The Raven Boys

Hi Megan!

It's here! It's finally here!  After months of waiting, one of our mutually adored authors has finally published her latest books. And, like I warned you, Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys is definitely my pick.

Image from the Ironwood Carnegie Library Website

First things first, I'd like to point out a bit of irony with the timing. I've been reading her book all week (September 30-October 5), which just so happens to be Banned Books Week.  And believe me when I say this book is definitely going to cause quite a stir and, depending on how popular it becomes, it may even end up on the 2012 top banned books list.  Because it's got some "questionable" material in it to be sure--lots of violence and witchcraft/occult subject matter.

For some reason, her incorporation of the occult world--from seemingly innocuous psychics to ritual sacrifice and what appear to be demonic summons--really threw me for a loop and, if I'm being completely honest, often made me feel uncomfortable. I've read books with bits and pieces of this subject mater before--Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy involves demonic summons, Cassandra Clare's multiple trilogies for young adults revolves around battles with demons and Nephilim--and those didn't throw me the way this book did.  I think the difference is this: all those other series, while they definitely exist in the realm of magic realism, the authors treat their "magic" as if it could only exist in the world of the book; never did I feel as if what happened within the pages of the book could someday happen in reality.

The beautiful cover art

Stiefvater, on the other hand, uses witchcraft and the occult not as if it's some "other" whose existence is wholly dependent on a fictional realm, but as if it's real.  Much of that credit, I'm sure, goes to the amount of research she had to have done for this book.  The rituals are very specific, and don't appear to be a simple figment of her imagination. While I wouldn't say the other authors I mentioned didn't do their research, Stiefvater used it in what I'll call a literal application. There is no "other."  The world of Henrietta exists on the same temporal plane as the reader, and everything that happens in this small town can and does happen in our world (or so it seems).  This takes quite a bit of powerful writing on Stiefvater's part, especially since I continued reading despite my discomfort, so props should be given to her for that. However, I certainly did not devour this book as I'm often apt to do, and I think it is because my unease made it impossible for me to become completely immersed in the story.

What I LOVED about this book, however, is her incorporation of historical figures and legends from the British Isles--in this case, Owain Glyndwr. I love it when authors play with stories that have been around for centuries, such as D.J. MacHale who took the title of Pendragon--the title used in recent literature to refer to the mysterious King Arthur of Britain--and re-imagined it into a young adult scifi/fantasy series.  However, the series I was most reminded of was The Dark is Rising Sequence, by Susan Cooper.  This is a classic YA fantasy series, which again re-imagines myths and legends born out of Wales. There's just something about those old stories that entrance me...but again, they don't leave me on edge the way The Raven Boys does. Hmm. Well, reading is supposed to make you uncomfortable, right?

Anyways, this post is far longer than it should be, so I'll stop here. Hopefully I can get my book up to you in time so you can get it signed! But, in the meantime, here's a picture of Maggie and me at the LA Times Festival of Books with my favorite work by this author, The Scorpio Races (which also uses cool myths!).

I look horrible! Ah!

Keep Calm and Read On,
Becca

PS~ My favorite quote from this book is also about the stars:

She recognized the strange happiness that came from loving something without knowing why you did, that strange happiness that was sometimes so big that it felt like sadness.  It was the way she felt when she looked at the stars.

The Snow Child: A Novel

Dear Becca,

Shame on me. Though I rushed to read The Snow Child, I’ve been dragging my feet when it comes to this blog post.I have to begin by saying how much I love the cover of this novel. This is such a beautiful illustration and captures Faina, the snow child, exactly as Eowyn Ivey wrote her. Not to mention, if I were judging this book by its cover, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Image from B&N

 The Snow Child came highly recommended to me by a colleague who described it as a whimsical read. Whimsical is a good word for it, though I would add that there is something extremely dark about this tale which makes it so much more complicated than I expected.

I’m not extremely fond of the first chapter and if this book had not had such positive reviews, I think the first chapter would have scared me away. It’s only the first chapter so I’ll go ahead and give some of the plot away – the main characters, Jack and Mabel, are an older couple who tried to have kids but were never able. They live on a homestead in Alaska now and Mabel feels alone and unsatisfied by her life with Jack. In the first chapter, she goes out to a lake that is barely frozen over with ice intending to walk out so far that the ice breaks and she falls through and drowns. A very dark suicide plan. This scene is important to the rest of the novel because you better understand how much Faina, the little snow child, means to them when she shows up. Also, you see how much Jack and Mabel’s relationship changes because of her. I just wish that it hadn’t been quite so dark.

I expected this novel to focus on Faina but I was rather okay with it focusing on Jack and Mabel because, to be honest, I liked them a whole lot better than I liked Faina! I haven’t touched on the mysteriousness surrounding her very much because I don’t want to give anything away, but she is a skittish young child who is not quick to show emotion. She brings a lot of warmth and goodness to the people whose lives she touches, but she is never able to commit to them as fully as they commit to her. I think that’s where my resentment stems from.

Faina is based upon a character in Russian fairy tales named Snegurochka. I very much appreciated the fact that author Ivey incorporated the original tale, “The Snow Maiden”, into the storyline. Just as the reader questions whether Faina is human or supernatural, so does Mabel. And in the end, the truth doesn’t really matter to either. (Well, maybe it will matter to some readers, but it didn’t matter to me.) I found a version of the fairy tale on-line which you might like to check out.

When all was said and done, I was left with tons of unanswered questions about Faina and this story. Sometimes that drives me nuts, but this time I was okay with it, which is a major compliment in and of itself for this book. I’m really curious to hear your thoughts on it, Becca! I feel like this is a category that we’ve never really read/discussed together before. Perhaps it’s also good timing considering the magical elements in The Raven Boys. 

Til we read again,

Megan

A Mini-Reunion!

Though this time we were unable to reunite over books, we did the next best thing: shopping!

Haha, really though, we kept our shopping addictions in check when we visited SLO last weekend, and spent most of the time talking and catching up. 

Highlight of the trip? Avila Valley Barn--the CUTEST little farm and produce stand.

Anyways, new posts should be up soon, but in the meantime, here's a shot of the two of us riding a cowboy's little green tractor ;)