The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Jude used to live a normal life with her family until her parents are killed in front of her. She and her siblings are spirited away to Elfhame, the world of beautiful and cruel faeries. Jude and her twin sister Taryn are treated by society as if they are fae, which enrages the petty youngest son of the king, Cardan. He and his cronies torment Jude because she won't back down or admit defeat. When her father makes it impossible for her to ever truly be accepted by fae society, the king's most likely heir approaches her to be his spy, entrenching her further in Court of Fae drama and the underhanded fight for the throne.

I waited years to start this series and thought the hype wouldn't live up to the book. I was totally wrong. The Cruel Prince is so different than I expected. The world of Elfhame is detailed and dark. The fae view humans as temporary lovers at best and playthings or beasts of burden at worst. Jude and Taryn would never be seen as equal in this society's eyes no matter how hard Jude tries to show her abilities. The fae can't lie, but don't hesitate to skirt around the truth or lie by omission. Each creature type is varied in anatomy, behavior, and diet. Jude's stepfather is a redcap who needs to bathe his cap in blood every so often, leading to a hot temper and a love for war. Humans are fooled quite easily into slavery or being playthings until the inhuman creatures get bored or hungry. Every interaction with them puts humans in danger, making living with them inspire constant terror at doing the wrong thing. It's even worse that Cardan has decided to torment Jude and no one will do anything to help her unless it goes too far.

The first and second halves of the book are starkly different. The first half establishes Jude and her situation, not quite fitting into either Elfhame or the human world. With the way she is cruelly treated by almost everyone around her and how she will never truly fit into fae society as a mortal, you would think she would just run back to our world. Wrong. Jude loves Elfhame for everything it is. It's her home and she can never be truly satisfied living away from it knowing it's still there. Her narrative is at times very frustrating to read because I can see how her decisions will turn out so terribly, but she does what she thinks is right. Jude wants to prove that she is equal to if not better than the fae. Taryn, her twin, is perfectly happy taking whatever the fae will give her, tries to fit in wherever she can, and taking it with a smile. She will turn her back on literally anything to just keep them from tormenting her. While she is also frustrating to read, the constant torment would be hard to live with and I don't blame her for doing what she has to for survival. I thought this book would stay as a conflict between Jude and various fae, but the rest is very different.

The second half of the book is much more about the inner workings of royalty and who is going to be crowned prince. Jude has plans, but multiple other parties have their own who are more powerful, well connected, and older than her not to mention essentially immortal. I didn't expect the book to delve so deep into the politics side. This twist upends the status quo of the first half and redeems Cardan somewhat which I thought was impossible. The end is an insane series of twists and turns that I never saw coming. The Cruel Prince proves to be deeper and darker than I expected. While there is a romance (as is annoyingly required in YA), it doesn't take away from the story and adds another complication to an already touchy situation. I can't wait to read the next in the series plus the Cardan novella was just announced.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Women in Horror: Vampire Academy

Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir are on the run, escaped from St. Vladimir's Academy for two years. Lissa is vampire royalty and Rose is a Dhampir, dedicated as a guardian to protect her best friend. Unfortunately, the professional guardians find them and drag them back to the school, which is pretty much like any other high school filled with blood sucking fiends. They are faced with a new set of problems like vicious gossip, peer pressure, two faced friends, and a rather disturbing prank where dead animals are left in Lissa's room. It becomes clear that whoever is behind it is much more nefarious than a catty classmate or a jilted crush, but can Rose convince the faculty that the threat is real before it's too late?

Don't let the film version deter you from reading this book. While the film was over the top and trying much too hard to be funny, the novel has moments of comedy, but is at its core a heartfelt, emotional story of a close friendship. Rose is fiery and defiant while Lissa is kindhearted and sweet. Each has their own issues to contend with. Rose is on the verge of being kicked out of school, has to deal with vicious rumors and slut shaming, has a crush on her hot mentor, and is trying to figure out who is threatening Lissa. Although she appears to be tough, she’s just as conflicted and unsure as any teenager on the inside. Lissa recently lost her entire family in a car crash she and Rose survived. She also suffers from depression, self-mutilation, and bullying from her classmates. They complement and support each other absolutely. In addition to their close friendship, they have a supernatural bond that allows a one way communication of emotions and sometimes images from Lissa to Rose. Throughout the course of the book, Rose protects Lissa and learns to put aside her own feelings and comfort to help her friend.

The vampire society has some interesting gender dynamics due to the biology of Dhampirs and vampires (known as Moroi). Moroi are vampires that are born, live, and die, much like humans except with magic powers and a diet including blood. Dhampirs are human/vampire hybrids that can’t reproduce with other Dhampirs, but can with Moroi. Moroi/Dhampir relationships are typical as flings or teenage crushes, but when they grow up, Moroi are expected to settle down with others of their kind. Dhampirs are expected to either reproduce with Moroi or stay alone and dedicate their lives as guardians to protecting the Moroi. Dhampir relationships with each other are especially looked down upon and seen as selfish since it distracts from their guardian work and won’t result in any children. If they choose not to become guardians and opt to be stay at home moms or they allow Moroi to feed off of them, they are known as blood whores, the lowest of that society.

All of these expectations has a huge effect on Rose. Because she allowed Lissa to feed on her while they were on the run, classmates accuse Rose of being a blood whore. They embellish the truth and also claim that she had sex with two guys at the same time and allowed them to feed off of her, adding a slut accusation to the already awful blood whore one. In typical fashion, the boys in question and Lissa are not looked down upon for either the sex or the feeding. Rose is a virgin, but also likes to make out with boys because it’s fun and pleasurable. She starts to doubt herself and questions if she really is the person they say she is. I’m sure many girls and women experience feelings like this. Our society has the same view of sexual women being sluts and sexual men being typical and inconsequential. Later on, she develops a crush on her Dhampir mentor after she just condemned another Dhampir relationship of being stupid and selfish. Her feelings are conflicted because she buys into the social view of that relationship. The society’s condemnation of this type of relationship reflects our attitude towards people who choose not to have children. The majority see them as selfish or broken people and their relationships as pointless.

Vampire Academy is refreshing change from a lot of young adult novels. Instead of being exclusively about romances, this one focuses on the friendship between two girls, slut shaming, and highlights ridiculous societal expectations only applied to women. The film version does a poor job of portraying these issues and with the overuse of humor actually trivializes many of them. I recommend this book and the series to those looking for something different in a sea of romance driven young adult novels.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins 

YA Fiction is Too Dark, Whines the Wall Street Journal: A Rant

An article in the Wall Street Journal came out yesterday whining about too much darkness being present in young adult novels. This article frustrates me and depresses me at the same time. I'm going to try to put my feelings into words, but if I fail and blather on, please forgive me. I'm going to take a page from Neil Gaiman and provide a warning: contains me. I don't usually write about such personal things, but I think it's really necessary because this article brings back strong memories and feelings for me. The quoted sections are directly from the article.

* "How dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from the ages of 12 to 18.

Pathologies that went undescribed in print 40 years ago, that were still only sparingly outlined a generation ago, are now spelled out in stomach-clenching detail. Profanity that would get a song or movie branded with a parental warning is, in young-adult novels, so commonplace that most reviewers do not even remark upon it."

First of all, these "pathologies" (as if being violent is some sort of disease) have been written about well over 40 years ago. Ever hear of the Bible? the Marquis de Sade? Vladimir Nabokov? Euripides? Obviously the writer of this novel doesn't seem to have actually read much literature from any era. People have been writing about violence, brutality, and various paraphilia for literally thousands of years.

* "If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is."

I know this may be hard for some to realize, but life is not all butterflies, glitter, and rainbows. Everyone has their own problems and unique experiences. To say that darkness doesn't exist in young people's lives is to stick your head in the sand and refuse to see the truth. Teens commit suicide, have sex, cut themselves, and a whole slew of other things that these people don't want to hear about. How are teen books that reflect this "hideously distorted?" If the author and the people commenting in praise of the article are lucky enough to have a perfect life with nothing so unsavory, then they are very lucky indeed. For the rest of us, I'm so happy that young adult authors are not afraid to be frank about the realities of life.

* "Yet it is also possible—indeed, likely—that books focusing on pathologies help normalize them and, in the case of self-harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who might otherwise never have imagined such extreme measures."

I just want to relate my own experience with YA for a second. Young adult fiction provided me a place where I belonged and felt comfortable in more ways than one. My childhood was difficult because I had an emotionally, physically, and mentally abusive mother and a complacent father. I thought that all families had parents that fought constantly and that everyone was terrified of their own mother. I just thought no one talked about it. How's that for normalizing pathologies? Young adult novels provided me with an escape when I needed it and provided me with much needed catharsis when I couldn't have it in real life. Without young adult novels, I don't know what I would have turned to for escape and release. To ignore such dark realities is to make teens believe that they are alone in the world and that their own dark experience is singular. I think it's just irresponsible and equivalent to brushing teen problems out of sight and out of mind. And to assume that teens will just copy whatever behavior they read about is just ridiculous. Give them a little more credit than a five year old please.

*The author goes on to describe Judy Blume's "'Forever,' in which teenagers lose their virginity in scenes of earnest practicality. Objectionable the material may be for some parents, but it's not grotesque."

I have read Forever. It's one of the most laughable and unrealistic depictions of teen sexuality I have ever read. I read it in high school and it was just incredibly cheesy and as far from "earnest practicality" as you can possibly get.

* "But whether it's language that parents want their children reading is another question. Alas, literary culture is not sympathetic to adults who object either to the words or storylines in young-adult books."

This is true because parents who find offensive material want to ban it from being read by everyone else instead of simply choosing not to buy or check out that book for their child. They want to make decisions for other parents and force authors to censor their works.

These people should really read the young adult books and look at how the issues are being dealt with in the novel instead of just screeching that there's incest, homophobia, cutting, sexuality, cursing, or whatever in the novel. These are things that teens actually experience. Also, their hatred for vampire books is just weird and confusing. I just want to shake these people. They should just be thankful that teens are reading, considering that one in four people read no books last year. That statistic is just flat out depressing. To dampen those numbers anymore over this is just ridiculous.

My last grievance is with their list of books appropriate for young adult girls and boys. The boy list has science fiction (one of them is ironically Fahrenheit 451) and war novels as if these books aren't also appropriate or recommended for girls. Did these lists really have to be separated by gender? As if boys can handle more gritty and dare I say violent books than girls.

These adults trying to ban teen books have obviously lost sight of what it is to be a teen and how life really is. I still love reading YA because I can remember being a teen and I still relate to the struggles of the protagonists, no matter how different they are from me. That transition from childhood to adulthood is a fascinating one especially in our society where there is no real support system to help teens into adulthood. Literature is where my support system was and I'm sure that's true for many others even today.

Ok. I think I'm done. I really do apologize if this is just incoherent ramblings because I'm really tired and am being a bad blogger by not rereading what I have written. I just had to get my feelings out on here to express my crazy bundle of emotions. If you feel as dismayed as I do, I invite you to go over to Twitter and search for #YAsaves to see readers and authors alike defend young adult fiction.