Book Review: Croak by Gina Damico

"Lex wondered, for a fleeting moment, what her principal's head might look like if it were stabbed atop a giant wooden spear."

For her first 14 years of life, Lex was a good student. Model, even. But in the last two years, she's turned vicious and angry – and even she doesn't know why. Fed up with her behavior, her parents send to live with her uncle in upstate New York for the summer, hoping that work on Uncle Mort's farm will help her settle down. But "Uncle Mort's farm" isn't a farm at all. He's a Grim Reaper and he thinks Lex has the potential to join the business.

Lex quickly settles into the work – except when she encounters a murder victim. Then the guilty start to inexplicably die and Lex becomes obsessed with finding out why. But if she succeeds in catching the killer, will she stop them or join in?


My thoughts: I love the premise of this book and as a first published novel, Damico has made a solid start. Some of the characters fell a little flat for me – I was expecting to see Lex grow more than she did over the course of this novel, but with more to come, perhaps Damico has chosen to space out the character development a little more. I love the town, the system, the work that the Grims do, but Damico makes occasional aside commentary on Teenagers As A Whole that I suspect would have irritated me at 17. That said, there's plenty of sarcasm and funny moments in the book. Anyone who's ever been inexplicably furious with the world will relate to Lex and I do like that she doesn't magically "outgrow" adolescence in the space of 3 months, which seems to be a trend these days. It's fast-paced, full of puns, and it doesn't sanitize growing up.


Readalikes: Scorch is the next in the series. The internet recommends Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, a series about a college dropout who finds he has necromantic powers. Elsewhere by Zevin features a protagonist in the afterlife, fighting to mature in a world that causes you to age backwards. Mort by Terry Pratchett is a hilarious book about Death taking an apprentice.

Shortie Review: Darkside by Tom Becker

Hey, do you remember when I said I was going to "get back to you" about Darkside, which the internet recommended to me as a readalike for Death Watch?

No?

Well I did. Darkside is a much faster read with a lot more action, but features the same "a town with secrets" feel to it that Death Watch had. When Jonathan Starling starts seeing strange people following him around London, he mostly can't figure out why – aside from a long truancy record and an ill father, he's not particularly remarkable. But when he starts digging, he uncovers mentions of the "Darkside," a city-within-the-city of London and the apparent source of his problems. Soon he's in way over his head and he'll be lucky if he can even survive...

Everything in this book is shades of grey. The "good guys" are only mostly good and the "bad guys" aren't always wholly evil. Several of the plot points are left open, but as the series is five books long, that's unsurprising. As a whole, the story meshes teen detective with urban fantasy surprisingly well. Lifeblood is the next in the series.

Book Review: Half Upon a Time by James Riley

"Once upon a time, Jack wouldn’t have been caught dead in a princess rescue."

Jack has no particular interest in what he’s “supposed” to do – go on adventures, rescue princesses, and perhaps become a hero. But when May, a “punk princess” literally drops into his life the two set off on a quest to discover her past and save May’s grandmother.

My thoughts: This book takes the neat and tidy notions of “once upon a time” and “happily ever after” and plays with them. It also manages to bundle most of the big fairy tales into a single story – Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack and the Beanstalk are all here.  The story moves quickly from place to place with plenty of action along the way. The next in the series is Twice Upon a Time.

Readalikes: Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett should be fun for those who like the humor in this story. The graphic novel series Fables by Bill Willingham also brings together a wide range of folk and fairy tales – all the characters instead are hiding in New York City. Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde follows the ‘normal kid drops into a fairy tale’ theme – but this time deliberately, as part of a virtual reality game; when the game malfunctions, the only way out is to win.

Book Review: Death Watch by Ari Berk

First line: “He should have gone home. It was after eleven, so he’d have been home already.”

About: When Silas Umber’s father Amos doesn’t come home one night, Silas refuses to accept that he’s gone. But without money, he and his mother must abandon their home in Saltsbridge and return to Lichport, the town where Silas was born and where Amos worked. As he roams the town, he slowly uncovers the truth about his father’s work: his father was an Undertaker, responsible for tending to the dead. Now the townsfolk call on Silas to take up his father’s mantle and Silas must navigate between his new duties, the dangers of Lichport, and his search for his father.

My Thoughts: Death Watch is heavily invested in the folklore that surrounds death, but unlike most “gothic” novels, the dead aren’t horrifying, nor are they sexy vampires. The pacing is slow and the town itself is developed as a character. Because of the way that Berk follows multiple different story threads, though, the book doesn’t drag and Berk is a sufficiently deft storyteller that the different elements don’t become confusing.

Highlights:  Dark, rich, slow

Readalikes: Mistle Child, the second book of the trilogy. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. The internet recommends Darkside by Tom Becker but you can’t have it because I now have it reserved. (I’ll get back to you all on that one.)

A Year in (Selected) Books

Well now. Two years of persistent neglect have left me to chastize myself and make a valiant attempt to revive this blog.

I have, in this time, undergone several Big Events including, but not limited to, writing a thesis, graduating from college with my Comparative Literature degree, moving from Big City (Philly) to small hometown to Medium City with partner (with no job and limited funds), and finding a job in the Medium City. I have laughed, cried, cooked, read, traveled, and even won some hard-fought battles along the way. I have learned that "being an independent adult" is more restrictive than I had imagined.

I have taken up a 5-year journal and have even managed to stick with it for a couple months. I find that a couple sentences a day with a specific question for each day keep my mind from falling into a rut.

In addition to that journal, I've read a number of books that I quite enjoyed. (I also settled in with old favorites on occasion.) My most-enjoyed books/series of this year are as follows:

Percy Jackson & the Olympians (series) by Rick Riordan: The ancient Greek gods are real and active! Earned my love for offering an updated take on old myths (the gods live on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building) – and not glossing over the less pleasant bits. And Riordan has done his homework, doing a good job of sticking to the pre-existing mythology.

The Heroes of Olympus (unfinished series) by Rick Riordan: The Greek kids meet the Roman kids as part of an unwitting – and unwilling – exchange program of sorts. This continuation of Percy Jackson & the Olympians delves into the differences between Greek and Roman mythology, leaving the gods with splitting headaches.

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell: Intertwining stories for the win! Unquestionably, the best part of this is looking for the way all the characters' lives touch each other. Occasionally it's confusing, but I was never bored reading it.

Stormdancer (Lotus War series) by Jay Kristoff: Japanese steampunk with a strong female main character and mythological creatures and evil corporations and basically all the things I like best in the world wrapped into one beautiful package of a book. I'm looking forward to the next installment of this series.

Mothership (Ever-Expanding Universe) by Martin Leicht & Isla Neal: Another first-in-series, this one is teen pregnancy in space and all awkward, complicated, messy problems attached to it. With science fiction and aliens and invaders of the aforementioned mothership! It's fun and more importantly, it's not reductive.

The Alloy of Law (a Mistborn novel) by Brandon Sanderson: Set a long time after the original Mistborn novels (so I'm told), I enjoyed this. If you haven't read the original Mistborn series, don't let that stop you! I haven't read it either, but I followed what was going on just fine. My mind wasn't blown, but it was a fun ride and good enough that I'm going to have to check out the series from my local library.

A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan: Ooooh, futuristic fairytale remake! This is the story of what happens when Sleeping-Beauty-in-the-Future wakes up. The world has changed, her parents have died, she's now the heiress to their business empire, and someone is trying to kill her. The novel attempts explores the difficulties of being dropped into a world one ought to know – but doesn't – as Rose deals both with her past and her future.

What I've Recommended:

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selzwick: I love recommending this book now for the same reasons I loved recommending it when it was first published. It is fantastic for kids who aren't "big readers" but feel left behind by their classes and classmates. It's thick enough to look impressive and easy enough (and illustrated enough) to be accessible to kids who struggle with or don't like reading. At the same time, it's a good enough read that older kids will like it too.

Pride of Baghdad by Brian Vaughn & Niko Henrichon: Recommended to a co-worker for her kids. They were assigned non-fiction reading and this graphic novel is a) a great introduction to the medium, b) based on a non-fiction story, c) a great parable for war on a larger scale, and d) contains lions. (Apparently lions are a Thing for her daughter.)

Circle of Magic by Tamora Pierce: Recommended to the above-mentioned co-worker for her daughters. I think the series is more likely to be parent-approved than her world of Tortall and there are girl characters and boy characters and they manage to interact without ~*~cooties~*~ OR ~*~kissing~*~ which I find to be a refreshing change.

Curried Squash Soup

I think I've been neglectful. It has, however, been worth it. I've cooked until my arm has nearly fallen off. I've made (among other things) apple butter, cranberry butter, gumbo and this bit of lovely.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

1 butternut squash, quartered and seeded
2 medium (large? I don't know, about tennis ball sized) onions, peeled and quartered
1 large or 2 small apple(s), cored, peeled and diced
1 medium head garlic, minced
6 C vegetable broth
1 t. brown sugar
1 bay leaf
1.5 T curry powder or more. I'm a big fan of curry, so I think I put in 2.5 T or something like that
1/2 t. dried oregano
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground ginger (N.B. this is necessary in my house: my sister is allergic to ginger, so there isn't any in our curry. Yours probably has some already.)
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
A touch of chili or cayenne pepper powder. Juuust enough to give it a little extra kick. I'd say a scant 1/4 t.
1 C plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 350F. Put squash and onions on to baking sheet. Brush squash with olive oil so it doesn't dry out.

Roast in oven. Keep an eye on it while it's in here. The onions will be tender and ready to come out long before the squash, and they'll start to scorch. When they go soft and start turning brown, pull them out with tongs and put them aside.

When the squash is tender (I think it took me 50 minutes or so), pull it out of the oven and let it cool. Once it has, peel it and cut into 1.5-2 inch chunks. Don't worry about chopping it up finely or precisely; it's going to get cooked until it falls apart and then run through the blender. Chop the onion up into smaller pieces.

At this point, I threw a bit of olive oil into the bottom of my stock pot and cooked the onions a little more. I like my onions sweeter and more caramelized than a lot of people, so that's totally optional.

Put squash, onions, apple, garlic, broth, brown sugar and all the spices into the stock pot. Bring it all to a boil and then let it simmer until everything falls apart when you poke it with a fork. Make sure the salt, pepper and other seasonings are to your taste and adjust as needed. Then let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Once you're there, you can do this one of two ways: you can turn the heat all the way down and blend it to smithereens with an immersion blender or you can take it all off the heat, let it cool and run it through a blender/food processor, in batches if necessary, until it's all smoothed out. If you've used an immersion blender, take the pot off the heat. Either way, stir in the yogurt until everything is blended together.

If you're eating right away, heat it back up and serve hot. Most of mine was divided into single serving portions and frozen. It reheats wonderfully.

Singing a Novel in Blues

I recently read The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. It was, as most books are (at least in part), a story about relationships, the family you're born with, the family you make, friendship and love. This story is set in the bayous of Eastern Texas (I hadn't realized before this that Texas had bayous at all, though after looking at a map, I feel like I should have figured that out long ago.) and the stories of family and friendship are played out through an abused dog, an abandoned cat and her kittens. I truly enjoyed the book and so when I trotted off to find a link to it, I decided to take a look at what other people had to say. Some loved it, others found it mediocre. But what surprised me were the most negative reviews. Those readers complained that the book was insufferably slowed by repetition, annoyingly full of lists and, according to a few readers, "condescending."

I know interpretation is a personal thing and so on, but I think a lot of the people irked by the book are missing something. They're reading the text as words on a page, instead of hearing the story, either in their minds or spoken aloud. See, The Underneath is a pretty good book on paper, but when you read it aloud, it becomes amazing. It's full of myths and folktales (I'm going with 'folkmyths' for the rest of this post, because they both seem to be present) and draws on blues music so heavily that with only minimal work, you could probably turn this novel into a (long) song. These are the things that stayed with me through this novel, so they're the ones I'm going to discuss.

If you read The Underneath aloud, the traditions Appelt draws on show up in full force, both the Blues and folkmyths. The blues in particular are explicitly invoked early on, when Ranger's song draws the calico cat to him:

Oh, I woke up on this bayou,
Got a chain around my heart,
Yes, I'm sitting on this bayou
Got a chain tied round my heart...

This kind of repetition is present throughout the whole novel. The stories in it are told and re-told like the song - each iteration is like the others, but not quite the same. Something is added or altered - little details from before become whole stories in their own right; another character retells an earlier story. Bit by bit, the story grows.

In the reviews I read, Appelt's tendency to list things (particularly trees) draws frequent criticism. I can see where the impatient reader might find these lists tedious, but they add to the melodic tone of the book and again draw on a common feature of folkmyths and fairytales. Medieval tales in particular feature extensive lists¹ while Grimm's Fairytales (the unaltered versions) are full of repetition.² Appelt's listing of trees pulls from this tradition, but diverges from its typical use. Her lists of trees are not so much as list as an invocation: the trees are witnesses to the events of the bayou and Appelt calls on them to help tell the story. As the tale says, "Trees are the keepers of stories." One loblolly pine becomes a character in its own right. The novel tells/sings its entire life story, from a tiny seed to a lightning struck, hollowed out trunk, to its final end when it falls into the bayou, abandoned by its branches and roots.

Appelt even finds a way to turn this invocation and repetition into one of the most familiar elements of any fairytale: "A tree's memory is long, stored in its knots and bark and pulp. Ask the trees and they will take you back a thousand years...." Now perhaps this is just me, but that sounds like a tree's version of "once upon a time."³

The repetition in this novel, with the traditions of blues music and folkmyths behind it, helps pull a sweet story about a makeshift family of animals into the realm of the folkmyths it draws upon. I can see how this reiteration could frustrate those who like faster-paced stories, but it is not condescending. If anything, it is the reverse: the Appelt clearly expects her audience to understand the traditions upon which she is drawing and to see how they add to the story.

And to all those frustrated by the repetition and pace, I really do suggest that you try reading the story aloud. It's an entirely different experience.



1) You haven't read a list until you've read the Mabinogion or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Half a dozen trees have nothing on a list of all the knights with all their abilities, the names of their fathers, horses, swords and dogs. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has a particularly lengthy section on a feast, listing off all the foods eaten, what they were served on (particular mention is made of the eating utensils) and how the feasting hall was decorated while the Mabinogion has a list of knights ("The Catalog of Arthur's Companions") that goes on for several pages including such names as "Sight, son of Seer," "Boar, son of Restless" and "Watch, son of Watch-dog.")

2) "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" is a particularly striking example of this kind of repetition. Nearly everything happens in threes.

3) There is an entire essay - and a lengthy one at that - waiting to be written about the bayou/setting (trees included) as a character in this novel, but I will leave that to someone else.

Links for the interested to the book's page on Goodreads and on Amazon.