Review: Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer

Belzhar is the tale of wounded teenager, Jam Gallahue, who is sent to “a therapeutic boarding school” called The Wooden Barn to recover from the death of her boyfriend, Reeve Maxfield. She is among a small elite group of students chosen to take a legendary class, Special Topics in English. The five members of this group are classified as emotionally fragile and highly intelligent, each having undergone their own personal tragedy.

I don’t really see the high intelligence manifested in Jam. Sure, she is incredibly fragile when it comes to emotions, but the only other thing we know about her is that she has long hair. Oh, and she dated an English boy who died.

“I’m British, Jam, did you forget?”

No, nobody forgot, because Reeve’s defining characteristic is his nationality. If I were to reread this book, which I wouldn’t, I’d count how many times his country of origin is referenced. Not only is Jam’s relationship with him unbelievable due to its brevity (forty-one days, to be precise); it’s unbelievable because Reeve is a two-dimensional caricature.

The insipidness doesn’t end with Jam and Reeve. The other four members of the Special Topics in English have, for the most part, not endured truly traumatic life events, at least not to the degree in which they are portrayed. The only legitimately tragic situation is probably Sierra’s, whose eleven-year-old brother was abducted under her watch.

The story is rife with misdirection, such as Jam’s younger brother’s newfound kleptomania and her playing the role of goat doula for a night. There are all these entrances to various bunny trails that never actually lead anywhere. And Jam’s halfhearted relationship with Griffin? Is it really necessary that she recover from one relationship with another?

As for the supernatural element, the place the students call Belzhar, I personally was looking forward to discovering this new world, but that was before I knew what kind of world it would turn out to be. Basically, it is a place of grand delusion, a place the members of the class can go to pretend their great calamities never occurred. Belzhar does nothing but nurture denial, although I suppose at least one of our characters is thoroughly imbedded in denial anyway…

I can appreciate the link to the book’s namesake, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. In that book, the protagonist undergoes a sudden yet severe crisis in which she no longer wishes to exist. The characters in this book are like that, in a way. Their lives plummet abruptly, leaving them reeling from the struggle to adjust. But in Jam’s case, the catalyst for her plummet is not even based in reality.

Be warned: I cannot stress enough how much I despise the ending of this book.

It’s sad when you begin to sympathize with a stereotypical mean girl, who just so happens to be the protagonist’s nemesis, but there’s very little choice towards the end of this book. I had a difficult enough time feeling sorry for Jam before finding out what really happened to her. It’s beyond impossible to pity her after that discovery.

Mean Girl Dana Sapol has it right:

 “Good-bye and good riddance, you psycho loser.”

Review: Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

This book is less of a Whodunit than it is an in depth exploration of some deeply troubled minds. It's pretty clear from the beginning of the book that the culprit is one of two people (both of whom end up incarcerated). However, nobody is innocent. Everybody is troubled. Altogether, the characters make up the cast of one of the darkest books I've read in quite some time.

Not that it isn’t enjoyable, but I felt sort of nasty reading while it. It's up close and personal; it's unflinching in its depiction of what troubled people do to themselves and to others. And that's another thing: some people self-damage while others feel an irresistible urge to maim others. It's interesting in this book to find out which sort of person each of the characters are.

Camille Preaker, a police reporter, has returned home to get a head start on the story of what appears to be a serial killer. This is not just any serial killer, though, but one that strangles young girls and removes all of their teeth postmortem.  

At first, I was a little irritated that the investigation goes so slowly. Pages and chapters go by without any new information provided. Long passages are devoted to reveries concerning Camille's past life. Long, troubled reveries, incredibly sexual and violent in nature. At some point along the way, I realized the story is less about the dead little girls than it is about Camille confronting that past life.

I didn't necessarily like Camille's character. Aside from the screwed up mentality (and her unique tendency to carve words into herself all over her body), she's really rather drab. I can remember nothing about her personality, nothing that doesn't come back to the madness of it all. She cuts; she's a neat freak; she's a writer (crime journalist, evidently), but there's nothing else.

At some point, even she acknowledges this. She has no friends, no pets, not even a houseplant. She went off to college long before the story started, became a non-person. Everything about her seems to exist in the past. She had a brief lugubrious stint where she needed enough sex to satisfy forty people (apparently to the point where she also needed to lose her virginity in eighth grade to four guys at once).

And her stepsister, Amma? She's meant to sound precocious (if that could possibly be considered the right word), but hard drugs and promiscuity at thirteen? She's worldly and ingenious. It really feels like she knows too much, too much of the wrong kind of thing.

This book has a rather interesting perspective on the crazed female mind. No one in the entire town, including the police force, truly entertains the notion that the killer could be a woman. I don’t intend to give spoilers, but this still demonstrates preconceived notions about women and their instincts to be maternal.

It's hard to say much about this book-not because there isn't a lot to say, but rather because the whole thing is so interwoven together. Camille's character is greatly defined by her mother, and the childhood death of one of her sisters rattles them all.

Sharp Objects is compelling, truly. I hate it for its nastiness and love it for its insatiability. Another thing: there are some pretty brutal images from a hog farm Camille's mother owns. If I weren't already a vegetarian, I would become one immediately.

Review: The Rose Society by Marie (The Young Elites #2)

If The Young Elites was good, then The Rose Society transcended any and all of my expectations. It's darker, sexier, and just fuller than the first one. Adelina has truly come into her own.

Adelina is supposedly the villain in her own story, but she never feels that way to me. Never once do I feel any sort of resentment or hatred towards her. She may be hell-bent on her revenge, but Marie Lu writes in such a way that Adelina is completely justified for her thoughts and actions. I root for Adelina. I hate her enemies with her. I feel myself descending into her madness alongside her. She is always in the right.

My few complaints from the previous book have been completely nullified. While I originally had a problem with flip-flopping perspectives (Adelina's lengthy chapters told in first person and random, shorter chapters in third), I find this book much more consistent in its presentation. I even looked forward to the random breaks in Adelina's monologue, where the side characters take over. Maeve, Teren, and Raffaele are all complex, sophisticated characters, each with an ulterior agenda.

Marie Lu does an excellent job balancing the new characters with the old. She doesn't bog us down with too many of them. It's wonderful to meet this new cast and to get a more in depth experience of all of their individual powers.

I must say that I now get the *big deal* surrounding Teren. I found him rather tedious in The Young Elites, but now he seems to be one of the most complicated characters in the story. I'm beyond eager to see what will come into play for him in the next book.

On the other hand, in The Young Elites, Enzo was one of my favorite characters, and now I find his presence a tad... offensive. I suppose coming back from the Underworld would change anyone, but it's easy to resent him when one takes into account the hypocrisy with which he treats Adelina. It's like my perspectives have flipped. It's complicated. 

It's all complicated. And that's one of the most amazing things about it. All the characters are so real; the world itself is well planned. This story is built upon layer upon layer upon layer, each layer being gradually revealed to us as deeper and more tangled than the last. 

I am both dreading and eagerly anticipating the ending. Who am I kidding? I'm basically drooling over it, desperate for it. But the dread is still intact. The biggest reason for this is that I know from my previous experience with the Legend series that Marie Lu will not write easy or tidy endings. There will be finality and closure, yes, but it will most likely rip some hearts to shreds in the process. It will probably rip up my own. Oh, I love sad endings, but they are still tremendously difficult to read.

I really can't praise this series enough. It's not just that this is an impeccable book; it's also that Marie Lu is an impeccable writer. I fully intend to read anything and everything she publishes.

Review: Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare (The Infernal Devices #2)

Clockwork Prince picks up shortly after the conclusion of Clockwork Angel, although enough time has passed for both relationships and routines to be established. Tessa has come to feel at home in the Institute, so it is unfortunate that Charlotte's position of leadership there is threatened. If they do not find the Magister in a timely manner, then Charlotte will lose her authority, and Tessa will find herself homeless. Racing against the clock, the team struggles to outsmart the devious man who has been calculating his revenge for decades.

Not going to lie, this book took well over 100 pages to enrapture me, but, once it did, it was hard to look up for even a moment. As the story progressed, I forgot all about the earlier tedium and was swept away by this dark world.

Tessa really grows as a character in this. She is no longer married to the idea that she has to look and think like a proper lady. She is expanding her knowledge of the reality of the world and her ability to defend herself. She yearns to learn more about what she herself is and what she can do. There's just something about her in this book that makes her so much less delicate and so much more admirable.

I guess you could say she also grows... sexually as well. It would probably be difficult not to, what with fellows like both Jem and Will professing eternal and undying love for her. However, this love triangle thing is a dilemma, sometimes a brutal thing to read. It's especially difficult to experience because the reader becomes privy to things that the characters are not.  

This is something I have a problem with. We are allowed to be in the know because the perspectives from random characters appear throughout the book. Tessa is the primary narrator, of course. The role of secondary narrator probably belongs to Magnus Bane, but there are several other characters that have random, singular chapters throughout. I found this to be a little bit jarring and almost... too intimate. I felt like I had no business in knowing what was going on in a character's head for such a small number of pages and that their chapters exist only for the purpose of info-dumping. Had there been a little more consistency with the characters used, I possibly would not have even noticed it, let alone have been bothered by it.

I hate hate hate love triangles, even if they are done well- nay, especially if they are done well! Because if they are done well, then you fall a little bit in love with both parties, and your heart is going to be a little bit broken no matter what the outcome is. Most people seem to easily flock to one side or the other, but I (again, only if it's done well) flounder and flitter hopelessly between the two until I've mentally exhausted myself. This is truly a very trying process and is better left avoided most of the time.

This love triangle is particularly harsh for the following two reasons:

1. Because the two young men are not only best friends, they are parabatai (a very intense form of Shadowhunter partnership, more or less).

2. Because it's not so easy to blame Tessa for the awkward situation they are all in. If she were at all malicious or beguiling, then it would be simple to pin the blame on her and hate her. But she is not a hateful character, and therefore tension is just unbearable.

But she did not love anyone else in the world. These were the boys she loved. For better. And for worse.

It's a shame she can't just marry them both. And what about Magnus? He's still my favorite.

Really, there is a lot more to this series than just the aspect of romance. It takes place in an intricate, well-planned, and consistent universe with an ever-increasing panoply of supernatural creatures. As time passes, you can begin to see the story lines weaving together, although all of said lines are seamless. There is so much foreshadowing, but at the same time, no real hints. I was enraptured to learn the fate of Nate and Jessamine. I love the side characters, both the old ones and the new ones. I love the side romances-Henry and Charlotte, Sophie and Gideon.

Now I'm a little scared to read Clockwork Princess. Not because it will not be enjoyable, but because these characters are so very real and close to my heart that it's going to break no matter the conclusion.

Review: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (The Infernal Devices #1)

Let me start by saying I have not yet read the Mortal Instruments Series. Clockwork Angel is the first book I have read by Cassandra Clare, and I intend to read the rest of the Infernal Devices series before beginning Mortal Instruments. Ahem.

Clockwork Angel introduces us to Tessa Gray, concluding her journey from New York to London, where she expects her brother and a bright new life will be awaiting her. Unfortunately, neither expectation is present upon her arrival, and instead she is abducted by two hags who confine her in order to train her to "Change."

Apparently Tessa is able to turn into other people, to assume their bodies, personalities, and memories. She had no knowledge of this ability prior to her arrival in England, but her captors are both resilient and insistent in her training, and she becomes skilled in this ability quickly. When she is finally able to escape, thanks to the help of Will, she is exposed to a whole new world, filled with supernatural creatures and the politics that concern them. She meets the Clave of Shadowhunters, part angel and part human, who offer her sanctuary and aid in finding her brother in exchange for her help in return. 

My favorite thing about this book is the way that Cassandra Clare incorporates so many mythical creatures and combines them for one solid story. I don't often encounter books that deal with all this supernatural variety (angels, demons, faeries, vampires, warlocks, etc.) and make it work. You would think this many creatures would seem like overkill, but it really isn't. In fact, it all works together rather nicely.

I personally find it to be a good thing that the mystery of Tessa's origin is not immediately (or really, ever) revealed. It would certainly take away a lot from the merit of this story if it were all wrapped up neatly for us. But, at the same time, aside from a baseline frustration that comes along with wanting to know what's going on, I find this story well paced in the fact that it reveals its secrets in a timely fashion. It's not too drawn out, but things also aren't revealed entirely too soon. The former would make it irritating, and the latter would make it boring.

On the subject of Tessa's origin... how is she not ecstatic to discover what she is able to do? I realize that she is an 1800s lady and that there is a great deal of unpleasantness in this supernatural world, but she seems resentful of her abilities, or, at best, indifferent. Never once does she relish what she is able to do, nor does she appreciate the edge it gives her over everyone else. This is not mere shape-shifting (although that would be phenomenal all by itself); this is the ability to become another person or being, to know their thoughts, their pasts, their secrets. This is essentially the ability to become invisible, to walk through walls, to go anywhere or do anything, all because you can assume more than just a person's face; you can learn what they know, speak as they speak, do what they can do. I'll stop ranting about it, but, for the book's entirety, I was blown away at Tessa's response (or lack thereof) to her newfound power.

I loved the literary references thrown in throughout the book, particularly the reference to Dante and the cold ninth circle of hell. I often read about characters that proclaim to enjoy reading, but unlike many of them, Tessa truly seems to love it. She backs it up her claim with numerous titles, particularly relevant to the time period in which she lives. I've even taken a few of her beloved titles and added them to my To-Read shelf.

It would seem that we have a love triangle on our hands, although this one is much more subtle and less obnoxious than I find most others to be. Will and Jem are pretty solid characters, and I'm interested to see where this is going. But, personally, I am rooting for Jem, because I think bad boys are just a little overrated. On that note, it’s a shame that Magnus isn’t in the mix.

Ultimately this is the start to what appears to be a very solid series. I find it to be engaging and well researched, although I think bits of it are predictable, such as the fate of Tessa's brother and the true identity of the magister. But, for the most part, the twists are thrilling and the imagery is compelling. It’s certainly worth reading; this is obvious even from the beginning. I blinked and the first 100 pages had blown by.