Soundless

Fei lives in an isolated mountain-top village where everyone is deaf. Somewhere in their history, they simply lost that particular ability. Fei works in the most prestigious position: artist. These artists don't simply draw or paint what they want; they record the goings on of the day and display it for the village to read and see. Now, some of the villagers are also losing their sight, including Fei's sister Zhang. Along with her crush Li Wei, she decides to descend the mountain and confront the person who gives them every decreasing rations to survive. The journey will reveal secrets long kept and shatter their world.

I've enjoyed Richelle Mead's writing in the past, especially the Vampire Academy series, so I was excited to start Soundless. The world is interesting. It takes place in Ancient China and Fei's whole village is deaf. I liked the way their silent communication was written. There is no spoken dialog because even though Fei can hear, she can't understand spoken words. The best part of the novel for me was when Fei regained her hearing and began learning how to describe and get used to sounds.  I also liked the inclusion of the pixius, Chinese mythological creatures who are hybrid creatures and protectors. I also enjoyed the underlying message of the story.

Overall, I was let down by the book. Fei wasn't horrible, but didn't wow me. She proved to be a little too perfect and less relatable. She has a typical romance with a typically attractive guy to save her isolated, oblivious world. The plot was too by the numbers for YA fiction. It just felt too similar to other stories like I'd read it before. The village seemed a little too simplistic since they seemed to only three classes: artist, miner, and servant. A village needs more than those types to function. The ending was way too deus ex machina for me, even though it was very obvious from early on. Soundless is a fast read, but didn't leave any lasting impression on me.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

GIVEAWAY: The Secrets of Love and Death

I went to the release party for E. Van Lowe's The Secrets of Love and Death and I picked up a hard copy of the book to give away! Just leave a comment with your email for a chance to win this marvelous book. One entry per person. The giveaway ends in one week on 7/21/2015.

The Secrets of Love and Death

Theo "Turtle" Dawson is going through a hard time. His brother A.D. died and his mother isn't taking it well. She copes by ignoring Turtle and keeping A.D.'s room obsessively clean. Turtle copes by eating sweets and meekly trying to avoid bullies at his school. Two events turn his whole world upside down. A girl named Rita Calderon saves him from a bully and his two giant brothers. Then his brother A.D. comes back from the dead. Rita gets him to wake up and live his life. He falls in love, lets go of the candy, and becomes more self assured. His brother, on the other hand, unsettles him. At first, it's wonderful to have his brother back. It's like nothing changed at all. Then he presses Turtle into stealing a drink from the market. Then the demands get more and more dangerous from there and Turtle loves his brother, but sees how wrong it is. Will he give in to his brother's demands despite the danger? Will his new found love suffer because of A.D.?

The Secrets of Love and Death is a complex book with a lot going on. Its greatest strength is in the characters. They all simply ring true. Each has their own different motivations and viewpoints, whether they are open-minded or bigoted, virtuous or morally bankrupt. All of them also have their own emotional baggage that they either work through or use as motivation to make others feel their pain. Turtle tries to be good, but finds himself being blinded by his grief and love for his brother to properly assess the situation until its too late. His home life makes me want to give him a hug because his mom is also so blinded by grief that she can't see her living son and his needs through it. Rita has to take care of her sometimes coherent grandmother who hoards cats to an unhealthy degree. She chose to hide it, but didn't take it out on others. Ansley Meade the bully has a not stellar home life, but he chooses to lose himself in alcohol and inflict his pain on others. A.D. was killed before his time and also uses his pain to hurt others. I loved that none of these kids have perfect lives and the main differences are how they deal with their pain. I saw myself and a lot of my friends reflected in these characters. The novel has a lot of fantastical elements, but the realism is what gives it life.

The novel starts out with normal, everyday events. Turtle and Rita are in love for the first time and all the messiness, anxiety, and happiness that comes from that. Turtle becomes more confident and self assured, but still experiences doubt and his previous, more cowardly feelings coming back when times get tough. Rita opens up about her real home life and fears being rejected. All are very real and relatable situations. As the book go on, more horror and supernatural elements occur. It starts with a short scene with a Teddy Bear and then it's forgotten for a little while. Near the end of that book that creepy teddy bear comes back with a vengeance, so it made up for the first half of the book not having enough horror for me. With a teen book, I didn't expect the story to go so dark with the main villain, but it's more realistic and I appreciated that. A.D. returning from the dead opens up a whole supernatural can of worms. Another spirit also attempts to communicate and a clairvoyant gets mixed up in the story.

Overall, The Secrets of Love and Death is an exciting supernatural book with universal human emotions at its core. Everyone processes grief and pain in different ways and not always in healthy ones. I'm a little sad this is a standalone because Rita and Turtle were so fun to read, but I'll settle for waiting for more books from E. Van Lowe.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Remember Mia

* spoilers *

Estelle Paradise wakes up in the hospital after a horrific car accident and some sort of attack with no memory of how she got there. She quickly discovers that her 7 month old daughter Mia has been missing for days. People across the country speculate that she murdered her child and label her convenient amnesia as a lie. The police doubt her story and put her on the top of the suspect list. Even her own husband accuses her of being at fault and essentially abandons her. She checks into a psychiatric care facility with a stellar memory recover therapist in order to find out what happened. What happened to her baby and what happened to her?

Remember Mia brings to life a parent's worst nightmare: a defenseless baby is missing and no one knows what happened. The narrative follows Estelle as she uncovers what happened. The story moves quickly and keeps momentum throughout. I had to know what happened. Estelle is a typical mother. Her baby developed colic a few months in and never recovered. Mia cries and screams all day long no matter what Estelle does. It has worn on her and she's become depressed with her efforts doing nothing and having no support. Estelle was so excited to have a baby, but the reality is much harder than she imagined. After calling every specialist and having them all tell her the same thing about Mia, her husband draws the line and puts her on antidepressants. She starts losing track of time, forgetting things, and making horrible decisions. In this situation, it's so easy to look in from the outside and call her a bad mom, but she probably has post-partum depression and has no support system at all since her parents died and she doesn't seem to have any friends. I liked Estelle and mostly felt sorry for her. Her mental state makes it hard to tell what is real and what is in her mind.

Although it's a very readable book, I had quite a few problems with the book. The work to recover Estelle's memory seems very easy and conveniently fast. The characters beyond Estelle are pretty one dimensional. Her husband is a self involved jerk who takes no responsibility for anything. I couldn't believe how horrible he was and it really called into question why she even married him in the first place. Even their very first meeting shows  his true colors. The villains of the piece literally detailed their entire plan for Estelle like Bond villains. They are flatly evil and call her a bad mother while turning around and admittedly selling children to abusive households or criminals. The book jacket touts itself as similar to Gone Girl, but it's a pretty basic, straight forward story. The twists are few and far between. After the villains are revealed, the plot just becomes uninteresting. I thought the ending was much too convenient and the actual outcome would have been quite tragic.

Overall, I like Remember Mia, but it's a beach read with not a lot of rereadability. It was an interesting adventure, but not terribly complex.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

Mad Max: Fury Road

* spoilers *

A nuclear war has made the world into a desert wasteland and society has collapsed. Immortan Joe rules from his Citadel, keeping the water from the common people and giving it out just enough to keep them complacent. He has an army of War Boys who never reach adulthood and gladly give their lives to fight for him. Max, a crazed man tortured by his past, is captured and used as a blood bag for an injured War Boy named Nux. Imperator Furiosa is supposed to be going to collect gas for Immorten Joe, but instead she takes his five wives and makes a break for the legendary Green Place. Determined to achieve glory, Nux straps Max to the front of his car and tears off after Furiosa, but things don't go as planned. Max and Furiosa reluctantly team up to defeat Immortan Joe, save the wives, and escape to the legendary Green Place.

Going in, I assumed Mad Max: Fury Road would be a typical testosterone fueled, misogynistic action movie. I had heard nothing but good things about it from everyone, so I decided to give it a chance and it didn't disappoint. The world building and aesthetics are amazing. The world is a barren desert due to nuclear war and aging Immorten Joe holds on to his power with an iron fist. He takes all the natural resources and commodities from random the public to hold over them and divvy out as he wants. This keeps the people poor and prevents them from overthrowing him. The most fascinating part of this bizarre world is the War Boys. They are strong and healthy young boys taken from the public and raised to be brainwashed, blindly faithful followers of Joe. As they get older, these strong and healthy boys become sickly and lose all sense of individuality. They gladly give their lives for their beloved leader and believe his promises of Valhalla after their death. None of them see maturity since they die from cancer or in the battles they fight. This whole regime is sick and unnatural because ancient Immortan Joe sacrifices the youth of his society in order to destroy the natural order of youth eventually taking power over the old. The young men are completely disposable and accept this state while the women are reduced to breeders and breastmilk machines. The film employs a style similar to steampunk, but more updated and mixed with a primitive, tribal vibe. Nothing in the film is new, but is instead repurposed from trash and stolen goods. Metal and technology in the film represent decay, stagnation, and enslavement rather than advancement or progress.

My favorite part of the film was the use of gender equality throughout from the portrayal of the female characters to how other characters treated them. Furiosa is the only woman with any sort of power in this world. Her crew defers to her even if they don't understand what she does. She has proven herself to them and they (mistakenly) trust her completely. While Max is the title character, he stumbles upon the main events by accident and isn't really the main focus of the film. Furiosa is the driving force behind it and I related more to her. Once they join forces, Max treats Furiosa as an equal. He accepts that she is better at him at some things, like driving the massive rig, shooting a giant gun he repeatedly missed with, and continually following her lead. They help each other and recognize each others' strengths and weaknesses. Their relationship is a partnership and a friendship. Furiosa is a nuanced character who is tough as nails and extremely capable, but still has emotions. She seeks to improve her life, exact revenge, and save others. Charlize Theron captures both sides of the character and just blew me away. The emotions in the film run strong despite all the explosions and violence, resulting in some beautiful, quiet scenes between characters. In the end, it's Furiosa who kills Immortan Joe, overthrowing his regime, and takes the responsibility of rebuilding that society while Max continues on his own journey.

One of the reasons I thought I would hate this movie was the portrayal of Immortan Joe's wives. I saw an early preview of the first scene with Max and Furiosa. The wives wear diaphanous, sexy silks which are incredibly impractical for the desert setting. I figured they would be repeatedly raped on screen, nude at inappropriate moments, and generally useless to the story. I am so glad to be wrong. The misogynistic treatment of women in the film stems from Immortan Joe's regime. He reduces women to unwilling breeders and milk providers while Furiosa and Max eventually free all these women in their upheaval. So many people mistake the inclusion of misogyny in a film as an affirmation of it, but they need to look at its context within the film instead of jumping to conclusions. The wives' dresses are meant to titillate and look pretty, but they've chosen to free themselves from this view. Their past sexual abuse is never shown in the film because it doesn't have to be. They don't have to prove to the audience that they were indeed essentially sex slaves in a guilded cage for a megalomaniac. Some of the wives want to go back to their guilded cage because of a combination of Stockholm Syndrome and that their cage and its trappings are familiar in contrast to their uncertain fate in the desert. The wives, while not physically tough, did all they could to help Furiosa and Max through physically blocking them with pregnant bellies, deceiving the enemy, reloading guns, etc.

I enjoyed Mad Max: Fury Road. The characters are complex; the visuals are brutal and beautiful; the story is surprising; the themes are relevant; and the inclusion of music in a dystopian society is spot on. Why would future societies reject art? The guy with the flamethrower guitar was my favorite minor character. The movie is just a breath of fresh air all around. I highly recommend it.

My rating: 10/10 fishmuffins

DNF Mini Book Reviews

I almost never give up on books once I start them. I think in the past 7 years there have only been 10 books that I just couldn't stand to read anymore. These two were super close together and I have to review them, so here they are.

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey

Jekel Loves Hyde takes the classic Jekyll and Hyde story by Robert Louis Stevenson, treats it likes it's actual history, fast forwards to present time, and adds teenagers. Jill Jekel and Tristan Hyde couldn't be more different. Jill is a good student who is always on time and achieves the highest she can. Tristan is content to sit in the back of the classroom and read instead of paying attention. Of course he is devastatingly handsome, but he has a dark side. When extremely angry, he blacks out and loses control. He thinks it's a curse originating from Henry Jekyll and wants to work with Jill to somehow find a cure.

I'm a sucker for a good retelling and this book stood on my shelf for years. I finally decided to read it and I simply couldn't finish it. Up until the halfway point, the characters, the plot, and the writing were fine. Nothing momentously good or bad, so I kept reading. The characters are a little flat. Jill is super straight laced and rejects everything else until Tristan comes along. Then she's sneaking out at night, kissing, and breaking into schools. The romance was ok and I was becoming invested in their characters. I really wanted to know why they were two people since Jekyll and Hyde shared a body in the original story. However, I rage quit when Tristan is kissing Jill, attempts to go further than she wants, and she sticks around to comfort him after he comes very close to assaulting her. This a book for teens. I don't want to support a story or an author that shows teens that sexual assault or rape (even attempted) is ok and not the perpetrators fault. The real world solution would be to get as far away from him as possible and get help, not stick around and feel so sorry for his inner evil.

Also, based on reviews, Jill and Tristan trade personalities later in the book so Tristan is super good and Jill has the dark side. Tristan's evil manifests in the urge to kill people and apparently Jill's  makes her promiscuous. So a teenage girl being sexual and acting on natural sexual urges is just as bad as a teenage boy attempting to kill people. That's horrible and incredibly sexist. I'm very glad I stopped reading. I won't be subjecting myself to any other books by Beth Fantaskey.


The Brokenhearted by Amelia Kahaney

Anthem Fleet, ballerina extraordinaire, is privileged with having millionaire parents and a cushy apartment. She rarely sees the real world until she meets cute Gavin, who is poor and from the wrong side of town. After they illicitly sneak out a few times, she spends the night over at his place. In the middle of the night, a gang of criminals busts in, find out who she is, kidnaps her boyfriend, and demands that she pay an exorbitant ransom to get him back. She rushes home and ends up falling into a river and having her heart replaced by a machine.

The premise is pretty cool and the writing is pretty engaging. Anthem Fleet is a horrible name, but I was willing to overlook it. The world building is nonexistent. I have no idea where it takes place or when. The only differences between the present and the book world is the weird gas mask gangs going around and gassing people and the horrible lingo for drugs. I read about the first 100 pages. Anthem got her new heart from a random illegal doctor who just so happened to have a bionic heart that fit Anthem's body. She wakes up a few days later and sneaks away, totally fine. Not slowed down at all by the very major surgery that REPLACED her heart. She runs home and no one thinks to have her examined even though she was missing for days. Then, on top of this other ridiculousness, the new heart somehow makes her crazy beautiful and have super powers. The whole thing is also based on Anthem being head over heels in love with Gavin, which I just don't buy after so little time and development. I didn't hate the book, but since logic didn't play into the story anywhere, I just put it down and started a new one.

The Winner's Crime

Kestrel made a deal to free Herran with the emperor in exchange for her betrothal to the emperor's son. She is surrounded by the best of Valorian society and all the riches she could want, but she's completely unhappy. She's torn between wanting to further help Arin and the Herrani people and loyalty to her own people and her father. Of course she has to keep her true motives from everyone, including Arin, to be able to eventually rule the empire and do some good. The emperor is controlling and demanding, keeping watch over Kestrel's every move. Arin, on the other hand, is also miserable, but for completely different reasons. Herran may be technically free, but Valoria is leeching the country for all its worth so the people are as impoverished and beaten down as ever. Arin is trying to his best for his country, but he essentially has no power. Can Kestrel and Arin make a difference in their respective situations? Will they stay estranged forever?

The Winner's Curse was one of my favorite reads of last year and its sequel follows that same trend. It doesn't fall into the second book funk that so many other trilogies do. Although there isn't a huge revolution like in the first book, much of the plot is political intrigue and misunderstandings. Kestrel has to navigate the shark invested waters of the Valorian capital. She can never be herself or let her true feelings known, so she's constantly assessing how best to lie in each situation. With both the war in the East and the situation in Herran, Kestrel has to suggest ways to minimize harm without seeming too sympathetic towards the enemy cause. The emperor has taken her under his wing in the worst way possible. His goal is to make her as callous and cruel as possible to follow in his footsteps since he's labeled his sympathetic son as a lost cause. Kestrel can be his true heir if she follows his guidance. Understandably horrified, she struggles to seem like a true protege so she can do some real good as ruler when she and his son take over. However, this training includes witnessing torture and enduring countless mind games that wear on her psychologically. I felt for her each step of the way. I didn't always agree with her decisions, but I understood where she was coming from, even through all of the deceptions and lies. Juggling so many expectations and deceptions wears on a person.

The story also follows Arin and his struggle to save his country. The freedom of Herran is a sham since the emperor demands more money and resources than they can afford to give. Arin is still expected to be part of Valorian society even though it's painfully obvious how separate he is from them. He's mocked, looked down upon, and treated like dirt. After Kestrel convinces him she is a heartless opportunist and the emperor attempts to murder him, Arin recklessly decides to go to the East to secure an alliance against Valoria. His story is so heartbreaking  because there's truly no hope for his people without outside help. He's powerless in the face of the empire and his people starve and become sick with every passing day. His exploits in Dacran expand the world and allow the reader an unbiased look at this different culture as well as bring back an interesting character from the first book. Arin spends most of the novel angry or frustrated and I also felt for him. I was impressed by his ideas even if the implementation may have been a little rough. It's just part of who he is. He isn't built for intrigue or deception and it's one of his endearing qualities.

The Winner's Crime puts Arin and Kestrel through hell and keeps them mostly apart. Their scenes together were excruciating because they could never be truly honest with one another. It's cliche to have a couple misunderstand and misinterpret things badly, but there's a real reason for it here. The ending is a huge cliffhanger, so wait for the next one if you don't want to sped months wondering what will happen like me. The book moves slower than the last and a lot of the conflict is less obvious, but it's no less exciting or well written. Marie Rutkoski's skilled writing creates vivid images, taps into emotions, and kept me reading for hours on end. I'm counting the days until the conclusion.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins