHAM! Gaiman gives it a nice twist. The narration is third person which works brilliantly. 

Millcara by Holly Black, inspired by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla - A retelling of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla. The agenda feel continues, only this time our protagonist isn't bisexual; she's a infintile lesbian vampire. Who just looooves to talk about her girlfriend's succulent lips, body heat, skin, and everything else. Ugh; I don't want the details, thank you very much. Boring  and mildly pointless as it brings no new take to the story. Narration is first person, past tense, though it jumped to present tense sometimes, as well as feeling almost like a stream-of-consciousness narration.

Awakened by Melissa Marr, inspired by Kate Chopin's The Awakening - Agian I have never read the original. I personally love selkie mythology and stories and this one was no exception. The young selkie is forced to live with an abusive, twisted man because he posesses her pelt and in extention her. In rebellion she sleeps with another man who happens to be his best friend. While her actions arent illustrious I think a common miscenception is that selkies are like humans. Personally they arent, it would like being mad an elemental or animal cheated on you when you have trapped them. My favourite of the group I read. 

The Soul Collector by Kami Garcia, inspired by the Brothers Grimm's Rumpelstiltskin -  I didn't realize it was a Rumpelstilskin retelling until the very end, it is so dissimilar. Which was a good and bad thing. I enjoy retellings that are different from the original, but I also like to see some familiar aspects. The similar aspects in this story required some interpretation. Really enjoyed the gritty, twisteness of this version. Another favourite.  Because The Soul Collector deals with street crime, there's drug, sexual, and profanity content (5 s-words), but nothing horribly explicit. 

Overall an interesting read. The mixture of source material ranges from fairy tales to Renaissance literature to short stories from the 19th and 20th centuries. While I'm not necessarily opposed to this Laissez-faire approach, it's a bit odd in an anthology aimed at teens. How many of us have read E.M. Forster's story "The Machine Stops" or Henry James' "The Jolly Corner"?  I had hoped and expected more fairy tales and was disappointed with the lack of them. 

Age Rating 15+. A few allusions here and there and the Soul Collector is quite raw but other than that nothing untoward.