Gasp Worthy

In Daughter of Smoke and Bone Laini Taylor has created a story so evocative and complex that without re-writing the whole book, there is only one simple way to describe it; with the following excerpt:

Of course that doesn’t even begin to touch on the many facets of the world our heroine, Karou, lives in. Karou is a blue haired, 17 year old, art student. Raised by what many would consider demons, her own history is a mystery. She is a human with a family made up of chimera and calls only one ‘normal’ girl, Zusana, her friend. She travels throughout the human world by a series of doors that lead in and out of her guardian Brimstone’s workshop. And I can’t forget to mention her family’s profession; Brimstone is a trader of teeth and Karou, ever the dutiful daughter, is the delivery girl.

Then, if you can believe it, things get even stranger, as an angel appears and starts to hunt her down.

There are many things to adore about this book; the visceral world Taylor has created, the deep history she unravels, the magic that she seamlessly weaves throughout, but what I delighted in the most was that despite her unique life, Karou is extremely relatable.  Level-headed, intelligent, loyal and protective of those she cares about, Karou is not only a girl you would want to know, she’s someone you would want to be like. Even when chaos starts to surround her, Karou does not bend, leastwise break, under the pressure.

It’s wonderful to have a story ignited by love where the center is one of strength, not one of weakness and gasping breath. Not that gasping breath doesn’t have its place in fiction, I just particularly enjoy it when love doesn’t make the female lead weak in the knees but instead makes her will all the stronger.

As the reader is taken on the journey through Karou’s past we can see just how strong she has become, perhaps foreshadowing how strong Karou will need to be for the next two books – and that’s definitely gasp worthy.

A Modern Fairytale, Told Through A Grimy Lens

Fairytales have been our escape, our parables and our dreams since we first heard them as children. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood; they’ve all been embedded in the collective unconscious. Time and again writers, directors and producers try to make them new. Normally, it’s a retelling with an added twist, a different perspective or new setting. In Joe Wright’s Hanna, he’s ripped pieces from several tales and put them together to form a whole new puzzle.

Our princess is Hanna, played by Saoirse Ronan, a mysterious girl with golden hair who lives in the woods with her father. She doesn’t sing as the woodland creatures gather around her though. Instead she hunts them.

This is a modern fairytale, told through a grimy lens.

 

Like many a Disney movie, the plot starts after the death of the mother, but that’s where the similarities tend to deviate. Instead of living the lonely princess life, Hanna has been trained as an assassin by her ex-CIA father. Isolated from the world, her knowledge has come from a book of Grimm’s Fairy Tales and a nightly reading of the encyclopedia – where she learns about music without ever having experienced it. But the time has come and Hanna’s father must let his daughter go. Like King Triton letting Arial out of the sea and into the world, Hanna is unleashed to explore the strange and wonderful things that civilization has to offer. But like Arial, Hanna is on a mission, not to find love and reclaim her voice, but to kill the evil witch, Marissa, so she can live freely.

Unlike most villains, Marissa doesn’t have to state her evil intent; it seeps out of her with every seemingly innocuous word and action, thus portraying the full depth of the character’s black soul in the way that only Cate Blanchett can do. Like Snow White and the Evil Queen, one cannot exist while the other lives. In many ways, Marissa is responsible for her own undoing, as the mystery of who/what Hannah is, is realized. Like the best stories, evil creates its own demise on the way to glory.

This dark fairytale thriller is not for everyone, certainly not the lazy viewer. It’s a film that makes you feel your way through to the conclusion and find the answers after you think about it. It doesn’t wrap everything up in a nice big bow. The director made sure it was all there, though – he just wants you  to look for it.  But no searching is needed to see the strength of his princess.

Wickedly Fun

I can’t decide what I like most about Jessica Spotswood’s Born Wicked, her intense female leads or her provocative setting.

Maybe it’s the setting.

Taking place in an alternate history of late 1800s New England, where witches were overthrown and a group called the Brotherhood make the laws of the land, women are suppressed into being pious unthinking ladies who dare not call any attention to themselves lest they be accused of witchcraft. Once accused, whether falsely or not, they are either thrown in an asylum, forced onto a prison ship or possibly murdered. While rumors run wild with the exhilarating details of other countries where the woman are free, the women of New England must fall in line to go unnoticed and unharmed. But that’s hard to do when it’s not just the memory of the witches’ strength that has survived; their very magic still lives in many of the women.

Since their mother’s death. the Cahill sisters have stayed hidden in the father’s house. But Spotswood’s world has more in store for them than being recluses. While they have, as yet, gone unnoticed by the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood has been keeping a very watchful eye on the eccentric sisters, and thanks to a turn of the century prophecy, they will stop at nothing to harness the sisters’ power.

It’s an immense storm to be at the center of, but the oldest sister, Cate, is determined to steer her younger sisters through it. Thanks to the Brotherhood’s laws ,Cate must choose her intention – to marry or join the Sisterhood – before her next birthday. Cate comes up with a plan to keep herself and her sisters safe, with no forbidden magic needed.

But we’re talking sisters here. Teenage sisters. Of course things aren’t going to go to plan. Especially when there is love and pride involved. Maura, the middle sister, is determined to emerge from Cate’s shadow. Unable to recognize the great responsibility their mother put on Cate, Maura resents Cate’s insistence that they must hide themselves away. Maura wants to experience the world and doesn’t fear her sister’s or the Brotherhood’s disapproval. Caught in the middle of the battle of wills is the youngest sister, Tess. The seemingly most fragile and yet possibly most wise of the three, Tess sees and understands everything that’s going on, but as the youngest she is unable to stop it.

The Cahill sisters are not just at odds with their world, but with one another. And just as they have to find a way to survive the Brotherhood they also have to find a way to survive one another. Their fate depends on it.

Hmm… Maybe it is the leads.

Regardless of which aspect of the book steals your heart more, Born Wicked is a wickedly fun and inspiring read.